E263: Service Work in Recovery: You Haven't Been Nominated to Drink Coffee

Service work in AA recovery isn't about giving back - it's about belonging, commitment, and staying sober. 

"I don't even drink coffee."

"That's fine. You haven't been nominated to drink coffee. You've been nominated to make coffee."

Steve heard this exchange at his Thursday night men's meeting, and it might be the greatest line about service work ever spoken. Because that's exactly what service work is - doing something that isn't about you, that gets you connected, that gets you showing up.

In this episode, Matt and Steve dig into service work in recovery - what it is, why people are afraid of it, and why it might be one of the most important parts of staying sober that nobody talks about enough.

Matt opens up about his early motivation for service work, and it wasn't the noble "giving back" thing everyone talks about. It was simpler: "I wanted to feel like I belonged." He shares the story of being a door greeter at the Tuesday night Forbes Street meeting - scared out of his mind, showing up 30 minutes early every week, hugging everyone who walked in. By the end of 5 weeks, he knew everyone in that room. That's the power of service work.

Steve talks about his journey from cleaning ashtrays and taking out trash at his Friday night men's meeting to doing district-level work 15+ years later. But here's what he says: "The most rewarding service work is still at the meeting level - because that's where you meet the new alcoholic, the fresh alcoholic who just came out of rehab or is just looking for a meeting."

We break down what service work actually looks like:

• The basics: Putting away chairs, breaking down tables, making coffee
• The commitments: Chairing meetings, being treasurer, being secretary
• The next level: GSR (General Service Representative), district work
• The often-overlooked one: Driving people to meetings

Matt shares the "dirty little secret" about service work: it gets you to go to meetings. When you have a commitment - coffee maker, chairperson, door greeter - you show up. You don't bail because you don't feel like it. You're expected to be there, so you go. And that commitment to the meeting becomes a commitment to your sobriety.

Steve talks about why he keeps taking service commitments even after 15+ years: "It makes me part of that meeting so much more quickly. This Wednesday noon meeting, I've only been going for about a year and a half, and there are people who've been there for 20 years. But taking the coffee commitment puts me in as part of that group way faster than if I just show up and never do anything."

We also tackle the fears people have about service work:

• "I'm too new" (Matt's fear early on)
• "I'll do it wrong" (Matt's coffee-making anxiety)
• "People will judge me"
• The truth: The stakes are incredibly low. You can't really screw this up.

Plus: The story of Ted S. filling the entire percolator basket with coffee grounds because he'd never made coffee before (that's one STRONG cup), why the phone weighs 500 pounds but picking someone up for a meeting is huge service work, and Matt's realization that he never volunteered for coffee at the Monday meeting because he doesn't drink coffee there (problem solved - he's volunteering now).

If you're new to recovery and wondering if you should take a service comm

Transcript

Steve: 0:03

He remember when he was early on, his sponsor signed him up to be coffee maker. And it's just one of the greatest lines I've ever heard. And he was bitching and complaining to his sponsor because he didn't want to make coffee. And he said to his sponsor, "I don't even drink coffee." And the sponsor said,"That's fine. You haven't been nominated to drink coffee. You've been nominated to make coffee." And I just thought that was the best line, like, yeah, so what? You don't drink coffee.

Matt: 0:34

Welcome to The Sober Friends podcast. My name is Matt, Steve's over there, and we're the place that is talking about recovery, sobriety, sober curiosity, all of that stuff. Really? I don't know. I'm not trying to make it out to be with the BR and I'm all. I guess I'm trying to do an intro that is a lot more fun. You know, you know why we're here. You've probably been listening to this before and if not, you're in for a great ride. We're gonna talk a little bit about service work today. I think you and I know quite a bit about service work. Some people think early on that is something to be afraid of. I'm not one of those people. And have a problem doing service work. My one problem is something I'll get into. What's going on, Steve? You dig out.

