Al Spent Three Years in Al-Anon Before Realizing He Was in the Wrong Program

There may be some who are not familiar with our tradition of personal anonymity at the public level. If so, we respectfully ask that no AA speaker or member be identified by full name or picture in published or broadcast reports of our meeting. The assurance of anonymity is essential to our efforts to help other alcoholics, and our tradition of anonymity reminds us that AA principles come before personalities. I'm particularly pleased to have on our panel today two non-alcoholics and two alcoholics. I think that kind of balance to the program is really what was in mind during the creation of the concepts. As we all know from reading AA Comes of Age, the input of non-alcoholics into the development of the concepts was vital, and I think that's reflected here. I'm very happy to be here today in the formation of this panel, and I'd just like to express my happiness over that. I'd like to begin with an introduction of the first panel participant is Mike Alexander, who's been associated with AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, for 25 years. Sorry, Mike, you look a lot older. My head's so full of numbers, but more than 25 years, and follows in the same direction. I'd like to first confirm Bernard Smith, who was very helpful in developing the concepts along with Bill. So, Mike, would you lead us off? Good afternoon. I'm Mike Alexander, an AA trustee. It's true, Frank, it was 40 years ago. I was a child prodigy, and I don't age rapidly. I've always said that AA introductions should be short, so that the speakers can get to the point of things, and Frank is the example why that should be. I didn't mean that. I confess to you that I have a deep bias in favor of the 12 concepts. This is a very important concept. This is due in part to my lawyer's reverence for precedence. That is, to look at decisions of past issues and problems, to have a guide for how we ought to deal with the current decisions and problems that confront us. To my lawyer's mind, precedence brings order, and order is a matter of choice. About this... I believe that Brazil has taken Language. ele chemistry ultimately disordered into what very often is a disorderly condition, and that is what the concepts do for me. They permit me to arrive at a decision more readily and more confidently than I could do without them. They are, I think, a distillation that Bill Wilson accumulated in the service of this fellowship. The experience that Bill Wilson and other trusted servants acquired in the early days of AA possesses, I think, a very special quality which can never be duplicated. Their experiences arose in service to the fellowship at a time which was fraught with great peril every step of the way for the fellowship. In those days, no one could tell whether the fellowship would last another year, another month, another week, or indeed a year. Or indeed even another day. As a result, the experiences of our trusted servants in those early days were subject to a far greater sensitivity than we who serve today will ever begin to know. And fortunately, we need not have that sensitivity for the welfare and continuance of the fellowship. Because Bill Wilson and others like him who preceded us, because of them we are confident that this fellowship will endure. The Twelve Concepts reinforce that confidence because they provide, in the hope and in the words of Bill Wilson, a reliable and reliable fellowship. They are a valuable working guide for the fellowship in the years that lie ahead. Bill Wilson wrote the Twelve Concepts in 1960. In the introduction to the concepts, he described them as an interpretation of AA's world service structure. He said that the concepts reveal the evolution of the service structure. And that they record valuable experiences emanating from that evolution. For Bill Wilson, the concepts represented the summation of his 20 years of experience in the service structure to the time that he wrote them. They were the outcome of his very long reflection. And as he has said, both in the introduction and in the introduction, they are in fact Kingston's personal I will be adjourned for a moment. Thank you very much. That's up to you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. anybody else? reliable base upon which the fellowship could proceed in the years ahead. As had been the custom in his fellowship while Bill was alive, Bill spoke at the conclusion of the 1960 conference. In the course of those remarks, Bill touched upon the 12 concepts, and this is what he said. As you know, the Third Legacy Manual is a manual that largely tells us how. It is mostly a thing of mere description and of procedure. So I have cooked up, in a very tentative way, something which we might call 12 Concepts for World Service. This has been a three-year job, he said. And I might interject here, he found it a very exacting and difficult job. And for Bill to say that, as he has in the introduction, is quite a confession, because as we all know, he was a very prolific writer and a master in a choice of words. So when he said the concepts were difficult for him to organize and put down on paper, we've got to say that. We've got to assume that he put his tremendous energy and effort into it to give to us what we are sharing today. To go on with his quotation, he said, I found the material, because of its ramifications, exceedingly hard to organize. But I have made a stab at it. And the concepts, which are really a bundle of related principles, are on paper, and underneath each is a description. And I have 11 of the articles, and perhaps will soon wind up with the 12th. Indeed, he did soon wind up with the 12th, because the concepts in their present form were published in 1962 and were then approved by the conference. The first two concepts, I will be talking about three of them very briefly. The first two concepts, in my view, are the concepts that are most important to me. They are really an extension of the introduction to those concepts. The first two concepts dwell on the recognition that the fellowship holds final responsibility and ultimate authority for AA World Services, that the responsibility was transferred from the founders of AA to the fellowship, and that the fellowship delegated to the fellowships to the conference authority for the active maintenance of AA World Services. In my view, the key word in the first concept is confidence. The first concept recites that a confident unity had pretty much replaced the fear and doubt. And strife, which had pervaded the early years of the fellowship. It was in the light of this confidence that in 1955, the co-founders, the