Warranty 01

Concept 12:

In all its proceedings, the Conference shall observe the spirit of A.A. tradition,

Warranty 1:

taking care that it never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power

1. Primary principle(s): moderation
2. Other principles: unity, consideration, faith, financial prudence, humility, trust, service, simplicity, self-sacrifice, tolerance

Readings:

• 12 Concepts Illustrated - Concept XII
• Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age - pp. 230-234

There was real concern among many in AA history that the conference system envisioned by Bill (et. al.) would not work.  Among the gravest fears were:

1. The Conference would not get along with the Board and would either micromanage the Board’s affairs or would create unworkable constraints where the Board could not operate the business that it needed to accomplish.
2. The Conference would increasingly acquire power and become a monster of it’s own and not truly represent the fellowship’s interests.

Bill looked at the formation and launching of the General Service Conference as the coming of age of a child.  Clearly, throughout the writings of the 12 Concepts and 12 Traditions, there is almost an expectation that the new-found organization would make mistakes.  Certainly, the threat of wealth and power are readily understood by any recovered alcoholic.

Bill worked hard to choose words carefully - from dictionary.com: perilous: “involving or full of grave risk or peril; hazardous; dangerous”.  So what’s so dangerous to our society should the conference acquire wealth or power?

1. It stands at odds with anonymity - a “few” - even if they are initially “representative”, become special
2. Were the conference to work as an independent entity from AA contributions, the groups would have no 2way of expressing their displeasure or direction through the purse strings.
3. From a seat of power, new requirements could evolve requiring conformity for membership or other forms of “governance” could begin to issue forth.

In short, this new seat could violate or deprecate our principles.

Other warranties uphold the specifics of the tools of  moderation (e.g. prudence, unity, democracy, etc.) , but this warranty assures us that our aims are consistent with our spiritual principles.

This raises some interesting questions  regarding our over-all endeavors as a conference (and, perhaps, as a fellowship):

1. When is “more” not necessarily “better”?
2. Is “more” ever “better”?
3. It seems natural that one presumes centralized organization is a source of power and/or governance.  How can we change that perspective?  …or should we?
4. When or how do we know that the conference has “too much wealth”?  …too much power?
5. Is there evidence of “power” associated with the conference in the fellowship?
6. Are our delegates and trustees “special” people in our midst?  Is that a good thing around the principles expressed in Warranty 1?
7. Is AA’s future truly assured based on the ownership the average AA member might feel toward  the conference?

At a recent regional service assembly, a Regional Trustee expressed his concern that some of our current Class A Trustees may not really appreciate what AA is all about - that they were more inclined toward expedient business decisions over looking at the nature of the fellowship they serve.  He suggested that we take the time and initiative to invite these folks to open meetings of our fellowship as well as service assemblies and meetings where they could hear more AA’s talk about what this organization means to us and why we thing some of our principles are even more important than the business we’re about.

Our traditions explain what our guiding principles are around money and how we find power in our fellowship.

Over time, there have been more and less effective conferences based on objective or subjective measures (number and types of actions taken, items left without being dealt with, relationship with the board, etc.).  Given that the Delegates,  Trustees, Directors and Staff sent to the conference will always be a mix of folks from our fellowship and society at large, we may or may not have great minds fully attuned to specific items requiring Conference attention.