The 4th National Annual Drug Addicts Anonymous Conference in Jensen Beach, FL

All right, everyone, we're going to begin the meeting. Welcome to the 2019 National Drug Addicts Anonymous Conference.

Believe it or not, we spent a good eleven months meeting at first every other week and then every week to plan this conference. It was a lot of work. A lot of people came in and out. But you know, there was a core group of us, probably 10 to 20 people that that really spent a lot of time, energy and effort to try to give you the best possible conference and experience possible. We have some amazing speakers all weekend.

Everyone is here. We're super excited to have you guys. I think tomorrow we should have an even bigger audience, but you guys are definitely in for a treat. We did. Our speakers are like spread out evenly, so it's not like one group time or one day is better than another day. Like the speakers tonight are going to be incredible,

so I want to open the meeting with a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer.

God

to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can difference.

So drug addicts Anonymous, we're a fellowship that uses a, a literature and the a a big book. And we were different than like NA for instance, cause NA has their own book and their own literature. We kind of wanted a fellowship to use the message as we saw it, but still be able to reach more people. Alcoholics Anonymous has the primary purpose of being specifically for alcoholism and for Alcoholics. We wanted to reach more people with a similar message of recovery.

The big book we feel applies to a lot of different things as specifically drug addiction and it could be worked the 12 steps to solve the problem just like it can for alcohol. So you know, like we're really excited about this fellowship. There's a drug addicts Anonymous USA. There's like a world services kind of thing that's that's been starting and we have quarterly meetings every three months where GSR from all over the country call in. We have upwards probably a little over 100 DIA meetings around the United States,

specifically in Florida, Texas, the Northeast, Tennessee, all different places. And we have a lot of people from those states actually flew all the way down just to attend this conference. So I really appreciate everyone is here from from out of town. So,

you know, like we have a goal to kind of make this and a fellowship that can reach a lot of people and hopefully get a lot of people recovering and getting really excited about recovery.

So I want to read our passage from the big book, which is our theme. So it says there we are average Americans, all sections of this country and many of its occupations are represented, as well as many political, economic, social and religious backgrounds. We are people who would normally not mix, but there exists among us a fellowship of friendliness and understanding, which is indescribably wonderful. We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck, when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy

pervade the vessel from steerage to captain's table. So that is our theme from steerage to captain's table. Unlike the feelings of the ship's passengers, however, our joy and escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us. But that in itself would never have held us together as we are now joined. And hopefully we're going to get to our common solution tonight and tomorrow and Sunday morning. We have food. That's just part of the food we have, I think

hot plate that's going to be out later tonight. So that's pretty exciting. We have a ton of different food tomorrow. There's water in the cooler. We'll have some more drinks tomorrow as well. Please don't smoke in the front of the building if you can't smoke on the side. There's orange buckets to throw your cigarette butts in a trying to think of any other announcements. We're very limited on T-shirts. So if you want a T-shirt, now would be the time to get them. If you if we don't have any of your size, you can order them with registration and we can, you know, just get them to you. Just give us your

we'll send you a T-shirt. Are there any other announcements?

You know, all right, so well, but just get right into our first group of speakers. Zach, thank you for lending me your book.

So tonight we're going to have the first speakers are going to be why Drug Addicts Anonymous with Zach, see Brian B and Matt A. Then we're going to do DA abroad with Dan M all the way from England. There's Drug Addicts Anonymous in Europe that actually started in Sweden before it moved over here in Texas.

And then we're going to do a speaker meeting with Tara R And also real quick like this is the 4th drug exonomous conference like National Conference Gainesville up in North Florida put on three prior to this,

which were incredible. So shout out to them. They allowed us to do it this year and we're hoping someone takes it for

next year and we have an idea who that might be. So again, our first speaker, Zach, Z, Brian and Matt, let's give them a hand.

Not it.

Everybody knows this is the adult way to solve a problem.

