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1996
(Hyperlinks in this
archive may no longer work and other information may be obsolete) |
SOS Hosts Sober New Years' Eve Party
'Twas a dark and stormy night, but nothing could faze the sober spirits of the 40 or
so revelers who participated in the SOS second almost-annual Sober New Year's Eve Party on
Dec. 31 beginning at 9 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center.
Strings of flashing colored lights, crepe paper and balloons decorated the hall.
Each table had a supply of noisemakers and a kit of colorful mixed beads and strings for
making New Year's ornaments. As everyone was sober, some strings of beads were
successfully assembled. There was an abundant potluck, varieties of nonalcoholic drinks,
and six prerecorded tapes of boogie music assembled by that sober DJ extraordinaire, Kurt
S.
As Geoff G. counted down the final ten seconds, pandemonium broke loose in the hall.
Couples hugged and kissed, soberly. Children joined in the happy racket. No one fell down.
As everyone pitched in to help, cleanup was quick work. Everyone drove home sober
and safe. A fine time was had by all.
Special thanks to John and Lisa for the decorations, and to Geoff and Deena for
putting it all together.
-- Marty N., 1/2/97
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Wednesday Meeting Moves to Earlier Time Slot
- The Wednesday night
Oakland meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. instead of 7:45 p.m., effective immediately,
announced Mike F., meeting secretary. The move will make the meeting more convenient for
participants in the Kaiser CDRP program, whose meetings end shortly before the 6:30 time
slot. The location remains the same (969 Broadway, downtown Oakland, Group Room 8,
upstairs from Smart and Final). (12/20/96)
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Texas Prison System Adopts
SOS as Secular Alternative
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which
operates the largest prison system in the United States and the largest substance abuse
treatment program as well, has selected SOS as provider of secular alternative self-help
support meetings throughout the state, the
SOS International Newsletter announced in its Fall, 1996 issue. The
selection came after James Christopher, founder of SOS and its Executive Director, visited
the headquarters of the system in Huntsville, TX, in September 1996, and attended an SOS
meeting in the Estelle prison there, along with Dick Hansen, an SOS activist from Houston,
TX. Ed Roberts, the Program Director of the TDCJ Substance Abuse Treatment Program, wrote
that "we believe the SOS program offers a solid option" to the traditional AA-NA
approaches. "Personally, I find the SOS message of individual responsibility, and
prioritization of sobriety as separate from all other 'life issues' particularly
appropriate to the population with which we are involved. The sobriety priority can be
applied as readily and effectively to issues of criminality as to those of chemical
dependence, as can such tools as the 'calling up' techniques mentioned in Unhooked."
(12/20/96)
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Saturday Meeting Opens at Mandana CRC
- A new Saturday SOS meeting opened this week at Mandana Community Recovery Center in
Oakland, meeting convenor Maxine C. announced today. The gathering convenes from 2:00 to
3:00 p.m. Saturdays in Room A of the Grey Building of Mandana CRC at 3989 Howe Street. The
location is about three blocks from the Kaiser Hospital at Howe and McArthur Boulevard, in
the Piedmont Avenue area of Oakland. Parking is at meters, or in the Long's Drugs lot
across the street, or in the Kaiser parking garage. The entrance to the meeting room is on
40th Street Way. (11/9/96)
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Kaiser Restores Member Access to Support Group Speakers
The Kaiser Permanente Chemical Dependency and Recovery Program
(CDRP) has reversed course and restored its members' access to speakers from outside
support groups. In August, CDRP revised the program to cut off the support group speakers,
including SOS. Numerous current and former participants in the CDRP program expressed
their concern at the change. This past week, CDRP director Dr. Robert Boyd announced that
the old policy of open access would be restored. The first SOS presentation was on
Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 6:30 p.m. (11/19/96)
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Thursday Meeting to Show Movie Dec. 5
The Thursday night SOS meeting will show the movie "Stuart Saves His Family"
on December 5 at 7:30 p.m., Ellie S., meeting secretary, announced. The movie is a comedy
about an alcoholic and his family. The meeting will begin half an hour earlier than its
usual 8:00 p.m. starting time to accommodate the film. (11/9/96)
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New Years' Eve Party At Albany Facility
- Thanks to the decisive effort of Geoff G., a site has been found for the
1996 SOS Sober New Year's Eve party. It is the Albany Senior Center, a modern social
facility near the Solano Avenue business district, with good parking and good public
transportation. Members interested in helping with arrangements, please come to the next
Intergroup Potluck, see above. (10/4/96)
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Intergroup Potluck Nov. 9
- The next intergroup potluck will be Nov. 9, 1996, at 5 p.m. For details, location and
preliminary agenda, click here. All meeting secretaries and treasurers are expected to
attend. All other interested members are welcome to attend. (Updated 10/6/96)
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Members Mark Sobriety Anniversaries
- Al S. of the Tuesday meeting passed the one-year milestone on April 29, 1997.