Steve: 1:27

I did. And I, as I'd like to tell people, I actually like this weather. You know, we've had a big snowstorm up here in Connecticut.

Matt: 1:37

Had

Steve: 1:37

about 15 inches, 16 inches of snow at my house. I actually like it. I've been out lots of couple of days. I got woods in the backyard trying to break in a trail, but because to break in a trail, that the dog and I can get on because the dog, I mean, she's a golden retriever. It was still too high. It was just too much for her to do. So we've been out there for the last few days trying to break in a trail so that we can walk. And I got snowshoes. So it's been snowshoeing out there. Because everything the streets are tough. We don't have sidewalk walks on my neighborhood. So if I walk her my

Matt: 2:11

neighborhood

Steve: 2:11

in the road, roads are narrow. But I actually like doing this. I went down to my buddy, Chuck's house helped him dig out. I like the cold. It doesn't bother me. So it's all good here. I know people hate it, but I like it.

Matt: 2:26

Yeah. I'm one of those people who's not crazy about the cold. I'm just looking at the temperature now. When we're recording, it's nine degrees.

Steve: 2:33

Yeah.

Matt: 2:34

been negative one when I've woken up

Steve: 2:36

Yeah. It's

Matt: 2:37

two mornings in a row. This is not see. Here's the thing I don't like about the snow is days like it is periods like now where the road is encroached. And the parking spots are less because you've got to dump the the snow places. It just it becomes more difficult. Yeah. That's just the inconvenience of it after the fact, less parking spots, it's slippery. You got to go slower. I just can't behave the way I want

Steve: 3:09

Yeah,

Matt: 3:09

to.

Steve: 3:09

that's a lot of that stuff's not fun. Yeah, I'm at a different point in life. I don't have to go out too much, although I went out one the night to our meeting. Picked up Mikey

Matt: 3:19

purposely didn't. I purposely didn't because of the weather.

Steve: 3:22

No, most people didn't. And then we got there in the parking lot was that plowed. So we turned around and went home. There were six of us that I know showed up,

Matt: 3:31

Yeah.

Steve: 3:32

talked to a couple of people. It wasn't even plowed. We couldn't even get in there. So I'm like, there's no

Matt: 3:35

Good

Steve: 3:35

sense.

Matt: 3:35

lord,

Steve: 3:36

but, but I was I was willing to go out and do it. So anyway, service work. Yeah, we, you know, we, uh, it's something that we talk about something that you and I have done.

Matt: 3:46

Uh,

Steve: 3:48

various levels of it. And, uh, yeah, I think a lot of people, some people are afraid of it. But some people credit it for really getting them sober. Right. That's what they credit.

Matt: 4:02

Kind

Steve: 4:02

of work really springboarding them into a real program of recovery. So, uh, we'll talk a little bit about that. Yeah, see what, see what people out there think about it.

Matt: 4:15

Kind of curious if you're not in recovery or outside of the rooms of AA. Do you think about sober, uh, sober? Do you think about service work outside of the rooms of AA, which I think is worth thinking about? I am one of these people who is pretty much done some type of service work continuously, almost the entire time I've been sober from, from a very early age. I, the only thing that put me at a place where I was hesitant was I, I was afraid I'd do it wrong, where that other people would look to me and say, you're too new to be doing service work. It was that type of thing. It wasn't because I didn't want to do service work. I was fine doing it. And early on people said, do some service work, especially if you shy, especially if you don't know people because it gives you an opportunity. To talk to people and that was attractive to me. So. I guess Steve, what was your experience, like what was your earliest experience, even if it was small?

Steve: 5:29

Yeah, first of all, I'll tell you that that's a common viewpoint on service work. That's a common thing. Our buddy Jim, from one that I--

Matt: 5:38

Jim's the one who taught me that.

Steve: 5:39

Right.

Matt: 5:40

That's what

Steve: 5:40

Is

Matt: 5:40

we learned

Steve: 5:40

he?

Matt: 5:41

it from.

