The year was l995 and five alcoholics in recovery put their sober heads together and opened the doors of the Mesa Club to alcoholics and addicts. Their names were Ron Y, Jim K, Mike W, John S and Greg H. Ron and John wrote up the by-laws patterned after the Friendship Club in Santa Fe and Ron registered The Mesa Club as a 501C charitable organization. The vision was to have a club that opened its doors to all 12 step groups. The first meeting was an NA meeting. The club was home to meetings of Gamblers Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous and AlAnon, but most meetings were Alcoholics Anonymous.

 

Ron was voted in as manager of the club while he was out of the room on a potty break and unable to protest. “You’re going to be the manager,” the other four informed him when he returned.

“This will be good for you,” Ron’s sponsor told him. “You’ll get a good education on how the alcoholic mind works.” Ron had 2 years sobriety at the time.

 

It was through the generosity and dedication of these original five men that the Mesa Club got its start. Jim paid the first rent of $500 out of the $1,200 he won at the casino. As a successful lawyer in Seattle, WA, Jim was reduced to a hopeless alcoholic, sleeping in a dumpster in Albuquerque, NM, penniless and destitute. When he got sober, he became a counselor, much loved and respected by alcoholics and drug addicts alike.

 

Ron bought the tables and chairs from a Sandia Labs rummage sale held every Saturday. He would go early to get the stuff for a nickel on the dollar.

 

The group of five men with the help of many others, got busy starting meetings. The club was only open in the evenings, except for weekends. Drunkin’ Doughnuts met on Saturdays at 9 am and The Winner’s Circle met on Thursdays at 6pm and Sundays at 5 pm. The 4th Dimension met on Mondays at 6:30pm. Step Along with AA met at 7:30 pm on Fridays. This meeting originally met at a church on Abrazo and Unser but came to the Mesa Club soon after it opened. By 1998 the Candlelight Group met every night at 9pm and the Sunday Step-Up Group met at 2:30 pm. There were very few step meetings in the area and no tradition meetings at the time.

 

The club flourished until the building began to deteriorate in 2005. The roof leaked and was in danger of collapsing after a heavy snowstorm. The problem may have been caused by poor structural support for a huge air conditioning unit that replaced the old swamp cooler, according to Ron who knew the contractor. The building was condemned in January of 2006 and the meetings scattered to various locations. Meanwhile a committee of group members was formed to find a new location for the club. It wasn’t easy, but they persevered and found a new location after a year and a half of looking at properties around Rio Rancho and Bernalillo.

 

In 2007 The Mesa Club moved into the office space next to the U-Haul Company on US RTE 528 and the meetings quickly followed. The Wake-Up Call at 9 am and the Lunchbox Group at noon opened the club’s daytime schedule. Over the next few years as AA meetings grew, there was a need for larger space. The Mesa Club moved to its next location in the office complex on Peggy Road in 2010. It then included meetings for NA and GA, as well as a full schedule of AA meetings throughout the day and evenings.

 

In 2021 the Mesa Club expanded the space to include an additional suite next door. With the restrictions because of the COVID Pandemic, more space was necessary to continue to serve the recovery community. In July 2021, heavy water accumulation on a roof that was in desperate need of repair caused it to collapse, displacing the Mesa Club once again. Temporary meeting rooms were set up in another area of the building with the NA groups moving their meetings to the New Mexico Wellness Center on Meadowlark. In January 2022, the Mesa Club relocated once again to its current location at 3301 Southern Blvd. Many meetings have found other homes, but the Mesa Club still hosts a full schedule of AA, Al-Anon and other various recovery meetings.

 

The original artwork of a local artist and fellow alcoholic, Luke, which decorated the east wall of the main meeting room at the Unser location continues to grace the entryway of the Mesa Club. The simple but profound painting of one hand reaching out to hold the hand of another depicted AA’s legacy of service, the hand of AA reaching out to the suffering alcoholic.