2025 Topic #041 Two-Year, Part-Time Paid Contract for a National IT Coordinator

Topic #041/2025 Two-Year, Part-Time Paid Contract for a National IT Coordinator

What do you want Conference to do?

That the General Service Conference approve the establishment of a two-year, part-time, paid contract position for a National IT Coordinator, to be developed and overseen in partnership between the General Service Office (GSO) and the Technical Support and Management Working Group (TSMWG). The role should:

• Be open to members of Alcoholics Anonymous with the appropriate technical skills and experience
• Have a formal Position Description outlining clear responsibilities, qualifications, and deliverables
• Be remote-capable and reviewed after two years to assess outcomes and future needs.

What issue does this proposal address?

AA’s national digital infrastructure is critically under-supported, increasingly vulnerable, and overly reliant on the goodwill of a few volunteers. There is no strategic oversight, no disaster recovery plan, and no formal accountability — with essential technical knowledge held by just a handful of individuals.

This proposal addresses those risks by establishing a professionally managed, sustainable approach to digital service delivery. It ensures we are no longer leaving key systems to chance, but instead building the technical capability and redundancy needed to safeguard our ability to carry the message into the future.

Background information that supports this proposal

Between April 2024 and April 2025, AA Australia recorded 817,602 unique users and 10.7 million engagement actions across its national websites — all without a single paid digital staff member.

This is not just web traffic. It is 12th Step work happening online, at scale — and we are risking it by leaving it to chance.

How will this proposal benefit the fellowship or the still suffering alcoholic? 

This proposal ensures that the digital doors of AA remain reliably open, not just today, but long into the future.

Whether someone is searching “how do I stop drinking?”, using the meeting finder, or reaching out via online chat, we need that first point of contact to be safe, stable, and welcoming.

What are the estimated costs of implementing this suggestion?

At what level of group conscience (if any) was this topic discussed?

This topic has been discussed within the X (X), where the need for dedicated strategic oversight and professional IT coordination has been repeatedly raised.