Where the power lives

A newcomer who has finally admitted that willpower failed is already living Concept I without knowing it; the power to recover turned out to be outside himself, in a roomful of people who had been where he was. A home group practices the same thing when a member who wants the meeting run her way sets that aside because the group’s welfare matters more than her preference. At the district and area level, the GSR carries her group’s conscience rather than merely her own opinion, and the delegate carries the area’s conscience to the Conference while remembering that, once there, he serves A.A. as a whole. Even the trustees and the staff at GSO serve at the pleasure of the groups, who hold the ultimate say through the Conference. The thread runs unbroken from one surrendered drunk to a Fellowship of some two million members: the power was never ours to hold alone.