A Conversation with a Long-Timer — Reilly K. (September 29, 2026)

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Source Conversation with Reilly K - 2026-09-29.m4a File: conversation-with-reilly-k-2026-09-29.mp3 Duration: 01:07:39

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Moderator Okay, welcome to the Tuesday night Recovery Speakers History Workshop. Thank you everyone for joining us tonight. My name is Tim and tonight is the last Tuesday of September. So it is our night for a conversation with a long timer. And this month we have Reilly K. and Reilly has been sober since August 7th, 1966. So just over 60 years and really looking forward to the conversation tonight. And we meet here every Tuesday night at the same time and at the same Zoom ID. And each week is a presentation on a different history topic other than the last Tuesday of each month. And I'm just, I can share my screen here and everyone can see the upcoming schedule. And this is from our email that goes out to our email list every Tuesday afternoon. And you can see the flyers for the upcoming presentations.

1:13

Moderator Next week will be on Sam Shoemaker presented by Patrick O. And the following week will be on Clarence Snyder presented by Roger W. And then the 20th will be Jim W. presenting on Ebby Thatcher. And then on the 27th will be our conversation with the long timer again. And I do want to share a couple announcements about Recovery Speakers before we really get rolling into the meeting here. We did just make some updates to the recoveryspeakers.org website.

1:49

Unknown So I'm going to share that screen. And the coolest thing that I love is in your free user account, you can set it up and the way that it is currently structured is you can see for all the free research tools to do any deep research or dig into the archive. If you want to look something up, you have tokens each day, 50 each day, and then it resets at midnight. And it's there's information about the 501c3. And as you scroll down, it has your profile information. But this is my favorite is I was listening to Sandy B. And in your account, it saves exactly where I stopped off. And same with the other talk I was listening to, you can go through and save any pages that are interesting to you. So I wanted to read the book Realizing Religion by Shoemakers.

2:58

Unknown So I saved that in here. And you can read the books directly in the website. And it is so cool to see all the all the new features that were getting added. And you can save pages to your library and it saves it into your account. And as you scroll down in your my account, it shows all the new releases, any recommendations. And then here, if anyone wants to know, or find the flyers for upcoming presentations, they show up right here in the weekly history workshop section. And you can go in and find the flyers and go ahead and share. The daily speaker is in this my account as well. So I encourage you all dig in and check out the new recovery speakers platform and see all the new features that are continuously being added. And those are some of my favorites right now. And I know those are requests from a lot of people to be able to, you know, save what you're looking at, save your recording. So there they are.

4:19

Unknown And now done with announcements. And I will be sharing all those flyers in the chat so you can download them now. But do go to this website and check out your account and get those there. So back to this. This meeting is being recorded and all of our past presentations are available at recoveryspeakers.org. And I'll be sharing a link in the chat to where you can find those recordings. And Recovery Speakers is a 501c3 non-profit. And our mission is on preserving and sharing the audio history of AA and the 12-step fellowships. And our archive includes thousands of recordings, money transferred from reel to reel tapes and wire recordings and records. And we're doing our best to make these available and share them with everyone in the recovery community. And to

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Moderator continue to make this available for the next generation. And we are not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, or any other 12-step organization. Our purpose is historical preservation, education, and carrying this recovery history forward for future generations. And I think that is it for my announcements tonight. I think at the end of the conversation, we'll have some time for questions. So if you have any questions, please write your notes and be ready to ask at the end.

5:58

Moderator And that is it for me. I am going to turn it right over to Penny to begin our conversation. Thanks, Tim. And thanks to Recovery Speakers for hosting this on the last Tuesday of each month. We've been doing this for four years now. Our first conversation with a long timer, we didn't know if it was going to work, if people would come back to the meeting. It was with Joan S. from San Diego. And it was in August of 2022. And y'all keep showing up. So I keep bringing in long timers to talk to. And I have to tell you that I get nervous before this meeting every month.

6:51

Moderator And I think, oh, what if nobody shows up? What if I don't come up with any questions? Blah, blah, blah. My head just talks to me. But I show up. And at least I know that Tim will be here and Carol will be here and a few other folks that I can count on. So thank you so much for supporting this meeting and supporting Recovery Speakers. As Tim said, this meeting is a little bit different. This is not a speaker meeting. I'm going to ask Reilly some questions. We're going to have a conversation. Reilly and I have known each other for over 30 years now, I think.

7:44

Moderator And we may have some back and forth because that's what happens when Reilly and I start chatting. And then at the end, I'll ask some questions of Reilly, get some information about her sobriety, her path on recovery, her experiences. And then in the last 15 or 20 minutes, depending on how closely I'm watching the clock, we'll open it up for questions. And this meeting is different in that that's not a time for comment or sharing.

