Salina Group #7 originally began as the old Friday Night
Northenders Group of Alcoholics Anonymous. The group met
once weekly on Friday nights, at 8:00 p.m., in the basement of
the old S.O.S house (Society of Sobriety) behind what was then
the St. Johns outpatient and adolescent treatment center on N.
Ninth Street in Salina, KS. The old timers in the group were:

• Leo W. 

• Noel P.

The Group began around 1983.

After a period of growth in the latter half of the 80s,
attendance was up to 5-8 regular members. In late 87 or early
88, several new members joined the Northenders Group. This
included:

• Rick M.

• Ken L.

• Jason R.

• Dennis C.

• Terry M.

• John B.

Unknown to any of us at this time, this small band of “rebels” would later start a new AA Group
and become Salina Group #7.

During the late 80s, they were growing and meetings were
attended by lots of AAs from other groups as well as frequent
visits from busloads of treatment center newcomers.
In 1989 Rick M. started a trial big book study meeting on
Thursday night at his home at 132 W. Jewell, to see if “it would
fly”, before possibly adding another meeting to the
Northenders Group. We met there for about six months with an
average attendance of about 7-10 people. The meeting was
started as an “open” big book study meeting so members of the

Al-Anon Family Groups and any other interested friends of
family members could attend. The first year 3-4 Al-Anon
members regularly attended it. It was so successful that it
became too large for the living room at the home, so it was
moved to the S.O.S. (Society of Sobriety) house and added to
the regular meetings of the Northenders Group in 1990.
During the early 1990s, the Northenders group began growing
rapidly and it looked to some like we needed a larger meeting
place. There was also the distinct possibility that we would
soon be asked to leave the basement of the little house by the
new owners of the treatment center. The center was sold to a
local church here in Salina in 1992, and they wanted to use the
house for the caretaker’s residence in the near future.
Several of the group’s members found a place the group could
rent on N. Santa Fe for $250 per month plus bills and insurance.
At this time the group had about 12 regular members. This
proposal to move was put before the group as well as many
other ideas. The Group was split about 50/50 on the
controversial move and many long, tortuous business meetings
were held to “discuss” the advantages and disadvantages of the
proposed move. Some of these “discussion meetings” lasted
until nearly midnight! Finally a vote was taken and the
“movers” won by a single vote. The “non-movers” decided to
do nothing, except talk to the church leaders about the
possibility of renting one of the many open rooms available in
the old treatment center wing. The church agreed to rent the

remaining AAs a room on the south end of the west wing of the
building for the time being. This little band of AAs who refused
to move, soon became Salina Group #7, so named because at
that time we were the 7th AA Group in District 27.

Several years later due to tireless efforts of four DCM’s,

• Rick M.

• Dennis C.

• Nathan N.

• Don G,

Districts 5 and 27 were finally reunited as District 5 with the full blessings of the Kansas Area
Assembly.

Salina Group #7 continued the tradition of Thursday open Big
Book study meetings and Friday closed topic meetings just like
the old group held. The motto was “If it’s not broken, don’t fix
it!” The third Friday of each month was designated an “open”
birthday meeting. We also tried a new Language of the Heart
study on Friday nights for awhile. These formats continued for
many years.

Our present formats are: Tuesday – Big Book Study meeting,
and Friday meetings are:

• 1st Friday – Step meeting

• 2nd Friday - Tradition meeting

• 3rd Friday – open Speaker meeting

• 4th Friday – open Birthday meeting

• 5th Friday – open Speaker meeting.

Many other types of meetings were tried over the
years, including; an open “tape” meeting, a Sunday morning
closed topic meeting, several different book study meetings
and a few speaker meetings. None have worked as well as our
Tuesday open book study and our Friday closed topic and
Birthday combination.

​

Several years ago, a group of nursing students from Kansas
Wesleyan University visited the Thursday Book Study as a
requirement for one of their classes. They were warmly
welcomed and their questions were enthusiastically answered.
They seemed to thoroughly enjoy the “required” meetings.
Word quickly spread throughout the small school about the
Thursday open meeting of Group #7 and we still enjoy small
groups of nursing students from time to time to this day. We
even had an ex-nursing student become a home group member
for a few years!

So, Salina Group #7 actually started in the summer of 1993 at
old St. John’s Treatment Center building upstairs in the last
room on the west wing. The original group of founders are

• Rick M.

• Ken L.

• Jason R.

• Terry M.

• Dennis C.

• John B.

The Group soon had to move to the basement of a
church on S. Ninth St. for a few short months. We then rented a
small house at 312 N. 12th St., (fondly called the 12 & 12
House). The New Adventure Al-Anon Group rented the upstairs
and Group #7 rented the basement. Seems like we just can’t
“get out of the basements”!

The Group was and still is an exciting and fun place to be on
Tuesday and Friday nights and is quite successful in introducing
the program of Alcoholics Anonymous to many newcomers.
Sponsorship, service, step-work and fellowship are encouraged
and many evenings at the 12 & 12 House were spent before
and after meetings playing horseshoes, drinking coffee and

talking program until it is too dark to see. We also held
cookouts along with the Al-Anon Group at the house many
times during nice weather. Group #7 member Marge M. began
an annual group Christmas Party and Rick M. began spring and
fall Group picnics at his new place in the country near Falun.
Food, fun and fellowship was the name of the game, along with
good sponsorship and helping one another stay sane, happy
and sober. Road trips were taken to other AA meetings,
conferences, assemblies and committee meetings in Great
Bend, Concordia, Wamego, Dodge City, Garden City, Abilene,
Beloit, Manhattan, Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence and even Happy,
Texas a few times.

Group #7 moved again in 2002 (in the basement, of course!) to
St. John’s Lutheran Church on S. Seventh St. The vote to move
this time was taken and passed with way over 2/3 majority, in
fact almost unanimously to move, with only one member
voting not to move.

Group #7 moved again in 2010 to the Episcopal Church at the
corner of Max & Norton in Salina. We finally made it to the
ground floor! One last move from The Church of Incarnation at
639 Max Ave as Mike D. chaired our last meeting at this
location and that meeting was a chairman’s choice.

On Sept. 3rd 2019 Darren F. chaired our first meeting at our
current location, The Sunrise Presbyterian Church, 825 E. Beloit
Ave. We now hold our Big Book study on Tuesday nights at
8:00pm and Friday nights are the same format as always.

Sadly we have lost beloved friends and members since the
inception of this group. Those include:

• Marge McElroy

• Ken Leo 2007

• Rick McAdams 2014

• Ed Marks 2018

• Jason Rumbaugh 2021.