See copyright note at bottom-From The A.A. Service Manual*

The Twelve Concepts (Long Form)

1. The final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.
2. 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.
3. 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."
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. On behalf of A.A. as a whole, our General Service Conference has the prin- cipal responsibility for the maintenance of our world services, and it traditionally has the final decision respecting huge 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.
7. The Conference recognizes that the Charter and the Bylaws of the General Service Board are legal instruments: that the Trustees are thereby fully em- powered to manage and conduct all of the world service affairs of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is further understood that the Conference Charter itself is not a legal document: that it relies instead upon the force of tradition and the power of the A.A. purse for its final effectiveness.
8. 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 are the principal planners and administrators. They and their primary committees 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.
9. Good service leaders, together with sound and appropriate methods of choos- ing them, are at all levels indispensable for out future functioning and safe- ty. 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.
10. 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.
11. While the Trustees hold final responsibility for A.A.'s world service ad- ministration, they should always have the assistance of the best possible stan- ding committees, corporate service directon, executives, staffs, and con- sultants. Therefore the composition of these underlying committees and ser- vice boards, the personal qualificationg 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 our executives, staff, and consultants, together with a proper basis for the financial com- pensation of these special workers, will always be matters for serious care and concern.
12. General Warranties of the Conference: in all its 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 pru- dent 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 possi- ble, 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.

*excerpted from The A.A. Service Manual, 1994-1995 edition
copyright 1994 Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
475 Riverside Drive, New York, Ny10115
reproduced here solely for the personal use by A.A.members in our area, any other use must apply to the copyright holders.