Brian Beatty, I'm a drug addict. Are you guys here at all,

Mike even doing anything?

There's a whole bunch of that's what she said just happened right there.

Yeah, that's perfect. Just slide it over maybe.

All right, So I'm Brian Beatty. I'm a drug addict.

So hopefully, like one thing that that that I've been thinking about praying about this last few weeks was that

I was that I see my voice sounds the same to me in here.

That, that everybody could have open hearts and, and, and open minds. And I want to say a quick prayer called the set Aside prayer that that's been so valuable to me and it's become just a way of life for me,

setting aside everything I think I know about pretty much everything. But if you want to bow your heads and destroy me real quick,

dear God, please help us all to set aside everything we think we know about ourselves, everything we think we know about this illness, everything we think we know about recovery, the Big book, the 12 steps, this fellowship, and especially everything we think we know about you. Dear God, please help us have an open mind, open hearts, so we can have a much needed new experience with all these things and see the truth. Amen.

So, so Derek is talking about the, you know, why Da and

a little bit. I was just thinking, I'll just give a couple quick little stories that I noticed of why it's so important to have. There's there's 250 something plus 12 step programs at any given moment. I don't know how even lip balm anonymous. I always got to bring that up because everybody laughs and you know, there's a lip balm anonymous man, right? And and and it's we laugh, but it's like normal people are going, why are they getting high again? You know, it's saying I'm laughing at these lip balm people, but they're powerless.

I don't get it. I don't get overeating. I don't get there are certain things there's even now. There's no drugs I don't get, but

well, there's actually one. I had an experience when I was in rehab a kid and I, and I turned the corner.

I, you know, I turned the corner where I went from from completely asleep to wide awake and, and, and my ego was shattered and I was, I was, I was awake and I was waking up. If if that makes any sense.

This kid came in and he had a an addiction to Special K and I'm a raver kid. So I I've done a lot of K, but I could take it or leave it. You know, my first thought when I met this kid was you got to come to rehab to get up a special case. Just stop doing, you know, I don't get his. I didn't understand his problem,

you know, and, and I and I remember thinking that out in my head and going that's, that's part of this deal is I don't get that guy's specific problem. So he needs to find somebody that does, right.

DAA was in this area, was actually having its first meeting right around that time. I got out of treatment and they had their second meeting.

Another experience. I've met, you know, tons of tons of pure Alcoholics that don't have drug problems or could take or leave drugs. My one of my mentors, a man named Steve Bigland, who's been sober about 35,000 years,

he, I was showing pictures of you guys have heard of that crocodile stuff, right? Or crocodile or whatever. You know, it's, it's a, it's an opiate or a heroin that literally eats your, your flesh, right. And I was showing him pictures of that. He's like, God, yeah, why would anybody ever do that? And I was thinking I would, you know, I'm like, if I was dope sick,

worry about my arm falling off next week, you know, I mean, like, that's over their problem, you know, and then I was talking about it a few months ago and I was thinking I wouldn't even have to be dope sick. I just would have to be sick in my head a little bit. Just give me something to get this edge off, you know, and I'll worry about the consequences later. And he didn't understand that, you know, another example was with with Derek, the the one of the greatest ones ever. This was we're sitting on our way to go down to

a detox. This is about five years ago.

I was just a few months sober. Derek was a few months over and I was I was sponsoring him and he asked me why we couldn't talk about drugs in a A

and I went into this whole thing. Now Derek is a full blown cocaine addict. Correct me if I'm wrong, alcoholic opiate addict pills, sandy bars or any benzos or anything like that. Never smoked crack right. So I wind up in in my in my little whatever. I however I got to this subject, I wound up with a pipe in this hand, a lighter in this hand and my face against the people like that. And I was demonstrating to Derek and Derek goes, dude, I get it. And I said what? And he goes, I'm thinking

just not smoke crack. And I'm like, exactly, dude, you don't understand. You don't get it. I don't even know why I can't not smoke. It

doesn't make any sense to me why I want to end up like that, but I do I,

you know, and I and going into the rehabs, you got 2020 people in a rehab. Three of them are pure alcoholic. This is just an average that I kind of developed on my own.

