It’s 11:15 a.m. on the second Saturday morning of the month in Silver Spring, MD, a suburb of Washington, DC. The regular Saturday morning SA meeting has let out and the Maryland/Washington DC/Virginia Intergroup meeting is about to begin. I drove 35 minutes to be here; others came from as far away as the Maryland-Pennsylvania border or Fredericksburg, VA, both well over an hour’s drive away. A few live nearby, while the rest come from scattered locations in, around and between Washington, DC, Baltimore and Northern Virginia. Anywhere from five to 20 members attend each month, although ideally each of our more than 30 groups should be sending a representative.

So what am I doing here, representing my Tuesday night meeting when I could be doing a number of different things? For one thing, I am seeing how the SA fellowship is so much larger than my regular groups. Issues of concern to one group may have a bearing on the group I represent. If so, they are discussed here. Perhaps others have a take on the 12 Traditions that I do not, and vice versa. In any event, I believe that I serve on Intergroup so that I can serve my fellow meeting members and impress upon them the importance of the SA fellowship as a whole. Although my meeting is indeed autonomous, it is not alone and does not operate in a vacuum. I need to remember, therefore, that Intergroup also exists to handle matters that individual groups cannot handle by themselves, such as planning our annual one-day marathon or creating our fledgling Intergroup newsletter, The Real Connection. I believe that a good way to get an Intergroup started is to plan just such a special event in order for a number of groups to work together toward a common goal.

I crave the fellowship of other SA members who I don’t get to see on a regular basis. So from a strictly social perspective I enjoy participating in Intergroup. I enjoy hearing about what is working well in areas such as Twelfth Step work from placing ads to operating telephone “hotlines” to mailing information to those who may come in contact with prospective sexaholics. Even when our discussions get heated, or I come out on the short end of several votes on issues, I am almost always able to leave the meeting with a peaceful spirit and realize that our Higher Power spoke through the Intergroup conscience. We have managed to place principles before personalities for the most part. But do we ever have personalities!

Maybe it’s because we crave this fellowship that sometimes our meetings run over their allotted time. We also can get bogged down in what seems at times to be hairsplitting over various matters. Then again, we’re still getting our procedures settled. For years, only a handful of members came to Intergroup. Therefore, we have a number of issues to struggle through yet, but it is from this struggle that Intergroup unity is being forged.

Finally, with the advent of the Mid-Atlantic region service structure, our Intergroup is beginning to reach out to other Intergroups. We hope to foster awareness among our members about the need for a regional identity, and we hope to begin holding annual or semi-annual regional conferences soon. Many from our area who visit other Intergroups report that it was just what their personal recovery needed.

As I drive back toward Baltimore, I admit I am relieved that Intergroup has been taken care of for another month, but I feel even more connected to SA in my region, and that connection helps me to stay sober for another day. For me, that reaching out is utterly essential for my life, the antithesis to my self-indulgent disease. I only hope other members will look at the opportunity to provide selfless service through Intergroup as an aid to their personal SA recovery.