On (15 Jan 96) Rich Ward was mumbling to CHRISTIAN HEDEMARK...
 RW> On (11 Jan 96) CHRISTIAN HEDEMARK wrote to RICH WARD...
 RW> Stick around some of us might put a few of the HISTORY of (12
 RW> step/recovery) Echo messages in and you might enjoy them.
          AN UNOFFICIAL HISTORY OF RECOVERY BBS & ECHO
                                    by:  Achilles (04/88)
Recovery was launched during June or July of 1986 in San Francisco by Bob 
Kovach.  I'll have to check my files but I believe the exact day was July 
Fourth.  As I recall, it was a BBS with separate message areas for A.A., 
N.A., Al-Anon, O.A., Smokers Anonymous and Sex & Love Addicts Anonymous. 
These were all 'open' meetings.  There was also THE CLOSED MEETING.  I 
never knew what Bob's criterion was for admission to The Closed Meeting, 
but I assume it was simply that one be a member of a 12 step 
fellowship...and of course, one is a member of a 12 step fellowship if 
one says one is.  Admission to the closed meeting required the 
'applicant' to complete, online, a form asking such questions as "Are 
you, or have you ever been, a member of a Twelve Step Program?".
 
The ECHO was born on January 24, 1987.  Bob says that the first link to 
be added was LINKS.BBS in Chico, California.  I recall that the first 
message I saw from the outside world was from St. Joseph's Medical Center 
in Phoenix, Arizona.  It seems Rick Ward was doing about the same thing 
at the same time on the east coast and before long the ECHO was 
Bi-Coastal (in San Francisco, we take that sort of thing for granted). 
Concurrent with the addition of the Twelve Step Echo, Bob added the 
AIDS/ARC Echo.  AIDS/ARC grew much faster than the Twelve Step Echo and, 
I believe, in conjunction with St. Joseph's Medical center in Phoenix, 
Arizona, encompasses a network of Mini's (the BIGGER Boys).
 Everybody spent a couple of months saying hello and then we began to ask 
ourselves if we were a group/meeting.  In July of 1987 I submitted the 
proper forms to our District Registrar to register the LOCAL A.A. 
'meeting' of Recovery as a group.  This coincided with the meeting's 
first anniversary.  I received confirmation of this registration a couple 
of months ago.
 
Over this past Christmass the Recovery Group hosted a meeting at an 
Alkathon in San Francisco.  While this was not the first time the group 
had done this, it was the first time it was at a reasonable hour (the 
other time was 3am).  Thus, I and a number of others met for the first 
time.  After sharing with the absolute anonymity that this medium 
provides for more than a year...well, it was just plain giddy! 
xMessenger had already volunteered to be our treasurer and he had just 
received the first acknowledgement of the disbursement of our 
contributions from central office in New York.  Thus, with some 
excitement and a little confusion, he gave our first treasurer's report. 
Members of the group had met before, to celebrate birthdays at chip 
meetings, and wore red carnations in order to recognize one another.  I, 
unfortunately, never made it to one of the 'karnation kid' gatherings. 
However, the Christmass meeting proved to be the impetus for my election 
as secretary.  By the time I had made up my mind to nominate Bob for 
secretary the group had made up it's mind on me.  I seem to recall a 
strikingly accurate rendition, in pixels, of the sound of a locomotive 
whistle.
 
The wording of your message causes me to question if there may not be 
some confusion about the distinction between the RECOVERY ECHO, the 
RECOVERY A.A. Group/Meeting and the Recovery BBS.  The Recovery Echo 
meets at the Recovery BBS, as do the Recovery A.A. meeting (of the local, 
registered group), the Recovery N.A. meeting and so forth.  The address 
of the Recovery A.A. meeting is (415) 441-2539 (you can only get there by 
modem).  I am the secretary.  xMessenger is the treasurer.  Bob recently 
became seriously ill with complications from AIDS and turned the 'meeting 
hall' over to Tim S, who had been the assistant SYSOP (coffee maker?) for 
some time.
 
To be honest, I don't know the exact proportions xMessenger uses to 
distribute the contributions, but I do know that our County District 
meeting's treasurer's report on February 2 shows a $26 contribution.
 
Rick Gaudio has volunteered to be our archivist.  Bios! Bios!
 
My address and that of Bob Kovach are listed as contacts with central 
office in New York.  The members of the group mail their contributions to 
xMessenger.
 
