AA MINORITY REPORT 2017 (revised)

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Alcoholics Anonymous


Alcoholics Anonymous as such has ONE official website for Great Britain:


(some pages still listed under: http://www.aa-gb.org.uk/)

"This Web Site is created and maintained by The General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous (Great Britain) Ltd. through the General Service Office of Great Britain.
The General Service Office is the national office serving A.A. in Great Britain and English speaking meetings in continental Europe." (AA website)

There is NO other official website covering this geographical region. There are however links contained within the AA site to various web pages that have been allocated to Intergroups (and for regional information). There are moreover pages allocated to groups within different regions. Whereas the information contained in the Intergroup and Regional pages is non-controversial the same cannot necessarily be said for those relating to specific groups.

There are however an increasing number of other sites which carry information relating to Alcoholics Anonymous or indeed refer to themselves as being an online presence for their group (AA or otherwise), or then again are purely online entities such as forums, online meetings, chat rooms etc, and these moreover may or may not use the AA logo, may or may not use the terms "Alcoholics Anonymous" in their titles or group names, and furthermore may or may not carry disclaimers (and where they do these might not be very clearly displayed - and we suspect that in at least one instance this is quite deliberate) to the effect that the sites themselves are neither "approved or endorsed by, and are not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. or any AA Service entity of any country" or variations on this theme etc. Therefore it is necessary to apply some discretion when assessing the information conveyed therein.

The advantage of placing one's reliance on the information contained in the official site is that this as far as possible reflects most accurately what AA is indeed about (and as contained in the Preamble itself as well as the Steps, Traditions and Concepts, and then other guidelines produced by the General Service Conference).

Additionally the AA website includes a section relating to AA literature (AA conference approved). Other literature may be available at AA meetings but may not be conference approved. If such material (including books, pamphlets, booklets, CDs and DVDs) is on display it should be marked separately from AA literature and should thereafter be treated with some circumspection. The information contained therein might ONLY represent the views of some individuals, and not of the Fellowship itself (as represented by its collective conscience)

The Preamble of Alcoholics Anonymous (read out at the beginning of most AA meetings)

"Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.

The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions.

A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organisation or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety."

Although groups are not obliged to read out this Preamble (and may indeed use another form of words) this particular introduction is most frequently employed to indicate (especially to those new to AA) what AA IS and IS NOT about. If another form of words is being used then again this meeting should be treated with care - it may be a meeting affiliated with another organisation and therefore is (and in accordance with AA Traditions) neither an AA meeting nor one run by an AA group.

Generally an AA meeting will conclude with the Serenity Prayer as follows:

"God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference."

Again groups (and meetings) are not obliged to conclude with this prayer and may use the Lord's Prayer instead, for example. This prayer however is Christian in origin and AA as such is not allied with any such institutions. Therefore we would assert that such groups are in fact breaking AA Traditions by affiliating themselves with outside organisations. Again these meetings should be treated with caution.