Steve: 5:41

Yeah,

Matt: 5:41

Yeah.

Steve: 5:41

because Jim talks about that all the how he was-- didn't that like talking to people and he took positions that forced him to, you know, the time we did raffles and that would force him to sort of engage with the people. Yeah, and Jim-- Jim was like that and he talks about how much that helped him out. Listen, I've always been a service person even before I got into AA, right. I've done stuff. I worked committees. I was in five, talked about it here. I was really involved at my church when I was, you know, an adult and was an assistant treasurer there for eight years, ran-- you know, render investments, not random, but managed-- and I didn't mean-- I don't want to make it sound like I was making investments, I sort of did all the reporting on the investments accounts and stuff like that. But, so I've always been that. And I've done dinners for homeless people and I've done all kinds of stuff. So when I got to AA, that wasn't something that was new to me, you know. So when I got to AA, I was ready to step up and do something, right. And when I got to AA at first time, there are still things like you could still smoke in the meetings, right? So there were ashtrays and stuff like that. And there are literally jobs like your job would be to clean out the ashtrays, right? And now people would say, "Oh, I don't want to do it." Yeah, I get it. Or, you know, for the longest time at my Friday Nightman's meeting, we had a trash guy because there were problems because people were smoking, we would dump these cigarette butts in the trash and then that trash would have to go out to the dumpster. So we literally had a trash guy, a cleanup guy, a coffee guy.

Matt: 7:27

I think you were going to say that they were lighting the place on fire with

Steve: 7:30

Well,

Matt: 7:30

the--

Steve: 7:30

there was a problem. There a problem. I think in the past where something got smoldering at one point. So any-- but so there are lots of service opportunities in this one meeting that I went to, which might want

Matt: 7:42

know,

Steve: 7:42

to, you biggest meeting for me since I've been sober. So that's where I started out my service. It was right there, right? Simple stuff right there. And then as I got more and more sober and I got more and more integrated into the program, that door opened for me. But I was slower than you. You jumped right into some higher, I'm sure you'll get into some of your service work. You jumped into some stuff that I just recently just started doing like on a district level. You were doing that before me. So, but, yeah, I like it and I don't know. It just-- One of the biggest things, Matt, is like, I'm so grateful for the life I have, right? I really am. And we talk about that and I think some people think that, you know, maybe we were just saying that, but it's not true. Like I'm so grateful for the life that AA has given me and that I need to give back. Like, first of all, in trying to give back because that's my nature. But I need to give back because I just think about the people, especially the first time I came into this program, the first time I came in was 1995, like I really needed people to sort of-- I literally picked me up at my house and take me to meetings, right? That's what I needed. And people did that, and that service work, right? Doing that kind of stuff.

Matt: 9:13

It is.

Steve: 9:15

And that's what the guys did for me. And I just try to repay-- I just try to repay that, you know, pay it forward, as we always say, and try to be there for other people who need that type of, you know, that type of encouragement, that type of help. And if I can do that and if I can help, and I mean this, honestly, again, another one of these sayings, but if I can make the difference in one alcoholic's life, I mean it. One alcoholic's life, like the difference that was made in my life, that's fine, I'm good, right? Like I'm good. And I think I've helped a few alcoholics live a better life. And so, you know, some of that gratitude comes back when you see that happening, too.

