Service Committee Minutes

PROVISIONAL MEETING NOTES FOR SPECIAL LAUREL RECOVERY SERVICE COMMITTEE MEETING OF JANUARY 10, 2026

Agenda: Special Service Committee Meeting — Virtual due to December 12, 2025, fire.

(This meeting was announced on the LRG website as DON’T REST ON YOUR LAURELS Club Formation Meeting.)

The meeting was called to order: at 10:05 a.m. by Jeff K., Laurel Recovery Group Service Committee (LRGSC) Vice-Chairperson and opened with the Serenity Prayer

ATTENDEES:  Lisa C., Kevin L., Mike O., Jeff K., Jay F., Brian D., Susan McF., Amanda B., Jeanne O’, Cameron W., Andrew R., Michigan Mike, Brien B., Ginger J., Liz W., Wayne, Cicely, Rich C., and Phillip S.

***NOTE FROM TRANSCRIBER: As the discussion in this January 10th meeting jumped from topic to topic and around and back, some sentences have been moved to conjoin thoughts on the same topic. The notes are left lengthy so they may provide background information to help new interested parties “catch up” with the events that have taken place around Laurel Recovery Group’s rally and reassemble efforts after the December 12, 2025 fire at our 368 Main Street location.

JAY F., LRGSC Treasurer

  • We have filed for a new EIN number — the one we were using is now null and void
  • We also have a corporation set up which has been filed for and we also have a 501(c)(3) now which is great because if we need to sign a lease we can sign a lease with no personal liability, which is very important

Questions and Responses:

  • How do we go about taking old EIN number off the bank account (debit card, checks, etc. are affected)? Response: We are changing the bank account, or we will talk to the bank and see if they will change EIN number to new one–  if not, and they want us to open another account, we’ll do that. But the previous EIN is null and void.
  • We were about to have our annual election. I saw the application — is any of that easily amendable, like we put certain names out there and they’re not necessarily the people that will lead? Response: Yes, absolutely all amendable. Corporations have different presidents, different treasurers, different secretaries all the time so we’re no different than them. Even at the initial stages we can make changes in everything if we want.
  • Do we have a location identified to move to? Response: Yes, not exactly a place to move to, but the corporate headquarters mailing address, which is needed for the business filing. It will be amended when we have a location.

Jeff K, LRGSC Vice Chair

I’ll share my screen and go through this real quickly then take more questions. I think that I can answer some questions beforehand:

  • We basically have a lack of in-person meetings and that’s diminishing our membership in 12-Step work.
  • There’s no single location available for Laurel Recovery meetings. Some churches and nearby clubs have some open times and we actually have one LR meeting down at Greenbelt. Now members are attending other clubs and other groups.
  • We have an undetermined time frame to move back into 368 Main Street. The inspection is currently scheduled for January 20th. After that, repairs would need to be done before moving back in. Different time frames– we’re just guessing May, maybe April. We don’t know. They have to do some electrical work, probably some structural work, who knows how fast that can be done?
  • We had a suitable commercial rental location, but it was lost. It had some other things that we would like: the ground floor, reasonable price, handicap accessible– all that sort of stuff. But we lost it because we didn’t have a business or nonprofit status so we couldn’t sign a commercial lease.
  • That’s why we’re talking about the nonprofit club today. Laurel Recovery took a survey when they really wanted to go to that type of location and 37 were for it, 2 were undecided, basically asking about parking.
  • We’ve already talked about the solution partially being to form a business and nonprofit corporation like other area clubs. What has been filed is the “Laurel Don’t Rest on Your Laurels Club.”
  • There are 9 phases to create a total nonprofit and get tax-deductible, tax-exempt status and all the other things you need for a business. Today I was going to look at bylaws, and that’s part of phase 1.
  • What Jay has done is phase 2 and there are 9 phases. If we get phases 1 and 2 as complete as we can, if a commercial property comes up before we can move back into Laurel Recovery or whatever else the group decides, then we’re ready to pull the trigger and get Laurel Recovery working again.
  • That’s actually what we’re doing: We want to get back to the meetings in 12-Step work.

