Announcement on this Year’s Conference

I hope we continue to find you safe, healthy and sober!

Western Roundup Living Sober has been a pioneer and trailblazer in the LGBTQ Sober Community. We still claim our steak as the longest running LGBTQ Sober Roundup in the world. From our conception in 1976 we have celebrated many successes, shared life-changing moments, and weathered storms together, coming out stronger on the other side. During the 80s and 90s we saw the incredibly supportive role the fellowship played as the AIDS epidemic affected the lives of so many here in San Francisco and around the world. Over the year’s we’ve fought side-by-side against disease, discrimination, exclusion and of course addiction and alcoholism.


This year marks our 45th year of our Annual Western Roundup Living Sober Conference, and we are faced with adversity in the form of the COVID-19 Crisis. Our way of living as we know it has changed. We have been following the situation closely and have had many conversations with our Steering and General Planning Committee and Advisory Board members. After careful consideration, we’ve come to the difficult decision to hold our Conference virtually this year, over the same weekend of August 21st – 23rd.


We weighed many different options, and ultimately this choice still allows us to deliver on our Mission while doing the responsible thing to keep our community and ourselves safe. We know that Our Common Welfare Should Come First, so while this may not be the conference experience you were expecting, we hope you will understand.


We already gained a lot of momentum with this year’s conference, and had a great amount of people pre-registered, and for those of you supporting us early on, I thank you. We will be issuing full refunds to anyone who has already paid, including donations to our Co-Sponsored Donation Fund. We’ll soon share our new plan for financially supporting this year’s Conference, and how you can contribute. For those that have already booked your rooms at our host hotel – the Holiday Inn San Francisco Golden Gateway, you will also be able to cancel your reservation with no penalty, please contact the hotel directly and they will be able to assist you.


Over the coming days and weeks, our General Planning Committee is quickly shifting gears, and re-configuring our Conference to fit into a virtual platform. I can’t share quite yet the details of our agenda, but what I can tell you is we still plan to deliver an experience that includes great speakers, engaging workshops and fun fellowship and inclusion events. If you are interested in joining our team in helping us go virtual, please reach out to us at information@livingsober.org. We’d love to have you’re help!


As we hammer out the details, we’ll be sure to share those with you so you can plan and prepare for a great weekend with us.


I would like to give a heartfelt thanks to our Steering and General Planning Committees, and our supportive Advisory Board. As we discussed all our options, the choice to simply cancel this year’s Conference was never even brought up. The energy, determination, creativity and passion from this group of people is absolutely amazing, and I couldn’t be more proud of the work they’ve already done, and certainly the tall order ahead. Lastly, I want to thank you, our community, who without your support, our Conference wouldn’t be possible.


We hope to see you in August, and until then, we’ll still have some great fundraising events which you can find out more about on our website livingsober.org, or by following us on our closed facebook page at Western Roundup. We love and appreciate you, and we can’t wait for August to open our virtual doors and welcome you to the 45th Annual Western Roundup Living Sober Conference!


Thank you and God Bless.
Yours in Service
Scott Quigley, Chair

Western Roundup Living Sober 2020
Tel: (415) 932-9528 | livingsober.org
Follow us on Facebook at ‘Western Roundup”