October 1
Someone Else Handles That
A.A.'s wider services can seem far away from the meeting we attend. The books arrive, questions get answered, and someone keeps track of things we seldom think about. We may be grateful without feeling involved. When a problem appears, it is easy to speak of those services as though they belonged to an organization somewhere else, staffed by people who should already know what to do.
Concept One places final responsibility with the Fellowship itself. That gives our concern somewhere to go beyond complaint. Our group is part of the people these services exist to help, and part of the people responsible for sustaining them. We need not become experts in everything. An interested question, attention to a report, or support for a representative can express a different relationship. What looked like someone else's business begins to look like shared work we have been benefiting from all along.
What service do I rely on without feeling any connection to its care?
These services belong to the Fellowship I am part of.
For the A.A. nerds: Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept I.