The key principle here is Concept III:
III. To insure effective leadership, we should endow each element of AA—the Conference, the General Service Board and its service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives—with a traditional "Right of Decision."
This means that the secretary can discharge his duties as he
sees fit.
The checks and balances reside in Concepts I, II, and X
I. Final responsibility and ultimate authority for AA world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.
II. The General Service Conference of AA has become, for nearly every practical purpose, the active voice and the effective conscience of our whole Society in its world affairs.
X. Every service responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority, with the scope of such authority well defined.
This means that the group may define clearly what the scope
of a secretary's authority is. Tradition IV would suggest that groups may be
very prescriptive or very permissive. Most are the latter. Tradition IX
suggests not being over-organised, and this principle is, in general, liberally
applied.
If something goes wrong, Tradition XII comes into play. It
usually does little good for the group to hammer down on the officer for
exercising his discretion in such a way that others do not happen to like. If
he was within the bounds of the authority given, hard luck! Only if the
secretary exceeded the authority granted or went beyond the scope stipulated are
there any grounds for criticism, and then only with reference to the established
principle of what the role requires. Concept XII would suggest not making such
discussions punitive in any way.
If there is consensus that the secretary be given less
discretion and be directed in a particular way, then that is a group conscience
matter (or steering committee matter, as the group decides). The discussion
then is one of how things should be going forward, not on how things were done
differently the past. It is important not to criticise someone for rightly
exercising right of decision in accordance with their own conscience in the absence
of specific direction.