Area 56 Information
Southwest Ohio General Service Area 56 consists geographically of fifteen counties in a strip along the western and southern border of Ohio, serving rural, suburban and urban members and groups of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The Area is subdivided into thirty Districts, which in turn consist of a number of AA Groups. Each Group has the right and opportunity to elect a General Service Representative to serve as the link between the Group and the District and the Group and the Area. This is how AA makes sure that every Group has the opportunity to participate in decision-making for Alcoholics Anonymous.
In turn, Southwest Ohio Area 56 is one of 93 Areas in the US and Canada. Each Area sends one Delegate to the General Service Conference each year in order to address matters facing AA as a whole. The Conference guides and informs the work of the two AA service corporations – AA World Services, Inc. and Grapevine, Inc – as well as the General Service Board. In effect the General Service Conference is the group conscience of AA as a whole and it begins always at the local level. This is the General Service structure. Every member of Alcoholics Anonymous has a voice and a vote in it, but you have to show up in order to make yourself heard.