early trustees, and the early leaders of AA transferred the World Service responsibility to the entire fellowship. The confidence was based in part on Tradition II, which declared, For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority, a loving God as he may express himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants. They do not govern. The first concept draws attention to a breakdown of group conscience elsewhere in the world and the deplorable conditions that follow whenever we are in a group. The first concept goes on to say, Happily for us, there seems little prospect of such a calamity in AA. Once again, this expresses confidence in the fellowship. The first concept goes on to conclude in these words, We are confident that we can rely upon Tradition II, our group conscience, and its trusted servants. Hence, it is with a sense of great security that we old-timers have now fully vested in AA's General Service Conference the authority for giving shape, through the labors of its chosen delegates, trustees and service workers, to the destiny that we trust God in his wisdom is holding in store for all of us. The second concept acknowledges that the general service is a service that is not only for the people, but also for the community. The second concept acknowledges that the general service conference in AA is the active voice and the effective conscience of the entire fellowship in its world affairs. The key phrase or thought in the second concept, again in my judgment, is delegation. That is, the delegation of authority and responsibility to trusted servants throughout the entire fellowship, and of the entire fellowship. The third concept, in the third verse, is the presence of the Lord in the fellowship. The concept recites this is the clear implication of AA's Tradition II. It then proceeds to record the process of delegation, starting with the transfer of service responsibility by Dr. Bob to Bill, and culminating in the transfer of ultimate responsibility to the fellowship in 1955. Commenting on that transfer, the concept is that the delegation of authority and service, which was established in the first year of AA's tradition, is now the ultimate responsibility of AA's tradition. The concept is that the delegation of authority and service is now the ultimate responsibility of AA's tradition. When we, old-timers, begin that transfer, the concept finishes with these words… In making this momentous transfer, we, old-timers, deeply hope that we have avoided those pitfalls into which societies have so fallen because their originators have failed, during their lifetime, to properly delegate and distribute their authority, responsibility, and responsibility to the people. Delegate authority and distribute responsibility to the people. Delegate authority and distribute responsibility to the people. responsibility and leadership so to go back just for one moment i regard the first two concepts really an extension of the introduction which gives a little bit of historical background on how authority was transferred from the early trusted servants of this fellowship to something that was much more formal called a conference and then the process of delegation that occurred after that transfer had been formally made the third concept for the first time begins to teach us something of the precedence that i believe bill was concerned with when he put his thoughts to paper in the three years preceding 1962 the third concept allows each of the elements of aa to decide for themselves how they will interpret and apply their own authority the concept observes that the right of decision was designed as a principle to achieve a balance between ultimate authority and delegated responsibility at all levels of aa to attain the desired balance between ultimate authority and delegated responsibility we ought to encourage our trusted servants to exercise their right of decision and then we ought to review their decisions responsibly in prior remarks i've made on this subject i refer to this as the obligation of responsible review we cannot put our trusted servants in a position where they are that are and should make decisions and then behave in a way in respect of their decisions which would effectively discourage them from repeating the process at some future date. In the discharge of our obligation of responsible review, decisions which are vital to this fellowship must be reviewed before we permit them to become effective. Decisions which are important but not vital to AA may be reviewed before they become effective. And decisions which are neither vital nor important to the fellowship should not be reviewed before they become effective because each of us has his own way or her own way of serving the fellowship and where we are given authority to do so. And if we do that, my way may not be your way and your way may not be mine, but I ought to respect what you have done if it is within the orbit of the responsibility that has been extended to you in whatever role you function within the service structure. The essence of the third concept is that it trusts our trusted servants to exercise their discretion faithfully. We ought to review their decisions responsibly. And that way we can work for the goal of balance between ultimate authority and delegated responsibility. As I said earlier this year, again when making remarks on this subject, where decisions are vital to AA, let us not agree for the sake of being agreeable. Where decisions are not vital, where decisions are vital to AA, let us not disagree for the sake of being disagreeable. And to borrow from a favorite prayer of ours, let us please find the wisdom to know the difference. Thank you for letting me share some thoughts with you. Thank you very much, Mike. Thank you. Our next panelist who will take the second three concepts is Harriet, who is a Panel 27 delegate from Southern California and a particularly good... Southern Florida, and a particularly good friend. Used to be. Oh! Woo! I've visited Los Angeles since... I've been sober and I love it. And maybe I'll go there again someday. Is that a premonition? My name is Harriet. I am an alcoholic. Hi, everybody. I'm a member of the Carl Gables Group in South Florida. When Frank called me and asked me to be on the panel about the 12 concepts, my first response was, well, rather he said that he was in charge of getting a panel together on the 12 concepts. And the first thing that came to mind was a remark often quoted. I believe it was Eve M. who was asked to give a talk on the concepts, and she thought she would go to the source. And she went to Bill Wilson and said, Bill, I've been asked to give a talk