A.A. 25th Anniversary Grapevine 1960 Long Beach Convention

59 years ago on July 1st, the 25th Anniversary A.A. Convention convened in Long Beach, California. Bill Wilson felt this convention marked a major turning point in the growth of A.A. In this article in the A.A. Grapevine, Bill takes a look at the past and his thoughts about the future of A.A.

From the July 1960 magazine.

THIS GRAPEVINE will be read as we celebrate AA’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary in July at Long Beach, California. We shall be stepping over a new threshold into our future. We shall rejoice as we think of the gifts and the wonders of yesterday. And, as we rededicate ourselves to fulfilling the immense promise of AA’s tomorrow, we shall certainly survey how we stand today. Have we really “kept AA simple”? Or, unwittingly, have we blundered?

Thinking on this, I began to wonder about our fundamental structure: those principles, relationships, and attitudes which are the substance of our Three Legacies of Recovery, Unity and Service. In our Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions we find twenty-four definitely stated principles. Our Third Legacy includes a Charter for World Service that provides thousands of General Service Representatives, hundreds of local Committeemen, eighty General Service Conference Delegates, fifteen General Service Board Trustees, together with our Headquarters legal, financial, public relations, editorial experts and their staffs. Our group and area services add still more to this seeming complexity.