Congratulations, Al! (5/5/97)
- Mike F. of the Wednesday night Oakland meeting achieved one year of sobriety on Dec. 1,
1996. (12/20/96)
- Craig M. of the Friday and Wednesday noon meetings achieved two years of sobriety the
first week of December. (12/13/96)
- John D. of the Tuesday and Friday meetings celebrated his first year of sobriety the
first week of November. (11/7/96)
- Bill M. of the Thursday meeting celebrated his 3rd anniversary of sobriety this month.
- Rich of the Friday meeting celebrated his 4th anniversary of sobriety last month.
- Geoff of the Friday meeting celebrated his 4th anniversary of sobriety this month, all
of it in SOS. (9/22/96)
- Marty N. of the Tuesday & Friday meetings celebrated his fourth anniversary of
sobriety this month, all of it in SOS. For a personal share on the occasion, click on
"My SOS One-Two-Three."
(10/3/96).
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Local Web Site Listed in Micro-Times WWW Index
This web site is now listed in the MicroTimes Online Guide. MicroTimes is a free
computer magazine edited in San Francisco and distributed throughout Northern California.
Its Online Guide gives thumbnail descriptions of hundreds of web sites. The SOS listing
appears under the heading "Organizations/Publications" on p. 116 of the current
(September) issue. The listing is free. To view the page, click here. (10/11/96)
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National List of Meetings Under Construction.
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If You Need a Friendly Ear To Talk To
Craig M. has published a phone list of East Bay members who are willing to be called
any hour day or night by people needing a friendly sober ear to talk to. To obtain a copy
of the list, please attend a meeting. See Meeting
Schedule. (9/27/96)
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Thursday Meetings Initiate Book Nights
The Thursday Oakland meetings have introduced Book Sharing Nights once a month. The
next book nights will be Oct. 10, Nov. 7 and Dec. 5, 1996. On book nights, members bring
books they are reading and find interesting, and share their thoughts about the books with
other members. Recent titles brought to book nights include: Night of the Avenging
Blowfish, by John Welter; Dance of Anger by Harrier Lerner; Through a Distant Mirror by
Barbara Tuchman; Many Roads One Journey by Charlotte Kasl; My Antonia by Willa Cather; Men
are from Mars, Women are from Venus; On becoming a Person by Carl Rogers. (9/22/96)
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First Newcomer Referred by Yellow Pages Ad
The first new member who found SOS through the new
Yellow Pages ad appeared at the Friday night meeting Sept. 13. Group
members were gratified at this initial success of this outreach effort. (9/14/96)
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Berkeley Campus Meeting Opens
- There is now an SOS meeting on the University of California at
Berkeley Campus. The group meets between noon and 1 pm on Wednesdays in the "Class of
1942" room (1019C) in the Tang Student Health Center at 2222 Bancroft. The meeting
room is on the first floor and is easy to find - if you are entering through the main door
which faces Bancroft, the room is off to the right (west) of the information desk, in an
alcove with four or so doors. The meeting is open to everyone in the community, not just
those with a University affiliation. -- Craig M. (10/9/96)
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Palo Alto Meeting to Be Featured in Press
- Members of the Palo Alto meeting have been interviewed at length by a local paper for a
feature article, according to convenor George "Chip" Griffin, who expects the
piece to appear shortly. (9/22/96)
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SOS To Publish Updated Edition of Group
Leaders Guidebook.