on the 12 concepts. And she waited for the words of wisdom. And Bill looked at her and he said, Better you than me. Better you than me, honey. So when Frank said he had been asked to get this meeting together, I said, better you than me, honey. He said, no, no, you don't understand. And soon after that, the Reader's Digest came, and there was a little story in there about the fledgling stag, the stag rider who was given her first assignment on a science series. And her first assignment on the science series was, give us 10 lines on Einstein's theory of relativity and keep it light. And I also mentioned to Frank while we were talking on the phone, I said, you better not put on the program the 12 concepts. At least make it a little, liven it up a little bit and say, use some other terminology, because nobody will come. But look at this beautiful gathering, and I thank you for being here, and I thank Frank for asking me. Well, the concepts do cover many times 10 lines, and they certainly were not light reading for me. And I guess I tried about a half a dozen times to get through this booklet, the 12 concepts. In earlier days, they were in another book with the third legacy, the manual. And later they were separated. And I had this book for a long time before I even crafted it. I buy everything, and it takes me a long time to get into things. So I'd pick it up, and I'd read a sentence here and a sentence there, and once in a while I'd pick up my pencil and I'd start to underline. And I underlined a phrase here and a sentence there, and then gradually it began to make some kind of sense on me. It gradually dawned that these, are an interpretation of AA's world service structure. And quoting from the book, as Mike, it reveals the evolution by which it arrived in its present form. And it details the experience and the reasoning upon which our operation stands today. It's an historical document. It is a history booklet. And like our steps and our traditions, they are the experience of many. They have been tried, and found to be true. The General Service Manual tells us how, and this book records the whys. Why it is today as it is today. From the experiences and the mistakes, the errors, and the things that we did right. And these concepts provide a ready means of safe return to an operating balance, Bill said, should we choose to disregard the lessons of the past. And how well he knew us alcoholics. He knew that we would disregard the lessons of the past and say, well maybe it'll work this time. The concepts contain many principles. In concept four, we have the principle of participation. Bill wrote that it is vital. And I was so glad to hear Mike repeat the word vital, because it means to me, that it's necessary to the maintenance of life. And when I'm talking straight AA talk, I talk about the vital. It means my life. This program is vital to me. And Bill wrote that it is vital, perhaps the life of the fellowship, that we preserve this traditional right to take part in, to be a part of our fellowship, to the degree that each of us is responsible for, and is entrusted with. Beginning in my earliest sober days, I took part in business meetings in my home group. At first, I was just there. I was present. And then I began to participate by raising my hand or murmuring a yay or a nay, whatever the occasion seemed to call for at that stage of my sobriety. I wasn't particularly well informed, but I voted the best I knew how. And I'm now at that stage of my sobriety. Then as I began to clear up, I realized that I needed to know more about what I was doing, and I asked questions. I asked a lot of questions. And I became better informed. I then began to feel responsible for my actions. And I was responsible for the way I voted, the way I raised my hand, yes or no. And when I had learned to vote responsibly, I became trustworthy. And when I was ready, I became a trusted servant of my group. All because Tradition 3 tells me that I am a member of Alcoholics Anonymous if I say so. And I so say. And this Concept 4 tells me that as an AA member, I have the right to participate in my fellowship. The individual vote at group level is carried through the service structure, which was set up by our founders to provide the support, to protect us from ourselves, Bill said. To protect us from ourselves. And then this individual vote carried through the service structure is carried right into the conference, and often worldwide. Each of these world servants votes the group conscience as entrusted to him in accordance with his level of responsibility. Each of us at each level has the right to take part in what our fellowship is doing every step of the way. Another good reason for participation, Bill said, has to do with our spiritual needs. All of us deeply desire to belong. We want an AA relation of brotherly partnership. And he said it is our shining ideal that the spiritual corporation of AA should never include any members who are regarded as second class. And neither should there be any second class world service workers. When I was a very new general service representative at GSR, and I asked my group, I had, I was very lonely at a period in my life, and someone said, why don't you go to the general service quarterly meeting? And I said, what's that? And I went to the general service quarterly meeting, and I went to the business meeting thinking it was going to be very dull and boring, and I came back so full of enthusiasm, and I asked my group, please let me be your GSR. And wouldn't you know it was just time for rotation? And they did, they made me a GSR. And I went to those meetings and I listened, and then I was talking to one of the old timers that I respected, and I told him I was a GSR, and I said, I go to those meetings, those service meetings, and I don't really understand much what they're doing, but I'm part of it. I am part of it. And he just said, that's what it's all about, baby, being part of it. And then, then there's the guy or the gal who is forever on the other side of the fence, sometimes referred to as a troublemaker. Or worse, or worse. And we hope they won't show up at the business meeting and make another argument and make this all riled up again. And we even say blithely, now you keep an open mind. But what we're really saying is keep your mouth shut and do what we say to do. Right or wrong, we know best. Well, you know what? The majority had better listen, because Concept 5 recognizes that minorities frequently can be right. That even when they are partly or even wholly wrong, they still perform a most valuable service. By asserting their right of appeal, they compel a thorough debate on important issues. They