8:23

Moderator But if you have a question for Reilly, as Tim said, write it down during the meeting so you remember it. And we will ask you to turn on your video to get called on to come in and ask Reilly a question. So with that, we will get started. We always put that little disclaimer in because there are people who have come on and missed the disclaimer and have said, just let her talk. That's not what the meeting is. So Tim's going to spotlight Reilly and I, and we're going to get started. And there we are, Reilly. There we are.

9:12

Moderator So welcome to Conversation with a Long-Timer. Thank you so much for being willing to do this. And I've wanted to do this with you for a while, but I knew how busy you were having just rotated out of a general service position. And we'll let you talk about that in a minute. But why don't you introduce yourself, give us your name, your sobriety date, your home group. If you have a sponsor, if you have sponsees, the basic information that we give when we introduce ourselves in a meeting like this. Thank you, Penny. Can you hear me okay?

10:00

Unknown Yes. Okay, good. My name is Reilly. I'm an alcoholic. And my sobriety date is August 7th, 1966. My home group is the Wildlife Group in Winston, Oregon, where I live. And my sponsor is a former trustee. And don't get to talk to her very often because we don't live in the same place, but she's there. Thanks for having me today. Oh, thank you so much for being willing to do this. So August 7th, 1966 was what was going on in August of 1966 that you thought, gee, maybe I should go to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, get my life together, get involved in general service, become a delegate.

10:53

Unknown What was going on in August of 1966 that you came to Alcoholics Anonymous, Reilly?

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Moderator Well, that's not what was going on in my mind that day when I got up. I had already been in AA for a while and decided that it didn't work for people like me because I wanted to drink all the time. And I just didn't want to do the things that they were talking about doing. So I didn't. And one thing they said was true is if you don't do anything different, you'll drink again. And I did. So I was on the end of an eight-day drunk. But as I got up that Sunday morning, I wasn't thinking this was going to be the end of my drinking. I had a job to do. I was working on a we're putting a barn together in Solvang, California. And so I went to work and I stopped on the way to work because I was 21 now and I got excited every time I got to stop at a liquor store.

12:19

Unknown And so I stopped on the way to work, bought us, I think it was a six-pack of beer and and a fifth of whiskey, fifth of bourbon. And I went on to work. And the next thing I remember, they were dragging me out of the hospital that night. And that was, I wasn't there. I didn't know what happened. But they, they got me, dumped me at my house. And I said, Oh, I don't think I'm going to live through the night. And so maybe, maybe I can go back to AA. I wasn't really sure because I'd never known anybody who had come back to AA after they started drinking. I never know that was not something that they did. If you, if you're bad enough to, to leave AA and go back to the streets or wherever you came from, you didn't come back. And so I didn't think they'd let me back in, but they did. And the, the reason the, the, the, I knew that I was at the end, that, that last, that last trip to the hospital was, was the one that, that broke me. And.

13:55

Moderator So when you, when you came back, so you'd been here before. Do you, do you remember when you first came to Alcoholics Anonymous? What year? Was it just earlier? Okay. So, so you came back and you came back to a meeting you'd been to before? Yes. They took me to a meeting and dropped me into a chair. Yes. Here, Reilly. Was it here, Reilly, or was it to the group? Here you go. Here she is. Yeah. So what was, what, what did, did, you didn't know that, of course, we never know when we first walk in that we're going to stay sober at all, but what, what was different this time, or did they get you started differently? Did, did you get a sponsor? What was different coming back this time that you were able to stay and that, that thirst didn't overtake you again? The only thing that was different was my willingness to live. It hadn't, it never mattered to me before, but I, I did have on that last day, apparently, I had been, I'd had alcoholic convulsions and it went back to the hospital.

15:28

Moderator I had been out running about, I guess that's, I, I guess I got from where I started to go to work to where I was out in the street getting hit by a car. Something like that is the story. And, and they went to the hospital. So I was on crutches and at the time, because I got the, my leg had been messed up. So, so I couldn't walk out of meetings. I guess that was pretty much the, one of the big changes that, that made, and not, and they did their part because they took my crutches and they put them on a wall against another wall and I couldn't get them and no one would get them for me. So.

