Qwatsinas
(Heredity Chief Edward Moody), Nuxalk Nation
Why Do
We Need a Conference?
"We may not need a General Service
Conference to ensure our own recovery. We do need it to ensure the recovery of
the alcoholic who still stumbles in the darkness one short block from this
room. We need it to ensure the recovery of a child being born tonight, destined
for alcoholism. We need it to provide, in keeping with our Twelfth Step, a
permanent haven for all alcoholics who, in the ages ahead, can find in A.A.
that rebirth that brought us back to life.
We need it because we, more than all others,
are conscious of the devastating effect of the human urge for power and
prestige which we must ensure can never invade A.A. We need it to ensure A.A.
against government, while insulating it against anarchy; we need it to protect
A.A. against disintegration while preventing overintegration. We need it so
that Alcoholics Anonymous, and Alcoholics Anonymous alone, is the ultimate
repository of its Twelve Steps, its Twelve Traditions, and all of its services.
We need it to ensure that changes within A.A.
come only as a response to the needs and the wants of all A.A., and not of any
few. We need it to ensure that the doors of the halls of A.A. never have locks
on them, so that people for all time who have an alcohol problem may enter these halls unasked and
feel welcome. We need it to ensure that Alcoholics Anonymous never asks anyone
who needs us what his or her race is, what his or her creed is, what his or her
social position is.”
Bernard
B. Smith AA Service Manual
1954
General Service Conference
Great
Spirit help us to keep the traditions alive for those who have not yet come in
the door.