make us look at all sides of the picture. They force us to do this. Remember that a fine plan or an idea can come from anybody, anywhere. And good leadership will often discard its own plans for others that are better, and will give credit to the source. Therefore, the minority, well heard, is our chief protection against an uninformed or misinformed, a hasty or an angry majority. It seems, too, that Bill is reminding us to curb our all-too-human instincts and desires for an important place in society, which he said could tyrannize us. Concept 5 does not allow for tyranny. In AA, individual freedom is of enormous importance. Again, Tradition 3 ensures us that any alcoholic is a member the moment he or she says so. We cannot take away his right to belong. Neither can we force a member to believe anything or pay anything. And then we come into Concept 6. And here the conference recognizes that the chief initiative and active responsibility in most world service matters should be exercised by the trustee members of the conference, acting as the General Service Board. And I think of this kind of like, the book stops here. In the bylaws, which is a legal document, the General Service Board is charged with the responsibility of AA's administration. Acting as the board, our trustees function almost exactly like the directors of any large business corporation. They must have ample authority to really manage and conduct AA's business. From top to bottom, our whole service structure indeed resembles that of a large corporation. The AA groups, that's you and me, we're stockholders. The delegates are their representatives or proxies at the annual meeting at the general meeting. at the general service conference every April. Our general service board trustees are actually the directors of a holding company. And this holding company, the general service board, actually owns and controls the subsidiaries which carry on our active world services. At its annual meeting, the general service conference delegates its trust to the trustees. The people that we trust, the trustees. And we trust them to carry out or to finalize the decisions respecting large matters of general policy and finance. And then, during the months between conferences, to make decisions for us, to act for us, much as a group relies upon its steering committee to act for it in between business meetings. Bill concludes his essay on the sixth concept by saying, Our trustees must be given large powers to act for us. And large powers if they are to effectively manage the principal world affairs of Alcoholics Anonymous. Some one body must have the final say-so. The final signature on the bottom line. And for AA, this is the general service board, our own trusted servants. Much of what I have said today is quoted directly from this little booklet. The 12 Concepts for World Service by Bill. As adopted by the 12th Annual General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous on April 26, 1962. There are less than 80 pages. Try them. I think you'll like them. In it, Bill says, because of the large range of topics, these concepts have been difficult to organize and write since each is really a group of related principles. And he added that he hoped that these concepts, these principles, would prove to be a reliable working guide in the years ahead. And Mike quoted that about the working guide. And it's so important that we use it as Bill intended. A reliable working guide. We know that those who follow the working guidance of the 12 steps continue to stay sober. To recover. And that groups which follow the working guidance of the 12 traditions grow. And with the working guidance of these 12 concepts, our fellowship will continue to flourish. Thank you. Thank you very much, Harriet. I'm not going to use any numbers or geography in my next introduction. Particularly, we've heard from a non-alcoholic and an alcoholic in the beginning. And we're going to have the same balance in the second half of the concept. Thank you. Thank you. The second half of the concepts. Next speaker is Bud Flanagan who has been associated with Alcoholics Anonymous since 1949. Like Mike, I was a child prodigy, too, at that time. I'm Bud Flanagan, and I'm the auditor for the GSO. And that right off the bat sounds like a good thing, doesn't it? Yes. That right off the bat sounds kind of strange. What is an auditor doing standing up here talking about concepts? But only an AA could be at least somewhat appropriate. The first thing an auditor has to do, you know, is find out where the lines of authority are, responsibility, who says you can do this and pay that and so forth and so on. Well, if you ever gave a young auditor the 12 concepts and the 12 traditions and the 12 steps and told him to make a flow chart out of it, believe me, he would leave the profession fast. And actually, that's been my chore for many years now. Mike referred to Burns Smith, who was his senior partner when he started working on the show. He was a great friend of the GSO's work. A contemporary of his, Burr S., was my partner, and he was an old-timer, close friend and associate of Bill's, and very active in the origins of the fellowship. So that I was privileged to witness many of the discussions that in the final analysis gave rise to Bill's development of the concepts. I might have participated in, in a small way, in a few of them, but it might be useful, I thought, for me to discuss the ones that I've been asked to talk on, eight, seven, eight, and nine, which get a little bit more specific in the structuring of the fellowship and really address that the Board of Trustees, the General Service Board, it's been known by different names over the years, is probably the least known and yet one of the most important, I think, bodies in the fellowship. It's been previously discussed in the first six concepts, and prior even to the issuance of the concepts, the final responsibility for the General Services of AA had been turned over to the General Service Conference in 1955. It was quite clear in all the writing and in the charter of the General Service Conference that that was where, that that was where, the final responsibility for the welfare of AA rested. Well, that left a rather major structural problem because you had the legal Board of Trustees. They had the legal authority, the responsibility, and how did you work that in with the overall responsibility of the conference? Well, if you've read this, you'll know Bill often says, you know, some of these concepts, some of these concepts might seem contradictory, even schizophrenic at times. And only he could have worked out, I think, and made it work, which is more