What is Service Work?

Alcoholics Anonymous thrives on service work. Without a community of recovering addicts and alcoholics willing to reach out and help one another, these groups would cease to exist. As such, anyone who has been helped by these groups and the Twelve Steps which act as their foundation must give to newcomers the same goodwill that they have received from those who came before them.

As AA founder Bill Wilson noted in A.A.’s Legacy of Service, service work encompasses any act which serves to keep the program alive so that others may profit from a sense of community and fellowship. The Three Legacies of AA—recovery, unity, and service—are forever linked by this very principle.

Examples of service work vary. One may act as a General Service Representative for their home group, attending district and intergroup meetings to keep the Fellowship alive throughout their greater surrounding area. If they do not feel up to the responsibilities of a GSR, they may also consider managing their home group’s finances as Treasurer, or becoming Secretary and taking down minutes at their home group’s business meetings. There are many groups with additional service positions as well, depending upon the group’s specific needs and general attendance rates.

One may also take a position in either group’s General Service Office, responding to letters and phone calls from those who are new to the program and do not know how to locate groups within their area. Some may even become involved in the organization and planning of local AA conventions and activities, ensuring that hundreds of attendees are able to go out and meet others. General service is a great responsibility, but it is also a surefire way of building a strong and sober support group as we are introduced to addicts and alcoholics we may not have met otherwise.

Remember, however, that general service or world service are not the only forms of service work within these groups. Personal service, such as that mandated by Step Twelve of AA, is equally important. Whether personal service entails sponsorship, listening to a fellow group member’s Fifth Step, or simply giving a fellow group member rides to and from meetings, there is something to be gained through the direct assistance of another person’s sobriety. The newcomer will feel less alone when they come to realize that even a perfect stranger is willing to show them hospitality.

Even attending meetings may be seen as a form of service work to the newcomers, as they may be inspired by meeting people with much earlier sobriety dates. And the smallest of helpful actions such as making coffee, setting up chairs, or cleaning up after the meeting, will ensure that all in attendance are a little more comfortable and are able to focus their attention on the strengthening of their recovery.

There is no shortage of ways to serve others in recovery, but it is vital to our sobriety that some form of service work be performed with alcoholics and addicts in mind.