Press Release regarding “Celebrating 75 Years of Al-Anon Recovery” from the Al-Anon World Service Office English / Spanish

August 2026 Message from the Area Archives Coordinator:

Welcome to the Group Representatives (GRs) and District Representatives (DRs) in our Area and the entire Area Panel!  So, you ask, what are archives?

Definition:  archives – a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people.

Our Al-Anon Area has had meetings since the early 1950’s. Al-Anon published a book called Many Voices, One Journey (B-31) in 2011. When you read it, you will see how our Area has been part of all the growth of Al-Anon through the decades starting in the 50’s. Looking at our early history, I could visualize the large AA groups and the future Al-Anon members meeting near the AA meetings to chat and serve coffee and sweets to the AA meeting members. Long Beach and San Pedro are where our early history began. San Pedro is mentioned in the book, Many Voices, One Journey. The book is a treasure of information on the beginning of Al-Anon and every decade that has passed. As a worldwide fellowship guided by our three legacies and our members, we are and always will be the voice of the fellowship. In our Area, we start in Atascadero and head south to San Diego. We have history to document.

Please review the Al-Anon Guideline G-30 regarding Area Archives.

These are possible categories to include on our Archives webpage:

• Reports about special events or activities in Districts or the Area
• Group histories
• Longtime member interviews or recordings
• Area articles that are selected for use in WSO publications such as The Forum or Area Highlights with content specific to the locale

We have a number of items from our early history, but we need meeting and District histories and current happenings. This information will be saved in an archive file. If your District has an Archives Coordinator, please let me know. For questions, send email to archives@scws-al-anon.org.

Please use the WSO Group History Checklist (AR-6) to submit group meeting histories and the Longtime Member Questionnaire (AR-1) for your submissions. Please submit completed forms to our SCWS Archive Form .              

With your upcoming contributions, decades from now; our Area will show how our fellowship has grown by the outreach, service and love we have freely given to our Al-Anon program!