Good. That the conduct of our world services is simply just a, primarily a matter of policy and business. Of course, our objective is always a spiritual one, but this service aim can be achieved only by the means of effective business operation. This is the precise reason that our trustees must function almost exactly like the directors of a large business corporation, for they must have ample authority to really manage and conduct AA's business. Here comes my favorite concept, Concept nine: Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for our future functioning and safety. Primary world service leadership, once exercised by the founders, must necessarily be assumed by the trustees. Basically, Concept nine is nothing more than a copy of an article that Bill first had published in the Grapevine in nineteen hundred and fifty-nine. If you have not read it, it is possibly some of the finest writing about AA that one will ever read. The operating results of our structure can be no better than the personal performance of those who man it and make it work. Your area structure can be no better than the personal performance, and then collectively, of those who must man it and make it work. Good leadership cannot function well in a poorly designed structure, and a weak leader cannot perform in a strong structure. It's impossible. Leadership will always be a continuous problem. Good leadership can be here today and gone tomorrow. We must continuously uncover the right people for our many service jobs. That is the precise reason that it is so important that a group elect a GSR, and the GSRs, in turn, DCMs in their district, and in turn, an area committee, and in turn, the assembly delegate. You go for the best one, not because they come from the East or the West or the North or the South, not because they're the favorite of most of those in the ar… Uh-uh. Nope. You see, many in AA are eligible to be trusted servants, but are they qualified? That is the thing that's so important because leadership will always be a continuous problem, and, uh, we must continually find the right people for our many service jobs. The base of our service structure rests upon the dedication and the ability of the GSRs, the DCMs, the area committee members, and the conference delegates. When electing GSRs, a group should have these facts well in mind. A leader in AA services, therefore, a man or a woman who can personally put principles, plans, and policies in such a dedicated, effective action that the rest of us want to back them up and help him or her with the job. Good leadership originates plans, policies, and ideas for the improvement of our fellowship and its services. Good leadership will also remember that a fine plan or an idea can come from anybody, anywhere, any place. Good leadership will often discard its own cherished plans for others that are better and in turn give credit to the source. Many misunderstand the functions of a delegate. A delegate's area primary responsibility is to the general service conference and then report back. The delegate is not the area committee. The area committee is the area committee. It has a job to form. In AA, we cannot be all things for all people because we then begin to weaken down the primary purpose of each and every one of us. The following attributes are necessary for good leadership. They are tolerance, responsibility, flexibility, and vision exercised at all levels of AA services. Sort of sounds like Parmalee, doesn't it? Not the one I know, but… Concept 10: Every service responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority with the scope of such authority well defined. Now, the principles of ultimate authority runs clear through the structure. This is necessary because all of our service affairs and activities have to head up somewhere for final responsibility. Ultimate authority is also needed so that each worker or each classification of servant knows where and who the final boss is. Therefore, ultimate authority has to be very carefully qualified. How? By delegated authority. We have to always be sure that there is an abundance of final and ultimate authority to correct or to r-reorganize, but we have to be equally sure at all times that all of our trusted servants Have a clearly defined and adequate authority to do their daily work and to discharge their clear responsibility. Sometime if one falls out temporarily, yes, we've got to help out, but we cannot make it a permanent thing. Here again, we see Tradition two, where the group conscience as the ultimate authority and the trusted servants as the delegated authority, one cannot function without the other. Concept 11: The trustees should always have the best possible committees, corporate service directors, executive staffs, and consultants. Composition, qualifications, induction procedures, and rights and duties will all be, be a matter of serious concern. If there is one dropout area that we have in A.A. today in our service structures, is that one comes on to the area committee, and they are not indoctrinated in what it's all about. And there is no reason for it because today, all of them have policies and guidelines, and they need to be thoroughly understood. The long range and overall success of our general service board will rest not only on the capabilities of the trustees themselves. It will depend just as much upon the confident leadership and harmonious association of those non-trustee committee members, corporate service directors, executives, and staff members who must actively carry on A.A.'s world services. Their quality and dedication, or their lack of it, will make or break our service structure. This concept simply allows the 12 standing committees of the general service board, plus our two active service corporations, A.A. World Services, Inc. and the Grapevine Incorporated, to operate for the best interest of A.A. Since probably nine-tenths of the direct headquarters efforts evolved in the activities of AAWS and the Grapevine, this concept is necessary to the effective functioning of these entities. As I talked about in the preceding concept, paying decent wages and rotation among the paid staff workers