Committee No. 6

Question 1.     

Would Conference share experience and make recommendations on the conduct, frequency, and content of Group Conscience Meetings within the Fellowship?

Background:

Our Intergroup recently held a Workshop on 'The Group Conscience - a sharing of Group experience on running Group Conscience Meetings' and it became clear that at a practical level there exists a degree of confusion between Group business meetings, Group inventories, and what are generally known as Group Conscience meetings. The existing literature, notably the leaflet 'the AA Group' make clear that a Group Conscience meeting is purely a Group inventory meeting and lists the questions which a Group may consider at such a meeting. The leaflet also describes  the possible content of a 'Business' meeting but does not identify the Group Conscience Meeting as anything other than a Group Inventory. The collective experience at our Workshop indicated however  a consensus around Group Conscience meetings as being a 'hybrid' of business meeting and at least some element of Group Inventory as part of the meeting. The AA Structure Handbook 2013 combines the two 'The Group Conscience and Business Meetings' and indicates a combination of business meeting and Group conscience meeting 'which usually takes the form of a group inventory'.

Past Conference questions have consistently suggested that the holding of regular Group Conscience meetings as good practice for any AA Group; again our experience showed a wide range of practices and raised questions as to when best to hold such meetings; before, after, or separately from normal meeting times.

In addition some guidance on the format of Group Conscience meetings was felt to be needed (and we did attempt to do this as part of the Workshop outcome) particularly by new Groups and Groups that did not hold regular Group Conscience meetings.

Background Information: The leaflet 'The AA Group' p15/24-25; 'The AA Structure Handbook for Great Britain' p74-75/85; Traditions 2 and 4; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p136-140; AA Comes of Age p98-99; The Language of the Heart p78/81.

Question 2. 

Should donations be made to Churches and other venues that refuse to accept rent from AA Group Meetings held at those venues?

Background Reading:
The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous (Long Form)