THE GROUPS
AA Phuket has 6 Groups registered with AA General Service Office in New York, USA including the Phuket Group, registered in 1993. Here is a short history of the other groups on the island.
PATONG GROUP
Early members met in restaurants and like venues in Patong before the group established itself at the Patong Hospital in 1994-95. The first meetings were on Fridays at 7:00 pm and the early members shared responsibility for setting up meetings and keeping things going. Frequently returning visitors from overseas became regulars. The format consisted of a reading from the Big Book followed by a cigarette break, and then sharing. Meetings had no set ending time and usually lasted more than one hour.
By 2000 the meeting was well established and starting to grow. It was registered as an AA group with GSO in 2003.
Around this same time 2003, a number of members decided to stop attending the Patong meetings and to find a new meeting venue following acrimonious disagreements about meeting content and language. The new International Group was formed and starting meeting at the International Hospital in Kathu.
After this the Patong group went dormant with no one attending. A year or so passed and because the group was not active, it was suggested to take the Patong Group meeting times out of the printed ads. This stirred one member who said he never liked to see a group close to volunteer to attend the Friday night meetings in Patong. Not long after this, he moved to Patong and started meetings six days a week in the hospital. Each meeting’s format was different: Sunday Meditation, Monday Big Book, Tuesday 12&12, Wednesday Daily Reflections, Friday Big Book and Saturday Speaker Meeting.
In 2012 Patong Group was asked to move from Patong Hospital after some policy changes for government buildings. It took time to find a new home, with meetings being held in various venues in Patong including Starbucks, Patong beach restaurants and an Italian restaurant in Kalim. The owner of the Kalim restaurant eventually sold it and the premises became a Family Mart. However, all was not lost as the owner invited AA to move with him to his new restaurant, Pizzeria Hut 101, on Soi Sabai, Patong. AA met in the fifth-floor meeting room on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The meetings started at 7:00 pm and are one-hour duration. Saturday is a speaker meeting.
The group has moved venue three times since and is currently meeting at the Patong International Christian Fellowship after a short residency at the Austrian Garden. The group still meets three times a week.
