Concept IV

on

GB Concept IV. 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 servants shall be allowed a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.


World Service Long Form IV. 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.

World Service Short Form IV. At all responsible levels, we ought to maintain a traditional "Right of Participation," allowing a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.

Application in AA

  • The Twelve Concepts for Service establish a structure of delegation from the abstract universal consciousness down to the individuals performing tasks in the material plane
  • Concepts III, IV, and V represent a digression into the general principles governing the relationship between delegator and delegatee
  • Concept III established the delegatee's role:
      • Act
      • Consult
      • Ask
      • Report
    • ... and the delegatee's Right of Decision within the scope of that role
  • Concept IV goes further and establishes the delegatee's Right of Participation in the delegating authority's decision-making process
  • Actual examples:
    • GSRs are appointed by groups and participate in groups' decision-making processes
    • Conference Delegates are appointed by Regions (in Great Britain) and participate in Regions' decision-making processes
    • Trustees are answerable to Conference and participate in its decision-making process
    • (In Great Britain, General Service Office (GSO) staff no longer vote at Conference ...
    • ... I believe this breaches Concept IV)
    • Per Bill W's essay: The directors of service corporations include
      • Trustees
      • Experts
      • Staff (who do the work)
    • In Great Britain, national subcommittees comprise a trustee and volunteer members
      • These subcommittees are decision-making bodies
      • The volunteer members also do the work
  • Some definitions:
    • Throughout our Conference structure
      • This includes the whole service structure from Conference down to the executive levels
    • The right to participate subsists at classification or group level: not individual level
      • This means that a board of directors with an executive director and a staff member gives one vote to each
      • ... the director does not get a 'larger' vote because he has a greater practical responsibility
      • But taken together they represent a reasonable proportion of the whole decision-making body in terms of the responsibility they discharge
      • Similarly: the Chair of the Board does not have a greater vote than other Trustees ...
      • ... but the Trustees as a classification or group have a suitable voting representation
  • This means that each layer of the structure does not have an unqualified authority over the layer below ...
    • ... because the layer below is involved in the decision-making
  • The delegatee has:
    • Active responsibility for tasks
    • The authority to perform those tasks
    • Shared responsibility and authority at the decision-making level of the body which delegated the task in the first place
  • Why?
    • To make decisions, decision-making bodies require:
      • Oversight (managers)
      • Expert input (experts)
      • Input from the activity level (actors)
    • Why does the decision-making body need to have the experts / actors take part in the decision-making? Why not just have them report and advise?
      • In principle, reporting and advice should be sufficient
      • In practice, absolute authority tends to resist outside influence unless formally tempered in some way
      • This is true in the world (let's not name names) and in the experience from early AA
      • Holders of absolute authority in AA tended to make bad decisions
    • Embodiment of Concept X:
      • Authority without responsibility invites recklessness:
        • Decision-makers who don't have to implement the decisions don't immediately feel the consequences of directives that are:
          • Contradictory with other directives
          • Excessively onerous for the actor
          • Ineffective in achieving their purpose
          • Inefficient in achieving their purpose
      • Responsibility without authority occasions
        • Resentment against wrong-headed decision-making
        • A sense of futility
        • Apathy (because 'caring' does not translate into input into the decision-making)
        • Conflict with the decision-makers
        • Carelessness (because the buck stops higher in the chain)
  • The spiritual principle of democracy is embodied herein:
    • Managers, experts, and actors have the same status
    • No class is set above another in authority
    • In ballots, there are no superiors, inferiors, or advisers
  • Exception One: the Board of Trustees:
    • The Board of Trustees cannot have paid staff members sitting on it
    • Conference needs to be able to reorganise or replace the Board
    • If there are paid staff members sitting on it, they could be hard to dislodge
    • This restriction is tempered (per Bill W's essay) by inviting executives, employees, accountants, lawyers, etc. to attend meetings
    • They cannot vote but they may participate in debate
  • Exception Two: Conference
    • At Conference, Trustees and employees do not vote on matters concerning:
      • Their past performance
      • Job qualifications
      • Monetary compensation
      • Reorganisation / replacement of the Board due to dysfunction

Application in life
  • Within the family
    • We all have delegated areas of authority
    • The delegatee also takes part in the decision-making at the higher level, at which delegation takes place
    • For instance, as a couple, we make general decisions on who is going to cook the dinner and at what time
    • Whoever is cooking the dinner also takes part in the general decision
    • The cook is not merely an order taker
  • In sponsorship
    • The sponsor does not dictate to the sponsee
    • The sponsee is free to reject what is offered
    • The best way to proceed is through consensus between the sponsor and sponsee
    • This means explaining to the sponsee why what is being suggested is being suggested
    • If the sponsee understands and assents to what is being suggested, there is a greater chance of compliance and therefore success
    • Although the sponsor has the 'majority vote'—like the Delegates at Conference—the relationship won't get far without the 'minority vote' of the sponsee ...
    • ... The aim is substantial unanimity
    • (This is subject to the application of Concept VII, however)
  • Participation as a general spiritual principle
    • I participate as a decision-maker
    • I participate as an actor
    • I exist for a reason: to participate
    • The skills, experience, knowledge, and resources I have have been given to me so I can participate
    • This is my purpose in life
    • If I do not use these, I will suffer
    • The suffering is part of the mechanism that prompts me to participate
    • There is no waste in the divine economy
    • I am therefore needed by God
  • The dual level of participation
    • In society
      • I participate practically (through involvement / engagement in the local community, financial contributions to charities)
      • I participate in decision-making (financial contributions to think tanks, membership of a political party, voting)
    • In AA
      • I participate practically (socially, holding out the hand of AA, talking to people, sharing, doing service)
      • I participate in decision-making (business meetings and group conscience meetings)
  • Equality as a general spiritual principle
    • 'If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try.' (There Is A Solution)
    • In group conscience meetings: one person, one vote
    • In AA as a whole: one person, one vote
  • Blocks to participation:
    • Fear of rejection
    • Fear of failure
    • Fear of responsibility (being accountable for results of actions)
    • Fear of authority (being accountable for effects of decisions)
    • Laziness (having my own agenda)
  • The solution:
    • Don't retreat
    • Advance!
    • See Concept VI: chief initiative and active responsibility
  • Retreat and withdrawal lead to:
    • Getting lost in the make-believe world of self
      • 'Perhaps your husband has been living in that strange world of alcoholism where everything is distorted and exaggerated.' (To Wives)
    • Drinking and other addictions
  • When delegating (e.g. at work)
    • Involve the next layer down in the decision-making
    • To avoid:
      • Conflict
      • Alienation
      • Indifference
      • Ineffectiveness
  • Don't enable!
    • Don't do for others what they can and should do for themselves
    • In doing so, I'm preventing them from participating fully in their lives
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