What is a GSR?

General Service Representative (G.S.R.) May Be the Most Important Job in A.A.

The general service representatives (G.S.R.s) of the U.S. and Canada are the very foundation of our general service structure. Through your G.S.R., you can make your group’s voice heard at district meetings, at area assemblies, and eventually at the General Service Conference.

You are linking your home group with the whole of A.A. In 1950, a new type of trusted servant,  “group representative,” was suggested to help in the selection of delegates to the newly formed General Service Conference. By 1953, the job of  group representative was also seen as a good means of exchanging up-to-date information between individual groups and “Headquarters” (now the General Service Office). That’s still an important side of your work. But now, as general service representative, you have an even bigger responsibility: You transmit ideas and opinions, as well as facts; through you, the group conscience becomes a part of “the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship,” as expressed in the General Service Conference. Like everything else in A.A., it works through a series of simple steps. (For the complete picture in detail, read The A.A. Service Manual.)