Response to Study Committee Questionnaire (11/99)

I. Organizational Goals.

1. What are the specific goals of the organization?

The specific goals of LifeRing Inc. are defined in its corporate charter:

"The specific purposes for which this corporation is organized are to serve recovering alcoholics, addicts, and persons involved in relationships with them, and the general public, by publishing and disseminating educational materials relative to alcoholism, addiction, and recovery therefrom, in print and other media, using the trade name LifeRing Press, and by holding public forums and meetings and similar activities, all dedicated to the goals of abstinence, secularity and self-help, and to engage in all other activities incidental to or appropriate in the achievement of the foregoing specific and primary charitable purpose."

A copy of the corporate charter and articles of incorporation is posted online at http://www.lifering.com/org/articles.htm

The specific purpose of unhooked.com is to promote the formation of abstinent secular self-help recovery meetings. A discussion of this purpose can be found in the "Welcome" page of unhooked com at http://www.unhooked.com/site/welcome_to_unhookedcom.htm .

II. Organizational Communications, Record Keeping, Inventory.

1. What is the communications capability of the organization structure that you represent: phone, mail, fax, and internet?

LifeRing Inc. has a dedicated telephone line, 510-763-0779. LifeRing Inc. shares a fax line with my law office: 510-763-1513.

LifeRing Inc. has a nonprofit bulk mailing permit in its own name and has an account on the postage meter at my law office for outgoing mail. In preparation for the convention we got out several mailings, including one to a list of 1400. We have the capability for significantly larger mailings.

LifeRing Inc. is associated with three web sites, www.unhooked.com  for promoting and supporting meetings and general outreach, www.lifering.com  for selling books and publications, and www.lifering.org , a password protected site which serves as a convenor's newsletter and resource. Www.unhooked.com also promotes LifeRing Press publications.

LifeRing can be reached via email at the lifering.com web site at any email address, e.g. publisher@lifering.com, orders@lifering.com, etc. I normally check the LifeRing Press email once or twice a day. Announcements of new publications end events are also broadcast via Tom Shelley's sosmail@onelist.com email list, of which I was one of the earliest members. I founded and am list owner of the soscon@onelist.com email list, and of the liferingab@onelist.com and liferingbod@onelist.com email lists. Soscon was the preconvention list, now evolved into a convenor's list. Liferingab is an email list for the LifeRing Advisory Board, and liferingbod is an email list for the LifeRing Inc. Board of Directors.

The LifeRing Inc. Board of Directors has held most of its meetings via the Internet, e.g. via IRC or in chat rooms.

Www.unhooked.com is linked with more than 70 referring web sites, and this number is expanding. Www.unhooked.com receives email at any address @unhooked.com and I handle a regular traffic of inquiries of various kinds to the various unhooked.com departments. I normally check the unhooked.com email once or twice a day. Unhooked.com has very recently launched a public forum and public chat room via Delphi.com in an effort to reach out to and engage a broader public. Already a small number of new people has been brought to the sosmail list through these efforts, and the chat room is meeting with a good reception; there are now chat meetings three nights a week, with more coming. The chat room also offers a source of immediate supportive feedback during the holidays.

2. What is the current response policy (material and information) to individuals requesting information and/or persons wanting to start meetings?

Response: Most inquiries regarding meetings and information come via email. I am able to answer most of them the same day by referring the person to the meetings page, http://www.unhooked.com/meetings/index.html . When I receive an inquiry from an area where there are no meetings, I suggest that the person may want to start a meeting.

Www.unhooked.com contains a complete kit of information and supplies for starting new meetings, all of which can be obtained online as well as in print. The meeting starter kit is online at http://www.unhooked.com/lsr/index.html . This includes a number of brochures (handouts) that can either be purchased ready-made, or downloaded in Adobe Acrobat format and produced locally, with the insertion of the local meeting information. In addition, a person can download the Handbook of Secular Recovery (from www.lifering.com ) and most of the content of the Keepers book (from www.unhooked.com ).

In the few cases where inquiries about meetings come in by mail (usually from prisoners) I respond by sending samples of the LSR brochures with a brief note.

I have had telephone inquiries at LifeRing Press seeking meetings or help with starting meetings from as far away as Los Angeles and New York City. I give them the information found on the meetings page of unhooked.com, and advise them of the literature that can be purchased or downloaded. I have spent quite a bit of time with some of the callers encouraging and helping them to start meetings.

