General Service

Our Twelfth Step — carrying the message — is the basic service that the A.A.
Fellowship gives; this is our principal aim and the main reason for our existence.
Therefore, A.A. is more than a set of principles; it is a society of alcoholics in action. We
must carry the message, else we ourselves can wither and those who haven’t been given the
truth may die.

Hence, an A.A. service is anything whatever that helps us to reach a fellow sufferer —
ranging all the way from the Twelfth Step itself to a ten-cent phone call and a cup of coffee,
and to A.A.’s General Service Office for national and international action. The sum
total of all these services is our Third Legacy of Service.

Services include meeting places, hospital cooperation, and intergroup offices; they
mean pamphlets, books, and good publicity of almost every description. They call for
committees, delegates, trustees, and conferences. And, not to be forgotten, they need voluntary
money contributions from within the Fellowship.