The Twelve Concepts

​These Twelve Concepts for SA service were approved by the General Delegate Assembly in January 2004.

Concept 1

Final responsibility and ultimate authority for SA service should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.

Concept 2

The leadership of SA, as represented by the General Delegate Assembly and the Board of Trustees, has become for nearly every practical purpose the active voice and the effective conscience of our whole society in its service matters.

Concept 3

To ensure effective leadership, we should endow each element of SA’s service structure, the General Delegate Assembly and the Board of Trustees and its staffs and Committees with a traditional "Right of Decision".

Concept 4

At all responsible levels, we ought to maintain the traditional "Right of Participation", allowing a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge at that level.

Concept 5

Throughout our structure a traditional “Right of Appeal” ought to prevail, so that minority opinion will be heard and personal grievances receive careful consideration.

Concept 6

The General Delegate Assembly recognizes that the chief initiative and active responsibility for most service matters should be exercised by the Board of Trustees.

Concept 7

The Bylaws of the Board of Trustees are a legal instrument empowering the Board to manage and conduct service matters. The SA service structure documents are not legal documents. They rely on tradition and the SA purse for final effectiveness.

Concept 8

The Trustees are the principal administrators of overall policy and finance.

Concept 9

Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for our future functioning and safety.

Concept 10

Every service responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority, with scope of such authority well defined.

Concept 11

The Trustees should always have the assistance of the best possible committees, staffs and consultants. Composition, qualifications, induction procedures, rights and duties will always be matters of serious concern.

Concept 12

The General Delegate Assembly and the Board of Trustees shall observe the spirit of SA tradition, taking care that it never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power, that sufficient operating funds, plus an ample reserve, be its prudent financial principle, that it place 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 Fellowship it serves, it will always remain democratic in thought and action.