3. What form of record keeping is utilized on individual members, meetings, and inquiries?

LifeRing Inc. keeps a computer database on all purchasers of LifeRing Press publications. This shows what they purchased, when, and the current status of their account. It also shows donations from individuals and contributions received from meetings. This database generates the invoices that go out with books, and is capable of a variety of reporting features.

The same database also includes basic information about all known non-prison SOS and/or LSR meetings, paralleling the information published on the web site. The goal is to be able to send mailings to all current meeting secretaries and/or treasurers, as was done before the '99 convention.

From time to time I make inquiries and solicit volunteers to help make further inquiries by email, telephone and/or regular mail to verify that the meeting information published on unhooked.com is still up to date. If a meeting convenor fails to respond to several inquiries, I will make every possible investigation and, if the meeting is positively reported as nonexistent, I will promptly remove the meeting from the list as dead, as happened recently with the meetings listed for Seattle and Buffalo.

The meeting list on unhooked.com was the result of a years-long struggle beginning in the mid-90s to get at the reality of our strength and to re-establish credibility for our meeting referral list. Several convenors around the country and I, and members of our local organization, spent days on the telephone contacting purported convenors on the lists supplied by the Clearinghouse, sifting the grains from the chaff.

The meeting list on unhooked.com still contains a measure of optimism, in that some of the meetings listed as "under construction" appear to be stillborn and probably won't get off the ground; and a few of the listed meetings are doubtful and appear headed for deletion. But on the whole, it is a credible and reliable list and I work to keep it so.

I get a regular stream of notices by email and telephone from convenors about time changes, place changes and similar information to post on unhooked.com, and I make it a priority to do this in a timely manner. Please consult http://www.unhooked.com/site/update.htm  for a log of web site activity, including changes in meeting list information; and consult http://www.unhooked.com/site/thanks.htm  for acknowledgements to convenors who have sent in meeting information updates. Convenors from all parts of the country have reported that new members have found them through the unhooked.com meeting list.

I do not keep information on individual members, except insofar as they happen to be book buyers and/or meeting convenors.

Inquiries are kept in the medium in which they came. Phone inquiries are logged into the phone log. Email inquiries are saved on disk. Mail inquiries go into a correspondence folder.

4. What is the current literature available? What is the means of distribution of literature? What is the pricing of available literature? What specific plans are there for future publications?

LifeRing Press currently has two books available: Keepers: Voices of Secular Recovery, a 224p. trade paperback that retails at $12.00, and Handbook of Secular Recovery (Online Edition) that is available as an Adobe Acrobat download. Tape-bound photocopies of the Online Edition can also be purchased at $5.00 while they last. In addition, there are two principal brochures in tri-fold format meant as handouts, one on sobriety and another on secularity. A third handout, is on the subject of self-help; this is currently circulating in draft form. The three brochures are meant to form an integrated trilogy: Sobriety Is Our Priority, Secular Is Our Middle Name, Self-Help Is What We Do. These are aimed mostly at newcomers and for posting in literature racks at treatment facilities and recovery centers. There is also a brochure in the same format about www.unhooked.com. We also published two brochures in the same format for the '99 convention, an invitation and then the actual convention program. All of these can be downloaded from www.unhooked.com and/or www.lifering.com. In the same format is the Meeting List for LSR meetings in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We also have a "Professionals' Packet" that I put together in October 1998 for a presentation to staff at a local hospital. This consists of photocopies of articles about SOS in the professional and some popular literature, together with a cover letter and copies of recent brochures, all in a simple pocket folder with a label. These were much appreciated in their trial run and I have since produced dozens of them on as-needed basis.

Print literature is distributed directly from 1440 Broadway, and generally I do it myself. Typically I pull the orders off the email, print the order form, enter the information into the computer database, generate an invoice, pull the items off the shelf, generate the appropriate shipping envelope or shipping label, stuff the envelope, seal it, apply the appropriate postage, and take it to the mailbox or post office. When payment is received, I enter it into the computer, make the appropriate notation on the hard copy of the invoice, transfer it from the receivables to the paid drawer, and take the check to the bank for deposit. From time to time reminders have to be sent out to slow payers. Volunteers have helped with these dunning letters. A percentage of people stiff us. During the pre-convention period when volume was high, volunteers did most of the mailing and shipping. We had a stuff-and-lick party one evening, and we had the benefit of Nanita Brown's assistance during several business days.