16:27

Unknown It's kind of hard to get that self-righteous anger and stalk out of the room when your crutches

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Moderator are across the room. So, how did you get a sponsor in the beginning? What was it like coming into AA in 1966? Did you get a sponsor? What kind of meetings were you going to? How did you get into the steps, all of that? Well, we had a couple of meetings a week by that time. The people there, they were very nice, but they were very old. I was 21 and we just didn't mix. They didn't know what they should do with me. So, they did what AAs everywhere do. They put me in a chair. They told me to sit down, to shut my mouth and listen. And I did that. I did not get a sponsor. I tried. There were sponsors mentioned, but I asked a couple of women about that and they said, no, I don't think so. You're too young. I can't relate to you. So, what I did then is I used everybody because they did say, even though I won't sponsor you, I will be available by the phone. So, I did call them and I wanted to drink every minute of every day for a very long time. And I called women and I said, tell me how to get through the next 10 minutes. And they would give me something to do, usually involved scrubbing something with a toothbrush. I was laughing about that the other day. I was getting ready. I was cleaning up my house so my sister could visit and I was cleaning something with a toothbrush. I just started laughing at myself and said, boy, the early lessons really stay with you, don't they?

18:46

Moderator I remember one time I called my sponsor and told her I wanted to drink. And she said, you know, the last time I was at your house, the slider out to your back deck needed to be cleaned. Go clean your slider and call me back. And she hung up on me. And I cleaned the slider and called her back. And she said, go scrub the toilet and call me back. And by the end of the afternoon, my house was clean. And she said, do you have a quarter for the bus? I'll meet you at the meeting. So, I had a clean house and I didn't drink.

19:37

Moderator So, where did you come into AA in the beginning? Where was your first meeting or the first meeting when you finally came back this time? Yeah, it was the same place, Santa Maria, California. Santa Maria. Oh, and you have family down there. You go back there, I think, every year to visit. Yeah. I was there for a very long time before I moved to Oregon and my kids are still there. Yeah. I have some friends down in Santa Maria that I get to go down and visit. So, did they get you involved in service? What kind of service did they get you involved in?

20:26

Moderator Well, they weren't sure that I'd stay sober. Nobody thought I would, really. But our alternate delegate, where he was our GSR at the time, he came to my house. We came to, everybody went to everybody else's house and we all knew where each other lived and you could just drop in. So, he dropped in one night. He had a bunch of books, AA books. He dumped them on my table and he said, and I wasn't quite a year sober yet, and he said, I don't know if you're going to stay sober, but just in case you do, AA is going to need you.

21:20

Unknown So, I'm here to teach you about AA. And he did. I wasn't interested in opening the big book, but he took me through AA Comes of Age and the 12 and 12 and the books on AA. And all of a sudden, I was in AA. I was part of it and I couldn't do anything yet, but he was right.

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Unknown AA was going to need me later. And so, he taught me so much. And then when I got to a year's sobriety, he started booking me at high schools and colleges to give public information talks. And that's where I started. And how did you meet other young people? Because as you said, you got sober at 21 in 1966, Southern California, but Santa Maria is a lot different than Los Angeles in 1966. So, how did you meet other young people? And what was it like doing the PICPC stuff as a year sober at that point, 22 years old?

22:35

Unknown Well, I had Roy, who was my mentor, and he took me to assemblies with him from the very beginning. And so, on a Sunday, we drive to the area five assembly and I got to know people and work with people. And as far as talking to the colleges, once I was able to speak above a whisper, I was so scared. And he would critique me. And so, I did learn to speak to an audience. And it was fun then. I was talking to young people and I know that one of them in those first years came to a meeting because his mother was in that class.

23:24

Moderator And she made him go to a meeting. And he was one of my best friends for the next 30 years. Oh, my God, that's wonderful. So, it was working and we were getting responses from the local people. They had not had anybody to do that in a long time. I remember I thought that being young, there would be some relation there. So, that was the local aspect. And I was not representing myself and not actually representing AA, but I was talking about AA. And by that time, I loved that and I had things to talk about and I didn't have to talk about me. But it was kind of lonely because there was nobody under 40 where I was and that I knew about at the time. And so, meeting people in Los Angeles at the assemblies was my community. And there wasn't anybody in the assemblies right at that time, right in service, as young as me. So, after a couple of years, I became the PI chair for the area. And I just stayed in one service position after another for a really long time. But when I was just a year sober and I did have my feet wet a little bit in public information, people had encouraged me to go to the Southern California Convention.