further ensures the effectiveness of this concept. In A.A., there are three things that take care of all problems in A.A. That's alcohol, death, and rotation. Concept 12: The conference shall observe the spirit of A.A. tradition, taking care that it never becomes the seat of perilous welfare, that sufficient operating funds in reserve be its prudent financial principle, that it place none of its members in the position of unqualified authority over others, that it reach all important decisions by discussion, vote, and whenever possible, by substantial unanimity, that its actions never be personally punitive nor an incitement to public controversy, that it never forms acts of government, that like the society it serves, it will always remain democratic in thought and action. This concept, as was read earlier by Connolly, consists of Article 12 of the Conference Charter. Any amendment or cancellation of any of its vital warranties would require the written consent of three-quarters of all of the A.A. groups listed in their directories who would actually vote on any such proposal, and the considerable time of six months is allowed for careful deliberation. Not a period, not a word, not a comma can be changed in our 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, our 12 Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous, and now our 12 Concepts of World Service in the short form, unless by written consent of three-quarters of all the A.A. groups in the world that are listed in their directories, who would actually vote on any such proposal, and the considerable time of six months is allowed for careful deliberations. Doesn't mean they can't be changed, but if you've been to one of your A.A. business meetings- … if you can get three-fourths to agree on anything, you let me know. The best time to hold one and get out there in a hurry is Monday Night Football. They'll leave quick. Yeah. And so it is probable that we A.A. possess more and greater freedom than any fellowship in the world today. We know that we have to personally choose conformity to A.A.'s 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, or else face dissolution and death, both as individuals and as groups. Freedom under God to grow in His likeness and image will ever be the quest of Alcoholics Anonymous, and may our general service conference be always seen as the chief symbol of this cherished liberty. May your area committee for the area of Arkansas operate as the cher– chief symbol of this cherished liberty. May our individual A.A. groups be the chief symbol of this cherished liberty. To a member, we of A.A. believe that our freedom to serve is truly the freedom by which we live, the freedom by which we have our own very being. Now, I want to thank you very, very much. However, wait, wait. We have a little time, and I want to share a couple things with you. Principles before personalities. During our very early times, there was not so much virtue as necessity, for they knew that they had been, and might soon again be, victims of one of the most hopeless compulsions that mankind knows. The stakes were survival. The stakes were new lives that they had just ta-tasted and could they go on. In those days, things were very simple, so they attended very closely to this business of staying sober and doing what it took to stay sober. They were surrounded by suicides and failures. They shared their breath, their love, and their companionship to an extraordinary degree, considering the state of their development. Survive, they must. Then we found that we were doing those things because they were right, because they ought to do them. For many of them had found in their simple principles a new way of life. What was their obligation to the millions of us yet to come? Well, this meant a new great step in responsibility. As they began to shoulder that responsibility, they came smashing into harsh contact with those elements in our former lives that has sucked us under. Our book has become a record of inspiration. Strangely enough, that volume of inspiration was created by a group of people who pretty much reverted to the cult of personality because the book brought up questions of money, prestige, power, and glory. So there emerged a hardcore of what I shall call a personality cu-cult, more or less headed by Bill, who got very insistent that they have this book. Then the cult of personality said, "Well, why give it to a publisher and have them control our literature? Shouldn't their movement control its own literature?" Personalities ran ahead of principles lots of times in all of this. So then why did the project pan out at the end? It panned out because as nutty and self-seeking as some of them were, and this included Bill, because he too was out of money and groceries, but the great undercurrent principle was still there and is still here today with us. This message had to be carried and still needs to be carried, and this book will be the prime agent. It is the only place in Alcoholics Anonymous where we will find the entire recovery program intact and not out of context. It had to be the prime agent. Thus, the grace of God, plus the enormous suffering they knew to be going on around them, easily overwhelmed the cult of personality. At each major turning point in our affairs, when radical decisions had to be made, then some changing of our fundamentals… Not changing our fundamentals, rather, but enlarging them and increasing the chances for others to survive and walk through our ever-widening highway into a new life. Is this not the primary reason of service, and that is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety? So that at every single turning point, we have gone through some periods characterized with great fits of emotional intensity, and it never hurt us one darn bit. And we say on the basis of our experiences, no longer should we fear each other. Let's reflect back to a line or two from our book of experience, our big book. Quote, "That fear, this short word, somehow touches about every aspect of our lives. It was an evil and corroding thread. The fabric of our existence was shot through with it. It set in motion trains of