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The Chisholm Group meets at 12:00 noon and 6:00 pm Monday through Friday and at 6:00pm on Saturday and Sunday.

The last Saturday of each month, the Group holds a Chip Celebration, with fellowship and food, followed by an open meeting at which members who have celebrated milestones — 30, 60, or 90 days; 6 and 9 months; and anniversaries — share their experience, strength, hope, and gratitude. Family and friends are invited.

The front door is located off the open parking area found by going between the two buildings in the picture above. All meetings are smoking, with the exception of the Sunday night speaker meeting, the Chip Celebration, and Movie Night.

History:

The Chisholm Group was started in 1988, when Lenny Bolton, the new pastor of Chisholm Baptist Church, recognized the need for an A.A. group in the community, after meeting with many of its residents.  Early efforts by Joe S. and Judy C. didn’t take root until Lenny met Don T. — a sober member of A.A. who had recently returned to Chisholm from Texas — and asked him to try again to get a group started.

The group met for a short time in a small building behind the Chisholm Baptist Church until a small building on the corner of Pickett Street and Lower Wetumpka Road was rented. Group membership grew over the years, and they recognized the need for a larger facility. In February, 1998, the group moved to 2906 Lower Wetumpka Road, where they met for nearly 10 years.

In September, 2007, the group again moved, this time to Congressman Dickerson Drive (Federal Drive). Since that time, the group has moved twice more. The group meets every day, and the last Saturday of each month is a “Celebration of Life” open meeting. All the members who have “picked up a chip” during the month have an opportunity to pass it on by sharing how they did it.

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The Chisholm Group was registered with the GSO on April 6, 1989. At that time, closed discussion meetings were held on Thursday nights at the Chisholm Baptist Church. Bennie W. served as the GSR, and there were approximately ten group members. This Chisholm Group first appeared in the 1990-91 A.A. Directory.

G.S.O. Archives

The Prattville Downtown Group meets at 6:30 pm, seven days a week. In addition, they have noon meetings on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and a 6:30 am meeting on Thursdays. All meetings are non-smoking.

History:

In the late 1980s, Mac and Bob G., who attended St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Prattville, began a Big Book study on Wednesday nights at 8:00 pm.  Sometime later, Bill K. and Susan C. moved to Prattville from New Orleans and, in 1991, helped start the Open Family meetings on steps 1-3 and sponsorship on Wednesdays at 6:30 pm.

Between 1991 and 1993, meetings expanded to three meetings a week.  Bill K. left Prattville in the mid 1990s, but Raleigh W. and Nancy W. (AFG) were here, and kept the meetings going.  By 1994 there were open discussion meetings on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday.  Sometime around 1997, a Saturday night 8:00 pm meeting was started, and the members attending these meetings began looking at starting a group.  In 1998, they wrote to the office in New York.

The first group conscience meeting of the Downtown Prattville Group was held August 24, 1998.  David K. acted as unofficial secretary for that meeting.  There was no sign-in sheet, but by all recollections the early membership included: Charles C., Carla C., David K., Fred C., Lonnie B., Melissa B., and Mike F.  Eleanor S., Paul D., and Keith P. joined soon thereafter and helped grow the group.

On August 9, 2002, the group voted to move from St. Mark’s to a small self-standing building at 326 W. Fifth Street.  The first meeting at the new (current) location was held on November 1, 2002.

Today, there is at least one meeting of the Prattville Downtown Group every day, 365 days per year.

The Chapter 9 Group meets on Saturdays and Sundays at 1:30 p.m., both open discussion meetings. These meetings are frequented by newcomers still in treatment for alcoholism and other addictive disorders. They are always in need of solid sobriety to share experience, strength, and hope.

History:

The Chapter Nine Group began in the early 1980s with a handful of recovering alcoholics who’d gotten a taste of sobriety during a 28-day stay at what was then the Meadhaven treatement facility.  For some ten years the group met in the Meadhaven auditorium.

In the early 1990s, Baptist Medical began to remodel Meadhaven, and so the Chapter 9 group began a search for a new meeting place. A larger facility was quickly found a block away, at the Rotary Hall of the Easter Seal Rehabilitation Center. Attendance swelled until the Wednesday night speaker meeting would sometimes exceed one hundred. In November, 1995, Easter Seal management needed to use the Rotary Hall during the time Chapter 9 was meeting.

An ad hoc committee was formed to find a new home for the group.  Three sites were identified: the first had once held an A.A. meeting, but it had closed; the second was in rural south Montgomery County — it was large enough, bu the consensus was that it was just too far out to sustain membership or attract alcoholics from the surrounding area; the third was the newly-built Chemical Addictions Program (CAP) auditorium.

Heated debate arose over the proposal to move the group to Montgomery’s west side. With time running out at Rotary Hall, the steering committee decided to make the move to the groups present location. This location makes Chapter 9 the western-most meeting in Montgomery; the only meeting west of Interstate 65. It is also squarely in the heart of what many consider the least desirable part of town.

On Saturday, January 6, 1996, Chapter Nine held its first meeting in the CAP auditorium. What followed was a period of evolution. Due to Chapter 9’s new location, many who had felt comfortable on the Southern Bypass were intimidated by west Montgomery’s reputation for crime and violence. Attendance fell dramatically. But a handful of alcoholics stayed and carried the message to clients in the CAP residential program and to members of the surrounding community.  Most importantly, the handful of drunks stayed sober themselves.

Meetings are still attended by resident clients of CAP, but an increasing number of people from the surrounding community are attending, some driving as much as 30 miles to the west end of town.

The P.O.S.T. Newsletter, May 2002

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The Chapter 9 Group was first listed with GSO on February 1, 1982. At that time, meetings were held at 1:30 pm on Sundays and 8 pm on Wednesdays at the Meadhaven Baptist Medical Center. Marvin M. was the first GSR and there were approximately 35 group members.  The group first appeared in the 1982 A.A. Directory.

G.S.O. Archives

A Vision for You Group meets on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. for an open discussion meeting that is frequented by people still in treatment for alcoholism and other addictive disorders. They are always in need of solid sobriety to share experience, strength and hope.

History:

The Vision for You Group was first listed with GSO on March 5, 1999.  At that time David H. served as the GSR and there were nineteen members.  Meetings were held on Wednesdays and Sundays in the Meadhaven Auditorium on South Boulevard in Montgomery.  The group first appeared in the 2000-2001 A.A. Directory.

G.S.O. Archives