The WSO [World Service Organization] and its Board also shall be guided by the spirit of the Twelve Concepts of Workaholics Anonymous (hereinafter referred to as the Concepts). These Concepts are adapted from the Twelve Concepts of Alcoholics Anonymous [1962]. In their short form, they are:
- Final responsibility and ultimate authority for WA world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Recovery program.
- The World Service Conference shall become, for nearly every practical purpose, the active voice and the effective conscience of our whole Recovery program in its world affairs.
- To ensure effective leadership, we should endow each element of WA—the Conference, the WSO and its Board, service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives—with a traditional “Right of Decision.”
- At all responsible levels, we ought to maintain a traditional “Right of Participation,” allowing a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge.
- Throughout our structure, a traditional “Right of Appeal” ought to prevail, so that minority opinion will be heard and personal grievances receive careful consideration.
- The Conference recognizes that the chief initiative and active responsibility in most World Service matters should be exercised by the Trustee members of the Conference, acting as the Board of the WSO.
- The bylaws of the WSO are a legal instrument, empowering the Trustees to manage and conduct World Service affairs. The Conference Charter (once it is written) is not a legal document; it relies upon tradition and the WA purse (the giving or withholding of donations to the WSO by WA Groups and Intergroups) for final effectiveness.
- The Trustees are the principal planners and administrators of overall policy and finance. They have custodial oversight of the various WSO service committees and of any separately incorporated WA World Service entities which may be extant.
- Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for our future functioning and safety. Primary World Service leadership, once exercised by the founders, must necessarily be assumed by the Trustees.
- Every service responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority, with the scope of such authority well defined.
- The Trustees should always have the best possible committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants. Composition, qualifications, induction procedures, and rights and duties will always be matters of serious concern.
- The Conference shall observe the spirit of WA tradition, taking care that it never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power; that sufficient operating funds and reserve be its prudent financial principle; that it places none of its members in a position of unqualified authority over others; that it reach all important decisions by discussion, vote and, whenever possible, by substantial unanimity; that its actions never be personally punitive nor an incitement to public controversy; that it never perform acts of government, and that, like the Recovery program it serves, it will always remain democratic in thought and action.
(“Bylaws of Workaholics Anonymous World Service Organization, Inc.,” 2006, Article 5)
The Twelve Concepts of Alcoholics Anonymous have been adapted by Workaholics Anonymous with the permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (“A.A.W.S.”). Permission to adapt the Twelve Concepts does not mean that Alcoholics Anonymous is affiliated with this program. A.A. is a program of recovery from alcoholism only—use of A.A.’s Concepts or an adapted version in connection with programs and activities which are patterned after A.A., but which address other problems, or use in any other non-A.A. context, does not imply otherwise.
The original A.A. Twelve Concepts are available at https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/smf-195_en%201121.pdf.