The A.A. Group …where it all begins (P-16)

By Douglas W.

I want to focus on a new direction as the New Year begins. This past year, my writings have centered mainly on the Steps and Traditions. This year, I’ll focus on AA Conference-approved literature, primarily the AA pamphlets.

It’s important to note that a Group differs from a meeting. While a meeting can be a group, in traditional AA, a single Group typically comprises multiple meetings. Groups hold monthly business meetings to discuss their health and operations. When you become a member of a Group—called your Home Group—you gain voting rights in the Group affairs. You can only have one Home Group and, therefore, one vote.

The pamphlet serves as a comprehensive guide for AA groups, covering what an AA group is, how it functions, its relations with the community, and its place in AA’s overall structure.

AA’s primary purpose is to carry the message to alcoholics who still suffer (Tradition 5). The organization maintains a focused approach, avoiding the temptation to become a broader spiritual movement, as emphasized by co-founder Bill W.

Anonymity

Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of AA’s traditions (Tradition 11). It functions on two levels:

• Public level: Members don’t show faces or reveal last names in public appearances
• Personal level: Provides privacy and safety for members, especially newcomers

Within groups, members may use last names but must respect others’ privacy choices. Personal sharing at meetings remains confidential.

Group Structure and Governance

AA operates as an “upside-down organization” where ultimate authority resides with the groups rather than central leadership. The organization has minimal central authority (Tradition 9) and operates through traditions rather than laws. Each group functions independently (Tradition 4) while considering impacts on AA as a whole.

Group Types and Membership

AA groups can be specialized (men, women, young people, LGBTQ+, etc.) as long as they remain open to all alcoholics seeking help. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking (Tradition 3).

Meeting Types

AA offers two main categories of meetings:

• Closed meetings: Reserved for AA members and those with a drinking problem
• Open meetings: These meetings are available to anyone interested in AA’s recovery. Anyone can attend, but only Alcoholics can share.

Common Meeting Formats

• Discussion meetings: Led by a chair who selects a topic from the AA literature
• Speaker meetings: A member(s) often shares their personal recovery story in a longer format.
• Beginners meetings: A meeting focused on helping newcomers understand the Steps, recovery process, and how to overcome the obsession with alcohol.
• Step/Tradition/Big Book studies: Focus on AA’s foundational texts. Often picking a topic and discussing the topic.

Meeting Procedures

Typical meetings include:

• Opening with the AA Preamble
• Readings from AA literature
• Member sharing
• Closing with moments of silence and/or prayer

Home Groups

Members typically choose a home group where they accept service responsibilities and build relationships. This concept creates a strong bond between members and the Fellowship. Homegroup membership includes voting rights on issues affecting both the group and AA as a whole.

The pamphlet emphasizes that while groups maintain autonomy (Tradition 4) in their operations, they function within AA’s broader framework of traditions and principles, always focusing on the primary purpose of helping alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety.

Representation

Groups should be listed with GSO (General Service Office). An unlisted group needs to have a voice in AA’s broader decisions. When members have questions or opinions about AA as a whole, they need representation to be heard. To gain this voice, a group should first register with GSO and then elect a GSR (General Service Representative) through group conscience. The GSR gives the group voting power on issues being considered at the District, Area, or GSO level. 

Groups can also gain representation at their local Central Office by electing an IGR (Intergroup Representative). This representative helps guide Central Office operations (Tradition 8) better to serve their group and other groups in our area.

Traditions

Groups should be deeply familiar with the twelve Traditions in their long form. While I’ve referenced only a few Traditions in this article, I’ve included them below.

1. Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
3. Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.
4. With respect to its own affairs, each A.A. group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience. But when its plans concern the welfare of neighboring groups also, those groups ought to be consulted. And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board. On such issues our common welfare is paramount.
5. Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose—that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to A.A. should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. An A.A. group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to A.A., such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the A.A. name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, A.A. managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside A.A.—and medically supervised. While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. An A.A. group can bind itself to no one.
7. The A.A. groups themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members. We think that each group should soon achieve this ideal; that any public solicitation of funds using the name of Alcoholics Anonymous is highly dangerous, whether by groups, clubs, hospitals, or other outside agencies; that acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever, is unwise. Then too, we view with much concern those A.A. treasuries which continue, beyond prudent reserves, to accumulate funds for no stated A.A. purpose. Experience has often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional. We define professionalism as the occupation of counseling alcoholics for fees or hire. But we may employ alcoholics where they are going to perform those services for which we might otherwise have to engage nonalcoholics. Such special services may be well recompensed. But our usual A.A. “12 Step” work is never to be paid for.
9. Each A.A. group needs the least possible organization. Rotating leadership is the best. The small group may elect its secretary, the large group its rotating committee, and the groups of a large metropolitan area their central or intergroup committee, which often employs a full-time secretary. The trustees of the General Service Board are, in effect, our A.A. General Service Committee. They are the custodians of our A.A. Tradition and the receivers of voluntary A.A. contributions by which we maintain our A.A. General Service Office at New York. They are authorized by the groups to handle our overall public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the AA Grapevine. All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles; they do not govern. Universal respect is the key to their usefulness.
10. No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues—particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever.
11. Our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think A.A. ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as A.A. members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us.
12. And finally, we of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the principle of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all.