I find the gratitude lists fascinating- really cool how they can totally change my mind where lots of effort to think about other things fails. My boss (AA) turned me on to using them to help with difficulty falling asleep- just start going down the gratitude list and often you'll be asleep in just a couple minutes.
I went to the Maryland alanon conference over last weekend, had a great time. Being able to discuss program stuff without being interrupted by the conclusion of the meeting-after-the-meeting was great, many opportunities for in-depth sharing.