You have been elected as your group’s literature representative? Congratulations for your involvement in this rewarding recovery task. Whether or not this is your first experience, you will certainly learn more about the recovery tools of the A.A. program.
Table of Contents
My role
You may consult your group’s guidelines to know its expectations for you.
In general, a literature representative:
- Promotes AA publications,
- Takes an inventory of books and pamphlets and ensures that there is a selection of recovery, unity, and service literature available,
- Purchases literature or asks someone else to do so,
- Sells publications and gives the proceeds to the treasurer,
- Answers questions about literature,
- Helps train their alternate or successor.
A service document from the Group Service Committee suggests a one-year period of sobriety and a six-month term of office.
What can I tell my group?
You can inform people in your group as to what literature is available. Many “literature reps” find that our Literature Representative Card is a useful tool to start with if you don’t know what to say:
Some literature reps read an excerpt of a chosen or randomly selected page.
No time to prepare? You may also get inspiration from the “AArt of Recovery” bulletin, which featured a couple of items of literature every two months.
See all the issues in one file: Tous les numéros 2015-2022.
You may also read an issue at random:
A.A. Literature
It is recommended to only have A.A. literature available in the group: literature from Alcoholics Anonymous World Services (A.A.W.S.) or from A.A. entities such as Grapevine, la Vigne or Area 87.
It is even better if this literature is “approved by the Conference“: it shows that it conforms to A.A. principles and reflects our shared experience. Look for this phrase on the copyright page or on the cover.
Other literature: some groups decide to provide books that are not A.A. literature: for example, Twenty Four Hours a Day, The Little Red Book (published by Hazelden), or The Little Book. If it’s the case in your group, it is recommended to mention that it is not Alcoholics Anonymous literature and to put them apart from A.A. literature. These books are often written by A.A. members and are useful as a recovery tool, but it’s important that newcomers and visitors are well informed about A.A.’s principles.
Buying Literature
You can buy A.A. literature on this online store offered by Area 87.
You can also visit our sales counter at 3920 Rachel St East, Montreal, call us at 514-374-3688 extension 1, or email us at publications@aa87.org.
You don’t have to order in advance, but we suggest you do if you are in a hurry, if you have a lot of things to purchase or if you want something in particular (items are on backorder sometimes).