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This leaflet is only an introduction to starting and running an Al-Anon Family
Group. For details of the structure and policies, please refer to Al-Anon Family
Groups UK & Eire Service Manual.
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The Purpose of Al-Anon
The Al-Anon Family Groups consist of relatives and friends of alcoholics who,
by sharing their experience, strength and hope, can better solve their common
problems. The purpose of Al-Anon is to welcome and give comfort to the
families of alcoholics. Whether the alcoholic seeks help or not, there is a great
deal that the families can do to help themselves. The only qualification for
membership in Al-Anon is that you feel your personal life is, or has been,
deeply affected by close contact with a problem drinker.
1. Starting a Group
A Group may be started in one of several ways:
▪ Any two people whose personal lives are, or have been, deeply
affected by close contact with alcoholism in a non-professional
capacity, may start an Al-Anon Group.
▪ Members of an existing Group which has grown large may decide to
divide to offer more opportunities to meet.
▪ Groups within a District may identify a local need for a new meeting
and arrange to support it themselves.
NB: There are special legal requirements, laid out in Policies & Practices
Concerning Alateen, which must be fulfilled before starting an Alateen Group.
Refer to the General Service Office (GSO) for further information.
2. Registering a Group
Having decided when and where to meet, it is vital to register the Group with
GSO in London. GSO will supply a Registration Form on request. Details of
the Group will then be recorded and included on the Index of Groups at GSO.
This will ensure that telephone enquirers, newcomers and Al-Anon members
can be told about the meeting. It will also enable the Group to be kept fully
informed about local and national Al-Anon/Alateen activities.
On registration, some basic literature will be sent free of charge from GSO, a
catalogue of Conference Approved Literature (CAL), an order form for further
literature and the Al-Anon Family Groups UK & Eire Service Manual.
Remember, once a meeting has been included in the Index of Groups it must
always meet, in case a new member or an Al-Anon visitor arrives. (In the event
of unforeseen cancellation please inform GSO.)
3. Structure of a Group
The organisation of a Group should be kept simple. Even a small Group,
however, needs a Group Representative, a Chairman and/or Secretary. All
officers are elected for a fixed term; rotation gives all members the privilege of
serving. Keep in mind – ‘our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not
govern’. It is the responsibility of all officers to read and study these
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Guidelines and the Al-Anon Family Groups UK & Eire Service Manual; they
should encourage other Group members to do likewise.
The Group Representative
The Group Representative (GR) is a vital link between the Group and the wider
Al-Anon structure. The office is usually held for three years.
Responsibilities are:
a) to attend all meetings of the District and Area Assemblies
b) to represent the Group at these meetings and to report back to the Group
c) to keep the Group informed about Al-Anon as a whole
d) to report to the Group on correspondence from GSO
e) to provide GSO with their name and address as the Group’s Current
Mailing Address (CMA) or to provide the name and address of another
willing and responsible member
f) to ensure the Annual Record Check Form is completed each year.
The Chairman
It is preferable that the service of Chairman rotates every three months to a
year.
Responsibilities are:
a) to open the meeting with a moment’s silence and then read the Suggested
Welcome and/or Preamble
b) to close the meeting by reading the Suggested Closing and leading the
Group in saying the Serenity Prayer
c) to introduce speakers and/or announce the meeting topic and encourage
all present to share
d) to chair the Group conscience meeting.
In the absence of a Programme Chairman, the Chairman carries out the duties
for both offices.
The Secretary
The service of Secretary should rotate, preferably every twelve months, but at a
different time from the Treasurer.
Responsibilities are:
a) to handle Group correspondence
b) to consult with the Group and then order Conference Approved
Literature (CAL) in sufficient quantity to supply the Group’s needs
c) to notify GSO of any changes to the meeting details, including Group
telephone contacts
d) to make announcements at meetings
e) to keep, if the Group decides, a confidential up-to-date list of members’
names and telephone numbers
f) to act as Treasurer until the Group elects one
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g) to hand over these Guidelines and any other relevant material to the
incoming Secretary.