Three of them are pure alcoholic. You got maybe seven that are pure drug addicts, maybe 10 that are mixed. I asked him the question to show it, to demonstrate another difference. Alcoholics. Have you guys ever pawned anything that wasn't yours? 99% of the time they don't. Drug addicts, every hands in the air, you know, every hand. Some of them like the methods are like, you know, they're like really excited about it,

but so so why DAA? It's it's really, especially in this area with the, with the druggy buggies bringing

everyone to Alcoholics Anonymous. And I'm not one that really knocks on other 12 step programs, especially NA and there's

so much dumb infighting and all this crap. I don't, I don't understand it. It's not my deal. Alcoholics Anonymous sobered me up with the big book and we wanted to be able to reach drug addicts and talk about, you know, be able to talk about drugs in an 8. When we first started doing this and I was raising my hand in, in the non a announcement,

I was saying it's a, it's an, A, a meeting and you can talk about drugs and everybody's like, yeah, you know,

umm, the first, the first ever meeting, this kid, Johnny just raises his hand and goes, my name is Johnny. I'm a drug addict, coke, heroin, pills, methamphetamine. We thanks for letting me share. You know, he was so excited to be able to talk about drugs in a meeting because of what you know, so, so it's an important thing, man. And, and to be able to identify with it says it's Derek, Reddit man, we've got, we've got the common peril and the common solution. Without the common peril, we don't have the common solution, period.

You know, we have to have both of those things and we have to be able to talk about those things

and and you find your, you find your knuckleheads when you come into a room like this, you know, you just gravitate towards people. Like I like the crackheads. I love heroin addicts too because I'm a heroin addict with crack. Something just

totally out there about that whole subject and only other crackheads can can identify with that brand of darkness. You know, I know opiate addicts that don't they, they don't understand how I act on crack and crack heads that don't understand why I would just sit on my couch and itch myself for a clean things or, you know, or whatever it is. I,

I don't know, man, I could go on and on. I've noticed so many, so many reasons why we need to stick together in certain things and, and why,

why God blessed me with addiction to everything pretty much You know, I, I used to be the biggest pain in my ass and now there's really no cave I can't walk into. I get you, man. I understand every different darkness of all these different drugs on every level and it's a blessing. Thank God, man, it's turned into a blessing because of this room and my friends and all you guys and everything. But

anyway, Jack, cool.

OK, All right. Yeah. You want me to switch?

Thank you, Brian, for getting it more organized. Brave, brave man. Going first there. My name is Zach Zeder. I'm a very grateful recovered drug addict.

And why DAA? The answer is very simple for me. Singleness of purpose coupled with the solution of the clear cut directions in this big book.

I was lucky enough to actually get sober in Drug Addicts Anonymous in DAA group #2 USA in its infancy. I had been in and out of rehabs, in and out of the rooms, in and out of

outpatient programs, you name it, CANAA, wherever they bust us to a, you know, just thousand meetings in and out. I'd had a bunch of different sponsors and I'll talk about this a little bit more tomorrow when we get into step one. But they were, they were, they were great guys with big hearts. But they did a lot of buying me coffees and sandwiches and asking me how my day was, you know, and

I didn't get a whole lot of let's get into the work and let's get better. So,

you know, when I, when I got sober this time, it was it was a combination of things. I had a sponsor who actually asked me if I wanted to be done for good and all, and if I was willing to go to any lengths to achieve this. And we got into the big book and we got to work. But I also got to go to these Drug addicts Anonymous meetings. See, I had taken a slight favorite toward the A a meetings

out of all the different fellowships that I had sampled where I didn't, I didn't even really know what the hell I was doing. All I knew as I was there to make jokes with my friends, eat some cookies, you know, chug some coffee, hear something positive and a lot of weird negativity, and then go home. You know, I, I was there because I had to be, but I had, I had kind of come to take a liking to these a A meetings and this big book. It was speaking my language, which was very peculiar

because it was talking about alcohol. But when they talked of the problem and they talked of the solution and they talked of the action, my ears would perk up. And I would often say, you know, they're talking about me. But whenever I shared, I had to lie. And they say that lying in recovery don't really go very well together, you know, supposedly one of those things.