Matt: 10:07

I don't know if that's ever really been the thing that has motivated me of giving back. I guess in some ways, I've done some rides. Some of it has just felt like this is the thing I'm supposed to do. For me, it's been more of a feeling of, I want to feel like I belong. And I can feel like I belong and-- Yeah, it's that feeling of belonging that if I'm doing service work, I feel like I am contributing to the meeting. So I guess there is a little bit of paying it forward. But I remember especially early on. I did it because I wanted to feel like I belonged. There is a the Tuesday night meeting at Forbes Street was one that had door greeters. I don't know if you have door greeters, but it's the only one I know of that is a door. It's a very rare one there, but it, but it worked because you're on the third floor and it helps people to know where the actual meeting is, but it was a great one because at that meeting, the service positions were spiked out, but there was a hierarchy where you couldn't do certain service opportunities in unless you had a certain amount of sobriety, and you were a member of the group. So new people could be door greeters. So it was the one job I could do and there was never a case that they had too many door greeters. You could have 2, 3, 4. You have a gaggle people out front and it didn't matter and having a door greeter, you get to meet everybody because they have to walk past you and they give you hugs. And at the end of a 4 or 5 week stretch, you know everybody in that room and they know you, especially if you're new because they see you're not somebody who's has been there and they get to know you and you know you become part of the group very, very quickly. And it's really easy because you just give people hugs. That was hard because I was scared out of my mind and you got to get there early. But it gets you to the meeting and for me, I didn't want to let anybody down, so I showed up a half hour early every single week and I got to that meeting. And that is another dirty little secret is service work gets you to go to meetings get you to be involved in sobriety because you're expected to be somewhere, especially if you have other jobs like coffee maker. If you don't go, not getting coffee. I guess that's that's also worth talking about when we say service jobs. What do those look like?

Steve: 12:58

I mean, it's funny we talked about you doing that service job at Forbes Street for a while and I didn't go to that meeting often, but I went there while you doing that commitment

Matt: 13:08

Yeah.

Steve: 13:08

when you first came in and I remember you being a greeter at that meeting. And I'm not sure if you did it more than once, but I remember you doing it that one.

Matt: 13:16

I think I did.

Steve: 13:17

I remember you doing it one time when I was there, so it's just pretty interesting to me. First of all, there's still dork Greed is out there. There's still are. We do it once in a while at our private at meetings, not a position that that is always filled. But that some meetings do still happen, but not many. And, but basically today, I mean your biggest ones are, right, you we share meetings, right, whatever the format of your meeting is, somebody has to cheer it. First of all, I want to step back for anybody who doesn't know about a I can't believe there's a lot of people listening to us who doesn't have who don't have some basic concept of what a is about. But unlike other programs, which may have some professional people organizing them and running them, right, for sobriety. And I just plenty out there that will help out like there may be meetings that you go to that are run by a staff or a professional person. And, it doesn't have that, right, so the truth is, right, so if nobody organizes the meeting, we don't have a meeting, right, and that plane is simple. And you and I both know like this Monday night meeting has been something we've been dedicated to and we've noticed that meeting through some, very slow times and. Now it's a regularly decently attended meeting most of the time, so what do you have you have, you have a, you have chaired meeting on a weekly or monthly basis depending on how your group does it. Certainly coffee makers, right, most AA meetings will have coffee and it's just a tradition and most will have coffee so there'll be a coffee maker. And then you need a couple of bigger ones you need, you know, there is money collected so you need a treasure, right,

Matt: 15:07

yes,

Steve: 15:07

right, that's the right and that's one of the things you talk about where you need a little bit of sobriety before any group starts whole, you know, especially the bigger groups, you can have some real money. Before people start you know handling over the handing over the money to you, so there's a treasure and then you have other, you have a secretary which for most of them, that's not true. I guess a lot of meetings of secretary does a lot of work, but our Monday night meeting and my Wednesday night new meeting. there really is no formatted secretary type of thing. But I've taken that position at the Wednesday noon meeting and basically what I do is I run the monthly meetings. I have a meeting. You have a month. I have a month you have a meeting to talk about what issues may be going on. And then we get into some of the other stuff. We talked about it here, GSR, which is a general service representative, which gets you the next level up into district stuff. And if you want to know what a district is, it's part of an area. And for us, right, Connecticut is almost all, just a little piece of it is in part of it, but it's almost all area 11, right? So when people say, oh, and then it's broken up into districts, and those are smaller groups and smaller towns. So there's lots of different levels to do work on. And but the for me, the most rewarding one, and it still is, is that meeting level service work, right?

