Grapevine Fact Sheet

Fact Sheet

• The first issue of the AA Grapevine was published in June 1944. A new issue has come out every month since.
• Early AA groups adopted the AA Grapevine as the international journal of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1946. The General Service Conference reaffirmed this designation in 1986. 

Conference Advisory Action, 1986:
"Since each issue of the Grapevine cannot go through the Conference-approval process, the Conference recognizes the Grapevine as the international journal of Alcoholics Anonymous."

• The AA Grapevine is produced by a staff of professional editors, writers, and artists, who are members of AA. Most of the articles are written by members of the Fellowship.
• Bill W. introduced the Traditions to the Fellowship in a 1946 Grapevine article called "Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition."
• Acting as the senior advisor of the magazine, Bill W. wrote more than 150 articles in the AA Grapevine between 1945 and 1970. His articles are collected in the anthology The Language of the Heart.
• The Preamble was written by a Grapevine editor, based on the Foreword to the first edition of the Big Book. It was first published in the Grapevine in June 1947.
• In July 1995, a special edition of the Grapevine in Spanish was published, and in July 1996, the AA Grapevine began publishing La Viña, a bimonthly Spanish-language magazine.
• The AA Grapevine is entirely self-supporting through the sale of the magazine and related items. It receives none of the group contributions sent to the General Service Office.