Literature is priced as follows. Keepers is $12 per copy plus $4 shipping/handling (of which $3.20 is Priority Mail postage). We do sell the Keepers at half price to meeting convenors in packages of six. The convenors resell them at a profit to help finance their meeting. See details of this arrangement at http://www.lifering.com/orders/express.htm . The photocopy edition of the Handbook is sold at $5, while they last. The handouts are sold at $5.00 for 50. Meeting schedules are free. Shipping and sales tax if applicable are additional. The Professionals' Packet is priced at cost depending on when and where it is produced.

Future publications:

5. If necessary, can and will LifeRing Press Inc. provide generic, or two sets of literature?

LifeRing Press can and will provide "generic" literature whenever practical. An example is the Keepers book -- this is the kind of general secular recovery literature that is not necessarily tied to the name of any particular organization and can be used in any setting. There may be some other literature that can be framed in a generic way.

Some literature does not lend itself to generic treatment. The outstanding case is the Handbook. The purpose of the handbook is to be the manual of, or an introduction to, a specific organization. It principal purpose is to promote and recruit. To write a manual for an unnamed "generic" organization is not rational or cost-effective.

The handouts also have a primarily promotional purpose and cannot rationally be recast in a "generic" mold. Currently, meetings in several parts of the country that still use the SOS name use the LSR brochures and add their meeting name and information on the back.

As for "two sets of literature," LifeRing Press cannot lawfully publish, distribute, or promote literature (in print or online) that advertises, promotes, recruits or fundraises for "SOS" or "Secular Organizations for Sobriety." See the court's injunction and The Firm's cease and desist letter posted at http://www.lifering.org/litigation/injunction.htm  and at http://www.lifering.org/litigation/letter_from_the_firm.htm . Even if it were lawful, literature duplication would be a waste of our limited resources. Name unification would be more economical and more considerate of the greater organizational interest by far.

6. Other than the Name Issue, what are your major concerns in the areas of communications, record keeping, and inventory? What areas specifically need priority for development?

At this time, LifeRing Press and LifeRing Secular Recovery appear to be adequately armed in the area of communications, record keeping and inventory. There is still a lot of work to be done in the area of book and literature promotion, and in providing convenors with all the support they deserve and are entitled to, but I believe this will be accomplished in time.

III. Financial History and Current Status

1. Please provide information regarding the current financial situation, sources of income and nature of expenses, as well as past financial statements, and whatever else that will give us an overall understanding of financial matters, past and present. Is additional funding required to meet the goals of the organization? What are the possible sources of these funds?

The current and past LifeRing Inc. financial statements are forwarded separately. I was the original Treasurer of LifeRing Inc. and set up the original primitive accounts and bookkeeping. Our then-director Laura L., who has bookkeeping expertise, reviewed the initial books and prepared an initial financial report to the Board of Directors. More recently, Marjorie J. has taken over the books and prepared the financial statements. With a background as chief financial officer of a mortgage banking firm and with technical expertise in accounting software, Marjorie now performs the corporate treasurer duties and has the title CFO of LifeRing Inc. She is taking the LifeRing bookkeeping to a higher level of professionalism.

LifeRing Inc. does not have any paid personnel. Everyone who works for or with LifeRing does so as a volunteer in their spare time. The lack of payroll expense is the reason why we can do a great deal with little money.

At some time in the future it will become necessary to add payroll. We are not opposed to this philosophically, but at the present scale of operations it just has not been necessary. Adding payroll will require amending our bylaws and notifying the tax authorities. As the scale of the operation grows, we will also need to obtain separate office space and equipment.

Additional funding will become necessary in the future. We are particularly mindful of the fact that the SMART organization a year or two ago obtained a grant of $50,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for leadership development. They used this to set up training workshops and to fly people in for them from around the country. At this time we have successfully done a pilot half-day LSR convenor development workshop Nov. 6 in Oakland and I believe we could hold successful full-day workshops in the near future. A substantial grant would allow us to bring in potential convenors from elsewhere. This would greatly accelerate the rate of new meeting formation.

