Category: Groups

The Living Sober Group meets Monday and Wednesday at 6:00 pm for a closed discussion meeting. All meetings are non-smoking.

History:

The Living Sober Group began as an A.A. meeting at the treatment facility inside St. Margaret’s Hospital in downtown Montgomery. The meeting was started in September, 1984, by Pal G., a recovered alcoholic who served as the Public Relations Director for the treatment facility.  At that time, A.A. members from the community were not allowed to attend.

The group registered with GSO in February, 1985.  At that time, the group met at several locations inside the hospital. They moved from St. Margaret’s to the First Alabama Bank building on Adams Street, where they rented the bank’s second-floor office space, which included a waiting room and two smaller meeting rooms. The group met there from November, 1985 until November, 1986, when the bank asked the group to move.

Buddy S., the GSR, contacted Rev. Mark Waldo, the rector of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, and the church welcomed the group at their Clanton Avenue fellowship house. With this move, the group fully ended its relationship with the St. Margaret’s Treatment Unit.

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The Living Sober Group registered with GSO on February 5, 1985. At that time the group met in St. Margaret’s Hospital in Montgomery. Meeting times were Mondays and Wednesdays at 6 pm, and Saturdays at 3 pm.  Pal G. served as the GSR and there were 45 members. In November, 1986, Buddy S. informed GSO that the group would be located at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Montgomery. Group change forms reveal that the group once again changed their meeting location from the church on Clanton Avenue to [their present location] South Hull Street. The Living Sober Group first appeared in the 1985 A.A. Directory.

G.S.O. Archives

The Happy Hour Group meets three times a day Monday through Friday, at 6:30 am, noon, and 6:00 pm. They have a noon meeting on Saturdays, and a noon and a 6 pm meeting on Sundays. They have an open speaker meeting at 8 pm on the first Friday of every month. The Happy Hour Group also houses the District 8 Archives.

History:

In January or February, 2006, a group of about 15 men from the Fellowship Group met on a Wednesday evening at 6 pm at the Oak Grove Community Center because there was no meeting on Wednesday night at the Fellowship Group. They would walk through the twelve steps together using the Big Book. They decided that it would be great if they had their own meeting place. Thus the seed was planted, and Dan K. started to look for a place.

He found the storefront where Happy Hour still meets in the Eastdale Mall area. The founding members of the group were Dennis R., Sean H., Brian W., Richard A., Mike G., Dan K., Paul I., Matt, Randal, and Christy H. The first meeting was held sometime at the end of May, 2006, attended by five or six people. After a host of work fixing the place, a Grand Opening speaker meeting was held during the middle of June, 2006.  The speakers were Don T. and Joe “Hollywood” S. Over 150 people attended, with a closed-circuit television bringing the speakers to the back room.

From that core group of eight to ten members when the group started they have grown to over 100 members on their phone list. They hold up to three meetings a day, 365 days a year.  In the beginning they were lucky if three people came to the noon meetings. Today there are as many as fifty.

The Legacies Group meets every weekday at noon; Wednesday and Friday at 8 pm; Sunday at 9 am. All meetings are non-smoking.

Legacies also hosts the monthly Intergroup meeting at 8:00 am and the District 8 meeting at 9:30 am on the first Saturday of each month.

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 Fellowship group has 6 meetings weekly. These include two book studies, a beginners meeting, closed discussion, and an open speaker meeting. There is a women’s only meeting on Sunday night.  All meetings are non-smoking. There is an Al-Anon Family Group that meets in the gymnasium at the same time on Sunday (2 pm), Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  See the meeting schedule for details.

History:

The Fellowship group of Alcoholics Anonymous was formed February 1997 by a few members from another group. These few AA members decided to start a meeting on the East side of town. The Fellowship group met at a treatment center off Atlanta Hwy on Mendel Pkwy. They met there for about two years and in 1998 had to relocate.. A committee found a room available in a church on Bell Road. Once again growth came and after 2 years there was in need of a larger space.

In the year 2000 they moved to 5 Bell Road, Montgomery AL. to a  church annex where they continue to meet. The Fellowship group continues to grow and over the years have added more meetings to their schedule.

The Fellowship group of Alcoholics Anonymous in District 8, Area 1 welcomes all and hope you keep coming back, one day at a time!

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The Fellowship Group was originally known as the Bell Street Group.

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

The 12 Steps Group was the third group to form in Montgomery, and is the longest continuously running A.A. group in the city. They meet every Tuesday evening at 6:00 p.m.  The meeting splits into three discussions — a general discussion, a step study, and a beginner’s meeting.

History:

The 12 Steps Group is the second-oldest A.A. group in Montgomery. [At the time, the Downtown Group was still meeting and the Capital City Group had closed its doors.]

One of the group’s co-founders, Peter B., later served as Director and Treasurer of the General Service Board.  The group met for a number of years at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church on Woodley Road.  The rector of Holy Comforter, Bob Miller, also served as a trustee on the General Service Board following his retirement as Bishop of Alabama.  The group moved from Holy Comforter in the later 1990s, meeting for a brief time at Cloverdale Baptist Church prior to moving to its present home at Heritage Baptist Church on Perry Hill Road.

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

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The group was originally known as the Twelfth Step Group of Montgomery, which was first registered with GSO on December 3, 1971.  In December, 1973 the group sent in a Group Change Form on which it was identified as the Twelve Steps Group.  At that time the group numbered 15 members.

G.S.O. Archives