Why do we need  Area B?

Our Twelfth Step, carrying the message to alcoholics who haven’t heard it yet, is our primary purpose and the reason AA exists.

Our Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity and Service

To do this we need a message of recovery to carry (The Steps), a united Fellowship of people to carry the message (The Traditions) and the resources to carry the message to alcoholics today and into the future (The Concepts).
AA service is anything that helps us reach a fellow sufferer – ranging from a Twelfth Step call, to setting up a meeting, buying literature, visiting hospitals, to AA’s General Service Office for national and international action.
3-Legacies

Service, AA’s Third Legacy, is essential to each member’s personal recovery and the future of AA.

AA’s General Service Conference and General Service Board are the most vital group of AA services. These entities:
  • Enable AA to function as a whole
  • Preserve the integrity of our Steps, Traditions and Concepts
  • Ensure that AA and AA
Every years the GSRs vote on important ‘Topics for Conference’ that have been submitted from around Australia to the General Service Board, the national AA body in Australia. Those topics are forwarded to the Area Delegates and then forwarded again to the GSRs to discuss each topic and vote on each of the topics. In that way, each group shapes how AA will function. The Area Delegate then takes the wishes of the Area to the National General Service Conference. The area committee is responsible for coordinating and carrying the conscience of the groups within its region to the national conference through the elected GSRs in each group. To see how that works go to the General Service Representatives page. Area B also offers a range of other important functions that maintain the AA presence in the community.

Concept 1 & Tradition 2

“Final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.”

Principle of the Concept: RESPONSIBILITY

This Concept is rooted in Tradition Two, which states:
“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.”

Groups Have Ultimate Authority

Concept 1: A.A. groups themselves make ALL final business decisions for the Fellowship. How?
A group’s General Service Representative (GSR) [or Alternate GSR] votes for the conscience of their group on agenda items (Topics for Conference) up for discussion at the General Service Conference (GSC) once a year (via an Area’s Pre-Conference Assembly process), which is where all A.A. business is decided.

Tradition 2: God expressing Himself through the group conscience AND the spiritual resource of “right purpose” is all we need to help guide the Conference to make the best decisions possible for A.A. and its related world services.

Provided however that the groups have sufficient, accurate information and can make informed decisions.

This is why the General Service Representative is vital.