important, the concept eight, which basically, and I'd just like to read that. The conference recognizes that the charter and the bylaws of the GSB are legal instruments and that the trustees are thereby fully empowered to act on the grounds of the law. And that the charter itself is not a legal document. That it relies instead upon the force of tradition and the power of the AA purse for its final effectiveness. Well, that's what we call the balanced concept. You know, you give a little here and you take a little there. And you have to understand a little of the background at the time of the conference. At the time, and this is my perception of it, please. It's my own personal opinion. But as we can see from reading the earlier parts of the concepts, Bill in structuring was determined to avoid governance, authoritarianism, trust in servants, right of participation, and so forth. And yet, by definition, a board of trustees is legal. It's authority. So, plus the fact that the board of trustees is legal, plus the fact that the board of trustees is legal, plus the fact that the board of trustees is legal, plus the fact that the board of trustees is legal, plus the fact that the board of trustees is legal, plus the fact that the board of trustees is legal, in the early years, because of the lack of funds and money, there had been the usual disagreements about where the resources should be committed. So that, plus the fact, at that time, the board of trustees had a majority of non-alcoholic trustees. And Bill was also determined, and rightly so, that eventually, when he'd been turning over the responsibility, there should be a direct, direct link between the fellowship and the board. So anyway, this is how he finally came up with it. And the amazing thing is, it has worked beautifully. I think that, at the time, it was perceived as a put-down to a point on the board of trustees. But it has not worked out that way. Certainly, over the years, the board and its committees, even with the change in ratio, has grown in effectiveness and in respect. At the same time, the conference has had. I've sat in on many meetings, both joint meetings and trustees' meetings, and there has always been a responsiveness between the two, without any real, to few the least, some disagreements, differences in emphasis. But the final result is that this eighth concept has worked beautifully to the very good effect of the fellowship. Thank you. I'll just make a, at the end of my remarks, I'll just make a comment on why I think, one of the reasons it's worked so well. But in any event, it has. The eighth concept, I meant the seventh. Now, the eighth concept is, where I've mistakenly referred to the seventh there. The eighth concept is more the check concept. It describes the primary responsibility for the board to manage in the larger issues, to manage in the larger issues, and the policy matters. And then it goes on to make a specific, almost directive, that it not interfere too much with the detailed activities of the operating entities. Well, Bill goes in in the discussion of the concepts to a number of examples of the difficulties of having such a large organization at that time managed by a volunteer, non-full-time board, and with good reason. And the way it worked out, though, in the final analysis, was that the board, as it grew in effectiveness, and its committees, and particularly the group relations, the public relations, the activities of the general service office, which he had felt at that time would be just the broad principles, have actually, required much of the staff work and executive work in the office. And they have melded in, to a large extent, with the publishing operation. And I think that probably the board and its committees have more input and more direct relationship, at least in that area, than Bill envisioned in the concept. But again, I think it has worked out quite well and quite effectively. His directive not to get involved in the concept, his directive not to get involved in the concept, his directive not to get involved in the concept, or to leave the operating entities separate, certainly has been carried out in the case of the grapevine. They have retained their completely separate physical facilities as well as boards. But there has been, almost of necessity, a combining of functions and people, even though we account separately for the general service office and the publishing operation. For example, in the publishing, it's quite clear, that while the World Service's publishing handles the actual management of distributing the literature, it is the literature committee of the trustees, the board itself, and the conference, finally, that determines what is published. But the concepts here were quite appropriate, and one was called into play in recent years, both by the conference and then by the, finally, by the finance committee of the board. And that was that the funds in excess of the required working capital of the operating entities be transferred to the general service board and its reserve fund. And that was quite clearly suggested by Bill in concept eight. Now concept nine is a little bit out of my line, but it addresses itself to leadership. And of course, Bill discusses in the first instance, the qualities and the procedures, the two-thirds majority, and the by-lots method of selecting GSRs, which again was a very important and wise move, because he wanted again to avoid governance. He wanted to avoid political contests, and apparently it has worked quite well. Again, from my perception, the most important part of concept nine was in trying at that point to lay out the change in the composition of the board of trustees. This was the last big battle. It was to change the ratio from a majority of non-alcoholics to a majority of alcoholic trustees. And again, this was in keeping with the whole flow of these concepts that the time had come for the fellowship itself to take over responsibility throughout the organization and the structure for its own destiny. And I'd just like to make a comment there. I think it's important to note, there was never any non-alcoholic trustees and alcoholic trustees. I never witnessed any kind of a vote or an issue in any meeting that was ever even closely decided along those lines. It was this perception, and Bill was adamant, and you know, Bill was, when he fought for something, he could articulate it. He would have been a great politician, believe me. But he was determined, and of course it did for, what was it, 65, I think the ratio was finally changed. Now I, again, from my own observation, I don't think it really changed the effectiveness of the trustees and the