The planned National Secular Treatment Survey will require specific grant funding. I believe that grantors for this project can be found among foundations active in the substance abuse field. This will be funded separately from LifeRing but will be under LifeRing leadership. Since LifeRing has complied with all corporate formalities, enjoys competent in-house leadership, and its status is uncomplicated by outside affiliations, I do not anticipate unusual difficulties raising these funds.

We have a major lag in meeting development in large cities. The SF Bay Area is the only major metropolitan area to date in which we have developed any substantial presence, and even that is far below our ultimate potential. At this time I do not know exactly how we are going to break into major cities like New York, Boston, Washington and others; however, when we figure out a plan I suspect that money will be required to get there.

We will also be raising funds from time to time to help finance publications. For these kinds of funds we plan to turn to our book buyer list and our membership and to the public via the web sites. I believe that we will have little difficulty raising this kind of funds.

LifeRing Inc. is also registered as an eligible nonprofit with Guidestar, the philanthropic referral service, as an avenue for people who want to make charitable donations online. Anyone who wants to donate to a secular group that helps people with chemical dependency will find us at http://www.guidestar.org/index.html  and only needs to push a button to set off a chain reaction of electronic fund transfers that will ultimately land in the LifeRing Inc. bank account. To date this has not yielded anything, and I'm not sure if it ever will, but I thought it was worth doing.

We also participate in the www.greatergood.com  program.  This is a nonprofit entity that sets up a virtual shopping mall; if the buyer clicks through from unhooked.com and makes a purchase, LifeRing Inc. gets a referral fee. This is similar to the current associate relationship between unhooked.com and www.amazon.com . We have received an initial payment of $8.76 from greatergood.com and expect revenues of perhaps a few hundred dollars per year from this source.

In all things financial, it is well to keep in mind that where there is a vision, the money can usually be found, but not usually the other way around. We have the vision; we will find the money.

2. What are your major concerns regarding financial matters? Do you have specific plans or recommendations to address these issues?

At the moment financial matters are not the major concern of LifeRing Inc. We have the funds we need for current operating expenses and we have a modest source of income through sales of our publications. Details are in the separate financial report.

Financial issues related to future major expansion and specific projects were discussed above.

 

IV. Overview of Organizational Structure

1. What is the organizational structure of LifeRing Press Inc. and unhooked.com? (a diagram would be helpful).

The organizational structure of LifeRing Inc. is in major flux right now. We began as a publishing house and we have evolved into a recovery organization. As a result, while our corporate charter accurately represents our corporate operation, our Bylaws are in substantial part outdated and need major revision. In general, I see us moving toward the four-point proposal I outlined before the September '99 convention; see http://www.unhooked.com/lsr/proposed_structure_for_lifering_.htm .

I'm afraid I'm not good at organizational charts and cannot provide the requested diagram at this time. The apex as well as the foundation of the whole proposed structure is the meetings. The convenor's congress is the meeting of meetings and forms the centerpiece. The board of directors would serve the meetings with quality control and financial responsibility, and would report to the congress. The press and the service center would serve the meetings with publications, information and referrals, and would likewise report to the congress. It will be some time before it all settles down into a cognizable pattern, and what that pattern will be will depend, obviously, on what people will feel comfortable with. The most important thing I want to see happen is regular annual conventions composed of delegates empowered by their meetings to decide stuff. It took more than three years to get the first one organized, against heavy fire and inertia, but now that the ice has been broken, we can do it again. It is my conviction, based on seven years of experience with SOS, that the organization will either become democratic, or it will become extinct.

Unhooked.com is a collaborative consisting of several pagemasters and myself as webmaster. For details, see http://www.unhooked.com/site/index.html

2. What persons (paid and volunteer) are currently utilized by the organization, what are the responsibilities of those persons, and to whom are they accountable?

LifeRing Inc. has a five-member Board of Directors. LifeRing Press has an Advisory Board. LSR has the nucleus of a Service Center. There are numbers of meeting convenors who give their time and energy to make sure that the meetings keep going, and numbers of others who volunteer for specific tasks. The responsibilities of the individuals involved depend principally on how much work they are willing to do. The more work they will do, the more responsibility they have.

At the moment, I am the stockroom boy, mailroom clerk, data entry operator, programmer and debugger, gofer, receptionist, keeper-upper of three web sites, CEO, author, editor, proofreader, workshop leader, and wandering troubadour. I'm de facto the operator of the LifeRing Secular Recovery Service Center, and am nursing along two new open meetings in San Francisco and San Rafael, and leading a weekly meeting in a locked psychiatric ward in Berkeley. And I'm making a tolerable living as a lawyer.

