Personal Stories

Participant:  Rodney K -  Recorded:  July 27, 2022
Transcriber:  Terry G    

8/12/85

Western Trails registered their group with GSO.  Meetings were held in a room at La Hacienda Treatment Center on Western Trails Blvd. in Austin. TX.  AA member Buddy M worked at La Hacienda.  Patients from the treatment center were attending the meetings, as well as outside AA members. Ed H listed the group as an AA group under the name Western Trails. Meetings were held at 8:30am, 12 noon, 5:30pm  and 8pm daily.

7/31/88

AA member Chris G said that the meetings at La Hacienda were not following the  AA Traditions, because they were held at a treatment after-care facility.  She recognized the conflict with Tradition Six that those meetings presented.  Tradition Six: “An AA group ought never to endorse, finance or lend the AA  name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.”
*Chris G called for a Group Conscience.  The members voted to break  relations with La Hacienda.
*The Western Trails AA group moved to a separate building, several doors down from La Hacienda.

5/1/92

The earliest morning meeting was at Western Trails at that time was 8:30am. Member, Henry W was having difficulty staying sober till 8:30am.  Henry suffered a grand mal seizure and was hospitalized.  A few days later, Henry approached Rodney K, who was the Steering Committee Chairperson.  Henry asked Rodney if they could start a meeting earlier than 8:30am every day. He thought an earlier  meeting might keep him sober.  That’s when the meeting was moved to 7:15am every morning.            

5/1/95

Painter Bill and Jim A decided they wanted to change the meeting time to 6am, because they wanted to get to a meeting before they went to work. After a short time, the group decided that 6am was good for Monday-Friday, but not necessary on the weekends or holidays so weekends and holidays went to 7:15am. (In 2022 the 7:15am time was applied only to the weekends.  Holidays went to 6am.)  

February, 2004

In February, 2004, Western Trails was going to lose the right to use the building on Western Trails Blvd. and they had an immediate need to find a new location. Western Trails had their Group Conscience on Saturday, February 7, 2004.

2/13/04

NY Bob (Bob B) and Big E (Eddie M) called for the 6am group to meet at Nutty Brown Restaurant to decide what the group would do. 17 members of that group showed up.  They had prayers, had something to eat and went over to the Dripping Springs Methodist Church to an AA meeting.  Sandy E was leading the meeting.  After that meeting, they gathered there to make a decision on their future.  They voted unanimously to take their group, then known as the early morning 6am meeting at Western Trails, to Living Faith at 617 Clifford Dr., Austin, TX. 

5/1/04

First meeting at Living Faith at 617 Clifford Dr., Austin, TX at 6am was held. The group was registered with GSO on that date. They wanted to name the group,  “First Things First” but Intergroup said that name was already taken.  Never having heard that name used or seeing it on the Meeting List at Intergroup, our members asked where  the group was located that used that name.  It had been registered in 1974 at 617 Clifford under the name FIRST THINGS FIRST. There was no current group under that name meeting at that location, but since it had been registered. and not withdrawn, the name, FIRST THINGS FIRST was not available.  For that reason the “KEEP” was added and  KEEP FIRST THINGS FIRST was registered with GSO on 5/1/04.  

For 16 years, Keep First Things First was a closed meeting at 617 Clifford Drive, Austin, TX Monday – Friday at 6am and Saturday & Sundays & Holidays at 7:15am        

March 2020 – Covid began – Keep First Things First became a Virtual Meeting.

3/21/20       

When the pandemic hit in March, 2020, the 617 Clifford Dr., Austin, TX "clubhouse" was closed down.  Within days it was suggested that an online KFTF group could be established.  Heather M volunteered to start a Zoom account.  Meetings started being held on Zoom on 3/21/20.  Some members chose to meet outside the clubhouse to continue having in person meetings. After some time the online meeting became  a wider encompassing group.  Members who had moved far away were delighted to be able to easily return to get the KFTF message. The word spread and people began joining from around the world.
* Group Conscience held after morning meeting.   Motion was passed to continue 6am Monday-Friday closed meetings – but move them outside, as well as, online.

4/18/20

At the Group Conscience, it was “Confirmed KFTF is online.”

7/18/20

At the Group Conscience, a motion was made to vote that “No format changes be made to our actual KFTF group until we are physically present in the building and have ample opportunity for discussions on a variety of options such as:
*Only in person meetings
*Virtual meetings held separate from in person meetings
*Hybrid meetings combining in person members and virtual members on zoom.”

10/17/20

At the Group Conscience the group “Tabled making any changes to the Keep First Things First  meeting format until we have live meetings”.
*An Ad Hoc Committee was appointed to develop a plan detailing how the group would safely re-enter the 617 Foundation building.  The committee shall prepare a report on the roles and responsibilities of the two groups with an emphasis on the different basis of governance between the two.

3/10/21

Covid restrictions were lifted, and the in person moved back inside the building.  So, then Keep First Things First had 2 components: an online meeting and an in person meeting.

7/17/21

At the KFTF Group Conscience, the in person KFTF group stated they did not want to have their meeting videoed along with the online group meeting. The motion that, "The group will be unified using technologies, as discussed, and to integrate technology into the room", was denied.  The vote count being: Zoom:  15 voted YES  Room:  15 voted NO and 1 member online voted NO. The motion did not pass and Keep First Things First continued as structured under the 4/18/20 Group Conscience statement that “Confirmed KFTF is online”.

*The online group, then attempted to use the smaller "clubhouse" room at 617 Clifford, for those wishing to be part of an in person hybrid meeting while joining the   KFTF zoom group.  After several hybrid meetings, the interest did not seem to warrant the attempt and was discontinued.

10/16/21

At the KFTF Group Conscience meeting the in person group made it clear they did not want zoom participation in their meetings. The meeting was adjourned without a resolution on the future of our group.

10/30/21

A Group Conscience meeting was held for the online group under the new GSO Registered name, “KFTF Unified”.  This consisted of  KFTF members now wanting to form a single online closed AA group held Mon -Fri at 6am (CST)and Sat & Sun at 7:15am (CST).

12/4/21

The name KFTF Online was approved by our Group Conscience and was registered under that name with GSO:  Group Service # 000386150 - Area 68  - District  3c.