25:06

Moderator And I said I didn't know anybody, but I did. I just was scared to go. And so, I went to the convention and I was standing off by myself, being all alone, 10,000 people at the convention, and I was all by myself. And so, Cliff Walker, who was our first trustee in California, I had met him some time ago and I thought he and his wife were very nice. And so, Cliff came over to me and said, why don't you come join our group? Because there was a whole herd of delegates and trustees all standing together. And there was just me off to the side, leaning against a lamppost or something like that. And so, he took me over to his group and I knew half the people there because we had been in service together. There's a whole bunch of service people from that era that we all, we came from different walks, we came from different ages and different periods of sobriety, but we all came to service

26:27

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Moderator together. So, I did have a lot of people to talk to and they all made me feel really comfortable. So, Cliff said, I'm going to take you to a meeting tomorrow. I want you to meet some people and they are really going to want to meet you. So, we did that. He took me to a meeting and it was a meeting of young people who were trying to start a committee in Southern California to start young people's meetings. And there was, oh, now this is 1967 at the time. There's a woman, she was 15 years old and she had been, she was a GSR of a meeting for under 20.

27:20

Moderator So, they were there. We were all there. We just didn't know how to find each other. So, she was there and we found her and her group and other, there was a woman who I think, I hope, she's still around, Marie, she was 18. And there were a lot of people in their 30s, which was really considered young at that time. And so, we got together, we formed this committee and we spent the next seven years traveling around Southern California starting young people's meetings. It was fabulous, crazy. It was the 60s. We were all crazy. And that was my introduction to young people in AA. It was great. You were sober before I even started drinking.

28:16

Moderator I am grateful to say you've not been sober longer than I've been alive, but you were, you did get sober before I even started drinking. So, that's just so fabulous. So, you're meeting these young people, you're already involved with general service, you're, was it Roy has given you AA comes of age, you're reading the other literature, other than the big book. So, were you, and you're doing PICPC, did you, were you ever a GSR for your group, or did you just go right into PICPC? The first time I became a GSR out of many times, because I moved a lot, was a young people's group that I tried to start. And it didn't last a long time. But that was my first experience. And then I was always some position or another, all my life, really. So, Roy gave you AA comes of age in the 12 and 12. So, did you go through the steps using the 12 and 12? Since you didn't want to read the big book, did you use the 12 and 12 to go through the steps? What was your experience in going through the steps for the first time? Well, that didn't happen until I was about two years sober. And I was ready to walk away from AA. I said, well, AA is not for people like me, obviously. And I was feeling very sorry for myself. And then, so I started off to go to a liquor store, but I couldn't remember where they were. And I've never had that problem. I had met a young woman, she and her husband were in their mid-30s, I think, and she was new to town. And she was very nice. And I knew where she lived because we knew where everybody lived. And so, I came to her house and I said, I'm going to get drunk. And she said, oh, well, you can, but you don't have to, because we have a program and it's got 12 steps in it, and you could work some of them. And I said, oh, I can't do that because they tell me that I can't do. And then she was talking about you could clean house with a four-step and she would help me through that.

31:22

Unknown And I said, yeah, but people tell me that if you can't do the four-step, if you haven't done the third step, you can't do the third step if you don't have a God. And so, if you haven't done the second step, you're just screwed, basically, because you don't have anything to build on. All I had was the knowledge that I was an alcoholic. I had known that except I was an alcoholic. I had known that and accepted that since I was 14 years old.

32:07

Unknown And so I said, well, I don't want to drink anymore. I really don't.

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Unknown And she said, okay then, I will help you. And we started that day, and I started writing that day. And a week later, after several hours in her house going over my past, present, and future, everything was different then. I had a list. I had my six-step list. I had an eight-step list. And everything was different. But you indicated that you struggled with that higher power a little bit. So how did you get through that?

32:51

Unknown What was that like in trying to come to terms with having, that you could have your own conception of a higher power, that you could have a higher power of your choosing? How did you get through that? Well, I actually didn't bother with it. Pat said, let's just move on. You can borrow my God. And that's what I did. I said, okay, here's my prayer to God. Okay, God, Pat's God, I will do the steps as they're outlined in the book.

33:34

Moderator Because by that time we had the book open and we're reading out of it. And I said, okay, I'll do it the way you and she tell me to. And when it doesn't work, I'll get drunk. And she said, okay. And it said, okay. And I said, okay. And I went home and started writing. My spiritual life in the last 60 years has gone from, I know there's a power greater than myself. It comes out of the group and it comes out of the universe and it comes out of nature.

34:21

Unknown And it's just part of everything I live. And so if I live sober and I'm good to people, if I'm kind, if I try to do the best thing I can and if I don't stand in people's way, then I'm pretty much doing what I'm supposed to be doing. And that's worked pretty well for me. I live a spiritual life based on the steps, on the traditions and the last many years on the concepts because there's a lot of spiritual stuff in those.

