Pockets will held Saturday, March 22, 2025
Mukogawa – Fort Wright Commons
4320 W Owens Ridge Road
Spokane, WA 99224
Please donate to keep Pockets going!
History
The Origin Story
In the mid-80s Clancy was speaking at the Sunflower Round-Up and coined the phrase “Pockets of Enthusiasm”. He was referring to clusters of AA groups with a high level of the “spirit within” for recovery. Following the Sunflower conference, Dick and Peggy M from Bellevue NE started the Pockets of Enthusiasm, Round-Up in Omaha, NE. I was able to be a part of that conference for a couple years before moving back to Spokane in 1991.
In 1993, Clancy I. spoke at the Foxhall NW Group 2nd anniversary meeting. Several hundred people showed up to hear him share on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, Clancy, and a few Foxhall home group members, went to breakfast at the Golden Corral Buffet. A small group from the Pacific NW meeting of Tacoma, Washington and an offshoot of the Pacific Group from Helena and Bozeman, Montana also attended the meeting. Not knowing these “pockets of enthusiasm” were so close, I suggested we start an annual conference that would move from one community to the next. Each of the Spokane, Tacoma, Helena and Bozeman groups hosted a speaker and shared financial responsibility. We also invited the Spokane Al-Anon Family Group to participate in the weekend, and offered them two speaker times. The second year, those from Montana suggested that the conference stay in Spokane, as travel to Tacoma was so far. It was no surprise that Tacoma felt the same way about traveling to Helena.
About 5 years later, the Montana contingency backed out to start the Northern Rockies Pockets of Enthusiasm. Tacoma resigned to spend more time and effort on their Sponsorship Conference. And, the Spokane AA meetings, the South Hill Group, and the Prescription for Living Group, as well as the Spokane AFG, are no longer sponsors.
Pockets of Enthusiasm has stayed in Spokane. Today the conference continues to host four AA and AFG speakers with the help of many AA and AFG members.
Robert L.