- The International Clearinghouse has convened a
workgroup to update the SOS Group Leaders Guidebook. The GLG was originally published in
1990. The update is expected to draw on the intervening years of group experience. If you
have particular comments on the GLG, email them to [...]
. If you would like to join the workgroup, send an email to tshelley@gte.net. (10/6/96)
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Professional Journal
Publishes Survey of SOS Participants
The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, a
quarterly academic journal, carries a survey of SOS participants in its Spring 1996 issue.
The article, entitled "Characteristics of Participants in Secular Organizations for
Sobriety (SOS)" is based on questionnaire returned by 158 attendees at SOS meetings
in all areas of the United States during 1993. The survey found that the average
respondent had been abstinent from alcohol for 6.3 years. Thirty-five per cent had heard
about SOS from the news media. About a third were also attending AA meetings. Eighty-five
per cent found SOS "helpful" in maintaining their sobriety, with 52 per cent
rating it "very helpful." The majority reported that they were planning
long-term affiliation with SOS. Authors of the article are Gerard J. Connors, Ph.D.
and Kurt H. Dermen, Ph.D., of the Research Institute on Addictions, http://www.ria.org/. (6/17/96)
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SOS Ad Now in Yellow Pages
SOS now has a display ad in the Oakland/Berkeley Yellow Pages. Click here to see it. The ad costs $690 for
the first 14 months. Fred S. did the preliminary graphics work and organized the
fundraising to pay for the ad. Each meeting contributed; some meetings held a special
collection for the ad. An evaluation is set for a year from now to see whether the results
in membership growth warrant renewal of the ad. (6/9/96)
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Speakers' Bureau Meets
The SOS local Speakers' Bureau, formed at the July 20 Intergroup Potluck, had its first
meeting Oct. 6. Craig W., Elly S., Maxine C. and Marty N. attended. The group reviewed the
basics of SOS, discussed how to approach the topic of presenting SOS to newcomers, and
shared tips on giving presentations. Groups desiring to hear SOS speakers please contact
the East Bay SOS phone line, 814-2221, and leave a message. (10/6/96)
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Speakers' Bureau Formed
- The local meetings have formed a speakers' bureau to respond to local calls for
representatives of SOS to address their groups. Call (510) 814-2221 to request a speaker
or a referral. (7/21/96)
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Salting for Sobriety: Bookmark flyers available
- SOS activists in St. Petersburg, Florida, get the word out about the local meeting by
"salting" little cards with the meeting announcement into the pages of self-help
books in local bookstores and libraries. Tom Shelley, long-time SOS organizer, says the
device is very effective and counts for a high proportion of their new members. People
browsing self-help books are likely to be interested in a recovery support group. This
targeted advertising is cheap and, for members who like browsing bookstores anyway, it
takes little extra effort.
Miniature SOS flyers in the shape of bookmarks are now
available for distribution in the Berkeley/Oakland area. The bookmarks carry a condensed
meeting schedule, the phone number, a short message, and a decorative graphic. Click
here to view a sample. Bookstore and library enthusiasts and others who would
like to go salting for sobriety, contact your meeting secretary or email
unhooked@hooked.net to obtain a supply. -- M.N. (6/9/96)
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More women than men at Tuesday meeting
The Tuesday night SOS meeting at Kaiser CDRP (downtown Oakland) on 6/18/96 recorded a
happy first: a female majority. Eight women and seven men attended. (6/18/96)
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Women's meeting opens doors to all
The Wednesday night Women's Meeting in Oakland, formerly limited to women, opened its
doors in mid-May to recovering persons of both sexes. Meeting secretary Maxine C. explains
that attendance had been slow for some time, and the remaining members voted unanimously
to open up the format. (6/9/96)
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Meetings elect new leadership
The Monday night Berkeley meeting in May elected Bill C. secretary and Craig is
treasurer. John is secretary of the Tuesday Oakland meeting. Al was elected treasurer of
the Tuesday meeting in July. Maxine is secretary of Wednesday Oakland. Elly S. is
secretary of the Thursday Oakland meeting, and Fred S. is treasurer; reach them by email
at kcgb20a@prodigy.com. Craig is now secretary of
the Friday night Berkeley meeting, where Rich is treasurer. (6/10/96)
- Please email current meeting leadership to unhooked@hooked.net for posting here. Please
give permission for meeting secretary's phone number to be published here, if possible. --
MN.
