The Area 31 General Service Representative

The GSR

Interested in serving your group as it's GSR.  You can attend the monthly District Meeting in your area.  Don't know where it is?  You can go to the bottom of this page.
Or e-mail us at:  a31chair@gmail.com

The General Service Representitive:

When you’re a G.S.R.

You are linking your home group with the whole of A.A. Back in 1953, when the “group contact” was suggested as a new type of trusted servant, the job was seen simply as a good means of exchanging up-to-date information between individual groups and “Headquarters” (now the General Service Office). That’s still an important side of your work. But now, as general service representative, you have an even bigger responsibility: You transmit ideas and opinions, as well as facts; through you, the group conscience becomes a part of “the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship,” as expressed in the General Service Conference.

Like everything else in A.A., it works through a series of simple steps. (For the complete picture in detail, read The A.A. Service Manual.)

General services

1 At district meetings, you join with G.S.R.s from other groups. Perhaps you’ve already worked with an intergroup or central office, where groups band together to help alcoholics just in your locality. But your general service district is the second link in an entirely different chain, which extends much farther. Your district is one part of a general service area. With your fellow G.S.R.s, you elect a district committee member, and all the D.C.M.s make up the area committee. Now, do you just sit back and let your D.C.M. take it from there? No! G.S.R.s stay very much in action in each of the 93 areas in the U.S. and Canada.

2 You attend area assemblies four times a year (in most areas). At the electoral assembly (held every two years), along with the other G.S.R.s and the D.C.M.s from the whole area, you elect committee officers – and your area’s Conference delegate.

3 Just as you rely on your group for help in your personal recovery, so the A.A. groups of Canada and the U.S. rely on the General Service Conference in maintaining the unity and strength of our Fellowship – our obligation to all the alcoholics of today and tomorrow. It’s up to you to keep two-way communication going between your group and the Conference. Via your D.C.M. and your delegate, you can see to it that your group’s conscience on matters of importance to all A.A. becomes a part of the consensus when these matters are discussed at the annual Conference meeting in April. In return, you can enable your group to benefit from the meeting’s sharing of experience among area delegates and the other Conference members. Your D.C.M. may want to present your delegate’s report at a special group meeting. The D.C.M. receives a copy of the Final Conference Report, a full account of proceedings. Copies of the Report are available to groups upon request.

Information you’ll need

9 On the general service structure: The A.A. Service Manual/Twelve Concepts for World Service, “Inside A.A.,” and “Circles of Love and Service” – all in the G.S.R. Kit; in addition, the Final Conference Report.

10 On the Traditions: “A.A. Tradition – How It Developed” (kit); also Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, A.A. Comes of Age, and “The Twelve Traditions Illustrated.”

11 On group affairs: “The A.A. Group” and “Self-Support: Where Money and Spirituality Mix” (both in the kit); the A.A. Guidelines (listing of titles and prices in the Literature Catalog, which suggest ways your group can work with other groups and with agencies outside A.A. When your group elects a G.S.R. You remember, as the cover of this leaflet says, that “G.S.R. may be the most important job in A.A.” The G.S.R.s of the U.S. and Canada are the very foundation of our general service structure. Through your G.S.R., you can make your group’s voice heard at district meetings, at area assemblies, and eventually at the General Service Conference. Through your G.S.R., your group is strengthened by the shared experience of the other U.S. and Canadian groups, just as your own sobriety is strengthened by the shared experience of other A.A. members.

When and how

1 The two-year terms of an area’s G.S.R.s coincide with those of its D.C.M.s and Conference delegate. So a group usually elects its G.S.R. before the assembly meeting at which the delegate is elected. September is a good month, since that gives the new G.S.R. time to study the responsibilities of the job before taking office – most often on January 1, along with the new D.C.M.s and the new delegate.

2 An informed group enjoys a special election meeting, where a member with a solid background in service work explains the function of the G.S.R., and a G.S.O. filmstrip may be shown.

3 Procedures for electing a G.S.R. are the same as for any other group officer. There should be time for nominations from the floor, then for written ballots. A plurality is usually enough for election.

4 Prompt notifications about your choice of G.S.R. is essential. If your district or area committee and G.S.O. do not have your new G.S.R.’s name and address, communication breaks down.

5 At the same election meeting, it is important also to elect an alternate G.S.R. (by the same voting procedure). The two will work together closely, so that the alternate can be a knowledgeable replacement if the G.S.R. is unable to attend a district or area meeting.

6 What happens if your group’s G.S.R. is elected committee member for your district?

Then the alternate automatically becomes your G.S.R. – an extra reason for care in filling both offices.

The makings of a good G.S.R.

7 Two or three years’ sobriety is generally the required minimum. Active membership in a home group – yours – is also important, and your G.S.R. should hold no other offices in any group.

8 Prior A.A. service experience provides a long head start for a G.S.R.’s success. Consider former group officers and members who have shouldered responsibility at your intergroup or central office or on special committees.

9 Does your group include people who already have a keen interest in the Twelve Traditions and the service structure? If so, you’re in luck!

10 Look for the same character qualities that mark a good trusted servant of any sort (and a good A.A.): patience, understanding, and a firm determination “to place principles before personalities.”

11 Most future Conference delegates will come from the ranks of today’s G.S.R.s. So your choice now can help to insure good representation for your whole area in years to come and continuing vitality for our General Service Conference – the heart of our co-founders’ Third Legacy to all of A.A.

Bill W. on General Services and the G.S.R.

“... an A.A. service is anything whatever that helps us 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.” (A.A. Service Manual, page S1) Whether performed by individuals or groups or areas or A.A. as a whole, these activities are vital to our existence and growth. Nor can we make A.A. simpler by abolishing such services. To do so would only be asking for complication and confusion. Among the most vital, yet probably least understood, group of services are those that help us function as a whole – the work of the General Service Office (G.S.O.) and the General Service Board (the trustees). Our worldwide unity and much of our growth since early times are directly traceable to them. To get the benefit of direct guidance from A.A. as a whole, the General Service Conference was formed – a body of about 91 delegates from the United States and Canada. These delegates sit yearly with our trustees, directors, and the staffs of G.S.O. and the Grapevine. The Conference has proved itself an immense success. Over the years, its record of achievement has been completely convincing.

The strength of our whole A.A. service structure starts with the group and with the general service representative (G.S.R.) the group elects. I cannot emphasize too strongly the G.S.R.’s importance.

District #4:
1st Congregational Church
3rd Tuesday at 6:45pm
Route 46 & 116,
Sunderland, MA

District #5:
Union Church of Christ
1st Monday at 7:30pm
51 Center Street,
Ludlow MA

District #6:
Alano Club
3rd Monday at 7:30pm
King St.,
Agawam