Early members of Alcoholics Anonymous in Morristown New Jersey began with the idea of weekend retreats to help recovering alcoholics deepen their sobriety as suggested in the book Alcoholics Anonymous. They found weekends away so rewarding to their own sobriety, that they wanted to make weekend retreats accessible to their fellows, in the spirit of the Twelfth Step. One of the founding members of the group, after reading about the life of Matt Talbot and how he embodied spiritual sobriety as a way of life, suggested they use his name. This was in May of 1943 and the movement has been growing ever since and has been incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation. In the year 2000 there were 190 groups with over 67 thousand members *