I'm accountable to public opinion in several forums to which I have daily exposure. I am in daily touch with SOS/LSR people all over the world via the Internet and if they have a problem with what I'm doing or not doing, they generally don't hesitate to let me know.

I'm having a wonderful time doing what I do and I'm trying to make sure that everyone can see this so that they will get jealous and want in on the action. Already Marjorie J. has taken over the finances and moderates the soscon list, and has made her first public presentation on behalf of LSR. Bill S. has begun some fundraising and has considerable experience as public speaker for LSR. Nanita B. has many office and public relations talents and is available in her spare time. Several new convenors have emerged after the recent convenor's workshop and will be taking more responsibilities. I have several volunteers offering to help with computer stuff. Most people respond willingly when I call them to ask for help with some specific project. There's a lot of enthusiasm here, and in due time I believe I can find capable people to take over each of my current hats, one after the other, so that I can eventually retire and do other things.

3. What opportunities are available for member input into the running of the organization? Are members using these opportunities?

At the moment "the organization" is in creative chaos. People can have as much input into it as they are willing to invest of their constructive time and energy. Since we do not yet have regular structures, stuff may get decided in spontaneous discussion during or after a meeting, or around an informal lunch table, or via email or by phone. The basic rule with LifeRing is that if you do the work, you will have the input. Some of the members are contributing and getting power; others are hanging back and being out of it. That's only fair. Even when we finally have regular democratic structures, the people that do the work will be the driving force, otherwise we turn into a do-nothing Kaffeeklatsch. A good example of how this works was the recent convention. There was a core group of five who did most of the work, and this became the organizing committee. There were dozens of others who made some contribution and therefore had some input into the event.

Generally speaking, we are more successful in obtaining volunteer input around specific projects, such as the convention, than on a permanent ongoing basis. However, as the number of such projects increases, more people catch fire and become involved on a longer-term basis. The recent convenor's workshop in Oakland is an example; this got several people motivated to want to become leaders of their meeting, thus freeing up the current convenors to go start new meetings. See the summary at http://www.lifering.org/news/convenorwks.htm . The more active we are, the more people come forward to join up. When we display energy, we attract energy.

V. Future Development

1. Other than the unresolved issue surrounding the Injunction, what specifically do you see as the major areas of organizational development needing our attention? Do you have specific plans or recommendations about how we might implement these changes? What are the major obstacles to be overcome?

The issue surrounding the Injunction only seems to be unresolved. In reality it was resolved two years ago but not everyone has realized it yet. Once The Firm became involved on the appeal and in bringing its cross-appeal, the likelihood of SOS Inc. prevailing on the matter in our lifetimes was rendered remote. SOS Inc. is unlikely to prevail in the Ninth Circuit. But if it did, The Firm would likely take the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, gaining another five years' delay or more. I have written about the appeal at some length in my Report to the Membership on the Trademark Litigation.

The current status of the appeal is the following. Jim Monroe of Canton NY is the lead attorney for SOS Inc. on the appeal. He is the working counsel on the appeal and he wrote the initial brief two years ago. I function solely as "local counsel," a formal role akin to "sponsor" that is required because Jim M. is not admitted to practice before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the court holds me as well as Jim M. responsible for prosecution of the case.

In the middle of September this year I received a "Notice of Default" from the Court of Appeals. I then spoke with the court clerk and learned that our response brief was due filed at the end of September 1998, more than a year ago, and has not been filed. The Notice of Default states that the attorneys face possible sanctions up to and including dismissal of the appeal unless SOS Inc. files its responsive brief promptly. SOS Inc. must file a motion for permission to file the brief late, along with the brief itself.

In the past two months, despite the urgency of the matter, I have not succeeded in establishing communications with brother Jim M. about the Notice of Default. I have written him and left numerous messages at his home and office telephone numbers, without response. I have notified Jim C. in Los Angeles and Paul Kurtz in Amherst NY of my intention to withdraw as local counsel, and advised them of the necessity to obtain substitute local representation. At their request, I have delayed my withdrawal, but I see no progress either with the appellate brief or with obtaining substitute counsel and intend to commence formal withdrawal proceedings shortly.

