Have you ever wondered where conference agenda items come from?

I have and luckily, our handy dandy A.A. Service Manual outlines exactly where agenda items come from and how they make it to the floor of the Conference.  I have pulled a passage from the Service Manual and have created a graphic that helps explain it even further (for those of us who don’t like to read…LOL).

The final agenda for any Conference consists of items suggested by individual A.A. members, groups, delegates, trustees, area assemblies, area committee members, and directors and staff members of A.A.W.S. and the Grapevine. The Conference considers matters of policy for A.A. as a whole, and there are tried-and-true procedures for placing an item on the agenda in the most effective way — or, when the suggestion does not concern overall policy, for routing it to the most appropriate part of the service structure.

If a G.S.R. has an idea for an agenda item, chances are that he or she will want to discuss it first with the group, then at a district or area meeting, which can then forward it
to the staff member at G.S.O. currently serving as Conference coordinator. An A.A. who is not part of the general service structure can give the idea to the group’s G.S.R. or write directly to the Conference coordinator.

Whatever its origin, any agenda item follows the same path to the Conference agenda: The A.A. staff studies it in the light of previous Conference actions, then passes it on to
the trustees’ Conference Committee or the appropriate Conference committee. Usually, the trustees’ committee determines the most appropriate way of programming it — as a workshop or presentation subject, a proposal, or a committee concern.