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Mike F. Elected Secretary of Wednesday Night Meeting
Mike F. was elected secretary of the Wednesday night downtown Oakland meeting last
week. He can be reached at 530-6201(h), 446-7167 (w) or email him at
mike.r.fenger@bender.com. (8/15/96).
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Local Intergroup Potluck and Meeting July 20, 1996
John's barbecued salmon with capers, Bill's ratatouille and Craig's key lime pie
highlighted the July 20 intergroup potluck in North Berkeley. Chip, Ellie, Fred, Geoff,
Karl, Lisa, Mary, Marty, Maxine, and Sherrill were also there, representing almost every
SOS meeting in Oakland, Berkeley and Palo Alto.
After dessert and coffee, people pulled up chairs in a circle on the lawn under a
Monterey pine tree and we had an intergroup meeting. Bill kept notes, the gist of which is
as follows:
The group leader has a difficult job sometimes enforcing the structure of the meeting in a
tactful way and without turning into a control freak. Sometimes newcomers talk too much,
and even more experienced members on occasion disregard the rule against crosstalk during
sharing time. This can cause significant harm to members' feelings. It was the consensus
that the group secretary has to intervene in those cases to protect the meeting structure
by any means necessary.
Members should make an effort to get to know newcomers, to draw them out, answer their
questions, and make them feel welcome, but without making them the center of attention for
an undue amount of time. Newcomers might also be advised that meetings can change from
week to week.
The Friday night meeting came in for criticism for having developed a clubby atmosphere
that made it hard for newcomers, particularly women, to integrate.
The Wednesday night meeting has had good attendance since becoming co-ed, and the
number of women there is larger than before. Tuesday has had female majorities on two
recent occasions. Thursday has about even numbers of men and women.
The Monday night codependents' meeting was reported struggling but still alive; no one
from that meeting attended the potluck.
Meetings tend to be more successful when there is a definite topic. Secretaries can
keep a topic or two in reserve for nights when the chair is absent.
Members who want to vent their frustration at other recovery programs were welcome to
spend a few minutes doing that, but the primary topic of a meeting ought not to be
criticism of other approaches. Similarly, neither religion nor atheism make good
discussion topics for us; we are a secular group, not an anti-religious group, and people
of every belief or lack thereof are welcome.
We ought to promote our members reading recovery books. But experience shows that books
lent at meetings tend to walk away, even when a nominal $5 deposit is asked. We probably
need to charge a deposit that covers the price of the book. A member could act as
librarian and as part of the job chase down tardy borrowers. Or we could donate the best
books to the local public library and refer members there. A reading list is being worked
on and expected soon. Occasionally, a member could chair a discussion around a reading
topic and could distribute photocopies of excerpts from the book at the meeting.
We have an unwritten general rule that members should have six months' sobriety before
becoming an officer of a meeting. However, exceptions have been made, and there was a
consensus that a person's qualifications to lead and commitment to SOS were the overriding
criteria.
A phone list including members from all the meetings who are willing to accept calls
from people seeking help with drinking or using problems is being put together by Craig.
Members who would like to volunteer for this list and were not at the potluck, please
contact Craig at the Friday night meeting.
We are forming a speakers' bureau to respond to requests we receive for SOS speakers.
Marty, Karl, Maxine, Chip and Ellie will be the initial members. Fred will continue to
take messages from the 814-2221 line and will forward requests for speakers to the panel.
We probably have enough forces to start a new meeting in San Francisco in the fall,
but still lack a meeting site. Several suggestions were made and will be looked into.
Karl volunteered to start a new meeting on the UC Berkeley campus in the fall. This
will probably meet at noon. Lisa volunteered to help with this project.
