History & item details
That date places the material at a pivotal moment in A.A.’s development. The Fellowship was approaching its fifteenth anniversary and preparing for its first International Convention in Cleveland, only weeks away. The Twelve Traditions had been written and circulated among the groups, but had not yet received the Fellowship’s acceptance at the Cleveland Convention. The first General Service Conference would follow in April 1951.
Amid those historic changes, groups still faced immediate, practical questions. How do you begin a meeting in a new town? How do people who need help find it? Who handles the money, answers letters, or arranges speakers? These pages preserve A.A.’s answers as they were being shared with its growing Fellowship.
Building Groups as A.A. Grew
The section begins with “Starting a New Group.” It encourages members to draw on the experience of established meetings and to seek the help of people in their communities, including clergy, doctors, hospital administrators, police officials, and welfare workers.
The pages then address how to make a new group known without seeking publicity for individual members. They describe the work of a steering committee, secretary, treasurer, and program chairman, along with practical suggestions for meeting expenses, records, literature, correspondence, and speaker arrangements.
Particularly notable is the handbook’s discussion of organization itself. The section quotes the Ninth Tradition:
“A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.”
It then turns immediately to the practical work necessary to keep a group functioning, explaining that those performing these duties are “servants of the groups, not leaders.”
It is an absorbing picture of A.A. at work from the ground up. While the Fellowship prepared to affirm the principles that would guide its future, members were also attending to the small, essential tasks that kept a meeting open and made it possible for the next person to find A.A.
June 1950: Cleveland and the Next Chapter
A.A.’s first International Convention took place in Cleveland from July 28–30, 1950, only weeks after the apparent mailing date of these pages. There, the Fellowship accepted the Twelve Traditions. Dr. Bob gave his farewell talk at the gathering and died later that year.
At the same time, Bill Wilson was working toward a lasting structure for A.A.’s wider services. The first General Service Conference would meet the following spring in April 1951.
This handbook section sits at the threshold of those events. Its pages show what service meant at the local group level just as A.A. was defining how autonomous groups could remain connected as a Fellowship.
The Works Publishing Envelope
The accompanying original envelope bears the printed return address:
Works Publishing, Inc. Box 459, Grand Central Annex New York 17, N.Y.
It was postmarked June 16 in Long Island City, New York, with the partially faded year appearing to read 1950.
The envelope is addressed simply:
SECRETARY
BOX 440
BEDFORD HILLS N Y
Bill and Lois Wilson were living at Stepping Stones in Bedford Hills at the time. The identity of the secretary associated with Box 440 has not been established.
Preserved with the handbook pages, the envelope provides important original context for how this early A.A. service material was distributed.
Document Details
Title: Handbook — Group Organization
Author: Not stated
Format: Eight loose, consecutively numbered, three-hole-punched pages
Pages: 1–8 of the “Group Organization” section
Date: Pages undated; accompanying envelope postmarked June 16, with the year appearing to be 1950
Envelope Return Address: Works Publishing, Inc., Box 459, Grand Central Annex, New York 17, N.Y.
Postmark: Long Island City, N.Y.
Envelope Destination: “Secretary, Box 440, Bedford Hills, N.Y.”
Binding: Loose pages; no cover or binder present
Condition
The pages show age toning, scattered spotting, handling creases, and some edge wear. Page one has more pronounced creasing and small edge tears. The text remains readable throughout.
The original envelope shows toning, creases, edge tears, and losses consistent with age and use. Its Works Publishing return label, Bedford Hills destination, postage, and postmark remain visible.
Please review all photographs for additional condition details.
Collector Significance
Preserved with its original Works Publishing envelope, this eight-page “Group Organization” section is a tangible record of A.A. group life at a turning point in the Fellowship’s history.
Its apparent June 1950 mailing date places it only weeks before the Cleveland Convention and less than a year before the first General Service Conference. More importantly, the contents themselves capture the transition: the Ninth Tradition appears alongside practical instructions for secretaries, treasurers, steering committees, finances, literature, meetings, and carrying the message into new communities.
For collectors of early Alcoholics Anonymous literature and service history, these pages preserve something rarely seen in surviving A.A. material—the everyday mechanics of how the Fellowship was learning to grow, serve, and remain connected at the beginning of the 1950s.
