Time for Voting
Debtors Anonymous registered groups have an opportunity between February 9th and May 10th 2024 to choose whether to make specific changes to the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, based on official permission which has been granted by Alcoholics Anonymous.
Every registered group in Debtors Anonymous will be given the opportunity to share their Group’s conscience on potential changes to the Steps and Traditions in D.A. Literature. Talk to your group GSR or Group Contact about when your group conscience will be held.
Click here for instructions on how to cast a vote on behalf of your group.
Click here to listen to an audio recording of a Fellowship-Wide Call on the subject of Gender Neutrality and Higher Power.
Details of the Ballot
The questions on the Ballot will ask if you are for or against the following:
Question 1:
- With permission from A.A., the Conference proposes to revise the D.A. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions by replacing the words ‘he’ and ‘him’ with the word ‘God’.
and to rephrase Tradition Two as follows: ‘For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as God may be expressed in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.’
Question 2:
- The WSC Literature Committee moves that the Conference update Tradition 11 to strike out the word ‘and’ between ‘radio and films’ and to add at the end ‘television and all other public media’.
The Tradition would therefore read:
‘Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion: we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television and all other public media.’
Background
The General Service Conference voted in 2007 to make all the references to a Higher Power in D.A. literature gender neutral, except for the Steps and Traditions.
In order to degenderize the Steps and Traditions, as these are copyright materials from Alcoholics Anonymous, we had to request permission from A.A. In 2023, written permission was granted to D.A to change gendered references to a Higher Power in the Steps and Traditions to reflect our fellowship, if the fellowship so wishes. The 2023 World Service Conference voted to Ballot the fellowship on the questions above.
In addition, in 2011, D.A was given permission to expand Tradition 11 to reflect the range of public media for which anonymity on the public level needs to be observed.
Process
From February through May this year, registered groups will have a voice in deciding if Debtors Anonymous as a whole wishes to make these changes.
Each group gets one vote, so the ballot email will be sent to the group contacts. If 75% of all registered groups vote for these changes, they will pass. If not, there will be no change. Concept Two (p121 D.A’s 12x12x12) outlines this requirement of the Charter.
The General Service Board has hired UK Engage, a company that specializes in conducting online votes for non-profits, to conduct the vote on behalf of D.A.
It is important that the vote represents your group as a whole. So how does a group determine group conscience? The D.A. Manual for Service (DAMS) has a lot of information about this process.
Some suggestions include:
- Hold a group conscience discussion meeting – it may be more than one.
- Look at each of the two questions being asked. Have a full discussion. Address questions to DAVotes2024@debtorsanonymous.org
- Determine your group’s conscience by voting on each individual question.
- Decide whether the main contact or the secondary contact will be the one to vote for the group. Trust your trusted servants.
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Thank you for your participation in helping to determine the future of D.A. The results will be available later this year – after the voting closes on May 10th, 2024.