SERVICE, Our 3rd Legacy | AA District 24

A.A.'s co-founder, Bill Wilson on "Service":

"Our Twelfth Step, carrying the message, is the basic service that AA Fellowship gives: this is our principal aim and the main reason for our existence. Therefore, AA is more than a set of principles; it is a society of alcoholics in action. We must carry the message, else we ourselves can wither and those who haven't been given the truth may die.

Hence, an A.A. service is anything whatever that helps us reach a fellow sufferer — ranging all the way from the Twelfth Step itself to a ten-cent phone call and a cup of coffee, and to A.A.’s General Service Office for national and international action.

The sum total of all these services is our Third Legacy of Service.” (A.A. Service Manual, page S1) Whether performed by individuals or groups or areas or A.A. as a whole, these activities are vital to our existence and growth. Nor can we make A.A. more simple by abolishing such services. To do so would only be asking for complication and confusion. Among the most vital, yet probably least understood, group of services are those that help us function as a whole — the work of the General Service Office (G.S.O.) and the General Service Board (the trustees). Our worldwide unity and much of our growth since early times are directly traceable to them. To get the benefit of direct guidance from A.A. as a whole, the General Service Conference was formed — a body of about 93 delegates from the United States and Canada. These delegates sit yearly with our trustees, directors, and the staffs of G.S.O., Grapevine and La Viña. The Conference has proved itself an immense success. Over the years, its record of achievement has been completely convincing. The strength of our whole A.A. service structure starts with the group and with the general service representative (G.S.R.) the group elects. We cannot emphasize too strongly the G.S.R.’s importance."

Let's look at service in AA by looking at AA's Three Legacies:

Recovery -- The Twelve Steps (The individual)

Unity -- The Twelve Traditions (The group)

Service -- The Twelve Concepts (AA as a whole)

They are called "legacies" because they have been handed down to us.

By performing service now in AA, we guarantee that AA will be available to those who come after us.

The 12 Steps of recovery are the First Legacy.

However, Step 12 calls for service from one alcoholic to another: "we tried to carry this message to alcoholics"
Our individual recovery depends on "giving it away".
Commitments to our home groups are service.
Our home group is where service begin

The Traditions are the Second Legacy

"Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on AA unity"

The Traditions call for a unity of purpose and behavior for AA groups.

They define an AA group's single purpose: "to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers."
They protect the group from outside influences.
They protect the group from its own members who are "but trusted servants; they do not govern."
As a GSR you are a guardian of the Traditions; you work to make sure that they are observed by your group.
Your work as a GSR allows you to serve AA below the group.

Service 'Below' the Group?

Everything is below the Group

in AA, as this picture from the

AA Service Manual shows.

As a GSR you are the voice

of your group; you carry its

informed group conscience

down to the District, County

and Area so that it can be

heard at the AA General

Service Conference.

The Twelve Concepts are the Third Legacy.

Click HERE to see the 12 Concepts.

"Final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in

the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship."

They establish the primacy of the AA group unified through the Twelve Traditions as having "final responsibility and ultimate authority" for world services.
They define the spiritual foundation for how the greater AA and Grapevine organizations serve the AA groups.
As a GSR, you become a student of the Concepts; they prepare you for service below the District level.

"We may not need a General Service Conference to insure our own recovery. We do need it to insure the recovery of the alcoholic who still stumbles in the darkness one short block from this room. We need it to insure the recovery of a child being born tonight, destined to alcoholism. We need it to provide, in keeping with our Twelfth Step, permanent haven for all alcoholics who, in the ages ahead, can find in AA that rebirth which brought us back to life.*"

(At the 1955 General Service Conference. Mr. Bernard Smith, a civilian, was Chairman of AA World Services, AA's face to the civilian world.)