In October the Baltimore/Washington SA Intergroup held its 8th Annual SA/S-Anon Marathon. The location alternates each year between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. and this year’s Marathon was held in the Washington area. The theme this year was “Came to Believe.”

Our conference committee worked together as a team, with all of us considering that our meetings were as vital a part of our recovery as our regular weekly meetings. Over the past year the Vancouver group has grown considerably, to the point where in May and June we had seven birthday cakes for our members, four members with over two years sobriety, and very soon there may be two members with over three years sobriety.

Our New Beginners Meeting averages 45 each Monday night with five newcomers weekly. We are grateful to be part of this ever increasing fellowship which has given each of us “a new pair of glasses” to work through our share of problems by being rigorously honest.

I am so very, very grateful for SA. This program has changed my life for the better like no other psychology, therapy, or self-help ideas ever could. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with these things, they just don’t work like SA does.

July 1993 Conference (July 9–11, 1993) will be held in Nashville, TN.

[The following suggested guidelines are used by SA members returning calls to inquirers in a large U.S. metropolitan area. These guidelines reflect over six years’ experience in dealing with SA calls in this area. Your comments and/or experience is invited. Does your intergroup support a hot-line? How do you deal with inquirers? Reprinting these guidelines here does not constitute endorsement by the Essay or the Central Office.]

I wish to say thanks for the referrals SA has sent my way from callers to the Central Office. I have contacted them and we just interviewed one yesterday. He will be coming to his first meeting either tomorrow or on Monday. He lives about 50 minutes from Rochester and has children so he will have to plan his time to come here.

Distorted reality, that’s one of my main problems when it comes to dealing with my sexual addiction and life in general. My mind is full of unreality, thus causing me to view the things going on around me in a distorted manner. I then respond in an inappropriate manner since my whole basis is out of line.

I served as treasurer/literature person for my home group for 17 months — too long.

I’ve been in the Pittsburgh area groups for nearly 7 years now. Unfortunately, I recently lost an extended period of sobriety. In doing an examination of what happened leading up to this loss, I’ve realized that one unresolved issue for me is my unwillingness to admit to my innermost self that I am not like other “normal” people and never will be.

Last May 24 I celebrated my first year of sobriety in SA right here in the peaceful and beautiful hidden valley of my mountain home. In the morning I said a sincere prayer of thanksgiving to God for every day of progressive victory over lust in the year that has passed so swiftly and gently. Then, I thought of the kindness and love I received from SA through the year.

Life is so very full and it’s just a matter of showing up and being a part of and being of service. Lust is cunning, baffling and powerful and tricky, too, but if I just do as I think the Higher Power would have me do and thoroughly rely on him, everything turns out OK.

It is a deep sense of joy and gratitude that accompanies this letter. I have been part of the Regina SA group for over three years and my life has been so changed and enriched. I have my sobriety, I have found friends and I have a safe place to go when I am afraid. The group is doing quite well.

I mentioned in my letter two weeks ago that I would like to approach the Seattle Friday night SA fellowship about acting as a liaison between our group and Central Office. Well I submitted the idea to them at last night’s meeting and asked that they consider it for a week, discuss it at a brief business meeting and then decide the matter by group conscience.

In May, we cut the percentage of what we send to the Central Office in order to free up money for some outreach. Our projects, however, are already increasing our returns. The increase enclosed reflects the increase in attendance on the last week in June. This is because that meeting was the first of the “All Groups SA Unity Speakers Meetings” we’ve begun for the last Saturday of the month.

In the past, the Essay newsletter has been sent free of charge to anyone who requests it, and the Oversight Committee recommends that we continue that policy. However, the committee asks that each member who receives the Essay and who can afford to do so, make a voluntary donation of $10 per year to cover the increased costs of printing and mailing.

The Politically Correct Policeman (PCP), loosely defined, is a fellowship junky who considers it his job to flag anything in the literature or at meetings that might embarrass newcomers, minorities, or women. The idea is that no one gets offended. Currently I’m in my 10th year of recovery from Politically Correct Policeman-ship in 12-Step fellowships.

(The following is an extract from a talk given by Roy K. at the Socio-Psychosomatic Clinic in Bad Herrenalb, Germany, in November 1985. Roy’s audience consisted primarily of members of 12-Step Fellowships.)

It happened again. Those two simple words “I’m sorry” did their miracle. Two words so simple but so hard to say. An immediate change, from night to day, from misconnection to connection, from resentment to love, after just two simple words. It amazes me every time it works, as if it’s a totally new concept. Why shouldn’t it work? How can two such simple words do such a powerful healing?

Among many other gifts, SA hands me the most wonderful toolkit to use in recovery. The essential tools are meetings and telephone calls, working the Steps and Traditions, and contact with God as I understand Him. A daily contract for sobriety and a gratitude list are two other important tools. I generally use them only once a day. There is one tool, however, which I estimate I use 20 to 30 times every day and night. That is prayer.