Is the Grapevine conference approved?

General Service Conference approval is a lengthy process with lots of committees involved. For regular books the process takes years. Given that the approval process isn't compatible with a periodical publishing schedule the conference addressed the issue in 1986 with the following statement: "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."