And I had to, you know, I would hear weird stuff like, you know, I was over in the corner

smoking rock form of alcohol out of a pipe, you know, or you know, I'd been, I'd been up all night snorting huge piles of alcohol and I'm like, dude, what are we, what are we talking about? You know, it just, it was very weird to me. And

so when I got here, I was just, I was, I was so relieved. And everywhere I went, nobody knew what Drug Addicts Anonymous was. Nobody knew this fellowship is in its infancy. A lot of the speakers that we call and invite to come to do this stuff don't even know what DA is. We have to show them the website and let them listen to what few speaker tapes exist and tell them that some other speakers that they may know

and respect have, have jumped in the water is fine. You can get into, you know, and try and kind of like coax them into it cuz they're like, da what, you know, I don't know about all that. And and then they're very pleased to see that we're a very solution focused fellowship that uses the big book. And it, it really kind of reminds me of the pioneer days of a A and I think that that our forefathers would be so pleased with this that this solution can be useful

to as many people as possible. You know, I think that was

always the intent. That's the vibe I get anyways when I read my big book.

So, you know, I have fallen in love with Drug Addicts Anonymous.

We're we're instructed to create the fellowship we crave. And whether there's 10,000 people at our conferences or 50 people, there are a bunch of people that are sold out for this thing that are all in that, that understand how important it is and have seen lives begin to be changed already in the areas

where Drug Addicts Anonymous exists for those that need it and want it badly. And

yeah, I'm all in. I'm all in,

my chips are all in, whatever it takes. And I'm so grateful to the people that that are on the firing lines with us. You know, many of you are here in the room and, and this fellowship is, is growing, it is thriving, it is exciting. I can't wait to see what the next 5-10 years bring. I think we're all going to be blown away. And it all starts with one drug addict

carrying this message to the next and and carrying the solution. That's that's in this big book

that's about that's about all I got on that. All right,

I

not good with microphones in my face.

Just, you know, I've been in prison a long time.

Little joke.

So my name is Matthew Anderson and I am an Adidas drug addict.

So there's there's a lot of different things to be said. There's two ways to really to take this wise.

Why should you come to DAA? Why is this a fellowship for you, which was already discussed? And then there's another part of it is like, why do we really need DA?

And I'm, I'm like a literature guy. I research stuff, especially history of the 12th step fellowships. And I and I love what this thing is done in my life. Like I got sober and and clean through Alcoholics Anonymous.

I like Zach tried multiple different fellowships and I remember just in my area,

we have narcotics Anonymous and like all my friends went to NA meeting and I never had someone grab me and say, Yo, this is what it's about. You know, there's, there's tons of literature in NA and I love the NA literature. I I have to say that however, there's no precise instructions. They had a great book which would guide you through

the, the, the 4th step and they had different forms of literature and some of that's not even approved.

So if you go back to like Jimmy K, the founder of a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, how he worked the 12 steps was through these precise instructions out of the Alcoholics Anonymous book.

That's where we got it. That's where any got this, That's where all the fellowships got this, you know, every 12 step fellowship. So the truth of the matter is like even an alcohol synonymous. And I spoke to NA world services, I spoke to AA World services. I, I've studied stuff and like, I, I got a particular case of a guy named Tom and he was a doctor in 1939 and, and he was one of Bill's cases. And Bill described him as one of the best people

ever fellowship for Alcoholics Anonymous. He was one of the best people that that advocated for this thing. And he was a drug addict.

