A Local Pamphlet Is Still Allowed

You turned it over under a bad light, looking for the words Conference-approved. They are not there. The piece came from a central office or an intergroup, or it looks like it did, and your mind went straight to counterfeit. Someone must be passing off unofficial paper. You are holding it like it might get you in trouble. You can put it in your lap and breathe. A missing line is not the same thing as a fake.

What Conference-Approved Means is the longer explanation of the label itself. The Pamphlet You Picked Up is about what a pamphlet is for. This fear is narrower. You think the local piece is not allowed to exist.

The office down the road is allowed to write

SMF-29 says central offices and intergroups do write and distribute pamphlets or booklets that are not Conference-approved. If those pieces meet the needs of the local membership, they may be legitimately classified as A.A. literature. There is no conflict between A.A. World Services, which publishes the Conference-approved literature, and the central offices or intergroups. They complement each other. The Conference does not disapprove of such material.

That is the whole correction. Local paper and Conference-approved books are not enemies. One is the publishing the Conference signed off for GSO to do. The other is a local service writing something the people nearby asked for. Complement means they sit side by side. It does not mean every photocopy anyone ever made is a treasure. It means the absence of the Conference-approved line does not, by itself, make a central-office piece a fraud.

The service piece talks about the practice. It does not name your town, and it does not require a special title on the cover. If the piece names an office, that name is something you can ask about. If it names nothing, you can ask the group what it is. You can also set it down. Curiosity is allowed. Panic is not required.

What the stamp is, and what it refuses to cover

Conference-approved describes written or audiovisual material the General Service Conference approved for publication by GSO. The FAQ says the process assures that the piece accords with A.A. principles, and that such material deals with the recovery program or with information about the Fellowship. The term has no relation to material GSO does not publish. It does not imply disapproval. A.A. does not tell members what they may or may not read.

So a local pamphlet is outside that stamp on purpose. Outside is not a slur. GSO did not publish it through the Conference, because a central office or an intergroup did the writing. The Conference looked at that kind of work and did not call it disapproved. You were handed a scare that the official page does not support.

You might still want Conference-approved books when you want the literature a wide range of members reviewed. That want is fine. It does not turn the local piece into contraband while you decide. You can use both. You can use neither tonight and only listen.

You can go to the meeting and leave the paper

There are no dues or fees. You can sit and listen, or you can share. Introducing yourself is not mandatory. You need not join a prayer. Groups normally offer pamphlets free of charge, so the local piece is also not a secret bill. Books, when a group has them, are normally at cost. You can ignore both and take a chair.

The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. A handout is not a second requirement. Meetings may be in an office, a church, a community center, a clubhouse, or online. aa.org is not a meeting finder. Local A.A. resources have the lists, which is the same neighborhood of service that writes local pieces. You can use a local list to find a meeting and never read the pamphlet that scared you.

If one group's table felt slippery, another group is a different table. Formats vary. Many meetings read a short passage from a book and then people talk about what drinking did and what they did next. You can listen to that and let the handout stay in your bag.

Call 911 if you are sick, confused, or cannot breathe. Call or text 988 if the counterfeit panic has become a crisis. NIAAA says alcohol withdrawal can be life-threatening when a person who drinks heavily over time stops suddenly. NIDA says mutual-help groups such as A.A. are peer-led, not led by healthcare professionals, and not a substitute for treatment. A meeting is peer support, not detox. No pamphlet, local or otherwise, can manage withdrawal.

If you need help finding treatment, call (800) 653-9376, which is free to the caller; the line is not A.A., and it is not SMART Recovery. Treatment providers pay for the referral, and the line is not an intergroup. FindTreatment.gov lists programs. SAMHSA's National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357), is free, confidential, and available 24/7 in English and Spanish.

Use the meetings search and confirm the time, because the listings are not verified by the site. Go listen. The local pamphlet can be what it is: a piece a local office wrote, allowed to be called A.A. literature when it meets local needs, not a forgery because the Conference-approved line is missing. You can read it later. Tonight you only have to sit down.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• A.A. service material SMF-29: Conference-Approved Literature
• A.A.: What does Conference-approved mean?
• A.A.: Find A.A. near you
• A.A.: The Twelve Traditions
• A.A.: Need help with a drinking problem?
• A.A.: What to Expect at an A.A. Meeting
• NIDA: Treatment, including mutual-help groups
• NIAAA Core Resource: Alcohol Use Disorder, From Risk to Diagnosis to Recovery
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
• SAMHSA National Helpline
• SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov
• SmarterRecovery meetings page (public meeting search; listings are not verified)
• SmarterRecovery about page (calling is free to the caller)

Common Questions