What is an A. A. Group?

An A.A. group consists of two or more alcoholics who gather together for meetings on a regular basis. These meetings are the basic source of recovery for the alcoholic who wants to stop drinking.

As a group, they are fully self-supporting, have no outside affiliations, and no opinions on outside issues. Because A.A.’s public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion, the group members maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV and film.

The group conscience of A.A. in the U.S. and Canada seems to have agreed upon six points that define an A.A. group:

All members of a group are alcoholics, and all alcoholics are eligible for membership.

As a group, they are fully self-supporting.

A group’s primary purpose is to help alcoholics recover through the Twelve Steps.

As a group, they have no outside affiliation.

As a group, they have no opinion on outside issues.

As a group, their public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion, and they maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV and films.

The A.A. Service Manual 1990

©1990 Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.