“Abstinence is the action of refraining from compulsive eater and compulsive food behaviors while working toward or maintaining a healthy body weight.”
Surely you’ve heard this before; it’s OA’s definition of abstinence. At the World Service Business Conference in Albuquerque, a delegate proposed removing the word “weight.”
Plenty of delegates rose to speak for and against, but I wouldn’t say it was particularly fraught with emotion. It failed by a very clear margin.
One set of proposals would have changed the Steps(!!) by removing references to “Him.” For example, Step 11 would have changed to read, “…to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God….” I think it is fair to say that many delegates expected these proposals to be among the most controversial this week….
This is the first of … some posts published from the World Service Business Conference. I’m Michael P., R6 web and pub coordinator and a delegate representing Metrowest Intergroup in Greater Boston. Our new(ish) managing director, Dan Sandweiss, reported this data about our fellowship:
Sixteen posts about the World Service Business Conference appear “after” this one in the article list, but because R6 blog posts are shown “newest first,” you might think this is the first one. That’s worth mentioning because it’s really the last one; it seeks to wrap up actions that weren’t deemed to warrant individual posts….
One 7th Tradition was taken Friday afternoon for the entire conference. Delegates donated $9,411 in USD, and $20 AUS. Based on the din that greeted the announcement, delegates were impressed by the figure.
The conference started with 188 voting delegates. By the last session Saturday morning, that number was down to 170. That shrinkage happens every year — because people have to leave early, for example. But this year, two people were reported to have tested positive for Covid on Thursday afternoon, and they were not isolated incidents,…