Questions, Comments, and Responses:

  • ABOUT POSSIBLE LOCATIONS:
    • I know of a place that was occupied by a gym [on the other side of Rt1, beyond old Crossroads, with a ramp ]and I know they have vacated that, and I know a contact. We had talked about that space a while ago and I can talk to him if you would like me to. That would be great.
    • I notice the Meat Market is available, too. I don’t know that we can rent it for $1600 a month. It’s a big space and I don’t know that we could afford it all.
  • ABOUT COSTS OF MOVING:
    • What is the acceptable rent that we can pay for a place? Response Probably $1600 would be the max. [Added later: plus expenses like insurance, etc.]
    • We would be taking on insurance, too, which we’ve never ever had before which is a requirement these days, and other utilities– we have really been doing electricity where we’re at, not any other utilities. But good news: [as 501(c)(3)] we get the minimal amount of insurance and the reason is, because it’s a corporation there’s limited liability. The corporation may go out of business, but Laurel Recovery will not necessarily go out of business—it is a separate entity. Laurel Recovery’s meetings will rent from the 501(c)(3).
    • I want to attach to what was said about $1600 for the rent. We still have that block of expenses that we have to incur as well on a monthly basis. I think when you all were talking about moving to C St. you were talking about the possibility of paying $2000 a month for $1600 rent plus attached expenses. So are we able to afford the $2000 here? Response: I would say we should be able to afford it.
  • ABOUT WHAT WE COULD DO AS A CLUB
    •  I just want you guys to know that this is my fantasy world going on here:
      • That we have some kind of food bar or coffee bar or something in there where people can buy coffee or buy a sandwich or whatever. I don’t know how other clubs operate but I think there is some kind something that we can earn money on . Are you familiar with 164 Club? They sell sandwiches, they sell sodas and they sell pastries.
      • So what you’re saying is absolutely important and if we get that meat market that would be great. I’m thinking about having some other means of income and something that will really entice people like the 164 Club does.
      • If the space is big enough that we could have our activities there—our dinners and the annual things that we do. There would have to be some kind of renovations to put in a usable kitchen and I don’t know what .
      • Again I don’t know what the budget situation is here. If we can do some kind of fundraising effort for that, if we could use expertise within the rooms for people to volunteer and donate time to do renovation. I have ways of getting equipment, ways to find material to you keep the prices down. I obviously can’t do the work , but I I know we’ve got people who have expertise in doing plumbing, electric and stuff like that.
    • ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CLUB AND THE GROUP

[Jeff] The club is not the Laurel Recovery Group.

  • The Laurel Recovery Group is A.A., the club is not A.A.  Laurel Recovery Group is a group that does 12-Step work, the club does not do 12-Step work.
  • A club can have memberships and can have fundraisers; the Laurel Recovery Group cannot. It is a totally separate entity.
  • The Laurel Recovery group has not paid for any of this formation activity of the club— individuals have contributed so far. It’s a nonprofit business. This solution is a fall-back to enhance meeting space; availability for long timers, handicapped people; additional income, improved events—everything that you’re talking about. But it’s separate from the Laurel Recovery Group; but the Laurel Recovery Group gets to pay rent and take advantage of those services and location. What I’m basically saying is that this is a partial formation of the the club, the business. We have almost completed phase 2 out of 9 phases listed in the Maryland nonprofit so that this club can be formed quickly if needed.
  • Like a church, we [501(c)(3)] offer space to the A.A. meetings, do not have any control over what you do. You run the meeting the way you want to run it.
  • We can still use the name Laurel Recovery, we just dba [Doing Business As] Laurel Recovery. Because the 1023EZ is filed we are able to act as a non-profit now. We still need the bylaws completed and certified to complete phase 2.
  • ABOUT OTHER CURRENT TEMPORARY MEETING PLACE OPTIONS:
  •  I was curious: does anyone have any update—Suzy had been talking about the Laurel Armory as a temporary location. She mentioned that they were not sure about the schedule, and she mentioned that they were going to request a waiver for non-payment so we didn’t have to pay for the location. Does anybody know if there was follow up on that?  She said she was going to e-mail the representative that she spoke to at Laurel Parks and Recreation. Do we have any update on using that as a temporary location? [Susan] Response: I was looking into the 21C and to Laurel Recovery as the 2 spaces that we had when my involvement was going to come into play. You did say that she had mentioned that she had approached them, I haven’t heard anything from Suzy. You know, too many voices and people will turn you away because it seems chaotic to them. Typically when you’re trying to do a long-term situation with somebody, better to have a point guy,  I don’t know if she’s the point guy. I’ll be glad to pursue it. I need a phone number.
  • ABOUT WHO IS DOING WHAT:

