Archives Committee

Pursuant to A.A.’s primary purpose of maintaining our sobriety helping other alcoholics achieve recovery, the Archives of Alcoholics Anonymous adopts the following mission statement:

To receive, classify, and index all relevant material, including, but not limited to, administrative files and records, correspondence, and literary and artifactual works considered to have historical import to Alcoholics Anonymous. To hold and preserve such material, making access possible as determined by the present archivist in consultation with the Archives committee, to members of Alcoholics Anonymous and to those of the public who may have a valid need to review said material, such access to be provided only during business hours and with a mindful toward the anonymity of our members.

Adopted: January 29, 1995 By the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous

Link to A.A. Archives Guidelines by GSO

To Get Involved Contact: the Committee Chair or the Area Archivist on the Contact page or attend the Archives Committee meeting at the Area Assembly or attend a district meeting where you live.

Current Activities Include:
Booklet of Collection of Grapevine Articles written by WAMO. Members from 1947 -2007
Preserving Newspaper Articles
Oral and written histories of Area Longtimers
Collection of Group histories
Creating Digital copies of Area Minutes

Groups Can...
Groups can earmark a percentage of their contributions toward Archive Permanent Home
Send their group history  and group activities to the Archives Permanent Home - 202 E. 18th Ave.  NKCMO 64116

Western Area of Missouri Archives Policies and Procedures

I Policy and Procedures
This is the beginning of some Policy and Procedures on archival material held in trust for Alcoholics Anonymous in the Western Area of Missouri Area 39, By it's Archives Committee. They are meant as an aid in dealing with the subjects of the preceding page.

II. Scope and Purpose
The chief function of the Archives Committee is to be responsible for all archival material belonging to the Western Area of Missouri - General Service Conference Area 39. Also to acquire and maintain the record of how AA. developed and grew in the area so that myth does not predominate over fact about the history of the fellowship in western Missouri. The scope of MO-West Archives will be the earliest beginning and the growth of Alcoholics Anonymous within the area only. Help or cooperation from outside of the fellowship has always been appreciated and should be a part of our area history whenever and whenever it has occurred. The Western Missouri Archives are the connection between the members of AA in MO-West and the archives of the AA fellowship at the General Service Office in New York City. With gratitude to GSO archives for sharing their experience and that of the other areas with us. MO-West will fully share and cooperate with the Archives Committee of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc.

III. Committee Composition
All AA members interested in preserving the history of the fellowship in the Western Area of Missouri are most welcome. Scope of the servants positions are the same as other service committees in the area: Chairperson - Alternate Chairperson - Secretary - Treasurer - whose home groups are all in the MO-West area throughout the service term and on the same rotating schedule as the other area committees. The committee will consist of these servants plus the seventeen district Archives Chairpersons. Each district ought to have a committee for representing its archival activity with the traditional Chairperson - Alternate Chairperson and Secretary/Treasurer also. Each district could have an Archivist. This might be similar to the area's Archivist and also non-rotating the groups, ideally, should have a group historian. Probably on a non-rotating basis. The historian being somewhat like an archivist. id. dedicated and enthusiastic enough to stay involved with the on-going group history. not just the resentment coffee pot beginning of the group. Past Area Delegates should be encouraged to serve on this committee. The Archivist can seek their sharing on matters of anonymity and confidentiality. Their counsel can be a back-up authority of the Archivist's withholding or denial of access to certain archival data. Moreover their experience should be shared with the committee. The Archivist will have a home group in the Western Missouri area - does not rotate and serves a non-definite period of time. Beginning in 1990 and each five (5) years thereafter, the Archivist will, in a general way, inform the committee of his/her intentions of continuing on with this very important position. Because of the special demands and qualifications for this position of responsibility, the Archives Committee needs as much time as possible to search for a replacement. From the GSO handbook: "it is the experience of many areas that the Archives Committee be attached to the area structure and derive its funding from the overall budget rather than a separate independent means. This assures that the archival activity will be considered with the entire range of area twelve step activity and kept in perspective." In all its actions, the Western Area of Missouri Archives Committee should remain ever mindful of and guided by the fellowships' primary purpose of helping alcoholics to achieve and maintain sobriety.

IV. Present Storing of Materials
Since the start of archives in MO-West, all materials and memorabilia have been in the Archivist's home or a room designated by the Archivist. This will have to continue until such time when the area can and will provide a place suitable to have display materials out for viewing by the members of our fellowship as well as room for storing memorabilia. Any semi-public office/building approved by the Archivist and the Archives Committee probably would suffice

V. A Filing System
A very simple filing/ retrieval system is currently working. all written data are filed by the panel term. the districts (17 at present), have a separate permanent file with the groups placed in alphabetical order in each district. pertinent changes occurrences are filed under the panel term also. A criss-cross directory card has are panel servants - district servants - area committee servants for all years which we have records. this facilitates retrieval of data if only a name or year is known.