The Treasurer
The service of Treasurer should rotate, preferably every twelve months, but at a
different time from the Secretary.
Responsibilities are:
a) to act as collector, custodian and disburser of funds
b) to organise the collection at Group meetings
c) to ask another member to help count and record the collection
d) to keep a record of all receipts and expenditures
e) to submit a financial statement to the Group at regular intervals
f) to pay the Group’s expenses which may include:
i. rent for a meeting place
ii. Group Representative’s travel costs to District meetings and Area
Assemblies
iii. travel cost of guest speakers
iv. contributions to the District and Area
v. refreshments – tea, coffee etc
vi. literature for the Group’s use
g) to contribute to the General Fund at GSO, in order to support the work of
Al-Anon in the UK & Eire
h) to ensure that only sufficient funds to meet the Group’s needs are held.
Note: separate collections should be made for conventions and similar
events.
The Programme Chairman
It is preferable that the service of Programme Chairman rotates on a one,-three-
or six-month basis.
Responsibilities are:
a) to plan meetings and arrange for speakers in good time
b) to invite speakers either from within the Group or from other Groups
c) to let members know about future topics and speakers.
Further Information
It is only possible to provide an outline in this leaflet. For further information
Groups should consult:
Al-Anon Family Groups UK & Eire Service Manual
Public Information Guidelines
Guidelines for Group Representatives
Policies and Practices Concerning Alateen
Safeguarding Policy
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All Al-Anon literature mentioned in these guidelines and any further
information you require can be obtained from GSO. (Address on front of this
booklet.)
3. Suggested Format for Al-Anon Family Groups Meetings
The Chairman opens the meeting on time with a moment of silence (to
remember why we are there) and welcomes everyone; in particular new
members (see suggested Preamble, Welcome and Closing in the Al-Anon
Family Groups UK & Eire Service Manual). The speaker is then introduced
and shares his or her own story or speaks on a suggested Al-Anon theme.
When the speaker has finished, each member is encouraged to share, but no
pressure should be brought to bear on any member to speak. Here, the role of
the Chairman is to guide the meeting.
If all members of the Group are new to Al-Anon, it is suggested that the District
Representative be contacted in an endeavour to arrange for more experienced
Al-Anon members to visit the Group and give some guidance on how to
become established along the right lines. The Group is part of a District and
other Groups will be glad to share their experience with a new Group if
distance and transport allow this. It would also be helpful if members of the
Group could visit other Groups within the District.
Points to Remember
▪ Don’t let one member monopolise the meeting.
▪ Discourage constant criticism of the alcoholic.
▪ Avoid gossip, criticism and discussion of religion.
▪ The anonymity of members must be preserved at all times. Al-Anon
meetings must be absolutely confidential and problems arising should never
be discussed outside. A member’s telephone number must not be passed on
to a third party without express permission.
▪ Members must be allowed to work out their own problems without pressure
or persuasion.
▪ The meeting should conclude with the suggested Closing and the Serenity
Prayer.
▪ No fees are required from Al-Anon members, but it is customary to take a
voluntary collection at each meeting to cover the Group’s expenses and for
the support of the work of GSO and Al-Anon in the UK & Eire.
▪ The time for refreshments can play an extremely important role in the Group,
as it gives members an opportunity to share on a one-to-one basis.
▪ There are various types of meetings; for details see Al-Anon Family Groups
UK & Eire Service Manual, Part 1: Al-Anon and Alateen Groups at Work.
At all times it is strongly suggested that the Traditions of the Al-Anon Family
Groups be borne in mind. Application of the Traditions to Group problems is
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discussed in detail in the book, The Al-Anon Family Groups (Classic Edition)
A2.
Group members are especially urged to read and study the Traditions for the
general good of the Group. If problems arise and cannot be resolved at Group
level by using the Twelve Traditions, Al-Anon Family Groups UK & Eire
Service Manual, Part 3: Policy Digest – or a Group conscience meeting, help
can be sought from the District Representative, the Area Delegate or GSO,
whose role is to ensure that any problem is directed to those who can best help.