35:08

Unknown So you got sober in 1966. Did you ever have the opportunity to meet Bill Wilson before he passed? Nobody was a big part of our life. The first five years I was sober before he got really sick. And my friends, the trustees and the delegates, they came back and forth from New York. And so I got all the stories. I got all the funny stuff. I got the whole stories of what went on at the conference and Bill was such a big part of that.

35:47

Moderator And my other mentor, who was our GSR when I started in service, he wrote letters. And Bill wrote letters. And they wrote letters to each other. So I got all of that. And so he was there. And then when he got sick, we got to know how he was too. And we got to see him up until his last time. So do you remember hearing that Bill had passed? What was the sense of AA when Bill finally passed? What was that experience like?

36:26

Unknown Well, that was kind of awesome then. We got a telegram. Everybody in the GSRs, the DCMs, the delegates, they all got a telegram giving the information that he had died. And so about an hour later, all the groups had the contents of the telegram

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Unknown and we were all talking to each other. But it was, in AA as a whole, it was like everything just stood still. The air went out of the world. And he was really gone. And we knew that the next generation of AA had begun. And so it was, and those of us who were in service, and by then I was a GSR or something. And so we were all together on it. And so the next area assembly we went to, it was, that's what we, we were together.

37:29

Unknown Yeah, a whole different sense then of that. Wow. That's amazing. So you were in Area 5. Before Area 93 was carved out? Correct. Yeah. Yeah, when Area 5 was larger. Yeah. Geographically larger. Did you go to any of the international conferences? I did. I went to the one in Denver in 1975. My husband, Bob, and I had a little baby and we took David in the stroller and just strolled him all around Denver and enjoyed the international.

38:04

Moderator It was wonderful. I've only missed two, I think, since then. Okay. Boy, I just had another question there. So you're involved in general service and you've already done PICPC. You've done some other area stuff. I believe I recall that at one point you stood for delegate when you were younger in AA before this last time that you stood for delegate. So what was that experience like? How long were you sober and what was that experience like?

38:43

Moderator I was seven years sober, I think, and full of myself and thinking that I could just do this tremendous job because I'm still so young and I know everything. And so that's what I went into it with and I made myself available and I was not elected for anything. So I cried all the way home. That would have been about 1973 or 1974. So that would have been early. That would have been panel 23 or 24 at that time.

39:20

Unknown So now you stood for delegate. You've had these other experiences. You've gone to the International in Denver in 75. There's a big gap here between 1975 and 2026. Well, when did you... What panel were you on? I know I have it in here somewhere. What panel were you delegate? 66. And the one that I was not delegate of was 2125. And thank goodness because I did not know what I thought I knew. And I was so arrogant.

39:57

Unknown I was so young. I was just so full of myself and the area would have been so disturbed by me. And they knew that. So they just ignored me and went about their business doing good things. And then I got a chance to learn how to be a trusted servant after that. But you continued to stay active in general service in the different areas that you lived. And then when did you... I hate to rush through this because I'm loving talking to you.

40:37

Moderator As you know, I always love talking to you. But I want people to be able to ask some questions. So when did you... How many times did you stand for delegate? First for that one and then when you were elected in panel 66? Or did you stand for delegate again? Well, when I stood for alternate delegate in... The elections were in 2013. Yeah, 2013, 14.

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41:05

Moderator And I was DCM of my district at the time. And I was elected alternate delegate. So the next election I stood for delegate and was elected. And that was up in area 58? That you stood for alternate delegate? So by now you're living in Oregon. Yes. And 2013 you stand for alternate delegate and you get elected. So what are... Some people here would not know. What are the responsibilities of the alternate delegate?

41:39

Moderator What kind of things were you involved in as an alternate delegate? Backing up the delegate, being available, chairing committees or just kind of plugging in where needed and just being... There were four officers working at one time for the panel. And so we all worked. We all worked together and we had our own group conscience on area business. And then we each had our own jobs to do. We always had specific jobs that we were doing.

42:15

Unknown And then you got elected for panel 66. What was your... So you've not been to the general service conference before. You've heard about it because you served as alternate delegate. So you had a delegate that you worked real closely with. You've heard their experience. What was your experience at your first general service conference in New York? It was so familiar because I knew a lot of the other delegates because the Pacific region works closely together.

42:53

Moderator And so we were close. We were close and it was so much like I'd heard about that I think the ones who were so starry-eyed and having this one epiphany after another, I kind of envied them that because I already knew what it was like. But then experiencing it in the field there, right there, it was so awesome. And then the second year was different because we were in Rye and you couldn't go down to Times Square unless you took the train down there or drove.

