In July 1982, the newly formed Florida Regional Service Committee reached the conclusion that a need existed to establish a central office in order to create a reliable method for literature distribution throughout Florida.

A member in St. Petersburg volunteered a room in her apartment for the task; thus, the first office location was opened. It was located at 4545 10th St. The Florida fellowship had grown to over a hundred meetings. The “approval copy” of the Basic Text and the “stories booklet” had just been produced and circulated throughout the fellowship.

In December 1982, the Florida Regional Service Committee decided that the fellowship was in need of a more professional atmosphere. This necessitated that the next location would be accessible during normal business hours. Discussions began regarding establishing an office that would be open to any member of the fellowship. Charles K. began looking for potential locations in Fort Lauderdale. There were no funds available for such an endeavor, so the least expensive location was selected.

The office was actually a second-floor hallway that connected two buildings. The Royal Trust Bank sold the attached office building to a private commercial group and the walkway between the two buildings became part of the office complex. The RSO occupied a mere 64 square feet of space.

The office opened for business in March 1983, at the 2810 East Oakland Park Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. It was decided that the office would store and distribute literature to the entire Florida fellowship, print a regional meeting list, newsletter and regional minutes, and store records and archives, including speaker tapes. The storage of regional minutes and archives was a valuable tool in compiling this book as all of the original documents were found in the current office when the Florida History Project began.

When representatives of the ad-hoc committee searched through the old archives, they discovered the original reel-to-reel tapes from the 11th World Convention and the 6th World Literature Conference. These old tapes were transferred onto compact discs (CD). Sally E. from California was the main speaker at WCNA-11 in 1981. At WCNA-30 in San Diego in 2003, Sally E. was on an old-timers panel. After the convention, Sally was given a CD of her speaking in Miami in 1981. A note was included: “Sally – We apologize for delivering your tape from WCNA-11 twenty-two years late.”

In 1985, the office was relocated to larger quarters on NW 34th Court in the Oakland Park section of Fort Lauderdale, where it remained for several years. The office was incorporated in 1986 and a Board of Directors was appointed to serve. Shortly afterward, a full-time employee was hired, and furnishings, data processing equipment, and storage racks were purchased. The focus during those early years was to amass a large stockpile of literature in order to keep pace with the explosive growth of the fellowship.

The office remained in Fort Lauderdale until the early 90’s, after which it relocated several times to Orlando, Tampa, back again to South Florida to West Palm Beach in 1997 to West Palm Beach, and later to Lantana. In the summer of 2003, the office again moved, this time to its current location in Lakeland, Florida. The actual revenues in 1982 were under $3,000. Two decades later, the annual budget exceeded $600,000 and the original 64 square feet had grown to over 3,000. When literature orders from the WSO arrive at the RSO in 2003, they no longer come in small boxes, but are shipped on large pallets.

Today, the Florida Regional Service Office (FRSO) serves as the distribution center of N.A. literature and other material as deemed appropriate by the FRSO Board of Directors. In addition to these services in 2000, the RSO began providing services to conventions throughout the fellowship, including registration packages and merchandising purchases. It also compiles and distributes Regional minutes for the Florida region, leases space and provides services for the Florida Regional Convention and the South Florida Regional Convention boards. It stores archives from areas within the state as well as convention and regional archives. Its customer base extends well beyond the state of Florida and includes meetings and areas in Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and some countries in the Caribbean, South and Central America.

This Corporation shall be responsible to the Florida Regional Service Committee. It will comply with the Articles of Incorporation of the State of Florida and the By-Laws of the Florida Regional Service Office, Inc. (FRSO, Inc.) The Board of Directors shall exercise the powers of the corporation, control its property and conduct its affairs, except as otherwise provided by law and subject to the limitations contained in the Articles of Incorporation.