This is the official website for the District 15/ Intergroup located within Area 1  (Alabama/Northwest Florida). District 15 is located in the Florida Panhandle and covers both Bay and Gulf counties. The primary purpose of this web site is to carry the message of A.A. For those seeking a meeting, we have provided our schedule and meeting locations. There is information for those new to A.A. or those that think they might have a drinking problem. We have also provided a link to the A.A. General Service Office web site where additional information on the program of A.A. can be found. If you're a family  member or friend of an alcoholic and their drinking is having an adverse affect on your life then Al-Anon can help; their primary purpose is to help the families of alcoholics.

 

Surfside Serenity Group is MEETING AGAIN!

The Group is meeting again on Friday's, starting Friday, January 31, 2025.

The Gulf County commissioners have restricted any civic group to access only once a week.  With this in mind they have decided to keep the Friday meeting, and discontinue the Sunday meeting until further notice.

 
     
  valentine party  
     
  literature workshop  
     
 
Significant February Dates in AA History
Feb 8, 1940 -  Rockefeller dinner, gives $5,000 to AA. Saves AA from professionalization.
Feb 11, 1938 - Clarence S. (Home Brewmeister 1st-3rd edition) sobriety date.
Feb 11, 1937 - First New Jersey meeting was held at the home of Hank P ( The Unbeliever in the first edition).
Feb 18, 1943 - During gas rationing in WWII, AA's are granted the right to use cars for 12th step work in emergency cases.
Feb 23, 1959 - AA granted "Recording for the Blind" permission to tape the Big Book.
Feb 28, 1940 - First organization meeting of Philadelphia AA was held at McCready Huston's room at 2209 Delancy Street.
Feb 1939 - Dr Howard of Montclair, NJ suggests swapping "you musts" for "we ought" in the Big Book.
 
     
  Grapevine Podcast  
     
     
 

Morning Meeting on the SANDY Beach
~~~Saturdays @ 8:00 am~~~

Rick Seltzer Park Beach Access, 7419 Thomas Drive Panama City Beach Ample free parking, restrooms, we meet just over the dunes, to the left of the stairs

Open Meeting-bring your own chair and coffee!
 
     
  Archive Workshop  
     
  country round-up  
     
  young people in aa pamphlet  
     
 

More About Alcoholism

MOST OF us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow,  someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.
  We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.
  We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals—usually brief—were inevitably followedby still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.
  We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn’t done so yet.  
   Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right- about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people!  
   Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums—we could increase the list ad infinitum.

p.30-31, Alcoholics Anonymous, Reprinted with permission of AA World Services