I just wanted to drop you a note sharing with you our excitement at the wonderful Conference we just experienced here in Nashville. We were so pleased at the turnout at the Conference. Instead of the 180-200 we were anticipating, over 300 people arrived in Nashville to attend the Conference. It was a wonderful few days.

Two women members ask: “We are very interested in knowing the experiences of other groups and members on the matter of hugging between members.”

Every November, the AA Grapevine has what is called its “Classic Issue,” reprinting articles from AA’s past that are relevant to today. The November 1989 issue of the Grapevine has two articles that may be of interest to us in SA.

This is the story of a Lust-aholic leading two incompatible lives and at the same time almost cracking up while doing so. I grew up in a Christian family. My father died when I was three, and as a result my mother stayed depressed for many years. In a way we children grew up alone.

I can’t do recovery by myself. That’s for sure. I have tried it often enough and failed. At the same time for me to be in recovery, and stay in recovery, I must do my own inventory. No one else can do it for me.

On October 7, 1989, at the Southern California Regional Convention (held in Orange County October 6, 7, and 8), the Women’s Willingness Group was born. This was a joint meeting of SA and S-Anon women.

…I haven’t written you for a considerable time. I had joined SA when a prison chapter was begun at the Medium facility of the Kansas State Penitentiary in May 1986, and I was a loyal participant there, got to know Matt well, until I was transferred to Wichita, KS, in 1988.

We are up and struggling again. Two, maybe three members.

The LORD is good. We have gotten a meeting place… Two, sometimes three, and yes, there are times I meet alone, but those are rare…

SA is alive and well in Casper. Two of us have been meeting each Monday night for several months now, and we have just had the first response to our notice in the newspaper.…

…Our attendance has fallen somewhat in the past two months, but our spirits are growing and recovery is still spreading in the West Suburban area.…

…We are just about to add one more women’s stag meeting and another Friday meeting, too. Our “original” Thursday meeting just moved its site to accommodate the steady 30+ attendance plus an S-Anon running between 10-15 each time. This program is a miracle.

We are once again asking that checks sent to the Central Office be accompanied by a brief note or explanation on the check telling us the purpose of the check, money order, or cash. For example, group donation, personal donation, or literature order.

It was a very good convention. I thought the highlight of the convention was the two meetings on the Traditions where people wrote about the Unity Tradition and what worked against it and what worked for unity.…

On May 30, 1989, “Dear Abby” readers were advised: “…Sexaholics Anonymous is based on the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous, and all one needs is sincerity to make it work. There are no dues or fees. Interested parties should write to: Sexaholics Anonymous, P.O. Box 300, Simi Valley, Calif. 93062.”

I didn’t want any more time to pass before sharing a little about the wonderful experience I had at the Milwaukee Conference. It was an event of peace and serenity for me and I really felt the presence of my Higher Power there. I was reminded once again about my first SA meeting and how it was at that time.

A special thank you to this group for calling the Central Office the day after “Dear Abby” to give us the number of their answering service for use in the anticipated flood of letters. We appreciate this responsible act.

“After reading a recent ‘Dear Abby’ column, I was stunned to realize that the ‘sex addict’ portrayed almost chronicled my own troubled existence. Although married and a father, I find myself constantly struggling to come to grips with my almost insatiable sexual desire—achieving masturbatorial release with all forms of pornography—video, pictorial and the written word.… Please consider this perverse preamble as my cry for help to forever wipe myself clean of these unnatural yearnings.”

We are asking that all groups and individuals note that the SA logo is now trademarked and is being registered with the U.S. Trademark Office in Washington, D.C. This move was necessitated by the fact that the SA logo was being picked up and misused (it actually appeared in a newspaper cartoon!).

Now I’m dealing with another problem…a spouse who is antagonistic to SA, SLAA, AA, or any other Twelve-Step program because of the references to “higher power,” a feeling that the program doesn’t reflect Christian values, and (probably most important of all) her own fears of having to face the fact that I am, indeed, just like the people she read about in the material from the various groups, addicted to sex and lust.