About Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Steps
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came
to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to
the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves
and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7.Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them
all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take
personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact
with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual
awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Traditions
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
2. For
our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders
are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group
should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose-to carry
its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance
or lend the A.A. name to any related
facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every A.A. group
ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional,
but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or
committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name
ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need
always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions,
ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
The Twelve Concepts of Alcoholics Anonymous
1. Final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should
always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.
2. The General Service Conference of A.A. has become, for
nearly every practical purpose, the active voice and the effective conscience of our whole society in its world affairs.
3. To
insure effective leadership, we should endow each element of A.A.—the Conference, the General Service Board and its service corporations,
staffs, committees, and executives—with a traditional “Right of Decision.”
4. At all responsible levels, we ought to maintain
a traditional “Right of Participation,” allowing a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each
must discharge.
5. Throughout our structure, a traditional “Right of Appeal” ought to prevail, so that minority opinion will
be heard and personal grievances receive careful consideration.
6. The Conference recognizes that the chief initiative and active
responsibility in most world service matters should be exercised by the trustee members of the Conference acting as the General Service
Board.
7. The Charter and Bylaws of the General Service Board are legal instruments, empowering the trustees to manage and conduct
world service affairs. The Conference Charter is not a legal document; it relies upon tradition and the A.A. purse for final effectiveness.
8. The trustees are the principal planners and administrators of over-all policy and finance. They have custodial oversight
of the separately incorporated and constantly active services, exercising this through their ability to elect all the directors of
these entities.
9. Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for our future functioning and safety. Primary world
service leadership, once exercised by the founders, must necessarily be assumed by the trustees.
10. Every service responsibility
should be matched by an equal service authority, with the scope of such authority well defined.
11. The trustees should always
have the best possible committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants. Composition, qualifications,
induction procedures, and rights and duties will always be matters of serious concern.
12. The Conference shall observe the spirit
of A.A. tradition, taking care that it never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power; that sufficient operating funds and reserve
be its prudent financial principle; that it place none of its members in a position of unqualified authority over others; that it
reach all important decisions by discussion, vote, and whenever possible, substantial unanimity; that its actions never be personally
punitive nor an incitement to public controversy; that it never perform acts of government; that, like the Society it serves, it will
always remain democratic in thought and action.
The A.A. Steps, A.A. Traditions and A.A. Twelve Concepts for World Service are
copyrighted by AAWS, Inc., and are used with permission.
This website is not approved by A.A. World Office
Copyright
© Agua Fria Intergroup 2009
Alcoholics Anonymous Responsibility Pledge
"I am responsible ...
When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help,
I want the
hand of A.A. always to be there.
And for that, I am responsible."
Reprinted from Pamphlet P-1, This Is A.A., page 24,
with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.
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