Clubs In AA
September 21, 2007 by Mark
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Bill Wilson wrote for “The Language of the Heart”
“The club idea has become part of AA life. Scores of these hospitable havens can report years of useful service; new ones are being started monthly.”
We have our own AA clubhouse in Savannah, Ga. at 1501 Eisenhower Dr. Come visit us!
“Were a vote taken tomorrow on the desirability of clubs, a sizable majority of AAs would record a resounding ‘yes.’ There would be thousands who would testify that they might have had a harder time staying sober in their first months of AA without clubs and that, in any case, they would always wish the easy contacts and warm friendships which clubs afford.”
It would be my personal opinion and experience that the exact same is true for my first home group. Nothing different at all.
“As the majority view, we might suppose that (that, meaning the vote spoken of above) to be a blanket endorsement for clubs; we might think we couldn’t get along without them. We might conceive them as a central AA institution – a sort of ‘thirteenth step’ of our recovery program without which the other Twelve Steps wouldn’t work. At times club enthusiasts will act as though they really believed we could handle our alcohol problems by club life alone. They are apt to depend upon clubs rather than upon the AA program.”
Wow – how true is that? Now for the opposing view;
“But we have AAs, rather a strong minority, too, who want no part of clubs. Not only, they assert, does the social life of a club often divert the attention of members from the program, they claim that clubs are an actual drag on AA progress. They point to the danger of clubs degenerating intmere hangouts, even ‘joints’; they stress the bickerings that do arise over questions of money, management, and personal authority; they are afraid of ‘incidents’ that might give us unfavorable publicity. In short, they ‘view with alarm.’ Thumbs down on clubs they say.”
Hmmm – I have my opinion, what is yours?
My first AA experience (in the free world) was at the Alano Club at 3333 W. Columbus Dr in Tampa, FL back in 1973. It gave me the opportunity to mix with other AA’s and to feel “Accepted” back into society. Since that time I’ve travel throughout the United States and Canada extensively. The first thing I would do upon arriving in town would be to find an “AA” Club, because then I knew I was in a safe place and could easily find a meeting there and others in the area. It was like a “Safe House” for me. A real Blessing. Most of the half dozen Home Groups I’ve had over the years traveling met a Club Houses, although one, the Deer Valley Group of Phoenix, AZ met at a “Fellowship Hall” where we had no dues and the rent was paid out of the seventh Tradition. Plenty of Free Coffee, always!
Here is my list of favorites: The Saguaro Club in Phoenix, AZ, San Diego’s North Shore Alano Club, Manhattan Beach’s South Bay Alano Club, (now in Redondo beach), The Nest in Reseda, CA, The Hole in the Sky, Canoga Park, CA, 1311 York Street, Denver (the first Central Office in Denver), CO. The Serenity Club of Clearwater, FL.
Needless to say for this Nomad; I doubt it if I would have made it without the “AA” Clubs. Thank you Lord!
However, today, it is another story. It would be hard for me to find a “Real ” AA Club today, as they are mostly “NA, CA, EA, GA, with a sprinkling of AA. Consequently, it is losing it’s flavor and magic! Sad!
After sixteen years of sobriety I went back out for a couple of days and got sober again with the help of meetings in churches but no Alano Clubs. Meetings the Big Book, my sponsor and the steps did the job. That was after only being out a couple of days. In prior attempts at sobriety where I had been back out a matter of years, months or even weeks there is no way I would have gotten sober in this manner. I needed the alano clubs, the Radford Club House, The Nest etc. as places to hang out, get sober and meet sober individuals. A way to learn a new way of life without alcohal. There may not always be a need for a particular individual to be near an Alano Club but there will always be a need for some, at some point in sobriety to use Alano Clubs.
would like to start a sober club can anyone help?
I need to include my wife and three little boys at meetings and sober get-aways. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Any suggestions?
Thank you,
Ed