A.A's Legacy of Service
by Bill W.(1)
Our Twelfth Step - carrying the message - is the basic service that the A.A.
Fellowship gives; this is our principal aim and the main reason for our
existence.
Therefore, A.A. 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 to 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.
Services include meeting places, hospital cooperation, and intergroup
offices; they mean pamphlets, books, and good publicity of almost every
description. They call for committees, delegates, trustees, and conferences.
And, not to be forgotten, they need voluntary money contributions from
within the Fellowship.
These services, whether performed by individuals, groups, areas, or A.A. as
a whole, are utterly vital to our existence and growth. Nor can we make A.A.
more simple by abolishing such services. We would only be asking for
complication and confusion. Concerning any given service, we therefore pose
but one question: "Is this service really needed?" If it is, then maintain
it we must, or fail in our mission to those who need and seek A.A.
The most vital, yet least understood, group of services that A.A. has are
those that enable us to function as a whole, namely: the General Service
Office, A.A.World Services, Inc., The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., and our board of
trustees, known legally as the General Service Board of Alcoholics
Anonymous. Our worldwide unity and much of our growth since early times are
directly traceable to this cluster of life-giving activities. Until 1950,
these overall services were the sole function of a few old-time A.A.'s,
several nonalcoholic friends, Doctor Bob, and me. For all the years of
A.A.'s infancy, we old-timers had been the self-appointed trustees for
Alcoholics Anonymous.
(1) Bill wrote these words in 1951, therefore, his words reflect that time
period in their details.
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