Matt: 16:42

Yes, I agree.

Steve: 16:44

Sharing, whether do treasure, do coffee, whatever it might be, that to me, because that's where you're running into the new alcoholic, right? The fresh alcoholic who just ought to rehab or just looking for a meeting or whatever it is, that's where you're going to meet them. So that, that to me is still the type of service work I like doing best. And I have since gone on to do some district stuff. And I'm doing even the next step up in that. So, again, part of this, again, is my personality. And part of that is me trying to pay back some the, some of the stuff that was given to me earlier on.

Matt: 17:27

So there's some other, there's some other really low-key stuff that is considered service work and that is putting away the chairs.

Steve: 17:34

Oh, yeah,

Matt: 17:35

breaking down the tables.

Steve: 17:36

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Matt: 17:37

Those are all things that need to be done that you need to clean the place up. That service work.

Steve: 17:44

A

Matt: 17:46

really important one we haven't talked is being the chairman, depending on the meeting usually you chair for a month's period of time. The, I went to this 12 and 12 meeting that now, it wasn't a 12 and 12 meeting, it was a step meeting. The commitments for that step meeting were 12 weeks.

Steve: 18:10

So

Matt: 18:11

if you were the chairperson, you did 12 weeks. If you were the coffee maker, you did 12 weeks. That's a hell of a commitment to do. But me, that chairperson is a really important one of running the meeting. It's not a hard one, you've got a laminated card to follow through. Every once in a while, you have difficulty when somebody rambles and you got to cut them off.

Steve: 18:37

Yeah.

Matt: 18:38

Or somebody's disruptive. And you've got to be able to handle that. But for the most part, it's finding a topic, picking people, getting people to contribute, having something to kick the meeting off. But an important one, because a good chairperson can get a get, it's like having a good drummer in a band keeps the timing there if, if nothing else. These are all important ones. I don't think you can do coffee wrong. Ted S one time told the story about doing coffee and he had never done coffee before and he wasn't a coffee drinker. So he filled the percolator basket completely up, coffee grounds. That's a that's a strong cup of coffee. That is not how that works.

Steve: 19:31

Yeah.

Matt: 19:32

And one of the things I always have been afraid of is I'm going to screw the coffee up.

Steve: 19:37

Yeah, the thing.

Matt: 19:37

I guess you don't, I guess if you, if Ted, you can't do it any worse.

Steve: 19:41

Well, the thing about they always say in AA don't make weed coffee, right? If you're going to make, if you're going to mess it up, make it, make it strong.

Matt: 19:50

Yeah.

Steve: 19:51

But yeah, there's a lot of people who will come in and it always catches me a little off guard because I knew how to do a lot of that stuff. But people who don't know how to make coffee, like they have no

Matt: 20:03

to do

Steve: 20:03

clue

Matt: 20:03

it. A

Steve: 20:03

how

Matt: 20:03

lot of it is in a percolator, like who uses a percolator under the age of 70 anymore?

Steve: 20:09

Well, there you

Matt: 20:10

go. Very old timey.

Steve: 20:12

There you go. That's the difference between me and you, right? I'm barely on the 70s these days. But, you know, but but again, here's here's the thing. I did a lot of service work for big crowds at church and stuff, right? I plan meals like I fed people. Therefore, I was using percolators a lot. So when I got to I knew how to percolator. Anyway, we're going down one of those tangents that Bill was you know,

Matt: 20:38

who loves it, man?

Steve: 20:39

Bill.

Matt: 20:40

All about

Steve: 20:41

But, uh, hey, Bill, if you're out there, will give me a shout out again. But yeah, the- the other thing we don't talk so- so, the chair person is different because of different meetings, right? So, you know, getting a topic is a discussion meeting, but there's also speaker meetings where you just, again, you're just sort of moving the meeting along, right? And so, when they're really rambling on and- and taking up a lot of time, but not everybody's comfortable doing that, so. The other thing we didn't talk about is, I talked about it happening to me, and I do just- and I still do it, but it's- it's literally taking people to meetings as a huge service

Matt: 21:33

right?

