What Any A.A. Member Or Group Reads Is

No Business Of G.S.O., or Of The Conference!

Whilst reading “Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers”, I saw references to

spiritual material that Dr Bob would often read in his home group in Akron. I

decided to read some of this very powerful spiritual literature. In reading this,

I saw many similarities between this literature and the book “Alcoholics

Anonymous”. I wanted to share about this in meetings, but was torn as I

had the understanding that one was not meant to share about “non-

Conference Approved” literature in meetings. So, I decided to do a little

In 1978 the AA General Service Office described what “Conference

Approved” means in their Box 4-5-9 newsletter (Volume 23, No 4). Here the

General Service Office said:

“It (Conference Approved) does not mean the Conference disapproves of

any other publications. Many local A.A. central offices publish their own

meeting lists. A.A. as a whole does not oppose these, any more than A.A.

disapproves of the Bible or any other publications from any source that

A.A.’s find useful.”

In essence, what any A.A. member reads is no business of G.S.O., or of the

Conference, naturally.

The General Service Conference has also dealt with the meaning of the

term “Conference Approved” in a “Conference Approved” pamphlet (SM

F-29) called: Conference-Approved Literature. Here it is explained this way:

“Conference-approved” — What It Means to You…

“The term has no relation to material not published by G.S.O. It does not

imply Conference disapproval of other material about A.A. A great deal of

literature helpful to alcoholics is published by others, and A.A. does not try

to tell any individual member what he or she may or may not read.”

Interestingly, books like the Original Manuscript and the First Edition of

the Big Book are not “Conference Approved” literature since there was no conference at the time they were published.  An odd side effect of a

group that limits itself to conference approved literature would be that if

the rule were rigorously followed, the group would not allow someone

to read from Dr. Bob’s personal copy of the Big Book because, as a First

Edition, it would lack conference approval.

Let’s also not forget that early Alcoholics Anonymous studied the King

James version of the Bible, read all kinds of literature — Protestant,

Roman Catholic, New Thought, medical, and otherwise — and put out

reams and reams of pamphlets and guides as the years went by.

Included, were pamphlets from many Central Offices and Intergroups —

including the long-running Cleveland Central Bulletin, the Akron AA

pamphlets, & The Four Absolutes. Then there were other writers like Dr.

Silkworth, Clarence Snyder, Sister Ignatia, Marty Mann, Father Pfau, Richmond Walker, Ed Webster, together with over 500 Oxford Group

and Sam Shoemaker books and pamphlets that were read and

circulated by Dr. Bob himself.

So, I for one, stand corrected in my understanding of literature and

recovery as a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Let’s

remember Dr. Bob’s request to not louse AA up but to keep it simple

and retain our healing legacy.

In fellowship, Simon A.