actions that they took, but it certainly might well have been important, as Bill thought, and probably rightly so, in the perception from the groups and from the fellowship that this is the maturity. The fellowship has reached its maturity. It no longer has to depend on anybody other than themselves. Although I'm sure that, and I hope everybody recognizes, the other party is in the group, and I'm sure that, you know, in the group, and I'm sure everybody recognizes, the other party is in the group. the significant and strong contributions that so many non-alcoholic trustees and others have made to the fellowship over the years. But anyway, that was, as I say, the last specific concept or reasoning for the change in the, or the contemplated change in the structure and particularly as it applied to the Board of Trustees. Now in Concept 9 and some of that discussion, he just makes one point in giving examples of the two, in developing these concepts, the two traditions which were so important, and that was the self-support one and anonymity. And I'd just like to say that in making the remarks that I did about the effectiveness of the Board of Trustees, I think that this tradition of self-support, AA is the only organization that I know of that is not interested in money. They do a good job of husbanding what they have. But do you know of any organization, and I have some as clients, To me it has an awful lot to do with how this rather amorphous structure has worked so effectively. It's because the Board of Trustees, the conference, the boards of the operating entities have been able to devote their attention primarily to the basic mission of the organization, to help the alcoholics out there achieve and live with sobriety. And when you remove money as an issue, as a contentious issue, you leave yourself open to achieve this type of a structure which really does work so well. And I think that's the reason why we're doing this so effectively and well. Thank you. Thank you very much, Bud. Our final panelist is Al, who's a Panel 28 delegate from Michigan, West Michigan. Thanks, Al. My name is Al, and I am an alcoholic. Hi, Al. Hi, everybody. Well, two things I was praying for here. One was that by the time it got time for me to talk, that everybody would be gone. And that hasn't happened. And the other thing was that the time would be up. And that hasn't happened either. And I'll tell you, I'm not going to talk for 40 minutes about that. I'm going to be quiet. I'm going to talk about three concepts. I am a member of the floating house group of Kalamazoo, Michigan. And in case anybody doesn't know what a floating house group is, we just go around to different homes every week and have a meeting. And it's kind of neat, rather than meeting in one central location. Contrary to some of the previous speakers here, I never knew Bill. I was sober when he was alive, but I never had the opportunity of meeting Bill. In fact, I was a slow beginner in AA. I was rather dense. I was pretty well mixed up. And I was in Al-Anon for three years before I found out I was in the wrong program. And quite frankly, I'd like to confess that if I would not have been asked to be on this panel, I would have been in the public information workshop, because I think that this is my thing, public information. I really enjoy it. But like everything else, I guess, that I've asked for people to have me do in this program. Whenever they ask me to do something, I say yes. And throughout all this, I've been able to stay sober. And that's a miracle in itself. Just do what they tell you to do, Al. That's what I've been told. And I look at it as part of the, or maybe the main part of the spiritual part of my program. When I was in AA, I was in AA. When Frank started talking at the beginning of the panel here, he said there were two alcoholics and two non-alcoholics here. And I want you to know that I am one of the alcoholics. My first experience with the concepts was when I was an alternate delegate a few, 24 hours ago at the Michigan State Conference. Our delegate became ill. And one of the duties of the delegate is to talk about four of the concepts at our state conference. So about five minutes before the panel was supposed to start, the chairman came up to me and says, Al, the delegate is sick. Would you please talk about these four concepts? And I don't believe I even could spell concepts at that time. . So I rushed around. In fact, I went to the literature table and I got one of these books. And as the other two panelists were talking, . I, for those of you that know, there's some italicized print in there. And I picked out those italics and I kind of expounded on them. . And I guess I haven't grown very much because I've known about this, being on this panel for, I don't know, Frank, a month maybe, six weeks. I finally put together a bunch of notes last night. . And I've been snapping at my poor wife because I've been upset and nervous. And I didn't think that God would put the right words in my mouth. He always has. And for that I'm grateful. . I don't know how to make the concepts funny or humorous. But then I don't think that Bill wrote them to be funny or humorous. I think maybe he wrote them to be interesting. And I'm sure the other three panelists here certainly have made them interesting. I don't know if I will or not. But I'll make a stab at it. . Concept 10 reads, . Every service responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority. The scope of such an authority to be always well defined, whether by tradition, by resolution, by specific job description, or by appropriate charters and bylaws. . Very mind-boggling. . The important two words in there are responsibility and equal. . Service responsibility matched by equal authority. . AA groups have the final authority for world services. . They have apportioned some of that authority to the conference and to the trustees. . The delegates representing the groups have authority over the trustees, and the trustees over the General Service Boards, and the Holy Old Incorporations, and AAWS and the Grapevine. . Directors of these boards have authority over the officers, and the officers have authority over their staff. . . . . . The scope of ultimate authority is throughout the entire service structure, and there's no question about what each trusted servant should do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a little ambiguous, but I found when I got there that there were many delegates that were told how to vote on certain issues. And I was grateful that the groups that I represented did not send me with any instructions, because I found many ideas and many thoughts about different