Steve: 21:33

commitment, Um, especially when some of these- some people don't drive, or they don't drive at night, right? As they get older, or stuff like that. That's a huge, huge service commitment. And the- the other thing you said is that when you take a commitment, whether it is picking someone up, or whether it's making coffee, or chair in a meeting, or whatever it might be, it makes you committed to that meeting.

Matt: 22:02

Mm-hmm.

Steve: 22:02

That is a lot of times why I take a service commitment. Like, I just took the service, the coffee commitment from my ones that knew meeting, and there's plenty of people, and I don't know why people- it's pretty easy. It's like, it's a cure, and- it's easy to do it. It's easy to set up. You're actually not even making coffee, you know, you're just taking it, you're setting it up, turning it on, putting- putting everything out, and- which is the same thing we do now at a Monday night meeting. And it's the same thing that I Monday meeting. Like, people don't want to do it. I don't know why. People don't want to do it. And- but I took it on Wednesday, because it just makes me make sure that I go. Not that I- I'm gonna miss it anyway, 'cause I love that meeting, but it just makes- makes me- oh, I have to be there, because I have to make coffee.

Matt: 22:49

Mm-hmm.

Steve: 22:49

And- so, I'm absolutely, I'm feeling- listen, this- tomorrow night- it's Friday night, we're taping this on a different day this week, and I'm finishing it up a coffee commitment on my Friday Night meeting, and I just took one for next month at my Wednesday meeting, that's what I mean, I do it. I do service work. And- it just- to me, it connects me, like you said. Here's the other thing, and you said it. It makes me part of that meeting so much more quickly, more quickly, all right? It's just like, 'cause this meeting I've only been going to for about a year and a half, this noon meeting on Wednesday, so- and there's people who've been going to that meeting for 20 years, right? But it puts me in part- part of that group way faster than if I just show up and I don't- never chair, and yeah, I introduce myself, and I don't hang around and I don't do anything like that. But, you know, again, that's me concerned about my- the quality of my sobriety, right? And that's the other thing I think that service work does, it increases the quality of my sobriety. And all those pieces together are my program. And, you know, I say here, I still struggle because I am an alcoholic. But I try to work a pretty good program and certainly service work is part of it.

Matt: 24:10

I think- I think I might be the chairperson this month for Monday,

Steve: 24:14

Oh, you may-

Matt: 24:14

coming up in February.

Steve: 24:15

I think you are, not to think about I

Matt: 24:17

might need somebody for the- for the second week because I'm traveling to Pittsburgh.

Steve: 24:21

That's okay.

Matt: 24:22

I- I do it because I feel like I owe that meeting. I've been part of it for a long time. There's been a period of time Laurie has told me, "Stop volunteering." Somebody else has to do

Steve: 24:34

Right.

Matt: 24:34

this. Because I was volunteering for a whole bunch of months. You know, the reason I never did the coffee commitment on Monday with the curing, I'm realizing it is because I don't drink coffee at meetings. So I never think about it. I forget that that- I know it's there, but I don't even think about it requires a set up because selfishly, I just don't- is. Make myself a coffee.

Steve: 25:00

You don't-

Matt: 25:00

So now that we're talking about that, I'll volunteer because that's the easiest coffee commitment. Just

Steve: 25:06

It

Matt: 25:06

set it

Steve: 25:06

really

Matt: 25:06

up.

Steve: 25:07

It really is. I mean, if you're doing it right, you've got to make sure you have cream or stuff like that.

Matt: 25:12

But that's easy.

