The Sahara Club

It's Official!!

2011-03-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

We are a real live corporation! We are now known by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as The Sahara Club, LLC. Now that is some exciting stuff for us and we hope that it is for you as well.

We are already moving forward with the next step of the process: apply for 501.C3 status, a fancy way of saying that we will be an official not-for-profit organization that can accept tax free donations. And that is a huge deal for us! As soon as that paperwork goes through we will be doing some serious fundraising so stay tuned for upcoming events and ways you can help to make this dream a reality!

Build it and they will come….

2011-01-03T09:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all! With this new year comes new hope, energy, focus, and drive to make the Sahara Club a living, breathing realiity.

With that said, it's hard for us to understand that everyone is not as excited about the prospect of opening a new clubhouse as this committee is. The last clubhouse, The 12 and 12, was a great meeting and social gathering point for recovering people for years during the mid 80’s thru the mid 90’s. The clubhouse did a lot of good for a lot of people for a decade or more. But when the excitement and enthusiasm of both members and founders began to wane, the dynamic of the clubhouse changed and it was eventually shut down. Losing focus of the primary purpose of the clubhouse resulted in its undoing. It left a bad taste in the mouth of the original founders as well as the Williamsport community as a whole.

When approached with this new project, the original 12 and 12 founders and others involved in the early years gave us a wide range of responses; some didn’t want any part of a another clubhouse at all while others freely shared their experiences so that we might learn. We are expecting similar and varied responses from the community as well. Some may say, “Not in my neighborhood,” while others may offer encouragement and help as they see how the Sahara Club and its members can actually contribute to the richness of this area. We just believe that if we build it, they will come… not only in the physical sense, but with supportive and positive attitudes as well.

This committee wants desperately to see this project succeed. We are being thorough from the very start in our attempts to do this thing “right.” We don’t want to operate in the shadows. While we don't want to break the anonymity of individual fellowship members, we do want to be a vibrant part of the community. In order to do that, we have to let people know our vision, from the very beginning.

We are currently communicating with a local political official who is professionally involved with the recovering community and has agreed to meet with us. The next step will be to contact other local community leaders. We need their support and the best way to get it is to get them involved at the ground floor.

Things are moving slowly at this stage of the process, but they are moving. It must be noted that there was a year between conception of the 12 and 12 and opening day, so we are not off target. We have a fully functional website, the LLC filing has been done and when approved we will file for 501.c3 status that will make us a full-fledged not-for-profit corporation that can accept tax deductable donations and do some serious fundraising. Once this background paperwork is done, you will see the Sahara Club Project become more visible and active.

As always, keep us in your thoughts and prayers…

Do not be confused about this….

2010-12-12T10:43:00.000-08:00

I published the Sahara Club site on Facebook today as part of my own personal staus today and I don't was any confusion about where we stand as far as the push for the dream of this clubhouse. At this stage in the development, our website is simply a tool to generate interest and support. Don’t get me wrong; the site is fully functional as you now see it, but we do not have a building yet as there is so much behind the scenes work that’s got to be done before that can happen. But believe me, it will happen, sooner or later. When I talked to members of the group that put the 12 and 12 together, the last clubhouse, they said it took them a year before they actually moved into their location above Peg and Bill’s on 4^th Street in Williamsport. It’s definitely a slow moving process, but we are moving forward.

What’s on the agenda for this week:

Meet with attorney to incorporate
Meet with IRS and file for 501.c3
Set up meeting with local political, judicial, and educational representatives to drum up support

Until the clubhouse is actually a reality, membership isn't exactly on option, but donations would greatly be appreciated. Believe it or not, we already have expenses: incorporation fees, website domain name registration and hosting fees, along with other miscelaneous costs. Right now we are coming out of our own personal pockets and relying on the help of a few precious "Angels." If you would like to become one of them, see Chip or Stephanie. You can find either of us at St. Annes Friday morning 10:00 meeting at Sheridan and Northway Road in Williamsport.

So keep checking back and let us know what you think! Thanks for your support!

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers….

We're just getting started...

2010-12-10T19:02:00.000-08:00

But a lot of work is being done behind the scenes to get the Sahara Club up and running. Please stay tuned and check out our site and blog regularly for updates. Currently were are in the process of:

Becoming incorporated (LLC) as a non-profit
Application process for various non-profit tax qualifiers
Bank account setup
Looking for available property
Building a website and blog

We are also meeting to set up the next level of goals and a strategy to attain them. Rome wasn't built in a day and you can be that this project won't be either. But just because you're not yet having coffee with your friends at the Sahara, doesn't mean that there is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears flowing in the background so that you will one day soon be doing just that.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers...