At my home group, if you want to become a member of that home group, then you are offered service. Anyone can be a member of AA just by saying they're a member, and anyone with a drinking problem can attend group meetings. But decision-making about the group is reserved for those who take part in its running. To make sure the decision-making is reserved for anyone who wishes to participate, we offer service to everyone who requests it. No one has ever been denied service. Service could consist in being on a list of potential volunteers to step in to fill ad hoc vacancies, with no commitment to a particular action on a particular day. Willingness is sufficient. No one has ever been denied access to the group's decision-making, therefore.
We are complying with the Group Conscience of AA in GB, expressed through the pamphlet The AA Group:
This also is reflected in Concept IV:
From Bill W's essay on Concept IV:
... and in Concept X:
We are complying with the Group Conscience of AA in GB, expressed through the pamphlet The AA Group:
Throughout our Conference structure, we ought to maintain at all responsible levels a traditional “Right of Participation,” taking care that each classification or group of our world servants shall be allowed a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.... in other words: responsibility and voting go hand in hand.
From Bill W's essay on Concept IV:
It was years before we saw that we could never put all authority in one group and virtually all responsibility in another and then expect efficiency of operation, let alone real harmony. ...
There is another good reason for “participation”, and this one has to do with our spiritual needs. All of us deeply desire to belong. We want an AA relation of brotherly partnership. It is our shining ideal that the “spiritual corporation” of AA should never include any members who are regarded as “second class”. Deep down, I think this is what we have been struggling to achieve in our world service structure. Here is perhaps the principal reason why we should continue to ensure “participation” at every important level. Just as there are no second-class AAs, neither should there be any second-class world service workers, either.In other words, service creates a sense of belonging, and that belonging promote Tradition One in decision-making: since I'm part of the group I'm voting on the basis of our common welfare, not my personal agenda.
... and in Concept X:
Every service responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority—the scope of such authority to be always well defined whether by tradition, by resolution, by specific job description or by appropriate charters and bylaws.... in other words responsibility (doing the work) goes together with authority (making decisions). This means that the consequences for service of the decisions made about service are borne by the people who are doing the service.