Response to question on book

Hi James,

Warm greetings from the G.S.O. Archives. Your email was forwarded to me and I’m happy to be in touch and answer your question.

“Where does It Say So?” was created by an individual in the 1970s, who submitted it to A.A. World Services Inc. for consideration. It’s an Index to A.A.’s conference-approved literature, Alcoholics Anonymous, 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age and As Bill Sees It. As there was potential interest in the work at that time, A.A. World Services Inc. registered the work and now owns the copyright. The work itself was not conferenceapproved, just copyrighted. Multiple copies of the work were distributed by the author in the early 1970s but after it was copyrighted, the office limited its distribution to trustees, Directors and Staff for the purpose of reviewing it.

Following it’s review, the general consensus expressed was that the concordance was far from satisfactory and contained inaccurate data. At the March 1977 meeting of the Directors of A.A. World Services, it was requested that a position paper be prepared with regard to study guides or other interpretative materials of A.A. literature. By then, there was an increasing number of requests for permission to reprint our literature in “study guides” and other interpretive materials. The A.A.W.S. Board unanimously arrived at a policy, which states in part, “…for these reasons, the Board does not plan to publish study guides or interpretations of A.A. literature at this time.” As such, the work, “Where does It Say So?” was never published.

I hope this is helpful, please feel free to contact me if you have any more questions.

Yours sincerely,

Michelle Mirza Archivist GSO