Date:    07 Jun 95  18:35:01  Public           
 From:    Tim Spofford                                      
 To:      Bill McVay                                        
 Subject: Thanks, y'all                                               
 > You must have started networking pretty early in your sobriety.
 > Seems to me we have been typing at one another for years.
I ran into Bob K., whom I had known pretty well in the halfway house we were 
in
together, on the street in the Castro one day when we were both about 
ourteen
months sober.  He told me he had started "an AA BBS". What the f*ck is a BBS, 
I
asked.  He tried to tell me.  I didn't get it.  But one thing led to another 
and
I managed to figure out how to get my dumb terminal to dial up Recovery BBS 
in,
as best I can figure out, October 1986. (Recovery BBS went online on July 4,
1986.)  One thing led to another.
== GEcho 1.11+
  Origin: Kirkland, WA, V34/FAX: 206-827-9613  (1:343/261)
 Date:    13 Jul 95 
 From:    Marge Clark                                       (116/3000)
 To:      Tim Dill                                          (102/541)
 Subject: history2.txt
thanks for passing that along, Tim.
there's one thing that I would add to it, that Tim's msg skipped over, as far 
as the history of sip_aa is concerned...
Recovery BBS, in SF, had (probably still has, I dunno) an extremely active 
LOCAL AA conference.  At one time they were a recognized group, sending their 
financial  contributions to GSO and the locals, etc.   Prior to my 
involvement 
in the recovery echoes, they had been asked to let their private conference 
go 
national.  A group conscience was held, and the members of the group voted 
No.  
(I'm not sure when that happened, or under the auspices of which sysop; Tim 
S. 
would know.)
When the thought of making sip_aa a national/international echo, readily 
available to any  of us who wanted it first surfaced, I knew that *I* wanted 
all the crew from San Francisco involved.  The best way I could see to pull 
them in was a melding of Joe Jared's little SIP echo, and the local AA area 
on 
Recovery (by this time Rich G. [our favorite Alanon]) was the sysop.
A new group conscience was held by the members of the group, and they very 
kindly and graciously sacrificed their virtual 'closed meeting' for the good 
of 
us all.  I am totally convinced that had the group conscience vote gone the 
other way, and we lacked the participation of the SF crew, we never would 
have 
gotten off the ground.
At that time, the requirements for 'boning a new echo were in some ways 
harder 
to meet.  As I recall there had to be at least 25 systems showing in the  
seenbyes and a minimum message traffic far greater than some present backbone 
echoes  have.  Got to the minimum goals very simply and easily (albeit 
expensively ;-)  I offered to deliver the new echo on my dime to any sysop 
that 
would agree to carry it.  We met our minimum requirements in less than three 
weeks ;-)
I drafted the echo rules; Tim S. rewrote them extensively; the 'we bring 
ourselves to the clearing with us, it is our struggle that makes us whole' 
was 
lifted from a message from The Moose in the echo, and the rules were put out 
there for discussion, approval, and rewriting by those members currently 
active 
in the echo.
backtracking again, just a bit.  When we were in the process of groping our 
way 
toward the decision that we did want/need an AA-only echo, several of the 
'recovery sysops' were involved in netmail discussions of the who and how of 
it.
 
It was Tim who told me that they (the mysterious  'they') had decided I 
should 
be the moderator.   years later, I asked him how come me?  (I had less 
sobriety 
by far than any of 'em.)  the answer?  "We thought it would be good for your 
sobriety!"
he was right!  ;-)
and there you have it...the rest of the story.   ;-)
--- PPoint 2.00
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