When the echo began I must confess I found it more colorful...we had Duck 
Herder, Anonymous, Powerless, Coffee Maker, Bears (and Lions and Tiggers) 
and so forth.  I strongly disapprove of the mundaneness of using such 
uncreative monikers as the names on our birth certificates, and this has 
nothing do to with anonymity.  It was just more....colorful.  It seems 
there is an unmistakable trend towards conformity developing but perhaps 
my being in San Francisco makes me more sensitivity to this than most?
 Date:    26 May 94  21:03:00  Public           
 From:    Tim Spofford             
 To:      Alan (aka Vulcan)        
 Subject: Hi there ! -Again -                                         
Hello Alan!
Sunday May 22 1994 22:22, Alan (aka Vulcan) wrote to All:
 A(V> Meanwhile I found another USA echo ....Recovery.......? what's the
 A(V> difference apart from the absence of reference to the 12 steps ?
Sometimes not a hell of alot. 
History time (revisionist, undoubtedly):
WARNING:  This is a long and potentially boring message.
In 1986 there was MEETING.  I gather, although it was a few months 
before I got here, that the participants sought to run it as one 
(a meeting, that is).  I'm fairly sure there's at least one person 
still active from MEETING; maybe he'll chime in.
On January 25, 1987, Bob K (first sysop of Recovery BBS in San Francisco) 
and Richard Ward (at the time a sysop in Washington DC but now in Long Beach,
California) forged a link and created RECOVERY Echo.  It was, or tried to be,
guided by AA principles but was not seen as a meeting, format-wise, but 
merely a
place for people to share their experience, strength and hope around their
struggles with, and recovery from, alcoholism.  At that time, it was almost
exclusively AA, although I no longer remember whether it was explicitly such. 
In
any event, it gradually came to encompass people from a number of other
fellowships.
MEETING and RECOVERY co-existed for a few, maybe six, months, but alot of
messages were cross-posted to both echos, RECOVERY grew and MEETING didn't,
and eventually it faded from sight.  I think there may have been some hard 
feelings for awhile between the two groups stemming from differing 
philosophies and such (having more to do with fidonet networking issues 
than with "program" issues) but that part of the history is probably lost.
In, roughly, 1989, Jim A founded OAsis BBS in Oakland, California, and at the
same time, OASIS Echo, both primarily for people in Overeaters Anonymous. 
Both still exist, although Jim eventually turned OAsis BBS over to its 
current sysop, Michael J, moved to Washington, DC, and as far as I know 
is now out of the online recovery community.
Bob E, a sysop from Florida, started 12_STEPS echo, basing  it on daily 
postings from 24 Hours a Day (not an AA book, but written by an AA 
from his neck of the woods and, in this country at least, widely used 
by AA groups in some parts of the country.  Florida, apparently, 
is one of them). Bob E dropped out of sight and Joe Jared 
(a sysop from, first, Orange County and later Oakland, California)
and I (who had taken over Recovery BBS when Bob died, before I moved from 
San Francisco to Portland, Oregon, leaving Recovery BBS in the capable 
hands of its current sysop, Rich G - are you getting the idea 
that some of us in this country move around alot?)
Joe Jared and I picked up 12_STEPS echo and, in consultation with the
10-15 participants at the time, developed the current format, the echo rules 
that we still use, and got it on the Zone 1 Backbone.  (RECOVERY Echo had 
been on the backbone from the beginning, from long before it was called 
The Backbone).
Around this time, things were getting particularly uncomfortable for alot of
people in RECOVERY.  How to put this delicately?  A number of the 
articipants
and alot of the messages related to issues that, while coming from 
Anonymous"
programs, had nothing or little to do with substance abuse, in whatever form
(including Al-Anon/NarAnon), and tended also, from the perspective of some, 
o
carry with it alot of blaming and rage.
As a result, a group of sysops (primarily) whose primary program was AA 
decided that there was a need ("a want"?) for an echo that was more closely
focused 
on recovery from alcoholism, based on the big book and the 12 steps, 
and started SIP_AA.  Marge Clark and Joe Jared were the founders, but Joe 
was involved more as an echomail coordinator (a term that has vanished from 
the fidonet lexicon because it became obsolete with the evolution of the 
backbone to its current form).  Marge was the first moderator.
Joe facilitated the organization of a number of other SIP echos 
(SIP stands for Singleness in Purpose), many of which are still active:  
SIP_SLAA, SIP_NA, SIP_ALANON, and others.
RECOVERY gradually evolved into and was generally accepted as...although 
I don't know if it was ever formally designated as such...a place where 
people from all the other echos and fellowships could, if they wished, 
gather and chat about things generally, although always with the 
idea of "practicing these principles in all our affairs."  
Alot of us hang out in more than one of the echos.  Among the people 
whose habits I know best, for example, Marge C is here, in SIP_AA and
in RECOVERY; Rich G is here and in RECOVERY; I'm here and in SIP_AA but 
haven't carried RECOVERY for years; etc. etc. etc.
RECOVERY's current moderator, Rich W (the same person as the Richard Ward who
co-founded it - I think he also was "Rick" in there some place - although 
there was another moderator, Ron A, in between Bob K and Rich, and I did 
it also on an interim basis for a short period), 
is here, and has my permission...not that he needs it...to tell you 
(and me) how full of shit I am about all the above.
I know this is a *very* long answer, and not necessarily even a very 
responsive one at that, to your short question.  Somebody else asked 
me a couple of months ago to get some of this history down for the 
record and I didn't do it at the time; I guess your message flipped 
the right switch. Oh yeah, SIP_AA also goes to the UK...
there are several semi-regular participants from over there.
Tim
If I had a tunnel like yours to help pay for, I'd drink too.
 GEcho 1.02+
 + Origin: Recovery Northwest, Portland - 28.8 v.fc - os/2 (1:105/99)
                        *    *    *    *    *    *
Addendum:
(First evidence of multi-fellowships on Recovery Echo)
      To:  Tom Baughman
    From:  Rick Ward                  Submitted:  14 Aug 89 19:25:00
 Subject:  Echo Moderator
Recovery echo is not a meeting and echos are not democracies.  It is
a forum for all persons using any 12 step program as a tool in
living life to it's fullest.  We, Bob K 125/9 - George C 103/602 -
Jeff B Burrell's Ball Park up in Wash. state - Leonard ? in Hawaii -
Mario ? on Cape Cod and about 20 other bbses in between, carried
RECOVERY and MEETING (which was an AA meeting more or less guided by
Penny P ((P2)) of VA and San Franc..) for quite sometime and MEETING
just never made it.  In those days we had to pay the phone bill
ourselves (NO STARS to carry the echos) and it ended partly because
the same message would be posted in both echos by the same person
and that just double the traffic etc etc.......
    Before I get carried away .. I think it was Jeff B of Burrell's
Ball Park (how's that for those who freak-out about anonymity) who
first mentioned Ron to me and the echo.
                      Rick Ward, 109/133
  Msg#: 3675                                         Date: 01-02-95  10:08
  From: Tim Spofford                                 Read: Yes    Replied: No 
    To: Wannabe Free                                 Mark:                    
 