The SOS Southern California regional conference Aug. 25 and the SOS International
Conference in Mexico City Nov. 17 were announced.
There was consensus that the evening was worthwhile and we should do it again. Seizing
the time, Ellie volunteered to host the next intergroup potluck on Sept. 14, 1996, at her
and Fred's place.
It was dark but still balmy out when the meeting adjourned at about 9:30, and everyone
(bless you) pitched in to clean up.
-- Minutes by Bill C. condensed and transcribed by Marty N.
(7/21/96)
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A Visit to Los Angeles
By Marty N.
On a visit to the Los Angeles area this past weekend I had the opportunity to drop in
on a meeting of SOS in Glendale, a suburb northeast of the city. At 11:30 on Sunday
morning there were fourteen of us, including three women, and there weren't enough chairs,
so latecomers sat on the floor. Among the participants was Jim Christopher, founder of
SOS; Larry B., a long time SOS activist whose byline will be familiar to SOS Newsletter
readers, and Joe M., the former secretary of the Berkeley Monday meeting who moved South a
few years ago.
The Glendale SOS group uses a slightly different format than our northern meetings. They
begin by reading the SOS Suggested Guidelines for Sobriety. Then they ask if anyone has a
sobriety anniversary, and other announcements. After that, they open the floor to sharing
without having someone set a topic first. People began their share by saying their name,
as we do, but nobody responded with the friendly "Hi,(name)" that we are
familiar with. People mainly shared about events that happened during their week. They
allowed crosstalk during the sharing, but there was not much of it. Everybody had a chance
to share during the 90-minute meeting. When the meeting time ran out, they passed the
basket and we ended by giving each other a round of applause for staying sober another
week. Apart from the slight differences in meeting ritual, I felt right at home. It was a
pleasure seeing Joe again; he sends his greetings to all his old pals in Berkeley/Oakland.
I felt reassured and fortified to be able to go to a strange city and join in a support
group with shared beliefs and a common language.
After the regular meeting, I had the privilege of attending a business meeting of the
Clearinghouse organization. Ed B., a veteran of SOS in the Los Angeles area and a
professional in the recovery field, chaired and kept track of the flow with a red magic
marker on a pad of newsprint. Jim C. was there, as was Tom H., the Clearinghouse computer
guru recently returned from Israel, and two others: an activist in the gay community and a
craggy-faced, golden-voiced TV actor. Fundraising and upcoming SOS conferences were the
main topics. The Clearinghouse has run a deficit every year, which is covered by CODESH
(Council for Democratic Secular Humanism). Reducing that financial gap is an ever-urgent
concern. Two SOS conferences are coming up: one of the Southern California organization,
in August, and the big one, the international SOS conference in mid-November in Mexico
City. Bilingual announcements for the Mexico City affair should be available shortly. Ed
B. expressed the fervent hope that the Mexico conference would be a way to encourage more
Hispanics and other third world minorities to participate in SOS and make it their own.
We then adjourned to a housewarming party at the new home of Joan, a member of the
Glendale meeting and a refugee from Berkeley many years ago. After a delicious lunch and
some friendly chatting on Joan's patio and in her new meditation garden, we drove westward
to the coast and I met with Jim C. and Tom H. at the SOS International Clearinghouse in
the Marina del Rey district.
The Clearinghouse office is in a converted warehouse operated by the SHARE organization
(Self Help And Recovery), which offers space to a broad range of groups. The SOS office
consists of one modest room in a three-room suite shared with several West Coast
affiliates of CODESH. Jim C. has a desk in one corner, surrounded by framed testimonials
and certificates of appreciation for SOS, and attesting to Jim's membership in
professional recovery organizations. A thermal-paper fax machine, a computer table and a
literature shelf complete the Spartan decor. As I watched, Tom pulled up the day's haul of
89 email messages for the Clearinghouse.
My time was limited that day, but I had another chance to chat with Jim and Tom over
frozen yogurts on Tuesday evening, July 2. Jim is keenly concerned to strengthen the ties
between the meetings and the Clearinghouse. A letter to that effect will be in the mail
shortly to SOS newsletter subscribers and local activists. Jim is very much open to all
proposals and suggestions for improving communications between the meetings and the
Clearinghouse.
