To better serve our members who cannot make it to Central Office during the work week, we will open the office once a month on the last Saturday of the month. Our normal business hours were 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Our new business hours are still that, plus the last Saturday of the month (beginning April 29, 2023).

If you would like to attend our new Bridging The Gap committee meeting, please note that the Zoom information has changed from what was posted before. There are links to three BTG pamphlets too.

Part of Bridging the Gap between a treatment program and A.A. is the Temporary Contact Program, which is designed to help the alcoholic in an alcoholism treatment program make that transition.

As you know, one of the more “slippery” places in the journey to sobriety is between the door of the facility and the nearest A.A. group or meeting. Some of us can tell you that, even though we heard of A.A. in treatment, we were too fearful to go.

A.A. experience suggests that attending meetings regularly is critical. In order to bridge the gap, A.A. members have volunteered to be temporary contacts and introduce newcomers to Alcoholics Anonymous.

It is suggested that the temporary contact take the newcomer to a variety of A.A. meetings; introduce him or her to other A.A.s; insure that he or she has the phone numbers of several A.A. members, and share the experience of sponsorship and a home group.

We’re forming a new committee of people to learn what BTG is, and how to help with this basic Twelfth Step work. Please join us. You too can help.

Do you want to hear what’s facing the future of AA? Do you want to be informed about the items on the agenda at the New York conference? Would you like a free Tri-Tip lunch? 😉 Our delegate, Jenn D. will be in Porterville at the Twelve Step Recovery Club from 1:00 PM through 4:00 PM. All AA members are invited. And if you cannot attend in-person, you can join via Zoom.

There will be a lot of items on the agenda of the 73rd General Service Conference in New York. Our delegate to the conference, Jenn D., will be in our area to hear your input. Your input should be well-informed, of course, so a week before Jenn is here, The Valley Group is going to be hosting an Agenda Items Discussion this Sunday at 3:00 PM. Pizza and drinks will be provided if you attend in-person. But if you can’t make it to Visalia in-person, the discussion will also be available on Zoom.

All GSRs and AA members are welcome to attend. The Agenda Items Workshop will be March 19, 2023 @ 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM at the Porterville Twelve Step Recovery Club. Please spread the news that our Area 07 delegate, Jenn D., will be here to discuss what will be on the agenda at the GSO Conference in New York.

Thursdays at 5:30!

K.I.S.S. has a Summer schedule and a Winter schedule, and we just moved to the Winter schedule. Please announce that we are now meeting an hour later, at 10:00 AM. As always, pet friendly with plenty of fresh air – bring a chair!

Do you want to throroughly go through the 12 Steps? The Primary Purpose group is putting on a 24 week step workshop – two hours a week for 24 weeks. Get a fundamental understanding of what an alcoholic is, and what our steps are so we can recover.

A.A. World Services is looking to publish a new version of the Meeting Guide app, which will provide support for multiple filter selection. They did ask the web site servants to delete the meetings which are still in the “Location Temporarily Closed” state.

Done.

Fifteen meetings have been moved to the trash bin. If your meeting vanished from the Meeting Guide app, you were relying on our ability to read your mind: not a good bet! Let us know, and we will “un-delete” the meeting.

Visalia Sunday 7:30 PM Valley Group Serenity Seekers has moved to St. Paul’s Episcopal at 120 North Hall Street. With the new location, we hope to be able to have even larger number of attendees than before. We thank Sandra for her generosity and accommodations while we were at our previous location (her office).