A.A. History—month & day unknown

2000: Mongolian A.A. groups opened their doors in the Аймгууд (provinces) of Орхон (Orkhon), Дарх`ан-Уул (Darkhan-Uul), Дорнод (Dornod), Өвөрхангай (Övörhangai), and Сэлэнгэ (Selenge), as well as in other дүүргүүд (districts) of Улаанбаатар (Ulaanbaatar) [right: map of these locations within Mongolia].

2001: [Early] The Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, [far left: cover] and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions [near left: cover] were published by the Mongolian Service Structure. They had been translated by Mongolians, presumably in an iterative process with Alcoholics Anonymous World Service, Inc.’s Publications department, which would have checked for clarity and for adherence to the sense and spirit of the original English before granting a license to the Mongolian Service Structure. They were likely reviewed, possibly updated, and then approved by a group conscience vote within that structure before being published.

2002: The timeline given in the article “From Akron to the Internet: a Time Line of AA Communication” from the October 2002 A.A. Grapevine [right:cover] had a single short sentence to described a particular “event”:

Representatives of online A.A. groups had met to discuss the establishment of a service conference for A.A. in “cyberspace.”

The full story is much more interesting.

In November 2001, members of the Online Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous (OIAA) decided to (again) study how online A.A. groups might best fit into the worldwide Fellowship, particularly through participation in a general service structure. The OIAA chairman, Mark E., appointed a study committee headed by Ewart F. of South Africa, who invited a mixed group of online members, some with long experience of the issues, to take part.

The committee quickly realized that online groups had only a few ways to join together in pursuit of a meaningful group conscience:

1. Online Group in Existing Area, 
2. Online Area for Online Groups, or 
3. Online Conference for Online Groups.

All members agreed that only an Online Service Conference offered real hope of meaningful participation in the group conscience process. Its potential future participation in the World Service Meeting or a conceptual “World Service Conference” was an attractive, if uncertain, possibility. The remaining question was whether online groups would understand and support a conference of their own.

The committee produced an Online General Service Statement and offered it to online groups for endorsement. It read,

We, the members of Alcoholics Anonymous who share our experience, strength and hope on the internet, now assemble to discuss our common purpose and establish the Online Service Conference to unify our voice in the worldwide Fellowship of AA.

The committee then reported to the OIAA chairman that its work was finished and recommended that it be dissolved, so that it could reassemble and continue outside the intergroup. This ended the affiliation between the intergroup and the yet-to-be-formed general service structure.

Former committee members took on the tasks of identifying online groups and inviting them to meet, and set up procedures to keep the confusion of a new organization to a minimum. These included a new “Steering Committee” to act in the role of a General Service Office between Conference meetings in “cyberspace.” Six members were designated as the “Interim Steering Committee” to guide the first meetings, and an agenda was prepared for the first meeting, which had been set for July 1, 2002.