Jim is aware in general terms of the recent discussions on the e-mail chat list, and is
waiting to receive the excerpts or highlights which several list members have promised him
for publication in the newsletter.
Jim is completing a computer familiarity class and I urged him to test his new skills by
diving into the e-mail himself. But Tom and Jim both feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume
of the e-mail traffic, on top of their other responsibilities, and they don't feel that
the Clearinghouse, as the official voice of SOS, needs to or should get involved in many
of the topics on the current chat list. Besides the chat list postings, the Clearinghouse
also has its own e-mail traffic of inquiries, referrals, literature orders and
correspondence. We discussed taking the Clearinghouse off the general chat list and
starting a smaller, restricted e-mail discussion list for SOS meeting conveners and core
members. This invitational list would discuss internal organizational issues, and the
Clearinghouse would become active on that list. Jim and Tom viewed that idea favorably,
and it awaits implementation.
We also discussed setting up a national steering committee for SOS, made up of leading
members of the local organizations in the different regions of the country. At present
there is no national structure other than the Advisory Board, whose main function is to
ornament the letterhead. Jim recognized the need for setting up such a body, and welcomed
it, on condition that this task were not added to his immediate to-do list in advance of
the Mexico City conference. But if others wanted to organize it, to go ahead.
I came away with the impression that our international office ekes out a modest and
fragile existence on the edge of financial extinction. Even simple resources like paper
clips and software may take weeks, sometimes months, to procure. To get the additional
services and structures we think we need on a national level, we have to be ready to pitch
in ourselves, not only in funds but also in ideas and time. We can have a national e-mail
list server, we can have an intergroup e-mail list, we can have a national steering
committee, we can have Jim C. as a visiting speaker, we can have anything we think we want
or need, consistent with basic SOS philosophy, if we roll up our sleeves (and dig into our
pockets) and get to work and do it. SOS is a do-it-yourself recovery program, and it's
also a build-it-yourself recovery organization. What did you expect?
(7/4/96)
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Barbecue to Welcome Paula B.
In early August, Paula B., an SOS member from the St. Petersburg, Florida, group, will
be visiting Mike Bennett, a former leading SOS stalwart from Berkeley who has moved to
Santa Rosa. In honor of her visit, Mike is hosting a barbecue at his "hovel" in
Santa Rosa, on Sunday Aug. 4, 1996, from 1 to 5 p.m.
Paula and Mike met through the SOS email chat list, and there are rumors that an email
romance is lurking behind this visit.
All SOS members, family and friends are welcome.
Directions: Take 101 north toward Santa Rosa. Off at Sebastopol exit (Highway 12). West
on 12 to first light, which is Wright Road. Left (South) on Wright Rd. about one mile to
Price Ave. (little store on corner). Right (west) on Price to No. 4394, across street from
Wright School. Phone 707-528-6566 if lost.
(7/21/96)
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Absent member reappears
Susan K., treasurer of the Tuesday and Wednesday Oakland meetings, has been found safe
and sound after an unexpected absence of more than a month. Susan reappeared today and was
warmly welcomed back. (6/17/96)
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Intergroup Leadership Potluck July 20
There will be a potluck for meeting secretaries and treasurers on Saturday, July 20,
1996 at 5 p.m. in North Berkeley. Other interested members are also welcome. Details
below:
Details on Intergroup Potluck
- Date: Saturday Nov. 9, 1996
- Time: From 5 pm on, ending no later than 9.
- Place: Marty's house, 1340 California, Berkeley, 526-8030. Directions below.
Food Details:
- Monday meeting: bring pre-meal snacks or whatever.
- Tuesday: bring things to drink or whatever.
- Wednesday: bring side dish o.w.
- Thursday: bring side dish o.w.
- Friday: bring dessert o.w.
- Barbecued sausages and possibly chicken (o.w.) will be provided at the site.
Agenda Details:
- Main purpose of event is to let leading members of the different meetings mingle and
maybe bond. We don't have a local steering committee and this is the functional
equivalent.