[Jeff] At the last meeting we discussed that Susan would actually do at least the midterm and the final connections because she understands the leases and things like that, but anybody can find something and if you get a lead then call Susan.

  • ABOUT STATUS OF 368 MAIN STREET:

A question on 368: Was the certificate of occupancy (CO) pulled on that? I’m assuming there was fire and if so we have to reapply for it once the place is put back together.

  • Response: I don’t know that answer. I know we have to reapply because if they pulled it then you have to go back and you have to reestablish it. The landlord seems to think that we can get back in pretty quickly. I mean he did replace the damaged front door and it has the old lock in it so we can go in and out. I’ve been in the building and there is no damage in our room but the water is turned off and the electricity is turned off so it’s without lights on the stairs. It’s not safe, except for maybe a noon meeting or something.
  • Hopefully after the current investigation concludes on the 20th we can quickly move to getting back in there. The 20th is when the investigation completes. There have been lawyers trying to decide who to sue at this point and what-not—pretty ugly apparently, but our area is undamaged and so there’s no reason we can’t get in there.
  • We can’t get back in there quickly if they pulled the CO and if they cannot turn the water and the electricity back on because of the operation of the room next to us. Whether it had a certificate of occupancy before or not, you have to have one now and they won’t be able to get one without electricity and water, among other things. It is moving quicker and it sounds like we should have a good update on the 20th.
  • [Brian D., LRGSC Chair] I’ll urge the landlord to have a plan, like, “On the 20th what happens?”, rather than on the 20th, “What do we do now?” I think that our best path to some normalcy is to get back in here with the month-to-month lease which the current landlord is fine with—he’s already given us a break on payment for being an A.A. group and charged $300 less than normal before we closed down.
  • [Susan] I think if I could go on that meeting, if we could do a face-to-face meeting in the facility, that would be a great next step since he’s going to have collected enough information to at least give us an idea of what he’s thinking of when we would be back in. We can take that information and actually see if it’s within the realm of reality. That’s a good question. He had actually been talking about setting up a generator… No possibility of electric right now, but if they were scheduled [ahead] for the 21st or the 20th, they won’t be delayed as they would be if on the 20th or the 21st we schedule something and have it be next month.
  • CONCERNS ABOUT CHANGE NOW

I am a little confused here. We’re talking about going back to 368 Main and continuing on that way, so I’m assuming that is still an option for us, to go back.

  • I feel like we’ve had a fragmented year and maybe that would be a good choice because then we could rebuild Laurel Recovery the way it’s supposed to be in the first place, and then maybe we could branch out and try to form a club. But we haven’t hardly had a group together very well for the last year or so.
  • I’m just wondering, do we have to do this 501(c)(3) thing?  It’s very ambitious and everything, but is it us? Is it like a private trying to become a general quickly or something?  Because it’s huge. We have a level of trusted servants that were all voted in, but it’s been kind of a fragmented year, and we’d have to have a good solid level of trusted servants before we branched out to something like this. I understand that we’re trying to do it so we can sign a lease for a new location for Laurel Recovery Group, and that it wasn’t so we necessarily start a club—that’s  a pipe dream. But we just wanted to have a Laurel Recovery Group meeting, to get those resumed.
  • To go to this length for that purpose—I feel like we’re kind of overreaching here. Do we have the option to stop from that direction, though continue it make it ready so we can pull it out of the hat if we need it, but still try to continue to put Laurel Recovery back together? Response [Brian]: Yeah that’s kind of my take on it as well. With the fire we were scrambling. We found this place on C St. and everyone was ready to move in, and then we hit the lease thing and we also found out that we had been offered a lease at 368Main Street and no one would sign it,  refused to sign it. But we were somehow under the impression that the landlord didn’t want us there and this that and the other. After speaking to him, he does want us there, he’s happy to give us the lease. So now our problem is that we can’t sign a lease. I’m uncomfortable with this because it was all being geared up for C St.—let’s hurry up and get this and get into C St.—and  we lost that option, so what’s the hurry now? I’m uncomfortable rushing through this, myself.
  • REASONS AND WAYS TO CHANGE TO 501)(c )(3)

