Short form:
The trustees should always have the best possible committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants. Composition, qualifications, induction procedures, and rights and duties will always be matters of serious concern.
Long form:
While the trustees hold final
responsibility for AA's world service administration, they should always have
the assistance of the best possible standing committees, corporate service
directors, executives, staffs and consultants. Therefore, the composition of
these underlying committees and service boards, the personal qualifications of
their members, the manner of their induction into service, the systems of their
rotation, the way in which they are related to each other, the special rights
and duties of our executives, staffs and consultants, together with a proper
basis for the financial compensation of these special workers, will always be
matters for serious care and concern.
Questions in service
·
When committees or individual officers are being
appointed, do we pay due consideration to (1) personal qualifications (2)
induction into service?
·
At group level, at Intergroup level, at Region
level, etc. is the relationship between different officers and/or committees
clear?
·
Are officers', committees', staffs', and
consultants' rights and duties clear?
·
Are staff or other people hired being duly
remunerated?
Questions in service and life
In service, I apply these questions to any board or
committee I am on, at group level, at Intergroup level, at Region level, etc.
[Nominating]
·
When people are being appointed, are these
principles being followed (to the extent proportionate to the role)? (1) Careful
deliberation (2) painstaking investigation and interviewing (3) refusal to
accept casual recommendations (4) preparation well in advance of lists of
suitable candidates (5) avoidance of all temptation to haste or snap judgement.
·
When recruiting, do I avoid hiring people more
able or accomplished than me, because I am threatened?
·
In life, do I avoid people more able or
accomplished than me, because I am threatened?
[Finance and budgeting]
·
Do I spend money I do not have?
·
Do I make every effort to stay solvent in good
times and bad?
·
Do I budget annually?
·
Do I keep a cold and watchful eye on needless
cost, waste, and duplication?
·
Do I monitor budgets mid-year and revise if
estimates have been wrong?
·
Do I scrutinize every new and considerable
expenditure, asking 'Is this necessary or desirable now? Can I afford it, all
considered?'
·
Do I set aside substantial sums for the future
and for emergencies?
·
Do I, by contrast, hoard and avoid necessary
expenditure out of fear?
[Public information]
·
Are my relations with the outside world sober
and quiet, emphasizing attraction nor promotion, or am I sensationalist or
self-promoting?
·
In my relations with the outside world, do I
display these skills: 'diplomacy, a sense of what is dangerous and what is not,
the courage to take calculated risks, and a readiness to make wise but tradition-abiding
compromises'?
[Status of executives]
·
Do I discriminate well when I should act on my own
and when limited or wide consultation is proper, and when I should ask for
specific direction?
·
Do I inspire by energy and example, thereby
securing willing cooperation?
·
Do I know when firmness is in order?
·
Do I act without favour or partiality?
·
Do I step up to the plate to handle 'large
affairs'?
·
Do I neglect 'small affairs'?
·
Do I take the initiative in plan-making?
[Regarding paid
workers]
·
When I set what others are paid, am I fair or
cheap?
Quotations
From Bill W.'s essays on the Twelve Concepts:
'[Regarding the 'nominating committee'] Careful
deliberation, painstaking investigation and interviewing, refusal to accept casual
recommendations, preparation well in advance of lists of suitable
candidates—these will need to be the principal attitudes and activities of this
committee. All temptation to haste or snap judgment will need to be faithfully
and constantly resisted.'
'Another problem that future committees may have to face is
the subtle tendency toward deterioration in the calibre of personnel due to the
very natural and usually unconscious tendency of those who suggest nominees to
select individuals of somewhat less ability than themselves.'
'[Regarding the 'finance and budgetary committee] The whole
temper of today's world is to spend more than it has, or may ever have. Many of
us consequently are infected with this rosy philosophy … The primary function
of this committee, therefore, is to see that our Headquarters operation is
always solvent and that it stays that way, in good times and bad.'
'This committee must conservatively estimate each year's
income. It needs to develop plans for increasing our revenues. It will keep a
cold and watchful eye on needless cost, waste, and duplication. … At mid-year
it will ask for budget revisions if earlier estimates have gone too much wrong.
It will scrutinize every new and considerable expenditure, asking "Is this
necessary or desirable now? Can we afford it, all considered?"'
'This committee, in good times, will insist that we continue
to set aside substantial sums to our Reserve Fund. It will pursue an investment
policy in that fund which will guarantee the immediate availability of at least
two-thirds of it at any time, without loss, thereby enabling us to meet hard
times or even a calamity.'
'Future committees, therefore, will ponder the difference
between real prudence (which is neither fear nor hoarding and which may indeed
require us sometimes to run temporary deficits) and that kind of persistent
recklessness which could someday result in the severe contraction or collapse
of our vital services. … The safe course will usually lie midway between
reckless budget-slashing and imprudent spending.'
'[Regarding the 'public information committee'] Skill in
this area implies much technical experience, diplomacy, a sense of what is
dangerous and what is not, the courage to take calculated risks, and a readiness
to make wise but tradition-abiding compromises. … For instance, the techniques
used to sell a big time personality or a new hair lotion would not be for AA.'
'[Regarding paid workers] We believe that each paid
executive, staff member, or consultant should be recompensed in reasonable
relation to the value of his or her similar services or abilities in the
commercial world.'
Status of executives
'No active service can function well unless it has sustained
and competent executive direction. This must always head up in one person,
supported by such assistants as he needs. A board or a committee can never
actively manage anything, in the continuous executive sense. This function has
to be delegated to a single person. That person has to have ample freedom and
authority to do his job, and he should not be interfered with so long as his
work is done well.'
'Real executive ability cannot be plucked from any bush; it
is rare and hard to come by. A special combination of qualities is required.
The executive must inspire by energy and example, thereby securing willing cooperation.
If that cooperation is not forthcoming, he must know when real firmness is in
order. He must act without favour or partiality. He must comprehend and execute
large affairs, while not neglecting the smaller. He often must take the
initiative in plan making.'
'It is the duty of the good executive, therefore, to learn
discrimination of when he should act on his own and when limited or wide
consultation is proper, and when he should ask for specific definitions and
directions.'