VI. Future Accumulation
After consultation with the Archives Committee and the Past Area Delegates - the Archivist is the ultimate authority on what will and what won't/can't be accepted as area archival material. At the second assembly, usually held in march, following the end of the panel term on December 31st. All archival data from that panel's area - district and groups will be given to the Archivist for his/her filing and storage. At the Archivist's discretion, data and memorabilia could be accepted through the panel term. however, some dead-line needs to be set to insure there be only one area archives center, and not many, eg, the basements/closets of committee chairpersons - DCMs- and group historians, occurring because of a seldom seen character defect in alcoholics which is procrastination.

VII. Protection of Memorabilia
The Archivist is the ultimate authority for the physical protection of the Area Archives - in this the Archives Committee is supportive and generally in agreement with the Archivist.

VIII. Archivist and the Committee's Responsibilities
The Archivist is the traditional trustee of all the area's memorabilia. He/she is the guardian of each member's anonymity, both the living members and our departed brothers and sisters. Who sees what documents and data is the well defined duty of the Archivist. This almost total control is necessary to insure fairness. When on occasion the situation is less than crystal clear, the Archivist will consult with at least two others on the Archives Committee before granting a request to reveal sensitive materials. the full committee might need to render a decision before the Archivist can give or withhold data. The Archivist shall take the archives, funded to the following Western Area sponsored events:
1. Institutions Weekend
2. Western Area Convention
3. Missouri State Convention
The costs for taking the archives to these events shall be covered by the Archives Committee and shall be included in the committee annual budget. In the unusual event of the Archivist's departure before a replacement can be found, the Chairperson, and the Alternate Chairperson will take the responsibility for all of the area's archival memorabilia. The committee's responsibility is to help carry the message of hope and recovery to all alcoholics via the gathering and storing of the area's history. Not how we think it used to be but how it really was.

IX To Avoid Loss of the Spiritual Concept of Anonymity
The twelfth tradition is very important for the protection of Alcoholics Anonymous from the magnificent egos of the members of Alcoholics Anonymous. If we had to operate on one tradition only, the twelfth tradition would probably provide us with more mileage into the future than any one of the other eleven traditions. Most all agree it is very important We often use the phrase, "principles before personalities", until it sounds like an eastern religion's mantra. Sometimes we forget what the fellowship consists of and that it is made of members. some of whom are the most colorful personalities on earth. And those personalities should never be discarded because of an overblown emphasis on principles. It is wrong unthinking and will not accurately record our history if the personalities of our members aren't preserved. That is one key reason to have an area archives. for in Archives, we don't store a "Bill W." - we keep a "Bill Wilson's" name. This allows our history to be a living history as our fellowship is a living program. This is especially important to emphasize to the relatives and friends of our deceased brothers and sisters. Some of these people can be rather sensitive about their departed one being an alcoholic even though the member was not sensitive Not all folks think of alcoholism as a status symbol. Before the general public we are anonymous. in our area archives we preserve the confidentiality of all members living and deceased.

X. Protection of Confidential Data
The archivist will have his/her classifications of stored data, probably along the lines of the archives at New York City. For example there's our traveling display, Traveling Data of various kinds. This is generally for public viewing, display at conventions. Some stored data will be available to the public, or non-members, some to members only, and some only for active committee members or current area servants. Some can be photo-copied, some not. None should leave the Archives center. The protection of these various classifications is directly under the archivist's traditional authority.

XI Sudden Rotation
Keeping ever mindful of the disease each one of us is cursed/blessed with, the committee leaders and the archivist have resigned upon taking up with strong drink again. Forgiving and forgetting have nothing to do with this cause for dismissal. We have valuable and precious plant worth which must not be compromised. We know we cannot purchase traditional insurance on these memorabilia. They have little or no value on the public markets. The very high and dear value they have to us members flows from our grateful hearts with the love which we have for this life saving fellowship.

XII These P and P's
These twelve suggestions can be added to, subtracted from, and changed altogether. They are merely suggested. If adopted by the committee, I would like to see the original P & Ps kept unchanged. the reasoning is similar to change of the twelve concepts, (not to compare these with that great document) In that this is how we started way back in the 1980's and 1990's. In short, this was our personality implant on these principles as we understood those principles in our time.