4. Reaching the New Member
To enable other people to find the help they need from Al-Anon it is important
for the Group to be involved in Public Information (PI) work. There are many
ways of informing people of the existence of the Group.
▪ Display Al-Anon posters as widely as possible having first obtained
permission to do so.
▪ Consider sending details of the meeting to local newspapers which have
‘helpline’ columns, having first obtained the permission of the venue. It is not
desirable to use Group funds for paid advertisements.
▪ The Group may contact local organisations to whom CAL catalogues and
order forms for non-members can be given.
▪ Local AA Groups may co-operate by announcing that a new Al-Anon Group
has been formed, mentioning the time and place of the meeting.
It is essential that all PI work is carefully planned. The booklet Public
Information Guidelines, UK 14, should be studied before doing this. Public
Information literature is available for purchase from GSO (See Literature
Order Form).
5. Welcoming Newcomers
▪ Greet them warmly. It is most helpful if new members can be met and made
welcome before the meeting.
▪ Introduce yourself by your first name only – explaining the reason for
anonymity.
▪ Before and after the meeting include them in any conversation.
▪ Explain the form the meeting takes (see Preamble) and that an opportunity
will be available for them to ask questions. Newcomers should not be pressed
to speak or to read. Group members should make a point of sharing with
them after the meeting.
▪ At the first meeting give them suitable literature if the Group has decided to
provide leaflets for newcomers.
▪ Suggest they make use of the list of members’ telephone numbers (see
Sponsorship, What It’s All About, UK 44).
▪ Tell them about other local Al-Anon meetings.
▪ Suggest they attend open AA meetings.
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▪ Encourage them to attend at least six meetings. Stress that we understand and
look forward to seeing them again.
Suggested Al-Anon Welcome
We welcome you to the ………… Al-Anon Family Group and hope you will
find in this fellowship the help and friendship we have been privileged to enjoy.
We who live, or have lived, with the problem of alcoholism understand as
perhaps few others can. We, too, were lonely and frustrated, but in Al-Anon
we discover that no situation is really hopeless and that it is possible for us to
find contentment and even happiness, whether the alcoholic is still drinking or
not.
We urge you to try our programme. It has helped many of us to find solutions
that lead to serenity. So much depends on our own attitudes and, as we learn to
place our problem in its true perspective, we find it loses its power to dominate
our thoughts and our lives.
The family situation is bound to improve as we apply the Al-Anon ideas.
Without such spiritual help, living with an alcoholic is too much for most of us.
Our thinking becomes distorted by trying to force solutions and we become
irritable and unreasonable without knowing it.
The Al-Anon programme is based on the Twelve Steps (adapted from
Alcoholics Anonymous) which we try, little by little, one day at a time, to apply
to our lives along with our Slogans and the Serenity Prayer. The loving
interchange of help among members and daily reading of Al-Anon literature
thus make us ready to receive the priceless gift of serenity.
Anonymity is an important principle of the Al-Anon programme. Everything
that is said here, in the Group meeting and member to member, must be held in
confidence. Only in this way can we feel free to say what is in our minds and
hearts, for this is how we help one another in Al-Anon.
Suggested Preamble to the Twelve Steps
The Al-Anon Family Groups are a fellowship of relatives and friends of
alcoholics who share their experience, strength and hope in order to solve their
common problems. We believe alcoholism is a family illness and that changed
attitudes can aid recovery.
Al-Anon is not allied with any sect, denomination, political entity, organisation
or institution: does not engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes
any cause. There are no dues for membership. Al-Anon is self-supporting
through its own voluntary contributions.
Al-Anon has but one purpose: to help families of alcoholics. We do this by
practising the Twelve Steps, by welcoming and giving comfort to families of
alcoholics and by giving understanding and encouragement to the alcoholic.
