When and how WSBC meets

Two proposals addressed how and when the World Service Business Conference would meet, and the reference subcommittee combined them into a single motion. It would call for a two-year rotation in which one year would meet in person, and the other would meet via a videoconferencing platform. In the latter case, the Trustees would have…

A one-word change?

“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…

Our competitors

Dan Sandweiss was hired about 8 months ago as OA’s managing director, which means today was his first opportunity to appear before the World Service Business Conference. He evinced great enthusiasm for OA’s mission, said he loves the work, and “you’ll have to kick me out” before he’ll ever leave the job. As one would…

Whose holidays?

A proposal submitted by the National Service Board of Greece asked that no conferences be scheduled three days before or three days after major religious holidays. Their recent experience was that the start of the conference overlapped Easter Monday for those following the Christian Orthodox religion, and they need more time to get here than…

Copyrighted material

Meg M., chairwoman of the board of trustees, related that the fellowship is party to a lawsuit seeking damages because an intergroup had used a copyrighted image on its website. She asked that all service bodies review their websites to guard against further such trouble. If you have an role for your service body’s website,…

Dissolution of Region 4

Overeaters Anonymous in the recent past has been divided into 11 regions, but this is the last World Service Business Conference that will include Region 4, which has represented part or all of 8 US states and 3 Canadian provinces. Generally, you could say Region 4 was north-central North America. In July, the region found…

OA’s numbers

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: