In 2011 the internet and recovery were finding one another. It was a groundbreaking time. I’d just finished doing a series for A&E called “Relapse,” bringing the concept of sober coaching to the small screen so viewers could watch the process as active addicts and alcoholics moved from active addiction into recovery. Prior to the premiere, I was interviewed by a website called The Fix, also about to launch. They invited me to join a panel of recovery advocates and experts for the first ever live video Town Hall Recovery Forum being hosted by a website called InTheRooms. This was going to be the first time this new technology would bring together the recovery community. Kenny Pomerance, co-founder of IntheRooms, walked me through a trial run to work out any technical glitches. I believed in their their vision of 24-hour worldwide accessible free sober support. During this initial call, I felt that kind of connection you feel when you meet another person in recovery who you know beyond a shadow of a doubt if you’d met them at a meeting they’d become your new best friend.
When In-the-Rooms began hosting live video 12-step sanctioned meetings, this same intimacy and connection has been experienced by thousands of people worldwide seeking the support of one another. Since that Town Hall Forum, my travels have allowed me to spend real-life time with Kenny and RT. I’ve met their wives and friends, we’ve attended rallies and conventions together, and I’ve hung out at the ITR headquarters. Our friendship has made my life richer.
Below is an article written by Kenny (Mr. Clean) celebrating the 10th Anniversary of InTheRooms:
It’s hard to believe, but InTheRooms.com is 10 years old this week! A little over 10 years ago, I had an idea. My kids were very active on MySpace and on Facebook. I remember thinking, “wouldn’t it be great if there was a social network for people in recovery”? My good friend RT and I were wrapping up a marketing program at the time, looking for a new project, when I laid the idea on him. He immediately said, “Let’s do it!”. I thought he was being facetious, so I said, Hey, I’m serious about his”. His response was “So am I”! That’s how this started. We sat down an drew up lists of features that we wanted to see on this new Recovery site. We then transferred those lists on the back of RT’s daughter’s used science board (the original we still have today).
I have to admit, that without RT, InTheRooms never would have happened. I have had many great ideas and inventions over the years…most of them never came to fruition. I’m a dreamer, and “follow through” has always been an issue, but RT is much more of a “concrete thinker” and way more focused on the endgame. Stephen Sondheim had a great quote “Having just the vision’s no solution, everything depends on execution”. RT made our vision into a reality.
What a journey this has been. When we first started out, anonymity was a critical component of the site. People were very cautious about adding personal pictures and information on the Internet. We wanted to be behind a firewall that protected our members from the search engine “spiders”. To this day, nothing placed on ITR will ever show up in a search engine! The addiction “stigma” has significantly relaxed over the last 10 years, with people now posting their anniversaries on Facebook and Instagram for all to see.
One of the first items that we put on our “wishlist” was to have live online meetings. We soon found out that the technology wasn’t there to support them…and we put the meetings on hold.
What we weren’t prepared for, were all of the people that started their Recovery on InTheRooms. We built this site initially for people that had already had some experience in Recovery. What we found though, was that there were many members that had never been to a “face to face” meeting, and ITR was their “lifeline” to recovery. Once we started our live online meetings, that concept really took off. We found that people that had health issues, transportation problems, people on house arrest, were not able to get to meetings, parent’s that couldn’t afford babysitters, were creating support networks within the ITR community. Many other sites have tried to have online meetings. To date. ITR is still the only place that continues to have consistently running live online meetings
We love our InTheRooms members. We’d be nothing without you guys! Your loyalty, love, and service keep this site going. RT and I are forever grateful for your support!
If you have never visited InTheRooms.com. Please do, it’s FREE, you have nothing to lose. If you are a member and haven’t logged in a long time, please come back to see all the new features we have and how we have matured. We currently have 522,000 members in 136 countries. We have 33 Fellowships represented and 500 live online meetings a month to choose from. We cannot wait to see you.
Kenny P