marinadock.org

Non-Profit Corporation

The Marina Dock Newsletter March 2003

Dear Marina Dock members and patrons alike,

Thank you, all, for your continued support. We just celebrated 17 years of continuous service at 2118 Greenwich Street to the recovery community in San Francisco.
For me, personally, this is quite a milestone. If anyone told me in my cups that I would be involved with something consistently for seventeen years I would have had them committed. I don't believe I ever did anything consistently for more than seventeen hours. I consistently did nothing for twenty years except drink and carouse but who would want to put that on a list of achievements?

Serious Stuff

February was a decidedly bad month financially. I t is obvious that everyone is waiting to see what happens politically and militarily. An eerie silence has descended, so to speak, and it is affecting all of us. Even Greenspan recently weighed in on the issue of war and its negative impact on economic performance. When I read that I thought "Hell! I could have told him that 6 to 8 months ago".
Were have you been Mr Greenspan... Jesus loves you more than... Despite all the evidence to the contrary, I believe we are on the dawn of a new age of Peace and Prosperity. We just need to hang tough. As if I told my friend Jake B last night, just like good times bad times do not last forever. We have weathered the worst of this current storm and by June, we will all breathe a collective sigh of relief.

We Need Each Other

No matter what is going on in the world we need to stick together. We need a place to meet and commiserate to comfort and be comforted.
I can, with your support, guarantee that we will be at 2118 Greenwich Street one month at a time indefinitely. That is not a bad deal when you consider the current global uncertainty.

You May Have Noticed

We now have Internet service for our patrons. The guys came yesterday (Friday) and set it up. It is high speed DSL and within minutes John C, my old friend from The Henry Ohlhoff House, was all over it like "a wet suit". He bought a $3.00 card and checked his e-mail. I bought 60 minutes for $7.00 and started reading the newspapers from around the world. Would you believe I ended up subscribing to "The Drogheda Independent", the local rag from back home in Ireland. You know this may be old news to a lot of you but I have recently discovered the marvels of this real time technology. You can buy a card at the counter and you are on. We will also sell formatted discs so busy people can download messages and documents, etc.

Matching Fund

I may or may not have mentioned this in a previous newsletter but a contributing member brought this to my attention. People who work for large business enterprises such as Bank of America can have that company make matching contributions to The Marina Dock. If your employer is a business that does matching contributions, they have a form that you must fill out and give to us. We then send the details of our nonprofit status on the form with our letter of tax exemption. It is a very simple procedure and could provide us with some badly needed respite in these times of economic stagnation.
Someone pointed out to me that people might be reluctant to participate because of the issue of anonymity in the workplace. There is nothing in our business name business that compromises this. The Marina Dock, the Marina Green, Marina Del Ray, the Marina District. When anyone asks me what The Marina Dock is, unless they are whipping out a checkbook, a credit card or a wad of cash, I tell them it's a very exclusive social club in the Marina. If they persist and inquire if it is a gym, I usually say "No, we do most of the exercise (insanity) before we join".

Gratitude

Whenever I here complaints about how bad things are I think about what it used to be like. Contrary to a well know Irish ditty that states "I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy", I would definitely opt for a frontal lobotomy. I never want to return to the Horrors of Presidio Heights, jackhammers, terrazzo floors and the constant fear of impending doom.

Our Membership Drive Continues

We are extending our discount on membership through April 15 2003. This would be a good time to join and again all memberships are tax deductible. We would like to have more of the people on the mailing list involved. Currently we have about 800 people on our mailing list and around 250 are members. I will try to reach some of these people personally later this month.

With Sadness

Frank V passed away suddenly earlier this month. Frank was the kinda guy that made you feel OK with yourself. We attended meetings at the old French Ballroom in the Eighties -myself Frank and Richard O'B (now living in Nashville Tenn.). I think, and I say this fondly and without malice, that if anyone one of us said it was raining outside you would have to go outside and check. However when it came to helping others and carrying the message Frank was never found wanting.

Until next time, the solution is love,

Anthony T. Murray ("Irish Tony")
 
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