43:35

Unknown And it was a totally different experience. And the thing I want to share particularly in that one is at one of the sharing sessions we heard a short talk from Bill and sitting there in the conference listening to Bill again about the conference and knowing that we were standing there not in the same place, in Rye it was not the same place, but it was so much like he was there and I went back in history to what I felt like when people would come from the conference and tell me about it and then I got to hear Bill again from sitting in the seat at the conference.

44:25

Unknown I don't think I can explain it any better than that. I think it's probably one of those things that if you've experienced it, no words are necessary and if you haven't, no words are sufficient. Do you remember any of the agenda items from Panel 66? No. So there wasn't any big stuff. I should grab my advisory actions manual and look it up, but that's okay. So then in Panel 66 you get elected delegate and then not too long after you rotate out, you become a trustee.

45:10

Unknown And so when were you first elected?

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Unknown That was in 22, 2022, and we were just digging out of COVID. And had been, we had to have one virtual panel, and then we had one that was half and half, and then we came back in as a full panel, a full conference in 20, well I was elected in 22, so 23 was my first conference that was a full conference, and we, you know the first generation of AAs, the pioneers, and there's the description of the pioneers is they made it all up.

45:52

Unknown Well, we got a little taste of that too, making it all up again, because it was a little different, there was a break. And my first 30 years in general service was all handed down from trustee to trustee, to delegate to delegate, and these were my, continued to be my friends, this was my community that I lived in, and so I knew so much of what things were supposed to be like, and, but this was, we'd been disconnected for a couple of years, and so there were a few things that we had to make up along the way.

46:38

Unknown And then you rotated it out this year at last year's general, at this past general service conference, and so now, now here you are 60 years sober, and finding your way as a past delegate, a former trustee, and so I'm not going to ask you what's on the agenda for Reilly at this point, because I'm just going to enjoy hearing it firsthand, and watching the journey that you get to do. I am so grateful that you were willing to do this this evening, thank you so much.

47:22

Unknown I am going to go to the group, and I'll take us off of spotlight, and remove spotlight, and remove spotlight. Reilly, thank you so much, we don't go away, we are going to open it up to the group, but if you all would like to thank Reilly, I will ask you all to unmute and then I'll mute you again. Thank you, Reilly. Thank you, Reilly. Thank you, Reilly. Thank you, Reilly. Thank you, Reilly. Thank you, Reilly.

48:00

Unknown Thank you, Reilly. Thanks a lot, Reilly. Great. Thanks, my buddy. Thank you. Thank you, Reilly. I wish that you made it. Oh, thank you, everybody, and I know that there are some, some friends of Reilly's in the room. I just want to share that I was at PRASA this past February. I went out a week early for the Aloha Roundup and then went to PRASA, and we had a wonderful PRASA, it was just fabulous. And then on Sunday evening, I ran into Reilly and Marita and Nancy H. and Chase C., and we all went, we, each of us had the opportunity to go to dinner with other people, and what we chose to do was we each went to one of the restaurants or the takeaways and got our meal, and then we all went and sat in this open-air mezzanine at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

49:09

Moderator It was a bring-your-own dinner, and we sat and we relaxed and we talked for two and a half hours, and it just, you know, when Reilly was talking about just getting to sit and talk with the long-timers and the people who've had the experience, it was just magic. If you go to a Roundup, if you go to a conference, try and take advantage of those kinds of opportunities. It's just so fabulous, so fabulous to be able to do that.

49:48

Moderator So I hope that somebody has questions, that you've written down questions that you have. If you do, remember, this is not a time to share or to comment, but we would like you to just ask questions of Reilly. If there's anything that she talked about that you'd like more information, if there's a question that I didn't ask, there's a whole period in there that we didn't get to talk about.

50:27

[00 50:07]

50:27

Unknown Please raise your digital hand. It's down if you're on a PC. The digital hand is on the ribbon at the bottom. If you're on a Mac, I have no idea where it is, and come in and raise your hand, and we'll call on you to come in and ask Reilly a question. Any questions? Oh, yes, Mike. Hi, Reilly. Thank you so much. I thought I heard you say that you met Lois. Could you talk and, you know, expand on that a little bit?

51:09

Moderator Thank you. Yes, we were lucky enough to have Lois come out to Santa Maria and visit us for a weekend, and I got to talk with her and spend the afternoon with her and get my picture taken with her, and just get to see her for actually for a long time, for the whole weekend. It was wonderful. Thank you. Stan, would you like to unmute? And let me ask you to unmute and come in and ask Reilly a question.

