Thank you for sending the September ’94 issue of Essay, the pamphlet on the International Unity Conference in January ’95, and the International Directory. I thoroughly enjoy the Essay, especially the stories of those who have experienced healing in their lives.

What a fantastic one-day SA seminar I attended yesterday in Montreal. We were 33 SA members, and most benefited from intensive sharing and discussions about the powerful spiritual program provided by our SA fellowship.

We had our “International Convention” here on October 22, 1994. There was some great sharing about recovery. We had one member with over a year of sobriety and another with over six months. The others had varying times of sobriety. I had the privilege of hosting three of the members at my home. We are hoping that numbers will increase and our fellowship will grow spiritually and that we will be able to enjoy a quality of life which we know is available if we work the Steps and abide by the Traditions.

Last year the Central Office Oversight Committee (COOC) felt that the high cost of producing and mailing the Essay should be offset by a subscription to cover these costs, and beginning December 1993, the newsletter was sent to subscribers only. An immediate result was an unforeseen and regrettable drop in readership. Although subscriptions have increased steadily in 1994, circulation is still only about 25 percent of what it was in 1993. That means less than one-fourth of the fellowship can participate in fellowship-wide communication!

For several years I was aware I had a sex problem and yet I was not willing to seek help. I would go on alcohol and sex binges, rotating between the two, trying to find happiness and peace. I started 25 years ago looking at pictures and fantasizing things that somehow I assumed to be normal. I began acting out some of my fantasies and that’s when everything started to go downhill.

Since the meeting in Rochester, NY in January 1994 the COOC has met six times. Quite a few matters of significance to the SA fellowship as well as the operation of the Central Office (CO) have been discussed.

Hi, my name is Roy and I’m a sexaholic. None of you knew this, but all of the speakers got together and designed the perfect program, just so we could all complement each other [laughter].

I’m Harvey, a sexaholic. You know, talking about spirituality as a separate topic here makes me think a great deal about how to talk about spirituality as a separate topic, because all weekend we’ve been talking about spirituality. I was told many years ago, there is no spiritual part of this program, it IS a spiritual program. So in thinking about talking about spirituality, I thought I would share with you some things that have happened recently that to me are the essence of spirituality.

My name is Gordon and I’m a sexaholic. My whole life was a spiritual program, but I didn’t know it, and I didn’t start growing until I had a spiritual experience, and started learning from my mistakes. In 1960 my Daddy passed away and I figured he died of a broken heart, and I couldn’t handle it, and I ended up three times in the strong room of the Marine Hospital. I was drowning it with alcohol, and the third time they wound up sending me to the nuthouse.

One of the greatest gifts I have received from Higher Power in my nearly five years of sobriety and recovery in SA has been my new-found ability to date. I’m glad that it didn’t happen how or with whom I wanted because that never worked for me before and I’m certain it wouldn’t work now.

I’m writing to you to raise some issues that have become somewhat of a passion for me—namely same-sex orientation, or behavior. I’ll start by giving you a little of my background. SA started in Melbourne, Australia in December 1992. I knew that SA had something that I wanted. For the first five months there were just three members.

I am a grateful recovering sexaholic. Because of my dad’s death and mother’s illness I came to California to help out and ended up at the North Hollywood SA group, where I found recovery. Halleluiah! I did my First Step with them which was the most healing and surprisingly, the most cleansing experience I’ve ever had in my life. I say surprising because I’m a woman and was greatly outnumbered in the meetings by men!

Bill W. of the Chicago area SA died on July 20, 1994 of a heart attack. He had had dinner with another SA member, and was sober. He was known as a member who was “always there” for people, and served faithfully on the old Advisory Committee.

We are now setting about building a new “house” for SA, that is, a new Central Office as well as a new organizational structure. I would like to share some of my personal feelings and experience with you who are involved in this task.

These 12 suggestions were beneficial and very useful to me and our fellowship. I believe they have helped us to stay focused and committed to working the solution, like the first 100 members of AA did. I thought the fellowship might find it of interest.

SA has been meeting twice a week for 18 months now. By the grace of God, we have a solid core of sobriety and recovery, with two members over 12 months, two over six months, and three over three months. We focus strongly on the literature at each meeting, reading from the White Book the Twelve & Twelve, and the AA Big Book.

We are enjoying the new format and the expanded content of the Essay newsletter. The articles on successful SA meetings (focusing on the solution) and on sponsorship were especially welcomed. They offer constructive suggestions on how to strengthen and enhance our commitment to recovery.

Hi, my name is Marsha F. I am a gratefully recovering lustaholic from Cleveland, Ohio. I have been sexually sober since March of 1990, thanks to the grace of God and this fellowship. I am serving SA as the Corrections Committee (CC) Chairperson. A better description might be “prison coordinator.” The letters from prisoners that are received at Central Office are sent to me. I then attempt to find an SA contact on the “outside” to correspond with the prisoner.

MOTION: Moved that the COOC agrees to move the Central Office from Simi Valley, California. Carried unanimously. (Margo C./Paul S.)

I heartily support your line “…the fact remains that we could make a significant spiritual breakthrough were we to submit to the direction [of a sponsor] and carry it out without questioning.” That’s the key. Until I started doing that (and I only did that because I was desperate, and had begun to see the point) my self-will had me still in its grip. And it’s my self-will that leads me inevitably back to acting out, in some new guise or other.