[Jay] Well, we needed to be a 501(c)(3) regardless of whether we signed the lease or not, to limit the liability of the club.

  • We don’t need to sign a lease at 368, right? He’s willing to let us continue on a month by month basis?  We had been hearing we could be kicked out at time. That’s been going on for two or three years and he hasn’t done it. We have been living in Laurel Recovery for a number of years without that coming up as an issue. It’s always been hanging over our head, yes. So it’s not the ideal thing but it may be better than jumping into this other thing that we’re over our heads in, the 501(c)(3).
  • [Susan]We are not over our heads in a 501(c)(3). And it doesn’t seem like it were jumping in, that it’s going to take a long time to make it happen. He said we can act on it right away even though they send us the official paperwork in a few months. It sounded like it’s a now deal.  But it’s a separate thing from Laurel Recovery, a separate entity. One of the things to consider is there’s always surprises and everything else in a move. But here we are with a landlord we know in a facility we know, that we have people already coming to, that’s fairly well known in the recovery community, but we have some steps to take, not the least of which is finding a lease on a new place. So what is the problem with coming to the right terms with this gentleman? He is now in the place at his most vulnerable. He needs to recoup his investment as quickly as possible, which is why he’s offering the $1300. What’s wrong with signing a year’s lease with the month-to-month release on our side, not his, and then you have the best of both situations: you can have the right kind of time to explore, pick the right kind of place, and you have a place to go and raise money now,  because the money they’re raising now is money I would assume is going to be at some point important to the 501.
  • So we would maintain Laurel Recovery as it is, where it is, except now it would be a 501(c)(3)? It doesn’t necessarily mean that this business about Don’t Rest on Your Laurels Club comes into play at all. No, because it’s trading as Laurel Recovery, as a separate entity . So meetings at Laurel Recovery Group, we have the safety of a lease, we have the ability to move to another location easily, to sign a lease somewhere else, but this business about starting up a club, renting out to other people, … it’s not even possible at that particular location? Just asking for confirmation.
  • It brings in income while you are looking. You may find that commercial leases are shockingly expensive. So I think we are being more realistic if we’re thinking in a base fee of $2000 rather than a base fee of either $1600 or or anything else. There are a lot of things to consider as far as the square feet, versus what you’re going to have to charge to be able to continue that. All of that sort of thing needs to come into play if we’re going to stay in Laurel. The idea was to grow. Do you know Laurel Recovery does not have a budget now? Maybe now is the time to look at the true naked cost, going into this. If you took the time at 368 Main to do that you’ve got the time  to create something that’s maybe more realistic in a way. You’ll have time, and time has not been your friend with you being burned out.   And to do it once we are up and running with a good idea of what you need to bring in, and you’ve kind of got the guys lined up to do that, and you kind of have a plan of attack. 
  • These bylaws say that the officers, the board of directors that we now have to have, are going to be in office for two years, and what we currently have is leadership that is due to rotate out next month, so new leadership has to deal with this when they come into office. We’re kind of building something for someone else to try to handle and we’re making commitments to things like that.
  • They can run concurrently. We don’t have to do that today, but as soon as we get back into a place where we can, we have the time to have better conversations and better ideas and better points of view. Like we’re having today where there’s a very large group and people have really put some thought into this. I think that there is a coexistence that would benefit everyone, but I think it takes more time than we thought it would.
  • We honestly don’t have a good commercial site right this moment and the terms— the terms are the big deal, it’s not really so much the money sometimes as it is the terms. We could have done $2000 on C St. but we couldn’t meet his terms.
  • And the parking is an issue over there. And for me when I started looking at all this, we lost our old people and my husband is quickly going to be a part of that where he can’t get to meetings over there because he can’t get up the stairs. Stairs and the parking are paramount. We need to be able to park and we need to be able to get our members in. We don’t see many of our old members anymore. So if we have to move, it seems to me that we really need to make it so that our old population—which a lot of us are fast becoming—can still get into that building or whatever building we choose. I know it’s going to be a process no matter what, it’s going to be a pain, but just one day at a time, boys and girls. one day at a time, we move through it so that we can build something on Main Street that we all can agree to.
  • CONCERN ABOUT CURRENT READINESS, ANTICIPATED CHANGE IN LRG LEADERSHIP

