Q: This is all very new to me. This sounds like politics?

A: It is politics if you put personalities before principals and try to fulfill your personal ambitions at the expense of AA, which by the way will never work. It’s also the reason we have prepared the Fundimental Principals and the District Participation Principals 2008-2009, and asked your group to become informed and participate in the committee. That way your group will know exactly what to expect from the committee, and you will ensure that the committee acts accordingly. The principals may also serve future committees, so they don’t have to re-invent the wheel. In AA, we put principals before personalities.

Q: Why do we need a district committee, we just go down to central office to buy books.

A: The short answer is you need both. Here one examply to help you understand. The central office sells the books, the general service conference structure, of which the district is a part, writes the books. Say your group was tired of the Hazelton 12 Steps guides. You develop your own and your so impressed with how well it works you want to have it conference approved so all groups can have it. Your group sends you to the district groups with a request for conference approved 12 Steps Guides, 26 groups support the idea and send the DCM to the area delegate. The delegate gets the areas support and now there are 544 groups on board. The delegate has it put on the General Service Conference schedule to consider, and they like the idea. Now there are 56,000 groups and 1.2 million AA members who support the idea. AAWS edits, publishes, and distributes the conference approved 12 Steps Guides, and you can now buy them at your central office.

Q: Why don’t you guys just handle this for us? We’ll go on about our business.

A: The groups create the committee with limited responsibility and authority to serve them. The groups cannot abdicate their ultimate responsibilitiy and final authority to the committee. That would cause the committee to make decisions on the group’s behalf, resulting in the appearance, or worse - default government.

Q: How often will this committee meet? I don’t think anyone in our group has the time or inclination to participate.

A: In a service orientated AA groups, the GSR serves for only 2 years. District meeting require ½ Sunday a month, and the area assembly one full Sunday a month. How many meetings do you go to a week? Two, ok that 8-9 meetings a month. Say you skip one regular AA meeting on District weeks, and 1 meeting on area meeting weeks. Would you get drunk? You would still be attending two AA events a week, sharing tons of AA fellowship, and not committing much more time away from your work and family. And don’t forget to consider the personal spiritual growth you would experience by serving your group. Remember, can’t keep it unless you give it away! Service, which is indirectly connected to actual twelfth step work but which serves to make the twelfth step work possible, would more than make up for missing two AA meetings. And you should urge your group to select an alternate, so if you couldn’t attend, the group’s commitment would still be met.

Q: What’s a DCM and why don’t they just represent us?

A: The DCM only helps groups and GSRs. The DCMs only responsibility is to represent the district in Area Committee. The Area Committee serves the Area Assembly, it is not a decision making body. All important decisions are made by the groups.

Q: What kind of sub-committees are we talking about?

A: The district provides assistance to groups so they can better carry the message. Usually districts have special committees knowledgeable in corrections, institutions, Grapevine, literature, public information, special events, and the like.

Q: Why are you asking us to support this “Participation Principals”? Anyone who attends meetings should have a vote.

A: This is a very important question for many reasons. If we attempt to operate with anyone who shows up, the committee will be chaotic and not able fulfill its responsibilities, act consistently, or respect group autonomy. One group could send a large contingent and force the committee vote on a pet project or pet peeve and have their will thrust on all groups.

   This is another important consideration for large groups with many meetings. It is the reason we used the long form of Tradition Three to define a group which uses the words, “any other affiliation”. It is intended to protect the autonomy of all groups, large and small.

   An autonomous group has definite characteristics. It is self-governing, manages its own finances, selects its own GSR, and most likely has a group service number from GSO. Take for example the ficticious Hopeless Variety group.They have twenty-three meetings a week. A regular set of members who attend morning meetings, a regular set of members who attend noon meetings, a regular set of memebers who attend evening meetings, a women’s meeting, and a young people meeting. All those meetings are affiliated with the Hopeless Variety Group. All the meetings send representitives to one steering committee, one treasury, one GSR, all under one general service number from GSO. If every one of those meetings sent a representative to the district, my group which has one meeting a week, would be smothered by the will of the Hopeless Variety Group. This is an actual concern for many groups in our district – large and small. So the district needs the instruction and authority from the groups to maintain proper participation and representation.

Q: If our group supports these motions are we required to contribute money? We don’t have much money.

A: Absolutely not! The district has no authority to compel a group to do anything. Making contributions are up to your group conscience. The district will continue to serve all groups, whether they contribute money or not. More important than money is that your group GSR attend meetings and speak for your group conscience, the money, while very important and useful, will come as our HP sees fit.

Q: What else does the committee do?

A: Let me tell you what it doesn’t do. It won’t make important decisions for groups, tell them how to run their group meetings, take a position in disputes or controversies, do face to face twelfth step work - that's your groups responsibility, operate answering services, or conduct social events without a service purpose.