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Suggested Closing
In closing, I would like to say that the opinions expressed here were strictly
those of the person who gave them. Take what you liked and leave the rest.
The things you heard were spoken in confidence and should be treated as
confidential. Keep them within the walls of this room and the confines of your
minds.
A few special words to those of you who haven’t been with us long: whatever
your problems, there are those among us who have had them too. If you try to
keep an open mind, you will find help. You will come to realise that there is no
situation too difficult to be bettered and no unhappiness too great to be
lessened.
We aren’t perfect. The welcome we give you may not show the warmth we
have in our hearts for you, but the warmth is there and you will soon start to
feel it.
Talk to each other, reason things out with someone else, but let there be no
gossip or criticism of one another. Instead, let the understanding, love and
peace of the programme grow in you one day at a time.
Will all who care to, join me in the Serenity Prayer to close our meeting?
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
and Wisdom to know the difference
THE TWELVE STEPS
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become
unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we
understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of
our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.
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8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so
would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly
admitted it.
11. 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.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry
this message to others, and to practise these principles in all our affairs.
THE TWELVE TRADITIONS
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal progress for the greatest
number depends upon unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one authority – a loving God as He may
express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants;
they do not govern.
3. The relatives of alcoholics, when gathered together for mutual aid, may call
themselves an Al-Anon Family Group, provided that, as a group, they have no
other affiliation. The only requirement for membership is that there be a
problem of alcoholism in a relative or friend.
4. Each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting another group
or Al-Anon or AA as a whole.
5. Each Al-Anon Family Group has but one purpose: to help families of
alcoholics. We do this by practising the Twelve Steps of AA ourselves, by
encouraging and understanding our alcoholic relatives, and by welcoming and
giving comfort to families of alcoholics.
6. Our Family Groups ought never endorse, finance or lend our name to any
outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us
from our primary spiritual aim. Although a separate entity we should always
co-operate with Alcoholics Anonymous.
7. Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Al-Anon Twelfth-Step work should remain forever non-professional, but our
service centres may employ special workers.
9. Our groups, as such, ought never be organised; but we may create service
boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
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10. The Al-Anon Family Groups have no opinion on outside issues; hence our
name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we
need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films
and TV. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all AA members.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us
to place principles above personalities.
THE TWELVE CONCEPTS OF SERVICE
1. The ultimate responsibility and authority for Al-Anon world services belongs
to the Al-Anon Groups.
2. The Al-Anon Family Groups have delegated complete administrative and
operational authority to their Conference and its service arms.
3. The Right of Decision makes effective leadership possible.
4. Participation is the key to harmony.
5. The Rights of Appeal and Petition protect minorities and insure that they be
heard.
6. The Conference acknowledges the primary administrative responsibility of
the trustees.
7. The Trustees have legal rights while the rights of the Conference are
traditional.
8. The Board of Trustees delegates full authority for routine management of the
Al-Anon Headquarters to its executive committees.
9. Good personal leadership at all service levels is a necessity. In the field of
world service the Board of Trustees assumes the primary leadership.
10. Service responsibility is balanced by carefully defined service authority and
double-headed management is avoided.
11. The World Service Office is composed of Selected Committees, executives
and staff members.
12. The spiritual foundation for Al-Anon’s world services is contained in the
General Warranties of the Conference, Article 12 of the Charter.
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GENERAL WARRANTIES
In all its proceedings, the UK & Eire Service Conference of Al-Anon shall observe
the spirit of the Traditions:
1. that only sufficient operating funds, including an ample reserve, be its
prudent financial principle;
2. that no Conference member shall be placed in unqualified authority over
other members;
3. that all decisions be reached by discussion, vote and, whenever possible, by
unanimity;
4. that no conference action ever be personally punitive or an incitement to
public controversy;
5. that though the Conference serves Al-Anon, it shall never perform any act of
government, and that, like the fellowship of Al-Anon Family Groups which
it serves, it shall always remain democratic in thought and action.
