October 11-13, 2024

In the summer of 1984, Herb, Ray, and Jim, along with their spouses, were traveling home from the 1st Aggie-Land Roundup and the thought came to mind: “Waco has as many drunks as Bryan College Station.” This planted the seed that Waco might have a conference. The 3 alcoholics, along with their spouses, had zero funds to support this dream, but by May 1995 they had raised enough funds to have the first Heart of Texas Conference. It was held at the Brazos Inn located in downtown Waco.

In 2020, the Heart of Texas Conference for the first time in its history had to cancel due to the Pandemic. The United States along with many other countries practiced social distancing during this pandemic and the conference committee at this time had to make the difficult decision to cancel or postpone. We decided to cancel the 2020 conference because it was not clear when the shelter in place

order would be removed. Each committee member chose to stay on the committee, in their accepted roles and began planning for the 2021 conference.

The beginning of 2021 started out just like 2020 and many things had changed in our world; however, “The fact remained the same, that the need for in person, face to face contact of one alcoholic to another was still vital to our recovery.” The committee decided to launch the conference again in October 2021.

Now here we are, edging on our 38th conference. Thousands of alcoholics in the central Texas community over the years have seen the true meaning of one alcoholic helping another during their attendance at the Heart of Texas Conference! Pandemic or not, we persevere.