Steve: 25:14

But it is. But nobody's doing it anyway. I don't want to get that attention. But I'm going to tell- I'm going to say so. I went to the Thursday Night Men's Group, maybe three, four weeks ago. And I'm one of the guys there was talking about, they were talking about service work at that meeting. And he remembered when he was early on, his sponsor signed him up to be coffee maker. And it's just one of the greatest lines I've ever heard. And he was bitching and complaining to his sponsor because he didn't want to make coffee. And he said to his sponsor, I don't even drink coffee. And the sponsor said, that's fine. You haven't been nominated to drink coffee. You've been nominated to make coffee. And I just thought that was the best line, like, yeah, so what? You don't drink coffee. But yeah, it is an easy commitment. I find it to be an easy commitment. And that's why that commitment gets done anyway. Like I said, the only thing we don't end up with is creamer. And we have a, I bought a big thing of non-dairy creamer. So people who drink it, always have something to put in their coffee. But I'm a firm believer if people don't want to step up, because I don't drink coffee at night either. So if somebody doesn't want to step up and make sure we have what we need, then we don't have it some night, then we don't have it. But I do like, yeah,

Matt: 26:37

I'll do it sometime, because I'll go, I'll go by the, do what you're supposed to do and get the cookies and get

Steve: 26:43

right.

Matt: 26:43

the creamer and do it right. The, I think that the hardest thing with a coffee commitment is the clean up and getting there super, super early. You don't have to do that when you've got a cure egg. It's just open up the kit,

Steve: 26:56

right.

Matt: 26:57

And that's a real, and the cleanup is super easy. Just make sure all those little cups are thrown away so they can languish in a landfill.

Steve: 27:05

Yeah, that is

Matt: 27:06

until the end of the earth.

Steve: 27:08

Yeah,

Matt: 27:08

but the hard part is you got the big craft. You've got to clean that, that monstrosity and dry it out and get there an hour early to get it.

Steve: 27:17

Yeah,

Matt: 27:18

going so that it actually is hot and ready for when the meeting is for,

Steve: 27:23

That I'm just telling something. We use a percolator out of Friday night meeting, right. And we have a 7 30 meeting percolator takes around 30, 35 minutes, right? To percolate get ready. Guys, show up at that meeting 7 o'clock or just after.

Matt: 27:38

it's got to

Steve: 27:38

So

Matt: 27:38

be for seven.

Steve: 27:39

right, I've got to have it ready for seven. You got to be there. You got to be there by 6 30 at the latest because then you still got to get it out, get it set up right by the latest. You should probably be there at 6 20, get it on there. It'll be ready before seven o'clock. And that's it. So it's a commitment, right. So and that's one of the problems, right. And I get it. Maybe other people can get there. But that means I'm getting there. I probably leave my house at like 10 after six, right. Maybe court after six to get there and I'm not home until after nine o'clock. All right. So I'm almost the three hour commitment for between between setting up and then I got to clean it up and just so you know, one of the other things things have changed over the years that this Friday night meeting has changed to. As we used to have a coffee maker and a cleanup guy. So if you made coffee, you didn't have to stay to clean up. Like like you've already done your hour before. So you didn't have to stay later and cleanup. But it's hard to get that many commitments filled these days. So usually the coffee maker is also in charge of cleaning up

Matt: 28:42

all of these commitments. The hardest thing about them is the time commitment. These are all really, really easy and the stakes are so low on like even GSR type ones. The stakes are low.

Steve: 28:57

There's

Matt: 28:58

not a lot. There's not a lot that you can screw up with this. And I've gone to meetings where the chairperson's a mess. They just can't. They can't keep order and even even that's fine. It teaches you patients. So if you're thinking about, you know, should I take a commitment? Take a commitment at the very least. Put away a chair, put away a table. This is all service work. It's easy to drive somebody. It's easy to be on a phone list. I look at this podcast to service work of getting the message out 12 step work. That's one of the reasons I put the time in for this. So I'd love to hear from you over your thoughts on service work. Matt at soberfriendspo.com, the website is sober friends pod. Thanks for being a service, Steve.

Steve: 29:57

You're welcome. And

Matt: 29:59

we'll see everybody next week. Bye everybody.