I am an Alcoholic and my name is Warren.

My home group is The Deal Mens Stag Group, based in Armadale, Victoria.

The year was 1998, I was 13 months sober when I attended my second VICYPAA convention and I listened to the guest speaker Ruben G, from the Dog On The Roof Group ( Mens Stag) from California USA.

His Message and story was powerful and had an effect on myself and my personal recovery.  The identification from Ruben’s story was nothing other then language of the heart, One Alcoholic sharing with another alcoholic.

In August / September of 1998 later that year. I had the opportunity to travel to the USA and took the time to run with the blokes from Dog On The Roof.

What an effect this had on me, their recovery, their sobriety certainly was the most important aspect of their lives. Carrying the message to other alcoholics was paramount to the group and the individual.

On my flight back home to Australia I questioned why I was attracted to Ruben’s recovery and why I witnessed the action of these men!

This motivated myself and upon my return set about taking the actions to form a Mens Stag Group here in Melbourne.

It was sunday the 23rd of September 1998, Our mens group began and we held the 1st meeting.  The initial support was reasonable and once the group had sufficient members we voted and the Deal was done.

The Group has continued to hold its Sunday Home Group meeting.

In October of the year 2000 we started our 2nd weekly meeting on Wednesday evenings to study Alcoholics Anonymous conference appoved literature and history, This meeting has now become a weekly part of The Deal.

Camp Outs were an idea which came from Ruben and The Dog On The Roof group. The guys were always going on about what a blast camp outs were.

This prompted The Deal to set about initiating our own Campouts, The first of which we had in March 2001.

The Group now hosts 3 annual camp outs and thanks to some of the older sober members, fundraising the group now has purchased its own camping equipment and trailer.

Eating meetings are now regularly held on the last Sunday of each month. Our first eating meeting was held on Sunday October 2001. This idea was also generated from the blokes at Dog On The Roof.