The year 2015 has been an eventful one for me, for my home group, and for the French-speaking Intergroup. I came to SA in March 2012, at a group located in Lille, France. My home group in Lille opened in 2009 and has grown steadily. This is the only SA group in France. The other SA members in France are loners, but we stay well-connected through the Internet.

On a couple of occasions, some of us have travelled to Brussels for First Step sharing, and the fellows of the French-speaking SA group there have travelled to Lille a few times. The French-speaking Intergroup also includes French-speaking Luxembourg, some 300 kilometers (190 miles) away.

The French-speaking Intergroup also runs telephone meetings and has set up a website (sexoliquesanonymes.eu). This makes it easier for our members to get in touch through our Intergroup in a safe way, without being forced to look up names of triggering websites. Our membership here has decreased a bit, but our Higher Power keeps sending in new members.

Over the past couple of years, the Lille group has been able to lay down some basic guidelines, such as choosing officers (Treasurer, Secretary, and Intergroup Representative), deciding on the sobriety requirements for becoming an officer, and deciding the length of sobriety required to vote in our business meetings and groups.

When it comes to bigger events, the three groups (Lille, Brussels, and Luxembourg) work hand in hand, despite the long distances between some of our members. Thank you HP!

Everyone has problems. As SA fellows, we know our common problem is sexaholism. Therefore, we only talk about sexaholism in our meetings. We do have more light-hearted exchanges when our meetings are over.

This past October 30th through November 1st, our Lille group organized the first workshop ever held in France. The venue was the “Centre Spirituel du Hautmont” in Mouvaux, about eight miles from Lille. The topic was “Happy, Joyous and Free,” and Dave T. from the USA was our speaker. This was the big event of the year for us. Fewer than 20 fellows were expected, including S-Anons. But 41 attended!

God always takes care of each one of us; in this case by providing a wonderful welcoming team, in heaven-like surroundings.