- It might be helpful to review Bill C.'s notes of the July 20 intergroup meeting . (There
are no minutes of the Sept. 14 meeting).
- Although mainly designed for meeting leadership, all members are welcome; this is not a
closed event.
- Family and kids are welcome.
Directions:
- 1340 California is near the intersection of Rose and Sacramento in North Berkeley, a
short block from the Monterey market. It's on California between Rose and Ada.
- It's an easy 12-minute walk from North Berkeley Bart: go north on Sacramento to Rose,
right on Rose, left on California.
- By 580 freeway, from south, off at University exit, get on frontage road, right on
Cedar. After crossing San Pablo, branch left onto Hopkins then right onto Rose. Continue
to California (next block after Sacramento), then left. Or, if you don't want to do the
frontage road, go east on University, left on Sacramento, right on Rose, left on
California.
- By 580 freeway from north, exit at Gilman, Gilman to end at Hopkins, veer left onto
Hopkins, turn right on Sacramento, almost immediately left on Ada, right on California.
- 1340 is a flat-roofed barn-red house in the middle of the block on the west side of the
street.
- Phone 526-8030 if lost.
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July 14 picnic planned in East BayPOSTPONED
Elly S., in charge of the picnic planning committee,
announced July 2 that the planned picnic has been postponed to a date uncertain.
The East Bay meetings plan a repeat of last year's popular
Summer Picnic. The tentative date is July 14 (Bastille Day). The site is not yet
determined, either Redwood Park or Joaquin Miller Park. Telephone
(510) 814-2221 for current information. (7/14/96)
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Concern grows over absent member
Concern is growing over the prolonged absence of Susan K., a member of the Tuesday and
Wednesday Oakland meetings, and treasurer of both. Susan has not been heard from for a
month and does not answer messages left on her telephone answering machine. John D. and
Marty N. visited Susan's Oakland hills residence last week and found it dark with no signs
of anyone present. Anyone with information about her status please send email to this
site, unhooked@hooked.net. (6/11/96)
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The Southern California Regional Conference took place in Los Angeles Aug. 25, 1996 at
the SHARE Center in Marina del Rey. (If anyone who was there could e-mail a brief report
of the conference to this site, please do so.)
The Western New York Regional Conference took place in Amherst, N.Y. Aug. 10, 1996. Jim
Christopher, founder of SOS, spoke. (If anyone who was there could e-mail a brief report
of the conference to this site, please do so.)
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Sober Among Friends IV.
The St. Petersburg and Tampa Secular Organizations for Sobriety proudly announce their
fourth secular, sober retreat: SOBER AMONG FRIENDS IV, to be held Friday, March 7, through
Sunday, March 9, 1997,at U.U. in the Pines, Brooksville, Florida. The event is a full
weekend of sober relaxation with SOS members, activists, group convenors, and
alcoholism/drug treatment professionals. Click here
for details. (10/22/96)
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Report from Mexico
- Only a handful attended the "First SOS International Conference", and we
outnumbered the audience, but some good came of it anyway: a new dedication to openness,
realism, and democratic national structure. By Marty N. Click to view report. See also: trivia
and anecdotes from the Mexico trip. (11/19/96)
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Sobriety Education Project Launched.
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SOS Email List Moves Up to List Server.
- The SOS email list has upgraded to a list
server, listmeister Tom Shelley of SOS in St. Petersburg, Florida has announced. Formerly
run as a private list with each member trying to keep track of all the others, the list
now operates through an automatic mail distribution server. A list member need only
address a message to the server, and the server broadcasts copies of the message to all
members of the list. The growth of the list made the move necessary. Individuals
interested in joining the list, contact tshelley@gte.net.
(10/4/96)
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Kaiser Throttles Member Access to Secular Support Groups
- Kaiser Permanente's Chemical Dependency Recovery Program (CDRP) in downtown Oakland has
cut off its members' direct access to information about secular support groups, including
SOS. Until this month, Kaiser members enrolled in the outpatient Early Recovery program
had the opportunity to spend a whole hour with representatives of SOS and to receive SOS
literature. Other support groups got equal time on other evenings. The SOS sessions
featured active audience participation and met with a favorable response. Following each
session, a number of new members visited the Oakland and Berkeley SOS meetings.
