I benefitted immensely. I got enough courage to share what I had never been able to share in my home meeting.

Enclosed with this ESSAY is a document which is a first for SA—a proposed method for determining a fellowship-wide group conscience. This tells how every SA group will be involved in voting on matters affecting SA as a whole. This proposal must be ratified by the fellowship—that includes your group—before it can take effect.

Just an update on our group at the Medium Security Facility of the Kansas State Penitentiary [begun in May]. We have averaged 17 persons per meeting after two months, with a high of 22.

We are growing and need more books. This is wonderful, but also scary.… We are thankful that you are there to send us literature and strength.

I’ve been in this program over three years and still wonder why I still don’t feel entirely comfortable in a room full of men. Before becoming sexually sober, my obsession/compulsion included both heterosexual and homosexual urges. The former produced a great deal of guilt because of taking advantage of a younger sister and later in life taking advantage of women. The latter produced great emotional difficulties as well.

Contact with others in recovery is our lifeline.

We offer the following for what may be the first in a series of such vignettes SA members may wish to share.

I cannot thank the Lord enough! I…received the grace of living with all my feelings through an attack of lust, where I thought it would kill me. It didn’t, for I…brought it into the open [in the group].… I never imagined such a change being possible, God hearing my prayers so thoroughly!

When calling Central Office, use the new 805/581-3343 number instead of the old 818/704-9854 number when possible. Both numbers reach CO, but there’s a small extra charge when the 818 is used. That is because this was the number at the old location, and the Phone Company does automatic call forwarding on it to the new number—for a fee.

I just can’t wait to tell you and all the SA members what a wonderful Marathon meeting we had on August first. It was a joint session with S-Anon, Rochester, and two of the meetings were joint. God was with us to be sure.

There’s been a change from the Hacienda to the Viscount Hotel for the December 4, 5, 6 SA Convention in Los Angeles. When the Convention Committee saw that the Hacienda’s remodeling would not be done in time as promised, they switched to the Viscount and were amazed to get such a first-class hotel at such a late date.

A Time For Change. That seems to be the theme in this issue of Essay. Change can be unsettling, but it can also be healthy. Growth involves change, and without healthy growth the organism dies. Growing pains are really an opportunity; that’s what life is all about—the adventure of going where we’ve never gone before, within ourselves first, then, as we grow in recovery and unity, the odyssey of the fellowship itself.

For those who didn’t hear my luncheon talk Saturday at Bozeman, I’d like to share in summary what I said then to bring you all up to date on what’s happening with Central Office and with me. As of April 21st, I am no longer employed at View Engineering. For a long time, I’ve felt the need for a sabbatical, but things came to a head at work, and I resigned.

Word in from John A. of Baltimore:
“Recently a Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit has been opened at the Johns Hopkins Hospital here in Baltimore.…

The following are minutes of the business meeting held June 6, 1987 at the Bozeman convention. The minutes were taken and prepared by Jean P. of Nashville.

Listed below is the Central Office financial report, prepared by our secretary, Nan, and Terry M. Note that for the first time, Essay is listing groups that have donated as groups to our world services Central Office work. Nan tells us it isn’t always clear whether donations are from groups or individuals, so there may be some glitches here. But it’s an eye-opener for all of us.

Any sober SA members interested in being a coordinator for corresponding with loner members without groups, much as Matt is doing with those in prison, please write Central Office. Please provide a brief summary of your story and length and condition of sobriety, why you’re interested in the job, and any other pertinent information for qualification.

Nan, our Central Office secretary for the last couple of years, has agreed to be office manager as well as secretary, if she limits her work to less than full time. This new situation has come about since the last three secretaries haven’t worked out, since the Central Office has moved to commercial office space, and since Roy has withdrawn from being CO manager.

As announced at Bozeman, Matt W. of Kansas City is SA’s prison coordinator. He is the communication switchboard between SAs behind the wall and members on the outside who wish to correspond with or sponsor those in prison. At present, this involves coordinating well over a hundred SAs inside with those on the outside. This amounts to running a Central Office all its own!

…Thank you for the support that you and SA have given to us in getting a group started within the Arkansas Department of Correction. We have just completed our second meeting and elected our officers, plus we have started our study program of the “White Book” and have found that this program is what we have been searching for.