An Informal History of Old Stone and No Names Anonymous
By Pat M.
"What we need is another club . . ."
Like all stories, this one began with "you know, what we need is another club" said Jerry L to Pat M. If you are alcoholic (even a little), this will cause you to think a lot. I don't know when Jerry said that to me but I do know that on November 1, 1989 Old Stone Club opened at 613 Cherry Street in the old St. Mary's School building. Now to regress . . . Jerry knew some people (I know . . . no news there) in Louisville, KY who were involved in opening a club there. So, Jerry set off for Louisville to gather all the information of how, when, how much, etc, does it take to do this. He, of course, brought back a ton of information. The only info that stood out in my mind (and still does to this day) is that you better have real thick skin to do this as some folks don't take kindly to new ideas, not to mention starting what was perceived as an uppity club. Well, obviously God had selected the proper scout for this mission. I didn't know anyone then, and I still don't today, that met these qualifications better than Jerry.
You would have thought that we were starting a multimillion dollar corporation. We had meeting after meeting, . . . every Monday night & certainly in between. I can assure you that these meetings were just like other AA business meetings . . . sometimes loud, sometimes hurt feelings (we are a sensitive lot, you know), but in the end, the club opened in spite of us all. I suppose I should thank my understanding employer because at this time I was working the 3P-12A shift on Mondays. [On second thought, no thanks is necessary since I may have forgotten to mention the meetings to my employer.] As I said, I really don't know how much time passed between the initial thought & the opening of the club, but it certainly was a turbulent time. I believe that Sharon & Margaret might verify this. Fortunately, we took turns being discouraged and ready to throw in the towel on this project.
No Names Anonymous and A.A.
I suppose that the picture I am trying to paint would not be complete without mentioning the difficulty that some had (some still do) with the separation of the club and Alcoholics Anonymous. The purpose & the only purpose of what we now know as No Names Anonymous is to provide (rent) meeting space for AA, Alanon & Alanon related groups. And yes, there was quite an upheaval about "charging" to belong to this club. Once again there was a misunderstanding of what the corproation is and is not. I think Jerry explained it best (so far): The Evansville Country Club charges dues to belong. If you can't afford them or don't want to pay them, then don't. No Names Anonymous was never meant to be free. The corporation; although tax exempt; is responsible for paying bills, mortgage, utilities, etc. But, of course, one may attend meetings at the club without membership. Ahh, the difference between the club & AA.
Why it's called No Names Anonymous
You probably have guessed that the services of an attorney would be necessary. We can't do anything (not even die) without "the attorney." At any rate, of course Jerry knew one in the program and put the arm on him. For those of you that have experienced this with Jerry, no explanation is necessary. So Bill H. was contacted and agreed to do this (pro bono, of course). He set out with great enthusiasm to set up this corporation. And did he ever. The Articles of Incorporation were drafted. Since we had not had any discussion of what this corporation was to be called, Bill just used "No Names Anonymous" to fill in the blank on the form, indicating that the name had not yet been selected. Well, I guess it still hasn't. The group conscience was that the name of No Names Anonymous would work.
The naming of the club/clubroom was done by Al R. He said we should call it Old Stone Club and the board agreed and that's what we did. That was done January 22, 1990.
Old Stone I
Bill H. knew Father Steve L. (no anonymity--I just don't know how to spell his last name) of St. Mary's parish, who knew that the detox center "Stepping Stone" had moved out to its new location which left a vacancy. So, after much dialogue between Bill, Jerry and the incorporators a deal was struck. We took possession sometime in September of 1989. You would think that I would know what the rent was in the beginning since I was the guy writing the checks, but I don't. I do recall it was a minimal amount in the beginning. However, I can report we were paying $1,200 a month in August 1991. This first place became known as Old Stone I after we lost it to the parish.
Old Stone II
The building at Sycamore & 6th, which was the old Salvation Army Building, became Old Stone II, as Rick K. explained to us on Founder's Day. Once again Jerry spearheaded the search committee to find this location, although there were many other people involved in the search. I will not attempt to name them all for I'm sure I will omit someone and you know what that will cause.
Well, with the help of a member of the fellowship who happened to sit on a bank board we obtained financing. I'm not so sure I would loan the likes of us that kind of money. Things were sailing along fairly well; we were barely making payments, but we were making them. It seemed we were having leaky roof issues on a regular basis. So the experts were called in and you guessed it: we needed a new roof. This roof was a flat one which meant sealer, tar rock, etc. You would think material like that would not cost (I have no idea) a ton of money.
Here came Jerry again. He putt the hit on a guy named Greg L to hit up his friends, colleagues & enemies to do an official fundraiser. Greg and his staff set out with great fervor to solicit funds for this project with a mass mailing.
Old Stone III
One of these letters wound up in the Redevelopment Office of Evansville. The head of that office (I don't remember her name; she has since passed) called Greg and told him that she needed to speak with him right away. Back then, I still knew something so I got this urgent phone call from Greg and we decided we better meet with this gal (duh). So we did. Now you don't just have a meeting when Greg is involved. We had us an eating meeting at the Cork. She informed us that she was not telling us what to do, but if she were in our position, she would not put a new roof on the building. As luck would have it, our building was sitting right where the mayor wanted his parking garage for the Victory Theater (something about Eminent Domain which was about to become Imminent Domain). I informed her that I didn't think he was a member and they ignored me after that.
Well, I embrace change as well as the next drunk--you know, fear, anger and more fear. Of course, not realizing what a great thing was happening, Greg and I made this great decision to inform the master architect (Jerry) immediately of this great injustice that was in the making. Well, Jerry went to work again--arm twisting, shaming and whatever it took to form another search committee. Search they did. And the result, as you have probably guessed, became Old Stone III. With the money negotiated for the Old Stone II property and negotiations with the city for the current property, No Names Anonymous is still in business because of a lot of people. For those of you who don't get out much, let me tell you that Old Stone III is the great exception in AA & Alanon meeting spaces. We have been very, very blessed and a bit spoiled.
I can assure you that many, many people were involved with all of the Old Stones. This account is merely my reporting and my experience. I can, however, tell you one thing that I know to be absolutely true: If it were not for Jerry L, the No Names Anonymous corporation would not exist. That is not to say someone else couldn't have done what Jerry did. BUT Jerry is the one who got the call and he is the one who went to work and he is the one who worked until he left for the big meeting. This is not a case where a person became good because he passed. It is exactly what Jerry did . . . good work.
