Concept One came about because Dr. Bob, one of the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, became terminally ill. This was someone who the groups of AA looked to and entrusted with many policy decisions. Though the years had been fruitful to AA and many thought it would continue throughout the future unharmed, Bill W-- the other main co-founder of the fellowship-- needed to ensure that the fellowship was protected in case anything happened to those like him and Dr. Bob who had first created it. He wanted to make sure that future generations could benefit from the strength and hope of the program they had established.
Bill W had fought in World War I. He had seen for himself that many dictatorships crumble under the ultimate power of one authority figure while other governments were made too weak with complete democracy to do anything to ensure their futures. He needed something more to sustain the spiritual program of AA. He did this by passing the responsibility and authority to the groups themselves. They would then be trusted to conduct their own group conscious meetings through their own higher power and Tradition 2 which states “For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.” The trusted servants in turn would serve the groups in higher offices but they would be accountable and responsible to the authority of the Alanon groups themselves. He said this was possible because it was a spiritual program and because the love of a higher power was behind the program.
Alanon kept this model. We received the Twelve Concepts from Alcoholics Anonymous when they were first created in that fellowship in 1962. We adopted them just as we did the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions and they helped to strengthen our own fellowship. Many people who come to these programs are confused about how to work well with others and do service that is helpful and orderly. These concepts give us practical rules to live by concerning the fellowship as a whole but also show how we can work well with others. They describe how best to do service, both in the program and in our own lives. Through Concept One we created group conscience meeting, the upside-down triangle of authority of Alanon with the groups maintaining responsibility and authority in the program and a basis for which to allow our trusted servants to serve but not govern us. The program now had a way to to carry out it's service.
The main message of Concept One is Unity. It also shows how we have to serve the group in order for the Alanon groups to serve us; we have to give it away to keep it. Bill did this in AA when he gave his baby-- his program that he created out of the blood, sweat and tears of his own life-- and gave it over to the groups and their authority. He saw that there was so much more the groups could do that a few authority figures could not. One person can not do as much as the whole group.
We must remember that we recovered through the program. It's not enough to recovery and have unity with those in the program, we must also uphold the responsibilities that are given to us with the many service opportunities in the program. We may have the authority within our groups for Alanon, but without continuing to fulfill the service positions there will be no Alanon anymore and future generations will not be able to benefit from the program as we have. Authority and responsibility are therefore two sides of the same coin. We can not have one without the other.
This translates to our own lives as well. When we allowed other people to become our Higher Power and bent to the wishes and whims of the alcoholic many of us hid from our responsibilities. We stopped taking care of ourselves as we should have and with that lost much of the authority over our own lives. We ended up with lives that were unmanageable and out of control.
On the other side of things, how often did we think that we were the ultimate authority for our Alcoholics? We took their responsibility away by trying to become their Higher Power. We paid their bills, did their chores, made sure they were happy and they forgot how to manage their own lives because we were there to enable them. We forgot that we were part of a team. We forgot that the unity of our own relationships should be about two people coming together equally. We tried to control that which wasn't ours in the first place and took on way too much for one person to handle. We needed to delegate like in the program when we place some of the duties of Alanon in the service boards. We needed to give some of the authority away to keep our sanity. No one person or one group can do it all.
To truly work this concept in our lives we have to remember that we are part of the group. No man is an island and if we try to do it all we will surely drown. We have to also be able to dedicate our new found sanity and peace to serving the group and it's collective conscious, as it says in Tradition 1: “Our common welfare should come first; personal progress for the greatest number depends upon unity.” We must seek to serve the groups in our lives-- our families, our marriages, our work environments and our family groups at Alanon. We must give it away to keep it and continue to do service where it is needed, in this way we serve the group but we also make sure that the groups continue to serve us. By doing service where it is needed and warranted we will pass it on to the next generation and ensure that we all get healthy.
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