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.