He was a drug addict as well.

So we got traditions right in the traditions and we follow the same traditions in this program as we would another program. And the traditions are like, if you go to like singleness of purpose and what is really the singleness of purpose? The singleness of purpose is like we trying to wake other people up.

That's what we're trying to do. We trying to save lives. I don't care who you are when you walk in the door,

what your problem was, what substance you had a difficulty with. Like my my job, our job is like to carry a message that is attracted to the newcomer and wake them up too.

Don't care what your problem is man,

just care about like inviting you to like the world of the spirit. An unbelievable thing

you know, And we got traditions like

group autonomy.

Does anyone know what autonomy means? Autonomy is like self govern.

So to be honest with you

there was never a need for another fellowship.

Group. Autonomy is different. You got the group and the group has its own government force and then you have the AA fellowship and the fellowship as a whole does not say that you can't speak about drugs in a meeting. As long as you have a problem with alcohol too, and all of us that have a, a drug problem,

I doubt you can use alcohol successfully.

So there was never a need for another fellowship. And that's the truth of it. You know, However, we got a lot of people that misinformed, you know, and then like it. I just give you a prime example. If I got 37 years, when you got this guy who's got 40 years sober, right? And he comes in and he starts a group and he starts to group and you even hear it in certain a a groups and you'll hear him talk about stuff like this.

We know that you have problems with other things other than alcohol. However, this is a alcohol synonymous meeting. You're not allowed to talk about drugs here. That is not true.

And they'll say Alcoholics Anonymous does not allow you to talk about drugs. That is not true. It's not true. It may be true for your group,

but it is not true for the fellowship.

So if you talk to AAA and you talk to A well services, they'll tell you I don't know where you got that from. Bill has a problem with drugs,

you know,

so since I have and I'm an old timer and listen, and I don't blame the old timers or whoever because the fact is like they don't, they don't know any better. They didn't do any research. They heard it from an old timer their self right? And they just continued to pass this message down and then like there's no, and they didn't have any other problems other than alcohol.

There was no other problems other than alcohol. So if they just have an alcohol problem, they're not going to tell you we don't want you here.

And that's bullcrap.

Imagine Bill saying that.

Imagine somebody walking in the door and Doctor Bob and Bill are sitting up there and they say, hey man, I got a drug problem too. And they say, oh, so you can't say anything. Leave. Imagine that. It will never do nothing like that. They knew what the 5th tradition was, right? Which is the primary purpose of this thing, which is the carry the message to the person who still suffers. Point blank, period. That's it. There's nothing else to be said,

you know, What can you say?

So we got group autonomy and people come up with a group in the format and their group is like, you can't say this and that's cool for your group. And you can we do, we can say, hey, this is a closed meeting. We can say it's an open meeting. We can say you can't talk about drugs here. We can call it a gay and lesbian meeting. We can call it a, a blue hair meeting or whatever. As long as like we're we're trying to reach a certain people that are in our area that we know is needed, then we can start a group for that particular type of person.

That's what we do,

you know.

So if you got like this guy who comes up and like say Zach has 40 years, right? And Zach was sponsored by Brian Beatty and Brian Beatty has 20 years or or 90 years, right? And Brian Beatty was Zach sponsor and Brian Beatty had this program and he dealt with and he got this group format and he took that group format, right? And then of course, that was a sponsor and he was probably a member of the group, too.

And the format said you can't talk about drugs. So then Brian Beatty passed it down to Zack,

right? And then Zach brought it out. And then you still got the same format from years and years ago out today, right now, the same format saying. And I've even been in groups and involved with groups, right, that, that I tried to change small stuff

like when we're at our business meetings and we're at a group conscious, right? And we, we had this group conscious and I was like, Hey, can we not like, and this is an open meeting

and I don't want you to take anything I'm saying right and take it for a belief. I want you to go and research it yourself.