This
month, Kaiser staff shut down direct access to outside speakers. At this time, a Kaiser
staffer who has had no known contact with SOS is presenting his view of all the different
support groups to Kaiser members in a brief, half-hour lecture. No SOS literature is
provided. This is the sum total of the members' education about support groups.
The new policy unfairly disadvantages secular recovery groups and favors the religious
or "spiritual" organizations. A number of Kaiser staffers are tunnel-vision AA
zealots and lose no opportunity in proselytizing for their organization and its religious
beliefs during educational and therapy sessions. Some Kaiser staffers while on company
time admonish patients to "work the steps", "get a higher power" and
similar transparently religious appeals. The religious groups do not need "outside
speakers" and apparently see any exposure to other, secular viewpoints as
competition.
SOS has been a part of the local recovery community for more than eight years, and the
ranks of SOS show numerous graduates of the Kaiser program. The SOS record in achieving
long-term sobriety is a good one, and can easily withstand comparison. No fewer than three
SOS meetings meet on Kaiser premises in Oakland. The SOS meetings provide a safe,
supportive atmosphere for individuals who would not feel comfortable in a religious or
spiritual meeting or who enjoy the freethinking, caring and supportive atmosphere of SOS
as an adjunct to their other meetings.
Kaiser is ostensibly a secular health care facility. Recent court decisions have
recognized that AA is a religious organization and that a public agency which fails to
offer a secular option, where one is available, contravenes the Constitution. A secular
option is clearly available to Kaiser CDRP enrolees. Kaiser staff's decision to throttle
its members' direct access to the secular options is a shameful retreat from its secular
public health mission. The former system of open access to secular support groups should
be restored immediately.
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Should Kaiser reduce support groups' presentation time?
- The Kaiser Permanente CDRP staff is considering a proposal to reduce the time allotted
to presentations made by outside support groups to participants in the Early Recovery
program. Currently, support groups (including SOS and RR) are each given a full hour's
meeting to present their story. Under the new plan, all groups would share a single hour
to make their pitch. The new schedule would drastically cut down the time allotted for SOS
and other options. It would signal to the members that making a thoughtful, informed
decision about choosing an outside support group is not thought to be as important as
formerly. The new compressed-format meetings would tend to emphasize slogans and sound
bites, like an electoral campaign forum, and could degenerate quickly into debate and
argument, undermining the whole purpose and appeal of support groups. Kaiser members
polled informally on the new proposal unanimously panned it. Early Education runs eight
weeks, four nights a week; that leaves plenty of time to give each support group a full
hour. -- Marty N. (6/18/96).
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Where are the recovering women?
- The Berkeley-Oakland SOS meetings, about evenly balanced between the genders a year or
two ago, are now experiencing a relative scarcity of women. They aren't supposed to be
men's meetings, but sometimes they look like it. It's a vicious cycle, because the smaller
the female contingent, the harder it may be for a woman to feel comfortable, so few who
visit, stay. Are men's bad manners or sexism driving women to women's meetings? That can't
be the whole explanation, because the Wednesday night Women Only meeting in mid-May
decided to go coed due to limited attendance. (See Women's Meeting Opens Doors to All,
above.) Or are women turned off to secular recovery and flocking to the religious
programs? There's no evidence for that either. Members attending the Kaiser CDRP program
report that the proportion of women enrolled in Early Education groups there seems to be
down sharply. No one knows why. (6/9/96)
On this topic, Mike B contributes:
- Bird-doggging and sexual harrassment must be discouraged in writing for SOS. The
Kaiser groups are famous for harrassment of this kind. No relationships for first year of
sobriety is good advice but can not be a rule. Instances of sexual harrassment should be
processed at meetings and generally deplored. Norms and customs are important for the
comfort and safety of members. if that doesn't work a Dutch Uncle talk with the
offender(s) might be appropriate. Prior to going directly to an ass-whupin'. (7/12/96)
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6/9/96. Click for an
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