The Stepbrothers history, as presented at the First Friday, May, 2026
Most groups that host this event have been around for decades, not so with The Stepbrothers. The Stepbrothers will soon be celebrating 2nd year of existence. Our first meeting was in May of 2024 in which we met in one of our members home.
The group started with some guys putting together a group text so they could meet for coffee before the meeting at the Morning Recovery Group. The group text began with three Sponcee's and their Sponser. That group text quickly grew and it became more than just invitations for coffee before a meeting. It soon expanded to invitations to attend other meetings. More men were added to this group until it became too cumbersome for a group text.
The group then moved over to WhatsApp. Shortly thereafter the WhatsApp group was named, “The Stepbrothers”. The WhatsApp group quickly grew to more than 50 members.
The members began to invite each other to get together and attend other meetings. Meetings like: The Roadrunner meeting in Danville, The Second Saturday meeting in San Leandro, the First Saturday meeting in Danville, the Serenity by the Lake meeting, The Mens Answer Group Meeting, meetings at the Triangle, meetings at the Solutions Group and of course The First Friday meetings.
The group then started adding speaker alerts. If someone in the group was invited to share at a meeting they were encouraged to announce it on the app so others could attend and show support.
Soon the guys got the idea of starting our own meeting. Thus was born a group called “The Stepbrothers”.
We chose Wednesday night because there weren’t too many meetings on Wednesday night in the Hayward, San Leandro, Castro Valley area. Recognizing the importance of fellowship we decided to develop the concept of “dinner and a meeting”. The concept was that guys who weren’t working could prepare food so that guys who were working could stop by right after work and not have to worry about dinner. Food and fellowship would be from 5 to 6:30 and then we would have a meeting at 6:30.
Since we called ourselves, The Stepbrothers, we decided our meetings should be focused strictly on the steps as outlined in the big book. We borrowed a format from a group call the Hyannis’s group, based mostly on the East Coast. It’s a 15 week program covering all 12 steps. Although we recently adopted a modified version that would include readings from the 12 & 12 and thus expanded it to a 20 week program. The readings are scheduled in advance and posted on our What’s App page. The only material read during the meeting, aside from “How it works”, would be the scheduled readings on the step we were working that week. We would invite a speaker, who would share for 15 minutes focusing on that step. Members would be asked to restrict their shares to their experience working that step or the readings on that step.The goal was to focus all attention entirely on the step being covered that week.
Although we enjoyed the intimacy of meeting in each others back yards, driveways, living rooms and common areas of luxury apartments, we recognized that our primary purpose was to take the message to the alcoholic who still suffered. As long as we were meeting in each others homes we limiting our participation, we would not be able to put our meeting in the meeting guide nor could we reach the alcoholic was was still suffering. We then began a search for a building. And on, November 6, 2024, we began meeting at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Castro Valley. .
Since we were delving deep into the steps we laid out a contingency format in the event that a newcomer came attending his first meeting ever. In that event we would suspend the normal format for 30 minutes and do a brief newcomer meeting. Members would share their stories for 3 to 5 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes we would resume our normal format.
We toyed with the idea of putting together a group of guys to attend the International Convention in Vancouver last year. Unfortunately, we discovered that Canada does not allow anyone into the country that has a felony on their record. That disqualified a large percentage of our members. Making matters worse, we found out that Canada considered drunken driving a felony, that pretty much eliminated the rest of us!
However, we found out that, for the first time in AA history, parts of the International Convention were going to be live streamed. There would be a $35 charge for individuals who live stream it at home or you could live stream it for a group. However, that fee was $500. Ostensibly, it was intended that large groups, districts or intergroups to pay that amount and charge a fee for those attending. Our group promptly voted to pay the $500 fee and to invite all the groups in the area. Additionally, since all of our meetings included food of some sort, the members voted to provide lunch and to not charge anybody, anything!
The event was an overwhelming success as we had two giant TVs and over 100 people in attendance. However, those attending quickly asked who was paying for all of this? They insisted that we put a can out so people could contribute. Given the generosity AA members we received over $500 in contributions at that event.
Holy cross Episcopal Church was a beautiful facility that we loved very much. We held our watch party in their Turner hall, which is where we met most of the year. Unfortunately, for several weeks throughout the year, the church needed to use Turner hall for other activities during which we had to meet in a small portable building. That portable could seat a maximum of 15 packed in like sardines. That was fine when we first started, however, we grew to the point that the portable was no longer an option so in February 2026, we found a new facility, Calvary Lutheran Church in San Lorenzo,
The camaraderie and fellowship in this group has been remarkable. It’s amazing to see how the honesty and openness have brought this group together. Guys feel comfortable and in a safe place. They feel they can share whatever they want. Although it is a men’s group, it’s not brimming with testosterone but it”s filled with honesty, vulnerability and most of all love.
Our meeting is every Wednesday night at Calvary Lutheran Church in San Lorenzo. Food and fellowship begin at 5 pm and our step study meeting begins at 6:30 pm.