51:46

Unknown Hi, everybody. I'm Stan. I'm an alcoholic. Ms. Reilly, thank you so much. I truly enjoyed you. So, question for you. I know you talked about the 12 and 12 early on, so I would like to know, through the years, when you sponsored people, did you use the 12 and 12, or did you go back into the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous? Personally, I have always helped people with the steps as they are in the Big Book.

52:22

Unknown Bill kind of told us that he was trying to clarify things with the 12 and 12, and he did a pretty good job giving us a book that we could follow his steps in that. So, a lot of us just do that. Thank you. I love the fact that step six and seven both went from seven lines in the Big Book to seven pages in the 12 and 12. Any other questions? Oh, come on. You just heard this woman talk about 60 years of sobriety.

52:59

Moderator You don't have a question? Do we have any questions in the chat? No questions in the chat? Oh, wait. It says too new. Thanks for being here. Nope. Those are from Tim. No questions for Reilly? James has a hand up. Yeah, see, I just had to encourage you a little bit. James, come in and ask Reilly a question. Yes, Reilly. James R. from Atlanta and an archivist for GALAA. Would you care to discuss your involvement with the International Commission for Gays and Lesbians and Alcoholics Anonymous?

53:41

Unknown I'd be delighted to. When the gay groups were allowed to be listed in directories in 1974, then we became visible and we could get our committees. I did pretty much the same thing I had done starting young people's groups as I spent 11 years with the International Advisory Council helping gay groups maintain and start all over the world. Thank you for asking that question. I will get what I promised you soon, really.

54:15

Unknown We will chat. Don't worry. James, it's so good to have you here. Thank you. Lisa B. from Nevada. Would you like to come in and ask Reilly a question? Thanks, Penny. It's great to be here tonight. Reilly, thank you so much. I would like to know what is your favorite host city for an international convention? Well, the ones that I've been to have done such a great job. I like the one where we had the giant coffee pot.

54:56

Unknown And then I also like the one in Seattle where we ran Seattle out of coffee. That was fun. And then there was the one in Minnesota that I got my picture on the front page of their local paper from the rear, of course.

55:16

[00 55:05]

55:16

Unknown And everyone is just wonderful. Thank you. I remember that we ran Seattle out of coffee. I think that's absolutely hysterical. And ice cream, too, I think. I think they also ran out of ice cream, if I remember correctly. I talked with a bellman as they're taking my bags down to my car on Monday morning. And he said, do you people ever sleep? Carol, would you like to come in and ask Reilly a question?

55:52

Unknown Thank you so much. Hi, everyone. I'm an alcoholic. My name is Carol. Reilly, are there certain prayers or things your first sponsor told you or shared with you that have been important that you still use all these years later? Most of them have not lived as long as I have. So it's unfortunate. But I always have people to go to and friends and community. And it evolves. We lose people, precious people.

56:27

Unknown And then we gain more. It's not like you get your friends and then you stay with them and then you all go off together. You keep going in AA and you have your community of AA no matter who comes in and comes out of it. I would like to make a comment here. I'm not going to introduce him, but there is a man attending here who I have been a service sponsor for 52 years, I think. He came in tonight. I see him.

57:08

Unknown And who is that? I'll be getting in touch with you about that. Yes. Dawn, would you like to come in and share? Thank you. Dawn O., alcoholic from Albany, Oregon. Thank you so much, Reilly, and thank you, Penny, for hosting. Quick question. Well, not a quick question. So looking back over your history in Alcoholics Anonymous longitudinally, what would you say is the one thing that we're more than one, if you can think of it, that we're not doing as well as we used to do that maybe we could refocus our energies on?

57:54

Unknown Well, it all has to do with communication. We have learned to communicate in different ways over the years and some of that as we attend ever more workshops on how to communicate. We seem to be losing the ability to do that. So I hope that the ones who are really starting to learn to communicate, and that is listening to others and reporting back where there is need in education, sharing with each other in a way that we cannot be important people telling you something, but that we can all be sharing how the most important thing we have is how to help people stay sober.

58:42

Unknown And if we focus on how to keep the newcomer educated and part of AA and not lose them, then we'll learn even better ways to communicate with each other. And I hope we do. Thank you. And I hope I don't slaughter your name here. Is it Jamoka? Would you like to come in and ask Reilly a question? Can you unmute? Okay, great. Thank you for allowing me to unmute. My name is Jamoka and I'm an alcoholic. I'm about 15 months and service is really important.

59:25

Unknown Thank you. The question is like, tell me your best story or lesson learned about the group level inventory. And then the second piece is I've just been learning about concepts. It was like a lot of people that's still kind of a foreign thing and I'm really grateful to people. a Foreign Thing, and I'm really grateful to people that are doing that, you know, like communicating about concepts, so I'm young in it and trying to soak up everything, but anyway, inventory at the group level, any great lessons, funny stories, things to avoid.