Go research this stuff yourself.

So I've got this guy, he tells me like, oh man, you know, if they're, if they're on the UMM, if they're in here like the, the, the bus, the druggie buggy comes and brings them here, then they need to take him to an NA meeting 'cause this is alcohol synonymous.

And I just wanted to say shut up dude.

You lost your mind.

It's not what goes on here. And all I try to do is like, change the format into saying something so simple, like because they were cutting people off and someone said they're an addict. He's a newcomer. He don't know what the the identifier has. He has no idea. He says, hi, my name is Mike. And they stopped it. Excuse me, Mike. Excuse me,

do you have a problem with alcohol?

He's like, not really, but talk someone after the meet,

you know, and I said, well, can we just like put in the format that like, hey man, this is Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. We know your attitude, but guess what? We can help you too. That's all I wanted to say completely inside of traditions.

But since he had 37 years sober,

right, And everyone, it's real easy for me to say, OK, well, this guy obviously knows what he's talking about. He's got 37 years sober, you know, he knows what he's talking about. So all the other group members are just shaking her head because he's been a Home group member for 90 years. And they're just shaking her head. Like, yeah, he's he's right.

And like, I'm showing people evidence and I'm showing them traditions and I'm showing them literature. Like, yo, listen, look, this is what this thing is about.

And they're like, hey, you know, 37 man, you know.

So the truth is this also, although there wasn't a need for another fellowship, there is now.

There is now

99.9 of the people that walk into the room and it's not really there's traditionally there's no need for another fellowship. Let me say that. But there is another need for a fellowship and, and a fellowship of, of, of our nature for the simple fact that like

we got people trying to run us out of a room and, and it's not their fault. Don't be upset at them. They're misinformed by a misinformed person. They don't know either,

but however, this thing is like taking such a wide range of and people are like going to a, a meeting or a Narcotics Anonymous meaning like being ran out and like they don't even need to be ran anywhere. However, they think that. So immediately we shut down because our thing is like we separate everything. And let's take it to the first tradition of unity, right?

We're trying to unify our fellowship. We don't want to be like them. We don't want to say, hey man, do you have this problem? OK, cool. We want to like be invited

and I have to be honest, like I was disturbed when I read some of the of art and DAA. We have a where and win. And it also said, which we, me and Derek and some other guys put in a motion that the change and they said in the in the world where and when that Alcoholics Anonymous or excuse me, Alcoholics Anonymous did not allow addicts in their meetings.

It's not true.

A group said that and someone was misinformed by the group, right? And then put that out as literature and it's not true.

AA does not say that a group says that. So just so you're, you're more aware of what I'm saying, you have a group. A group is the meeting. This is, let's just say this is a meeting for, for, you know, just just for shits and giggles, right? This is a meeting and it is a meeting. So like you got you, you got this is an event. The meeting is just an event. Say we're the Home group members, right?

We are like the, the entity of the meeting,

the Home group members. Like when we're having the business meeting and we're talking about group conscious, the main thing that we're talking about is how we can get to you.

That's what we discussed. So we're talking about you before you even walk in the door. We're talking about how we can get to you. Say it's a speaker meeting and and Brian's chair in the speaker meeting and Brian says, yo, man, and it's a chair is what man is an amazing job to have being a chair

because he's not like, hey, let me get like my boy, I got six months at the halfway house. Let me get one of my homies to speak for me.

He knows what his job is, and Brian knows who can I bring here to set this place on fire with the spirit and make this thing attractive.

That's his job. That's what a group does. We discuss that at every business meeting,

you know, and we want to talk about like coming into the meeting. So and then the other thing about why DA is like have you been to a DA group?

Have you been to a DA, a group man?

