Chit System

If your group decides to implement the Chit System please contact Jane K probation.pdistrict@aamail .org

Information for Group Officers within Potteries and District Intergroup

What is the Chit System?

The following is an extract from the AAGB Service Handbook, Chapter 9 Probation (page 61)

The confirmation of attendance system, often called 'the chit system' is simply a scheme to let people have some document to show that they have attended a particular meeting. That person can then give the confirmation to offender managers, Social Services, an employer or any other body. 

The system was endorsed by Conference 1987 as being within the Traditions, and operates without compromising anyone's anonymity. It is up to the person requesting the chits to report on themselves to whoever is supervising them.

Is the Chit System much in use?

In various regions of AA, the chit system is well established and running very successfully. In other areas it is either not running at all or being implemented occasionally on an ad-hoc basis by individual Groups. 

AA's Board and its Probation and Prison sub-committees over recent years have highlighted the need to improve awareness of the chit system and encourage wider participation throughout the Fellowship.

Would this mean we are reporting to an outside agency?

No, probation or social service professionals do not ask for AA attendance to be verified by AA or by an AA group. It is for the attendee, should they so choose, to 'self-report' and therefore for him or her to ask the Secretary or GSR of the participating Group for the chit. If they use this to evidence their rehabilitation efforts, that's up to them.

Will this cooperation attract attendees who don't really have a desire to stop drinking?

Newcomers find the rooms of AA - sometimes of their own accord but many times strongly encouraged by family members, medical professionals or drug & alcohol workers who clearly recognise their alcohol problem and hope that AA can offer them a solution. Experienced social services officers and offender managers are in a very good position to know if the person they are working with has a serious problem with alcohol or not and so they fall squarely in the above category.

How is the chit system administered?

In the past, chits have been issued by simply providing the member with a sealed envelope that contains a slip of paper giving the group's unique group number. The group's officer would then write the time and date over the sealed flap of the envelope, and initial it.

However, over recent years, many Regions and Intergroups have had their own chits (cards) printed, most of which are similar in design. In January 2020, the General Service Board approved a common chit design (see overleaf). The group's unique identification number acts as a 'signature' to ensure that the group officer's anonymity is maintained. The cards are printed with anti-counterfeit ink.

These blank chits are now available from the General Service Office in York - free of charge. For obvious reasons they will only be sent out to a group officer's address that is already registered with AA Great Britain, so please ensure that your group's details are up to date, filling in a new online or paper 'pink' form as necessary. 

For groups meeting 'in person', Chits should only be kept and given out by the Group secretary, GSR or other designated officer who will be familiar with the process. Home Group members will need to be made aware that their Group participates in the 'chit system'.

Example scenarios for 'chit-friendly' meetings: - 

Meetings 'In Person'

• At a meeting, someone asks a group member if they can be given a slip/chit to give to their offender manager/social worker so they can confirm that they have attended the meeting.
• The member will take them across to the Secretary/GSR/designated group officer who will say that this can easily be done (and dealt with the end of the meeting)
• At the end of the meeting, the Secretary/GSR/designated officer will give the attendee the confirmation of attendance 

Meetings online (video platform, e.g. Zoom)

These circumstances have recently been carefully considered by the General Service Board's Probation sub-committee and it is not recommended that electronic versions of chits or emails are used because these could all too easily be copied and pasted. Instead, a physical chit can still be issued in the following way: -

• When joining an online meeting, a participant asks if they can be provided with confirmation of their attendance. 
• The online meeting's secretary, host or co-host confirms that they can and asks the attendee to:
• Either send a private messages with their name and home address, stressing that this will be held in confidence and used solely for the purpose of posting out a chit to them
• Or  if the attendee is unsure about giving out their address at this stage they will be asked for their phone number so the host, co-host or indeed the Probation Liaison Officer (Cameron) can call to speak to them after the meeting. During that conversation a method of posting out a chit can then be agreed.
• Ultimately, contact will need to be made with Intergroup's Probation Liaison Officer (currently Jane K who holds a supply of chits). Intergroup's Probation Liaison Officer will just need the details to write on the chit (as per chit sample above) and the attendee's address. [N.B. your Group number (UID) can be found on the AAGB website under https://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/PrintMeetings.do?id=17 ]

To repeat, as with face to face meetings, it would help if regular/home group members are aware that their Group is able to provide a confirmation of attendance.

Further Comments on Anonymity 

As mentioned above, the chit system was Conference approved back in 1987, thereby endorsing its adherence to all of our Traditions and has been in constant use throughout AA in Great Britain ever since. The above arrangements allow group officers and meeting members to fully protect their anonymity because none of their own details are given out. The person requesting the chit would be 'self-reporting' their attendance to their social services/probation supervisor and the individual, like every AA member, is perfectly at liberty to break their own anonymity in particular circumstances if they choose to do so.

October 2020