What will the General Service
Conference do?
Answer
It will hear the annual reports of the
Alcoholic Foundation, the General Office,
Grapevine, and Works Publishing and also the
report of our certified public accountant.
The Conference will fully discuss these
reports, offering needed suggestions or
resolutions respecting them.
The Trustees will present to the Conference
all serious problems of policy or finance
confronting A.A. Headquarters, or A.A. as a
whole. Following discussions of these, the
Conference will offer the Trustees
appropriate advice and resolutions.
Special attention will be given to all
violations of our Tradition liable to
seriously affect A.A. as a whole. The
Conference will, if it be deemed wise,
publish suitable resolutions deploring such
deviations.
Because Conference activities will extend
over a three-day weekend, Delegates will be
able to exchange views on every conceivable
problem. They will become closely acquainted
with each other and with our Headquarters
people. They will visit the premises of the
Foundation, Grapevine and General Office.
This should engender mutual confidence.
Guesswork and rumor are to be replaced by
first-hand knowledge.
Before the conclusion of each year's
Conference, a Committee will be named to
render all A.A. members a written report
upon the condition of their Headquarters and
the state of A.A. generally.
On a Conference Delegate's return home, his
State or Provincial Committee will, if
practical, call a meeting of Group
representatives and any others who wish to
hear his personal report. The Delegate will
get these meetings reaction to his report,
and its suggestions respecting problems to
be considered at future Conference sessions.
The Delegate ought to visit as many of his
constituent Groups as possible. They should
have direct knowledge of their A.A.
Headquarters .(Third Legacy Pamphlet,
October 1950).
12A - Through the General Service
Conference, A.A. as a whole is now brought
into the picture. The Conference is a "huge
rotating committee" in whose hands has been
placed the responsibility for AA's worldwide
services - assistance to the Groups, public
relations, preparation and distribution of
literature, foreign propagation and other
activities. (Bill W. 1st GSC, 1951)