circumstances which brought us misfortune we felt we did not deserve. But did not we ourselves set the ball rolling? Sometimes we think fear ought to be classed with stealing. It seems to cause more trouble. And yet it is but a step from fear to prudence." Yes, from fear, one of the greatest… A, a, a, a step from fear to one of our greatest virtues that men and women know, prudence, the rational concern without worry. Prudence, the rational concern without worry. And today, this means to me the meaning of our priceless slogan, "Principles before personalities". Development and adoption of our traditions, not founded on our own good behavior, because we have to remember that we're not brothers and sisters of virtue, but brothers and sisters of defects of character. Teaches us the same lesson. There wasn't any wide acceptance of the traditions at first. The only justification for printing them was a few of them in the general service office knew of the terrible strife in those days among the groups. Valiant attempts were being made to maintain unity, and all this vast experience poured across our general service office desk. So the traditions were a teaching by those who behaved badly And that was, and still is, many of us, and sometimes that is. Their traditions were hard learning based upon what not to do. Not what to do, but what not to do. From there, we could and are proceeding on what to do. Now I ask still another question. Who regards the General Service Board as the custodians of our traditions? The fellowship, that's who. Not our General Service Board, not of ourself, nor so far as it is within the power so to do, permit others to modify, alter, or amplify these traditions, except in keeping with the provisions of its charter, and that's to grow and to function in experiences as custodians of our tradition. We can never rest on our laurels, thus becoming traditions expert. And I hate to use this expression, but you know what an expert is? That's a drip under pressure. The same fears arose when the conference was suggested. Many screamed the risks were too great. Yes, that cult of personality where the professional politicians would take over. Nothing of the sort happened. Since we have… Sure, we have our egomaniacs, but we cannot withstand the tide of truth and dedication. Not a virtue of our own, but a gift of God, which suffuses our society from one end to another. So as we move into the years ahead, let us not be fearful. Let us not in fear or alter conservatism, put absurd construction on things. Right now, we're going through a constant and very healthy debate in A.A. on many issues, such as our members and drug abuse, cross addiction, cross infection. The need for specialized literature for homosexual lawyers. I don't mean them in the same class. Audio visual needs and et cetera. Or we can simply take the positions, just sitting still and waiting for people to come. There are very few but important absolutes in the A.A. program. We strive for absolute abstinence from alcohol, absolute anonymity at the public level, and the absolute freedom for any alcoholic to become a member of A.A. if he or she says so. The rest are open to our individual experiences and interpretation. So let us not put the interpre– uh, interpretation of our valued slogan, principles before personalities. That would make us for one moment suppose that personality is always to be eliminated. That the more we resemble meek little ciphers, the greater the virtue, the greater the comfort, the greater the stability. No, I do not think so because really, from the beginning to end, all of our relationships, all of our fruitful ones are very, very personal business. For we are entitled to use all of our powers of example, personalities, and persuasions with a new prospect. We cannot do less. For it is a very highly personable business we are here because we are the acme of meekness. We are individuals, and each of us has our own individual personality. But the difference between our personalities here in A.A. and in so many in the world around us is this: We are operating in a framework of principles, truthful enough under God's grace to cause us to survive and in turn to live, to love, and to grow. So we must leave room for something called leadership. Leadership in Alcoholics Anonymous cannot be elected, it cannot be appointed, it cannot be bought, nor can it be politicked. Leadership in Alcoholics Anonymous emerges, and it emerges through one of A.A.'s most valuable principles, and that is the principle of our committee system. I hope and pray that our committee system, whether it be in our groups, in our intergroups, our districts, our areas, our provinces, our regions, and our countries, our general service office staffs and entities and trustees committees and our general service board itself, is constantly strengthened and not weakened. For if A.A. is to continue to grow within our framework of principles, then leadership personalities are uncovered and discovered through our committee system. And thus, in time, leadership of personalities emerges as leadership of principles. Every one of us are responsible to see that that happens in A.A., to go from the leadership of personalities to the leadership of principles as a result of maturity and because the committee experience. Let us never be hasty to say when somebody is loudly in the minority that he or she is necessarily wrong because he or she belongs to the cult of personality. Let us not say that we must not try to persuade each other, even though sometimes the cult of personality contains a few too sick to hear. After all, this is a way of democracy. Really, this is the way of the group conscience, the way our trusted servants. It means nothing more than the exercise of such gifts as each of us here today possess. This sort of exercise of personality within the framework of our principles is the very essence of our life and our growth. Thus, we know as a result of almost fifty-five years of experience. So let us trust our servants, whether it be paid workers or volunteers. For how we trust our servants is truly how we really trust our God. God bless you, and thank you very, very much.
