12 Steps, 12 Tradition, and 12 Concepts
36 Principles of Recovery
12 Steps, 12 Tradition, and 12 Concepts
36 Principles of Recovery
We admitted we were powerless over debt - that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive debtors, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Copyright © A.A. World Services, Inc. Adapted and reprinted with permission. Registered D.A. groups have permission to copy this page for distribution to its members.
Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon D.A. unity.
For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
The only requirement for D.A. membership is a desire to stop incurring unsecured debt.
Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or D.A. as a whole.
Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the debtor who still suffers.
A D.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the D.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Every D.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
Debtors Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
D.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
Debtors Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the D.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
Copyright © A.A. World Services, Inc. Adapted and reprinted with permission. Registered D.A. groups have permission to copy this page for distribution to its members.
Just as the Twelve Steps are guides for personal recovery and the Twelve Traditions are guides for group unity, the Twelve Concepts are guides for World Service. These Concepts serve as a path for Twelfth Step work on a world service level, and show how the DA groups, the World Service Conference, and the Debtors Anonymous General Service Board work together to carry recovery in DA to the still suffering debtor.
The ultimate responsibility and authority for Debtors Anonymous World Services should always remain with the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship as expressed through the DA groups.
The D.A. groups have delegated complete administrative and operational authority to the General Service Board. The groups have made the Conference the voice and conscience for the whole Fellowship, excepting for any change in the Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, and in Article 10, the General Warranties, of the Conference Charter.
As a traditional means of creating and maintaining a clearly defined working relationship between the groups, the World Service Conference, and the Debtors Anonymous General Service Board, it is suggested that we endow these elements of world service with a traditional “Right of Decision” in order to ensure effective leadership.
Throughout our Conference structure, we maintain at all levels a traditional “Right of Participation,” ensuring a voting representation.
The traditional Rights of Appeal and Petition protect the minority opinion and ensure the consideration of personal grievances.
The Conference acknowledges the primary administrative responsibility of the Debtors Anonymous General Service Board.
The Conference recognizes that the Charter and the Bylaws of the Debtors Anonymous General Service Board serve as governing documents and that the Trustees have legal rights, while the rights of the Conference are spiritual, rooted in the Twelve Traditions. The Concepts are not legal instruments.
The Debtors Anonymous General Service Board of Trustees assumes primary leadership for larger matters of overall policy, finance, and custodial oversight, and delegates authority for routine management of the General Service Office.
Good leaders, together with appropriate methods for choosing them at all levels, are necessary. At the world service level, the Board of Trustees assumes primary leadership for DA as a whole.
Every DA service responsibility should be equal to its service authority as defined by tradition, resolution, or DA’s Charter.
While the Trustees hold final authority for DA World Service administration, they will be assisted by the best possible staff members and consultants. Therefore, serious care and consideration will always be given to the compensation, selection, induction to service, rotation, and assignments for special rights and duties for all staff with a proper basis for determining financial compensation.
The Conference of Debtors Anonymous will observe the spirit of the Traditions, taking care not to become powerful and wealthy; having sufficient operating funds with a prudent reserve; having no authority over any other members; making important decisions by discussing and voting on issues wherever possible by substantial unanimity; not acting in a punitive way; not inciting public controversy; never performing any acts of government; and finally, always remaining democratic in thought and action.
© 2005 Debtors Anonymous General Service Board, Inc. Registered D.A. groups have permission to copy these for distribution to its members. Rev. 8/2004 DA World Service Conference (Concept 12) Rev. 8/2005 DA World Service Conference (Concept 2) Rev. 8/2006 DA World Service Conference (Concepts 5 & 6)