Alcoholics
Anonymous as such has ONE official website for Great Britain:
(some
pages still listed under: http://www.aa-gb.org.uk/)
"This
Web Site is created and maintained by The General Service Board of
Alcoholics Anonymous (Great Britain) Ltd. through the General Service
Office of Great Britain.
The
General Service Office is the national office serving A.A. in Great
Britain and English speaking meetings in continental Europe."
(AA website)
There is
NO other official website covering this geographical region. There
are however links contained within the AA site to various web pages
that have been allocated to Intergroups (and for regional
information). There are moreover pages allocated to groups within
different regions. Whereas the information contained in the
Intergroup and Regional pages is non-controversial the same cannot
necessarily be said for those relating to specific groups.
There are
however an increasing number of other sites which carry information
relating to Alcoholics Anonymous or indeed refer to themselves as
being an online presence for their group (AA or otherwise), or then
again are purely online entities such as forums, online meetings,
chat rooms etc, and these moreover may or may not use the AA logo,
may or may not use the terms "Alcoholics Anonymous" in
their titles or group names, and furthermore may or may not carry
disclaimers (and where they do these might not be very clearly
displayed - and we suspect that in at least one instance this is
quite deliberate) to the effect that the sites themselves are neither
"approved or endorsed by, and are not affiliated with Alcoholics
Anonymous World Services, Inc. or any AA Service entity of any
country" or variations on this theme etc. Therefore it is
necessary to apply some discretion when assessing the information
conveyed therein.
The advantage of placing one's reliance on the information contained in the official site is that this as far as possible reflects most accurately what AA is indeed about (and as contained in the Preamble itself as well as the Steps, Traditions and Concepts, and then other guidelines produced by the General Service Conference).
Additionally
the AA website includes a section relating to AA literature (AA
conference approved). Other literature may be available at AA
meetings but may not be conference approved. If such material
(including books, pamphlets, booklets, CDs and DVDs) is on display it
should be marked separately from AA literature and should thereafter
be treated with some circumspection. The information contained
therein might ONLY represent the views of some individuals, and not
of the Fellowship itself (as represented by its collective
conscience)
The
Preamble of Alcoholics Anonymous (read out at the beginning of most
AA meetings)
"Alcoholics
Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their
experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve
their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.
The only
requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no
dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our
own contributions.
A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organisation or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety."
Although
groups are not obliged to read out this Preamble (and may indeed use
another form of words) this particular introduction is most
frequently employed to indicate (especially to those new to AA) what
AA IS and IS NOT about. If another form of words is being used then
again this meeting should be treated with care - it may be a meeting
affiliated with another organisation and therefore is (and in
accordance with AA Traditions) neither an AA meeting nor one run by
an AA group.
Generally
an AA meeting will conclude with the Serenity Prayer as follows:
"God
grant me the serenity
to accept
the things I cannot change;
courage to
change the things I can;
and wisdom
to know the difference."
Again
groups (and meetings) are not obliged to conclude with this prayer
and may use the Lord's Prayer instead, for example. This prayer
however is Christian in origin and AA as such is not allied with any
such institutions. Therefore we would assert that such groups are in
fact breaking AA Traditions by affiliating themselves with outside
organisations. Again these meetings should be treated with caution.