We covered all the criteria for a new place a couple times, that we needed parking we needed one level, etc. I understand we’ve already applied for the 501(c)(3) but I am saying that I don’t think we should commit to operating it until we have stabilized our own leadership for Laurel Recovery Group before we try to make a corporation out of it and put people in this corporation as officers when we’re not even sure of our group’s leadership. I don’t think this is the time to do that but I think the 501(c)(3) is an excellent idea, it’s just not at this moment.

  • [Jay] It doesn’t have to be one or the other, it can be done concurrently. It’s already done but rest your soul a little bit. All you have to do is have a board meeting and change the name of the officers, that’s all you have to do so that’s not a problem. We get that board meeting the day after, in fact the minutes would have the new secretary, treasurer, and vice chairman in it, just attach that to the articles of incorporation.
  • He used the proposed bylaws from Alano Club, sent them out and that was part of that link we received. It had the proposed things about having minutes every month and doing this, doing that and so we are assuming we’re going to have people that are already willing to do it and that in the future we will again so ….
  • ISSUE ABOUT PAYING CURRENT BGE BILL
[Lisa C., LRGSC Alternate Treasurer] This was relevant when I put up my hand. Just want to advise everybody that we actually do have a current balance due to BGE even though there has been no power and all the power lines were pulled.

  • There is a problem with calling BGE and this is an issue that came up last year. They will not speak to me because my name is not on the account and they wouldn’t help me, nor would they tell me whose name is on the account. So we need to figure out how to go around that. They were talking about having to register as a business in the state of Maryland in order to establish somebody who they would even speak to, so I don’t know how to go around this. We owe $136.62 to BGE due by the 14th. It could be a problem when we go back into the room.
  • [A] Regarding that BGE bill, we can talk about this offline if you want. All I need is the account number, user name, etc., and we can get that taken care of. A also communicated with Lisa about the BGE bill and they exchanged contact information. She made arrangement to get the pin number when it is sent to Laurel Recovery.
  • REQUEST FOR CLARIFICATION AND SCHEDULING OF FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION

Thanks for having this meeting and thanks to John for sending me the information.

  • From my understanding of the problem, you can still submit the paperwork to obtain the 501(c)(3) and still have time to actually make a decision about what you want to do, so I don’t think we necessarily have to make the decision today. I think if we can get back into the space that we have temporarily and then do more due diligence when it comes to having a better understanding of what the implications are of the 501(c)(3), we finalize the bylaws and at least the voting board members be on board with the approach that is decided moving forward. There are benefits to having a new location.
  • We’ve been in the Laurel Recovery space for a very long time and you’re right, there are many seniors who are not able to come in person and it would be advantageous for us to find a new location but I think the concern is rushing, making rash decisions. Is there a process here to actually vote on next steps or is this just meeting to have a discussion and inform the members about what’s going on?
  • [Jeff] This was #1 to inform and then #2 if anybody read the bylaws to correct that, and actually then at the end make a motion. People can make a motion as to what the next step should be. If anybody doesn’t want to do that, they want me to recommend, I can definitely do that too.
  • As a suggestion for people’s consideration I didn’t actually have an opportunity to review the bylaws but I’m also not on the board. If you do want feedback on the bylaws it would be great if you can give people a time frame to review that and then provide feedback. I don’t know how long the bylaws have been out for people to review, I just got the notification yesterday. That’s just a suggestion on that but it sounds like obviously the 501(c)(3) application has already been submitted and it’s moving forward and that’s great because that would resolve a lot of those concerns that people have about actually being able to operate as a true entity, but you know if you can give people a time frame to review and comment on the bylaws that would be awesome.
  • What I’ll do is get it posted on the website. They’re already posted. They were attached to that message that went out yesterday. There’s a PDF click line on there that you can click on to the bylaws.
  • VOLUNTEER FOR THE 501(c)(3) BOARD, REASONS TO CHANGE
[Amanda} I am willing to be on whatever board for the 501(c)(3). I’m totally jazzed about it.

