“The Conference”
My service sponsor has been educating me on this process. I hope this article shows I’m paying attention and learning. First, a little history. The General Service Conference (known as the “Conference”) was born to replace our co-founders Bill W. & Bob S., mortal men. It came about in 1951 for A.A. to truly be independent of Bill & Bob and take on a life of its own. It was originally designed to have an informed group conscience from the groups in the US & Canada that make up our fellowship with respect to the operations of our centralized services including the General Service Board (GSB), A.A. World Services, Inc., (AAWS) which includes our General Service Office (GSO), and The Grapevine Inc. All of this runs off of the 36 spiritual principles: 12 Steps, 12 Traditions, and 12 Concepts
Our service structure process is that each group elects a Group Service Representative (GSR), who attends the District meetings. Each district elects a District Committee Member (DCM) to carry the districts’ group conscience to the Area Quarterlies. The GSRs and DCMs elect our Delegate at the Assembly who carries our area’s conscience to the Conference. Then after the Conference, the information comes back in reverse order by our Delegate who reports back to the GSRs who then report back to their groups.
Now you can see how important it is for all the service positions to be filled along this chain of communication from the groups to the Conference and back again. I hope every group has a GSR and attends the Pre-Conference in March, where our Delegate, Courtney, will give us the Pre-Conference agenda items. Of course any member is welcome to attend. The more, the better. Then GSRs should take these items back to your groups to get your group’s conscience on the most important items; then email that to Courtney before she attends the Conference in April. Lets send Courtney off with a well-informed Area Group Conscience. I hope to see you there!
DCM 31
Angie
Burien, Des Moines, SeaTac, Tukwila, Normandy Park