60:13

[01 00:07]

60:13

Moderator I'm not sure we have all that time, but the first inventory that I participated in with my groups or district or areas, the most successful ones asked, what are we not doing right? How are we losing newcomers or old folks, and what can we do better? How can we focus on sobriety and keeping people sober? And when they did that, every time the inventory came out with a list of things they could either stop doing or try to do better, and since there was a lot of people, when a lot of people participate in inventories, they get so many new ideas, and people being honest in the inventory really, really, really helps, and then they come out of it with a list of things that they can remind themselves that they can do.

61:15

Unknown That's the success that I see working in groups. Thanks. Thanks. Eduardo, GSR from Area 30, District 5, would you like to come in and ask Reilly a question? There you are. Oh, great. Hi, Penny. Thank you. Reilly, two questions. One I think I might ask you later has to do with the conference and the votings of the delegates, which I think would just be a little bit deep at this point to ask on this format.

61:51

Unknown Something less deep was you were sober about one or two years. You had met people, trustees, you had met delegates. You were very much connected and invited and warmed by the AA membership, and then you had this desire to leave and to disassociate yourself with AA and drink. What did you make of that, how that came upon you after being already past that obstacle of feeling a part of the longing and being needed?

62:25

Moderator And you're talking about the time at two years sober? Yes. That's that one. When I started working the program. Yeah. I had not run into anyone who offered to share the program with me or help me to learn what it was all about until I ran into that one person. And gee, you think it's a coincidence that I happened to drop in at her house at that time after on my way to a liquor store? I don't think so, because there she was waiting saying, well, we have a program and you could work some of these steps and I'll help you do it.

63:18

Unknown So everything changed from there. It's never been like that since. You know, when you tell that story, Reilly, I'm always reminded I had a friend from Colorado, Dick G, that used to say, the steps don't know who's working them. The steps just work. Jeff A. from Bismarck, North Dakota. Would you like to come in and ask a question of Reilly? Oops. There you are. Reilly, have you ever been to Bill Wilson's house, Ardmore Avenue, or the Wilson house, or Stepping Stones in Akron on Father's Day?

64:03

Unknown I think I heard you ask about Stepping Stones and the Wilsons. Have you ever been to Stepping Stones or Bob's house or the Bill Wilson house? Just two Stepping Stones. I've been to Stepping Stones twice and it's wonderful, but I have not traveled to the other places to see those. Thank you. Okay. I am going to turn, that does take it past the top of the hour, but thank you all so much for being willing to be here this evening, for sticking with us, for coming up with some questions.

64:48

Unknown Reilly, thank you, thank you, thank you for being willing to do this.

64:54

[01 05:05]

64:54

Moderator And it was great chatting with you last night and getting everything set up for you. And now that we know how to do all of that, we can take care of it from there. But it's just been, oh my God, Paul S. from China is here. Paul's from my home group, the Global Speakers Group in China. Oh, Paul, it's great to see you. I'm going to turn it back over to Tim. And Tim, you've got some announcements to make.

65:36

Unknown I think there are some people in the chat that want to sign up for the newsletter and you might want to go over that again, how they do that. And it's all yours. And thank you so much for being willing to be here each month to open us up and to host this meeting. I did not think it would still be going four years later, but geez, I love doing this every month. So thank you for the opportunity to be of service.

66:15

Moderator Thank you so much, Penny and Reilly, for taking the time to share your experience with us. And we really appreciate hearing these stories. And I get more out of this hosting every month than I think anyone else. So I really enjoy it. And so just a reminder to check out recoveryspeakers.org. And you can set up a free account and the features are just getting better as the days go by. And you can now save your recordings where you're at, save any books that you're reading.

66:57

Moderator We have a ton of PDF books that you can read directly on the website. And if you want to receive our daily email or the flyers for the upcoming presentations, you can contact me at info at recovery speakers. And we're still in the process of switching our email addresses. So the right one to contact is the .com. And it will be .org soon. But that is it for me. I am going to share the flyers in the chat one more time.

67:36

Unknown So if anyone wants to save them and download them. But other than that, thanks, everyone, for being here. And I hope to see you all next week. And I will now allow everyone to unmute and thank Reilly and Penny for having this conversation with us tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Reilly.

The following is an AI-generated transcript. Minor errors may occur. The audio is the authoritative source.

A Conversation with a Long-Timer — Reilly K. (September 29, 2026)

A Conversation with a Long-Timer — Reilly K. (September 29, 2026)

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