Recovery: The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
1.
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol
- that our lives had become unmanageable.
2.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves
could restore us to sanity.
3.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over
to the care of God as we understood Him.
4.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5.
Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being
the exact nature of our wrongs.
6.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects
of character.
7.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became
willing to make amends to them all.
9.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible,
except when to do so would injure them or others.
10.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were
wrong promptly admitted it.
11.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our
conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying
only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to
carry that out.
12.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these
steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and
to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Unity: The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous
1.
Our common welfare should come first; personal
recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
2.
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.
3.
The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire
to stop drinking.
4.
Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting
other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5.
Each group has but one primary purpose-to carry its
message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6.
An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the
A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise,
lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us
from our primary purpose.
7.
Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting,
declining outside contributions.
8.
Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional,
but our service centers may employ special workers.
9.
A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may
create service boards or committees directly responsible
to those they serve.
10.
Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues;
hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11.
Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather
than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity
at the level of press, radio and films.
12.
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions,
ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
Service: The Twelve Concepts of Alcoholics Anonymous
I
The final responsibility and the ultimate
authority for A.A. World services should always reside
in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.
II
When, in 1955, the A.A. groups confirmed the permanent
charter for their General Service Conference, they thereby
delegated to the Conference complete authority for the
active maintenance of our world services and thereby made
the Conference-excepting for any change in the Twelve
Traditions or in Article 12 of the Conference Charter-the
actual voice and the effective conscience for our whole
Society.
III
As a traditional means of creating and maintaining a
clearly defined working relation between the groups, the
Conference, the A.A. General Service Board and its several
service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives,
and of thus insuring their effective leadership, it is
here suggested that we endow each of these elements of
world service with a traditional "Right of Decision."
IV
Throughout our Conference structure, we ought to maintain
at all responsible levels a traditional "Right of
Participation, " taking care that each classification
or group of our world servants shall be allowed a voting
representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility
that each must discharge.
V
Throughout our world service structure, a traditional
"Right of Appeal" ought to prevail, thus assuring
us that minority opinion will be heard and that petitions
for the redress of personal grievances will be carefully
considered.
VI
On behalf of A.A. as a whole, our General Service Conference
has the principal responsibility for the maintenance of
our world services, and it traditionally has the final
decision respecting large matters of general policy and
finance. But the Conference also recognizes that the chief
initiative and the active responsibility in most of these
matters should be exercised primarily by the trustee members
of the Conference when they act among themselves as the
General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous.
VII
The Conference recognizes that the Charter and the Bylaws
of the General Service Board are legal instruments: that
the trustees are thereby fully empowered to manage and
conduct all of the world service affairs of Alcoholics
Anonymous.
VIII
The trustees of the General Service Board act in two
primary capacities: (a)With respect to the larger matters
of over-all policy and finance, they and their primary
committee directly manage these affairs. (B)But with respect
to our separately incorporated and constantly active services,
the relation of the trustees is mainly that of full stock
ownership and of custodial oversight which they exercise
through their ability to elect all directors of these
entities.
IX
Good service leaders, together with sound and appropriate
methods of choosing them, are at all levels indispensable
for our future functioning and safety. The primary world
service leadership once exercised by the founders of A.A.
must necessarily be assumed by the trustees of the General
Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous.
X
Every service responsibility should be matched by an
equal service authority-the scope of such authority to
be always well defined whether by tradition, by resolution,
by specific job description, or by appropriate charters
and bylaws.
XI
While the trustees hold final responsibility for A.A.'s
world service administration, they should always have
the assurance of the best possible standing committees,
corporate service directors, executives , staffs, 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 their rotation, the way in which they are
related to each other, the special rights and duties of
their 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.
XII
General Warranties of the Conference: In all the proceedings,
the General Service Conference shall observe the spirit
of the A.A. Tradition, taking great care that the Conference
never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power; that
sufficient operating funds plus an ample reserve , be
its prudent financial principle; that none of the Conference
members shall ever be placed in a position of unqualified
authority over any of the others; that all important decisions
be reached by discussion, vote, and whenever possible,
by substantial unanimity; that no Conference action ever
be personally punitive or an incitement to public controversy;
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.
This service material is considered confidential and ought to be used for A.A. purposes only. It is not to be used as a mailing list or for any form of solicitation or commercial venture. If you have questions, corrections, additions, or deletions, please contact webmaster@delawareaa.org This site has been updated as of January 22, 2012