  • I think that Laurel is dead and we need to do something to resurrect it and I think this would be a great way to do it, getting our old people back , trying to get the new people back, and another thing that we haven’t mentioned as well and I can’t remember who I was talking to about it is that we need to be available to the Laurel Recovery houses that are down the street. If we get too far away they can’t walk to us. So that’s another thing that feeds us new blood so to speak to keep the meetings going. So I’m willing to be on a 501(c)(3) board or whatever and whatever capacity where I could be used the best. I don’t want to be on any board for Laurel Recovery.
  • [Jeff] The board members can be different from both and we’re looking for a secretary for the 501(c)(3) board and for the service committee too. They could be the same person or we could have two different people for the different entities.
  • OVERVIEW OF CLUB, RELATIVE TO GROUP(S)
[Jeff] Can I just share this real quick?** SHOWED DIAGRAM OF CLUB AND GROUPS

  • I mean so there’s this dotted line between the club and a group, and the club has its own officers up here and the service committee has its own officers down here. And the club can make more money than Laurel Recovery group has because we can have Alanon, we can have NA, we can have other 12-Step groups. We can have paid memberships which the traditions don’t allow us to have down here, so it is different.
  • Can have the same four officers, can have totally different officers between there, and then actually, when you add these other 12-Step groups there will be at-large members from them on this board up at the top. Anyway that’s a long term view but sometimes words don’t get through like pictures, so hopefully that helps.
  • SCHEDULING OF NEXT MEETING: [Brian] Do we have anything else we want to cover today? Can we set a date to review bylaws? Suggestion made to do at the Service Committee regular meeting next weekend, then another suggestion was for after the projected 368 Main Street inspection completion date of January 20th, the latter date also recommended to avoid combining the business meeting with our regular service committee.
    • The next meeting about this topic and the 501(c)(3) bylaws is scheduled for Saturday, January 24th at 10AM, ID # 833 6916 6023, pw ODAT2022.
    • The bylaws, as amended 1-10-26:

      Laurel Don’t Rest on Your Laurels Club Bylaws non profit

    • How do people find out about this meeting? Will add announcement to virtual meeting announcements, it is posted on the website, can be posted on LRG Whatsapp.
  • FINAL TOPICS
    SUPPLIES FOR WEDS 8PM MEETING TEMPORARILY AT GREENBELT STEP CLUB. Susan asked to go into 368 Main Street to get chips, 3 Big Books, and the secretary book and take them for their Wednesday night meeting in Greenbelt. Kevin and a couple of people will be celebrating there. When asked about whether we were paying rent to Greenbelt, we had been told not a problem. The GBSC treasurer will take the LRG money and Zelle it to us.
  • In answer to an inquiry, “No,” we are not permitted to go into LRG.
  • EXTERIOR SIGN ON LRG MAIN STFREET DOOR: In answer to an inquiry about whether there is a sign on the 368 Main Street door, no but it’s a great idea. Amanda volunteered to put up a sign today that we are TEMPORARILY closed.
  • PARTICIPATION ON THIS AD HOC GROUP: Mike suggested we keep this committee together until we get back into a permanent place. Everyone’s invited back. Comments made about who can vote, etc. And we voted twice to put off elections until after we move back in.
  • SECRETARIAL HELP NEEDED: We desperately need a secretary. Today’s minutes are covered, but we desperately need a secretary.

MEETING CLOSED 1114 with Serenity Prayer

In service,

Jeanne O’, temporary volunteer secretary

Laurel Don’t Rest on Your Laurels Club Bylaws non profit

 

 

 

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