  Subj: Recovery.RUL
Hi Wannabe...
 
On Thursday December 29 1994 (11:34), Wannabe Free wrote to Rich Ward:
 
 RW>> discovered my 12 step BBS and put me in touch with the late Bob K.
 RW>> who had started the RECOVERY BBS in San Francisco and soon there
 RW>> after Bob and I were echoing (2 echos MEETING & RECOVERY) back and
 
 WF> Wow, I didn't realize that Bob K. was one of the first Echo
 WF> participants. Although I do remember him bitching about all the effort
 WF> involved. I first met Bob K. via the Recovery BBS and later met him in
 WF> person. He was my first sponsor. I wish there had been more time to get
 WF> to know him better.
 
This was a bulletin on Recovery BBS when I was its sysop.  It was adapted 
(with the addition of the first paragraph) from an obit written for a San 
Francisco newspaper by Coffeemaker, an early participant in this echo:
 
                                 Bob Kovach
                     February 2, 1944 - January 12, 1989
 
  Bob founded Recovery BBS and was its sysop for the first two years of its
    existence.  He also was co-founder and moderator of both the RECOVERY
                         Echo and the AIDS/ARC Echo.
 
             Bob celebrated life every way he knew how.  Through
        electronics and personal contact, with love and patience, he
                 helped a great many alcoholics to wellness.
 
          He accepted his AIDS diagnosis with grace and fought his
       disease with courage and humor.  Even when he was too tired to
       lift a finger his eyes shone with the experience, strength, and
       hope of someone who had faced fear, pain, and death and had in
      his spirit conquered all.  In the later stages of AIDS dementia,
        when he didn't even know where he was, his spirit still shone
       with the grace and kindness that was an inspiration to those of
                              us who knew him.
 
One of my favorite "Bob stories" involves the next to the last time I
saw him.  He was in the hospital with his third pneumocystis battle and
I stopped by unannounced to see him.  He had, as it subsequently turned
out, only a few weeks left with us but as I cruised into his room I
found him using his time to hear a new sponsee's fifth step.  (No, it
wasn't you. )  I've little doubt that he considered that among the
very best ways that he could put what was left of his life to good use.
-!- GEcho 1.11+
 ! Origin: Recovery Northwest - 503/297-1485 - V34/FAX (1:105/99)
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