About the General Service Conference

2026 Agenda Topics Season

Agenda Topics are the items of business that will be discussed at the Conference. Adding your group’s voice to this discussion is the essence of a GSR’s role. You are participating in the mighty purpose and rhythm of general service!

Agenda Topics Timeline

Jan

Preliminary Agenda Topics

Start letting your group know that agenda topics will arrive soon and invite your group to set aside time to discuss them.

Feb 15

Final Agenda Topics

The final list of agenda topics and background material should become available. Some time between now the Pre-Conference Assembly, you should conduct your group conscience. Helpful resources will be available between now and then.

Feb 27 – Mar 1

PRAASA 2026

The Pacific Region A.A. Service Assembly (this year in Honolulu, Hawaii) traditionally has timely presentations reflecting the agenda topics.

Mar 2

Agenda Topic Summaries

CNCA’s summaries of the agenda topics should become available. More than summarizing the background material, the summaries also include guidance on what the delegate would like to know from your group.

Mar 21

D04 / D40 Agenda Topics Workshop

A workshop session learn about and practice conducting a group conscience and reporting that to the delegate. We will practice with selected agenda topics.

Apr 11-12

Pre-Conference Assembly

Petaluma, where you report your group’s conscience to the delegate.

Apr 18

LAST DAY to deliver group conscience

Petaluma, where you report your group’s conscience to the delegate.

Apr 27 – May 3

76th General Service Conference

New York

May 16

Post-Conference Assembly

Where the delegate reports what happened at the conference.

May – Dec

Report back to your groups

Agenda

Jun ??

Delegate Report

District 04 monthly meeting and potluck

Sep

Final Conference Reports

Digital and hardcopy final conference reports available.

What is the General Service Conference?

The General Service Conference represents the collective group conscience for A.A. in the U.S. and Canada. Although it operates year-round, the annual meeting in April is when our trusted servants gather together to share, discuss, and take action — with substantial unanimity — on matters affecting A.A. as a whole.

What happens at the Conference?

Timeline of the General Service Conference: Ever wonder what happens during the General Service Conference? Take a peek behind the curtains to see!

What are Conference Committees?

It should be clear that with so many topics on the agenda, it’s practically a given that the work needs to be divided into groups. Those groups are the conference committees.

Spotlight On Public Information Committee

Why Do We Need a Conference?

“We may not need a General Service Conference to ensure our own recovery. We do need it to ensure the recovery of the alcoholic who still stumbles in the darkness one short block from this room. We need it to ensure the recovery of a child being born tonight, destined for alcoholism. We need it to provide, in keeping with our Twelfth Step, a permanent haven for all alcoholics who, in the ages ahead, can find in A.A. that rebirth that brought us back to life. […] We need it to ensure that the doors of the halls of A.A. never have locks on them, so that all people for all time who have an alcoholic problem may enter these halls unasked and feel welcome.”

Bernard B. Smith, nonalcoholic chairperson of the board of trustees, 1954