Every SLAA meeting is autonomous in choosing its own content and format and the Traditions are interpreted and applied to Step Minus One by the Meeting in Group Conscience. The Traditions themselves are suggestions, not rules, but nonetheless, the Group has come to the conclusion – with input from the CSTCC – that the holistic mind-body-spirit approach of Step Minus One is within the SLAA Traditions, provided the Meeting makes no endorsement and has no affiliation of any third-party provider of any products or services members have found helpful in their own sex and love addiction recovery
Our own conference approved literature states that SLAA is “modelled on Alcoholics Anonymous ” and “based on AA principles”. The SLAA Basic Text encourages members to read Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book and Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Steps and 12 Traditions to gain further understanding of the AA model and AA principles. It does not tell us to ignore the parts of those books which point to the foundational role of medical treatment in early AA.
SLAA conference-approved-literature, and the SLAA Basic Text’s recommended AA Literature, use language like critical, indispensable and imperative to describe the importance of the physical and medical aspects of 12 Step recovery.
Presenting information about the medical aspects of recovery is similar to the way that AA and NA phone lines will, where necessary, advise enquirers of detox facilities, rehabs and other 12 Step Programs.
- The 12 Traditions are principles, not laws
- Feedback from the Conference Steps, Traditions and Concepts Committee (CSTCC)
- SLAA Conference motion on use of non-Conference-Approved literature
- AA Literature is not conference approved
- HOW literature is not conference approved
- Acknowledgement of non-conference-approved literature on this site
- Physical and medical issues in A State of Grace Daily Meditations
The 12 Traditions are principles not laws
Students of human relations are beginning to wonder how and why A.A. functions as a society. Why is it, they ask, that in A.A. no member can be set in personal authority over another, that nothing like a central government can anywhere be seen? How can a set of traditional principles, having no legal force at all, hold the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous in unity and effectiveness?
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions – Foreword (aa.org)
A member of the SLAA Conference Steps, Traditions and Concepts Committee puts it this way:
Our Traditions are “points of light to guide us out of the darkness.” They are not rules, or regulations, or laws, or commandments. Use of the phrases “violation of the Traditions” and “breach of the Traditions” concerns me. Using these phrases brings us face to face with the challenge of becoming so rigid that we may stop breathing.
CSTCC response#2 – Step Minus One Workshop and the 12 Tradtions – Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (slaafws.org)
Feedback from the Conference Steps, Traditions and Concepts Committee (CSTCC)
Following the presentation of the Step Minus One Workshop at the September 2020 Victorian SLAA Convention, the Victorian Intergroup decided to ask the CSTCC for their opinion on the Workshop’s consistency with the Traditions.
The Step Minus One group appreciates some constructive points raised by CSTCC members.
In response, the following changes have been made to the workshop when it was placed on this website in December 2020
- Member Case Studies has been retitled Our Stories
- discussion around scientific and medical issues was made less authoritative in tone, and more informational, suggestive or experiential
- the disclaimer has been added to pages that contain medical information
- each page of the website has a footer which defines what site content is conference-approved-literature and what is not
SLAA Conference motion on use of non-Conference-Approved literature
The SLAA Conference Service Manual (p10) defines Conference-approved Literature as
literature (books, booklets and pamphlets) that has been approved by the Conference at an ABM.
Conference Service Manual 2021
(slaafws.org)
The Fellowship-Wide Services S.L.A.A. Conference provides the “widest possible group conscience” within the worldwide SLAA fellowship. At the 2002 Annual Business Meeting and Conference, a motion was passed about the use of non-conference approved literature within SLAA meetings. It provides context and guidelines for use of non-Conference-Approved literature.
The Conference understands that some patterns of our addiction have a lack of experience reflected within our literature. In an effort to fill this gap, we encourage members to submit their personal experience to the Journal and the CLC for sharing with the entire Fellowship.
While each group is autonomous, the Conference does not encourage the use of non-Conference-Approved literature (Outside literature does not include S.L.A.A. literature in draft form). If any group chooses to use non-Conference-Approved literature, it ought to be clearly defined as such. We do encourage the practice of our 12 Steps and 12 Traditions for all members and groups in recovery from our addiction.
S.L.A.A. Index of Motions
A very literalist interpretation of the Traditions would require every individualised meeting format and every page of every SLAA website that contains words, not from Conference-approved literature, to be framed as non-conference approved literature.
AA Literature is not conference approved
AA literature is not SLAA conference approved literature. However, reading AA literature is recommended in the SLAA Basic Text.
If you are thinking as you read this book that S.L.A.A. may be a fellowship worth serious consideration for your own problems, we recommend that you also read the books Alcoholics Anonymous (especially chapters 5-7) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.
SLAA Basic Text Chapter 4 © 1986 The Augustine Fellowship, S.L.A.A., Fellowship-Wide Services, Inc.
How many meetings preface quotes from AA Literature with advice that it is non-conference-approved?
HOW literature is not conference approved
The HOW concept and program is used commonly in some parts of the international fellowship. HOW provides a “disciplined and structured approach” to recovery. The HOW program has been helpful, even life-saving for many members.
HOW has devised its own meeting formats, sponsorship and step guides, which quote freely from a range of AA literature, not just the SLAA Basic Text’s recommended AA Big Book and the 12 and 12. HOW material also quotes from non 12 step material written by health professionals. There is no reference to the AA or professionals’ quotes being non-conference approved. HOW material contains no copyright or authorship details.
Many SLAA websites carry copies of some of the extensive HOW material, generally without reference to it being non-conference approved literature.
Acknowledgement of non SLAA conference approved literature on this site
By Group Conscience decision of the Step Minus One group, every page of this website bears the following words in the footer.
This site contains some material that is not SLAA-Conference-approved literature. We use such literature to complement and enhance our understanding of SLAA Conference-approved literature, which is indicated by © The Augustine Fellowship, S.L.A.A., Fellowship-Wide Services, Inc.
Group Conscience Step Minus One Group March 2021
Physical and medical issues in A State of Grace Daily Meditations
The internet along with crime and medical TV programs has increasingly popularized scientific and medical information and terminology. This is reflected in the 2019 SLAA Conference-approved publication, A State of Grace – Daily Meditations, which contains more scientific and medical concepts and terms than previous conference-approved literature. The meditations were sourced from the fellowship.
The emphasis on self-care throughout A State of Grace is not just about the emotional and spiritual, it is also clearly about the physical.