WEEK 22 - TRADITION 9
[To the reader: you will need a copy of 'The AA Service Manual and 12 Concepts for World
Service by Bill' (also called the World Service Manual) to hold up at various stages]
Tradition 9 is concerned with the organisation of AA. It is about authority: Now
[name] will read out the long form of the tradition from the appendix in the Big
Book....thankyou.
This says that in the group there should be the least possible organisation. First of
all, the word 'organisation' is not referring to the format of the meeting. It is true that every
single group in AA has to have a set format that people follow in order to fulfil Tradition 5.
Otherwise it cannot work. But that is not what we are referring to here. This tradition is
talking about how the group organises itself - that is, who has authority to govern the group.
It is saying that there should be as little formal management structure as possible that is
separate from the group conscience.
However, the Tradition does tell us that no group can get away without some
organisation outside the group conscience, that is, it must give its officers some authority to
organise things. Every group has a format that has been approved by the group conscience.
Tradition 9 tells us that once that format has been set, we should give individuals as little
freedom as possible to make there own decisions. However, it acknowledges that we must
give our elected officers some leeway to organise within that set framework. For example, we
give our secretary the authority to choose speakers without the group conscience having to
make a decision to approve every choice made; and the tea-makers decide what to serve.
Once we elect people, we place our trust in them to do the job in the spirit of the group.
However, if other members of the group feel that the jobs are not done properly, they can
appeal to the group conscience. Sometimes as a result of this, service officers are replaced.
This tradition contains a further safeguard in stating the principle of rotation, which
ensures that officers go before they are removed. It is dangerous for people to be elected to
positions of authority for too long, for the temptation to abuse trust is great. So after a set
period of time officers step down and rotate or move back into the body of the group
conscience. That applies to AA group and service committee alike.
The last section of this tradition makes it clear also that elected officers cannot
demand to be trusted simply by virtue of their position. Respect is earned by the conduct of an
individual. So there is no moral obligation, for example, for groups to do as the General
Service Board members tell us. In fact, it is the other way round - the GSB should listen to
us.
Tradition 9 defines upper and lower limits of organisation for a group: even the
smallest group has to elect a secretary and the larger groups may elect service committees, for
example a steering committee. In Great Britain, we don't have groups large enough to justify
paying anybody for work and very few groups have their own committee to deal with
Intergroup work, most finding a single General Service Representative sufficient. So in the
Great Britain, even our largest groups are well within the limits of organisation defined by
this tradition.
While the AA group should have the "least possible organisation" Tradition 9 in its
condensed form on the scroll behind me, says that AA, as such, should have no organisation.
The phrase "AA, as such" means the same as "AA as a whole". What it means is that there is
no central office to organise AA, and no AA group can be told what to do by any of the
service committees. Every group is autonomous. So the fellowship as a whole should not be
organised by any central authority, such as the General Service Board. The Board is just a
service committee that handles particular functions that a group on its own couldn't do (for
example our all-over public relations). In fact the authority should run the other way around.
AA does not just consist of AA groups. There is a different classification of AA
meeting: these are service committees and service boards. In Great Britain these are
Intergroup, Region, Conference and the General Service Board. In the USA and Canada
where the structure follows that in the AA World Service Manual
[Hold it up] , they also have
committees called District and Area.
So why do we need service committees? Service committees and service boards do the
jobs that the groups cannot do for themselves. If we think about the situation in this group for the
moment, if it is following the Traditions then it will be carrying the AA message to the alcoholics
who have walked through the door into the meeting and want help. This is the special function of
the AA group - carrying the AA message. However, let's think about how each of us found our
first AA meeting: perhaps we saw a poster in a doctor's waiting room and contacted the AA
telephone office; or perhaps we saw details of a group posted on a website. And once we have been
to one meeting, there is a good chance we find all the others by using the AA group directory. All
of the services that helped us get to the meeting are provided by the joint efforts of AA members
through various service committees.
So without service committees very few of us would be sober, because we would never
have found our first meeting. Tradition 9 tells us that these service committees should be directly
responsible to those they serve. Their primary purpose is not to carry the message, but service to the
groups. They can only be directly responsible to the groups they serve if its officers are elected by
the GSRs.
The importance of the service-committee structure will be discussed in more details on
another occasion.
That is the talk for today and I am pleased to hand over to [Name] who
will share in a
general way, what it was like, what happened and what it is like now.