issues that changed my mind about a lot of issues. And I was grateful for this, that I was able to vote my conscience, and I didn't have to go instructive to the General Service Conference. I feel that what would have happened if the groups would have told me how to vote on a particular subject, and if the entire AA structure was this way? The trustees would wind up being a weak committee, telling the corporations, the service corporations, how to do things by directives. And the corporate executives would then become czars, pushing their staffs around. And pretty soon we find chaos. Now this is my opinion. We would wind up with all AA servants having large responsibilities with no authority at all. And then Bill talks about, he turns the coin around, and he says, he turns the coin around. And he says, ultimate authority should never be used in full, except in cases of emergency. And when something goes wrong, certainly we have to make some changes. What would happen if the groups did not like the way the delegate was performing his duty? We have the opportunity of getting rid of that delegate. If the delegate... If the delegates don't like, or are dissatisfied with the trustees' actions, they have the right to censure, or to reorganize the trustees. But also, if something is working well, for God's sakes, don't fix it. And if delegated authority is working well, for God's sakes, let's not fix it. I think there's a structure. And... Uh... In the structure... Bill was trying to restrain our natures to take over things. And this was done in three ways, he says. By legal, by traditional, and by principles that can be interpreted and readily resolved. The conference charter is not legal, but it is a contract between the groups and the conference. The trustees can do it. They can veto a conference action if they feel that the authority does not have an equal responsibility. But most conflicts in AA can be resolved by excellent communication. Authority can never be divided into equal halves. And the only way to do that is if the committee is in a group. Can we picture a group with two GSRs? Now certainly that would be chaos. We have enough trouble with one GSR. Or one delegate. Other guarantees for delegated authority equal to... I can't even read it. Delegated responsibility are of course concept five, which has already been discussed. The right of appeal and petition. The right of appeal and petition. The right of appeal and petition. The right of appeal and petition. The right of appeal and petition. The right of appeal and petition. I think that Bill summarizes this concept better than I could. And he says, let us always be sure that there is an abundance of final or ultimate authority to correct or to reorganize. But let us be equally sure that all of our trusted servants have a clearly defined and adequate authority to do their daily work and to discharge their clear responsibility. All of this fully defined. We see it clearly implied in AA's Tradition 2. We also see a group conscience as the ultimate authority. And the trusted servant as the delegated authority. We sing a tune as the foreigner울 And this assistance can survive a downward trend that thenetes I say could not live. One cannot function without the other. We well know that only by means of careful definition Also understand that one cannot function without the other. and mutual respect The response of the civil servants is never an foreigners'ument. only is it possible for all tonight는데요 and harmonious working balance Apostle James here thatf discharged Michael enough to be regular and incidentally I told Frank that I didn't care which ones I talked about but I really did and God was looking out for me. The longest traditions are the last three and that means that I have to read more when I read the traditions because I wasn't going to memorize them. So concept 11 says while the trustees hold the final responsibility for AA's world administration they should always have the assistance of the best possible standing committees corporate service directors, executives, staff and consultants. Therefore the composition of these underlying committees and service boards the personal qualifications of their members the manner of their induction into service the systems of service and the way in which they are being used. The way in which they are related to each other the special rights and duties of our executives staffs and consultants together with a proper basis for the financial compensation of these special workers will always be matters for serious care and concern. That is tradition 11. I'm sorry concept 11. Rather than get into this thing too much I thought that simply I would talk a little bit about what these standing committees are and what they are made up of because they're so important to AA. The nominating committee is simply there to fill vacancies. The finance and budgetary committee is simply there to fill vacancies. The financial support committee is there so AA does not become money crippled or so they don't go broke. The PI committee is really a public relations committee in the vein of practicing attraction without promotion. The literature committee is responsible for the revision of existing books and pamphlets and the creation of new literature and also audiovisual. The policy committee probably the most important has jurisdiction over all problems and policies. Those were the first five committees and since then there have been added the PIC committee, the archives and believe it or not I forgot the last one. CPC. CPC. CPC. CPC. CPC. CPC. CPC. CPC. CPC. CPC. CPC. The active service corporations of AA are AAWS, Incorporated and the AA Grapevine, Incorporated. AAWS, including the publishing division, is made up of and please if I make a mistake here don't hold me responsible. It's in your hands. You have the right to speak. It's possible. There's nothing like an interesting concept meeting. As I said before, I'm not an expert on these, and I hope these are right, and I'm sure that someone will correct me if I'm not. But the directorate of the AAWS is made up of three non-trustees for expert work to be done. There's two trustees for custodial oversight. One is one of the former. Non-trustees, and one is named treasurer. And two executives, one general manager of the world office, and one staff assistant. One of these is the president, and the other one is the vice president. The AA Grapevine Incorporated is made up. The Grapevine Corporate Board is the publisher. The chairman of the corporate board is the president. The president. Two members of the corporate service are general service board trustees. There is a full-time paid editor