I don't know about how other groups are, but I know our group is like filled with the spirit man. A newcomer is not getting in there and getting out of there without a sponsor and without somebody approaching them. And since we're a Home group, right in our group is powerful. We know when you walk in the door that you're a newcomer. You ain't got to raise your hand and say I'm a newcomer. We know. We know you're a newcomer because we're at the group every week,

right? We're there every every to Monday and Wednesday is our group, which is shore group

in West Palm Beach. And we know a newcomer, when they walk in, they don't have to raise their hand and say it because we know we're there every week and you're not. You know,

I see you fidgeting with your toes and stuff. You know what I mean?

So

factually and actually,

there was never a need for another fellowship.

However, it's here so and I know God's plan is a lot better than mine. Always has and always will be.

And since it's here, like now, we have people that don't have to be separate and be separated with the disunity that's in the fellowships now, right, But be combined with unity and NA, we don't have a precise instructions in in A8 or like I've just had alcohol and there's nobody walking in a there's very few. I would even jump out to say like 95 and I haven't done the math on this or a research this one. This isn't one of my research areas. However, I believe that at just about 95% of the people that walk into Alcoholics Anonymous meeting or

out a solution and they have more problems than just alcohol today.

I don't know what your story is, but all my people are gone.

Oh deed,

99% of them,

all my friends I grew up with, we have an epidemic going on.

We need to be invited to have an inviting spirit to let anybody in our group welcome here. But yet we had the same solution as the Alcoholics Anonymous. Meaning that it seems like in certain groups, not Alcoholics Anonymous. Be mindful of what I'm saying. Alcoholics Anonymous isn't doing this. However, groups are doing this and they're trying to keep it for their self.

You need to go to and then

you know

it's not true. So being as though I became a member of the group and me and Chris Martinez is one like one of my best friends man. And we came to a group and like it was crazy because like how DA started in our area was like a group of halfway house people started a group. I had no idea what DA was never heard of it.

Never heard of it in my life, you know, and I cool my man. So then I that's pretty good. I got 5 minutes left. I can

do a lot in 5 minutes. So however I go to the grouping and there goes one of my friends there, George in the back right and George helping start this group too. And they it's like a group of halfway house guys and me and Chris go in and was like yo and we're outside and meeting, which was a powerful group because they knew like all they knew was like bring people here that could carry the message. That's all they knew and they did that and it worked.

It worked. They brought people like me in prison, Brian Beatty, and we like set the place on fire

and it continued to work. Give me George. It was amazing, it was beautiful. So me and Chris are outside and we thinking because of how the meetings going it's only like a group of like eight guys

and the halfway house guys that started Rupert Lake. How do we get girls here?

I'm not even kidding you. I'm not even kidding you, right? So that we go outside and we're just busting it up. Me and Martinez are busting it up, man. And and we go back into group

and I'm telling we go to the business meeting and he had no clue what was going on. There was no business meeting going on. They have they were like, oh, what do we do? You know, they they had no idea what to do with money or anything. So me and Chris was like let's join the group

and we joined a group.

Now we donating to the conference.

Now we switch to another, another of me. We got a meeting two days a week now and you should see the spirit in the room when you walk in our group, in the DAA group. You feel it,

you feel it,

you feel comfortable

and you know that the people that are there, man, it's just like Evie Thatcher described, Bill described Debbie Thatcher, right? You. You look anywhere in the meeting that is something about their eyes.

Something is inexplicably different about us,

and what's more attractive than that?

So

EAA, in my light, man, we can do a whole lot of stuff for a whole lot of people. However, we can't be misinformed, you know? So if we all stay informed and everyone does their research on their own and we don't create a fellowship that separates itself from other fellowships and separates itself from oh, you can't be here type of stuff, right, then this thing could blow up and be amazing.

And what an honor. What an honor to be chosen to speak at a fourth convention or conference.

Unbelievable.

Who can do that? But God,

the hopeless variety and DAA is amazing. Man. If you if you have a problem or you're like wondering what this thing is about, come to one of our groups

and check it out. That's all I have.