In my opinion, a rational move at this stage is for SOS Inc. to try to settle the appeal.  SOS Inc. should attempt to negotiate a mutual dismissal of the appeals in exchange for a mutual waiver of costs. SOS Inc. already owes a cost bill from the original trial and is liable to owe a quite substantial additional amount if the appeal is ultimately determined adversely, as appears very probable. I hope that my imminent formal withdrawal as counsel on the matter will help to energize settlement discussions so that this matter can be put behind us.

It appears plain to me that delaying action on name unification until the outcome of the appeal is not good policy. If the appeal is allowed to take its natural course, nothing will be decided for years and years. That is the way of the court system. Meanwhile the state of public confusion that currently exists as between the SOS and the LifeRing names will continue. This is not good for any of us. Because names tend to get emotions attached to them, the prolonged persistence of two different names poses a clear risk to our organizational unity.

The name issue is intimately tied to the organizational-structure issue because CSH owns the SOS name. It does so through its subcommittee or subsidiary, SOS Inc. As long as we use their name we have to play by their rules. I would ask each Study Committee member to study the Bylaws of SOS Inc., posted in full at http://www.lifering.org/convention99/sosincbylaws.htm . You will immediately see (at Article IV (a)) that SOS has only one Voting Member, and that is CODESH (now CSH). No other SOS member has a vote in SOS.

The problem of how to introduce democracy into a sobriety organization whose only voting member is an outside entity that has no intrinsic interest in sobriety -- indeed, that makes its decisions around a table laden with wine bottles -- is an enduring headache for those who want to cling to the SOS name. It is not a significant problem for the LifeRing part of the organization. Any member group of SOS that wants to bypass the migraine of the SOS/CSH relationship and get on with the positive work of building a democratic organization, along the general lines of the four-point LSR proposal, can do so simply by changing its name to LifeRing Recovery and participating in the LifeRing process.

2. What is your position on the difficulties surrounding the name of our organization? If the current attempts to settle the restriction on the use of the name SOS in Northern California are unsuccessful, what would you suggest as the best way to handle the situation? What other options would you consider?

The difficulties surrounding the name of our organization are a grievous misfortune for all of us. In the public eye the organization now appears to be split, and the longer this confusion goes on, the worse it will be for the whole cause of secular recovery. We are too small and too marginal to also be divided. People don't want to be a part of an organization that appears to be divided, decomposing or eating itself up.  A prolonged delay on our part in achieving name unity is ammunition for the detractors of the secular alternative.  Name unification is a matter of survival.

It is irresponsible to allow this schism in our public image to go on one day longer than it absolutely must. If we had had a living democratic process in this organization, we probably would have started open discussions about a new name as a fallback even before filing this lawsuit, because there was always the risk of losing. It was a lucky thing that LifeRing Inc. was founded in the Spring of 1997, so that a legal-financial-organizational structure was already in place, and the LifeRing name and logo had had many months of public advertising and familiarity built up, when the disaster hit. What a catastrophe it would have been if there had been nothing to fall back on when the legal axe fell on our old name in Northern California. We might still be debating names here instead of building recovery meetings. For the national organization to postpone action on the name unification issue until the outcome of the appeal is to bless confusion and fertilize disunity.

The reason the litigation was launched is that the SOS name had become odious in Northern California. The non-abstinent group was stinking the name up. Check out the background material on the http://www.lifering.org/  web site if you don't know about it. We did the best we could to vindicate our good name in court but it was too little, too late. Today if you look in the telephone directories for "SOS" in Northern California you will find only the stinkers.  Whenever anyone goes around promoting the SOS name in this area, the stinkers get the benefit.

The SOS name is no longer usable for any project aspiring to a national dimension. Neither web sites nor publications in any medium aiming for national distribution can lawfully use the SOS trademark. No national project, such as the proposed National Secular Treatment Survey, nor the long-awaited effort to become the official secular alternative in the federal prison system, not to mention publicity in national media, can move forward under the SOS name.  This dog won't hunt anymore on the big field. 

This organization was originally known as SSG, Secular Sobriety Groups. The name change to SOS occurred in 1988, at a time when the old organizational setup had outgrown its usefulness and it was time to make a change in order to move forward. Such a time has come again.

-- Marty N.
11/7/99