and managing editor in charge of production and management. Now, in the structure of the AA Grapevine, there seems to be two exceptions. And I guess the reason for the exceptions is that the chairman could then easily mediate differences between editorial and executive. And the second is that the chairman can have the upper hand in the business department. And I understand that this gets to be a problem sometimes. But somebody knows. But the two trustee directors are one, the ex-editor of the Grapevine, and second, a financial person previously served on the Grapevine Board. It also comprises of an editorial board. And the editorial board advises and evaluates, but does not. make policy. There are some principles and problems common to both AAWS and the Grapevine Incorporated. One is the status of executives. Certainly the executive status or people that are hired as executives should have the same competence as any other corporation, whether it's non-profit or not. If we would go out and hire someone, we would certainly want the best possible person available to us, and that's what's done in this executive status. Paid workers should be compensated equally as they would be in industry or in public service. I guess in the early days of AA, as I have read, as I have read, it was tried to do this with volunteer help, and it didn't work out too well, and I can understand why. Rotation among staff members is a tradition, I think, that's just marvelous in AA, and it carries through our staff members at the General Service Office. The full participation of the paid workers. Both men and women. Bill gets into a little discussion on men and women workers in this book that I don't care to get into that here, because it gets kind of sticky in parts, and I'm sure that some people would not agree with what Bill had to say or would agree with what I had to say about it. Men are men and women are women. Just like measles are measles, and alcoholics are alcoholics, so let's leave it go at that. Right, you can tell I'm the alcoholic one. There's no question about that. Concept 12. And of course, Concept 12 is the most important here, in my estimation. It's been called, it really is Article 12. The first article is the first article of the Conference Charter, and it's called the AA Service Bill of Rights. The Conference Charter, of course, as I have said, is an informal agreement between the AA groups and the trustees. Article 12, yes, Article 12 is, of course, in a class by itself. It cannot be amended or canceled under written consent of three-quarters of the groups registered in the world directory. That would be quite difficult to do, but yet not impossible. I think that this concept is as important to world services as the traditions are to AA. In the... Gee, I didn't think I'd talk this long, but I guess I did. Concept 12 contains the six warranties, and I would read the six warranties. The first one says that the Conference never become a seat of perilous wealth and power, and there have been provisions made, careful chartering, rotation, as I have said, and I have mentioned, voting. Can any of us imagine what would happen if we had a dictator of a conference, somebody that told the delegates what to do? Impossible. We accept no outside contributions. We limit contributions that can be made, which runs into Warranty 2, and says that sufficient operations, which runs into Warranty 2, and says that sufficient operations, which runs into Warranty 2, and says that sufficient operations, which runs into Warranty 2, and says that sufficient operations, which runs into Warranty 2, and says that sufficient operations, plus ample reserve, be its prudent financial principle. Some of the previous speakers have already talked about the finances, and the prudent reserve was discussed at many, many conferences and finally decided on to be one year's operating expenses. And we all know what's being done with the excess now. Reduction in price of the literature, discounts, all of these are in distribution of free literature, which is what AA's purpose is, not to make money, but to help the alcoholic that still suffers. Warranty 3 states that none of the conference members shall ever be placed in a position of unqualified authority over others. This is really talking about the fact that, in the end, we have to be able to do this. This is really talking about Concept 4, the right of participation, and that's the subject of this Warranty. Warranty 4 says that all important decisions be reached by discussion, vote, and wherever possible, a substantial unanimity. Those of you that have been privileged to be delegates, be delegates at a conference, know that even a simple majority is not enough, or it is enough to cause some kind of action. I was amazed to see where a simple majority sometimes caused other actions, in my mind, to be changed completely on a subject. And the ability for me to get up and speak my piece at the conference just made me feel good, even though I voted with a minority. Warranty 5 states that no conference action shall be personally punitive or an incitement to public controversy. This is extremely important, in my estimation, not to enter into any public controversy. And even in self-defense, I think the press has been exceptionally kind to AA. And even some organizations and people that have not been too kind to AA, AA does not have any opinion on these controversies. We follow sound spiritual principles, and really this is what anonymity is all about. Warranty 6 states that no conference action shall be personally punitive, or an incitement to public controversy. And even some organizations and people that have not been too kind to AA. Warranty 6 and the final warranty says that though the conference may act for the service of Alcoholics Anonymous, it shall never perform any acts of government. And that, like the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous which it serves, the conference itself will always remain democratic in thought and action. I'm glad it's all over, but it gave me the opportunity to learn more about AA and learn more about this God-given sobriety that you have all taught me about. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Al. And I'd like to thank the panelists, the participants, for bringing a lot of freshness and humanness to discussion. I got an awful lot from it. This is the first concept meeting I've ever been at, and I found a lot of life here, and as Harriet indicated, a lot of vitality. Again, nothing more for me to say except to thank again our panelists. Would you please join me in closing in the usual manner? Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.