Fall 2016 Message from our Trustee

Trustee’s Message

Hi, my name is Karin and I am a compulsive overeater. What an honour it is to serve the fellowship as Region 6 Trustee. I am just so grateful for this program that saves my life one day at a time. In September I celebrated 25 years of abstinence. What a miracle! I am writing this in December and in a week I will be leaving for Germany to celebrate the Christmas holidays. I found out that an OA friend has a sister who lives in Hamburg and goes to OA. I will be meeting her and going to an OA meeting with her. The meeting will probably be in German but it doesn’t matter. It’s just important that I put my recovery first and get to a meeting no matter what language it’s in.

I have had a busy fall doing OA service. I travelled a lot doing three Service, Traditions and Concepts workshops and also went to Albuquerque for the November Board of Trustees meeting. At the Board meeting we approved the 2017 budget and approved funding from the Delegate Support Fund for intergroups to attend the 2017 World Service Business Conference. Six intergroups from Region 6 received funding. I also answered a lot of inquiries from around Region 6. Never a dull moment!

When a meeting registers with the World Service Office to become a group they agree to comply with the definition of an OA group and OA Bylaws, Subpart B. These are determined at the World Service Business Conference which is the group conscience of OA as a whole.

These points shall define an Overeaters Anonymous group:

• As a group, they meet to practice the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, guided by the Twelve Concepts of OA Service.
• All who have the desire to stop eating compulsively are welcome in the group.
• No member is required to practice any actions in order to remain a member or to have a voice (share at a meeting).
• As a group they have no affiliation other than Overeaters Anonymous.
• It has affiliated as an Overeaters Anonymous group by registering with the World Service Office.

There was a section on virtual groups which was removed at the May 2016 WSBC. All intergroups will need to update their bylaws to reflect this change.

The Twelve Traditions are very important to the survival of each OA group. They provide the principles that keep the group strong and healthy – which is vital to the growth and life of OA. Each time I write a Messenger article I focus on a Tradition. This time it’s Tradition 8. Tradition 8 says “Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centres may employ special workers.” The spiritual principle is Fellowship. Simply put from the kid’s version of the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions (which is a free download on oa.org) it says; Ordinary people run OA, but we can hire special workers to help us.

There are many kinds of service opportunities in OA. Members who volunteer to do service are non-professional and are not paid. Our reward is our personal recovery. However, our expenses are paid for. We freely share our experience strength and hope with others and by doing so we reinforce our own recovery. Since there are no professional OA members we all have an equal opportunity to share the service work. This Tradition tells us that sometimes it is necessary to hire trained professionals to do work which we cannot do or for which special skills are needed.

As a trustee I have a budget to travel around the region and facilitate workshops where we discuss the traditions, among other things, in more detail. Contact me if you are interested in having a workshop in your area.

Here is a list of some new or revised literature:

• Been Slipping and Sliding updated with references from Overeaters Anonymous 3^rd Edition
• From Slip or Relapse to Recovery
• 7^th Tradition pamphlet revised
• Health Fair Guidelines revised
• Guidelines for Anonymity in the Digital World
• Carry the Message workshop
• 12 Step Workshop and Study Guide (which has been very well received)

Please check out oa.org under What’s New for more details.

We had a great World Service Convention in Boston back in September. Over 1200 people attended and heard the message of recovery on the trail to freedom!

The Region 6 Convention will be in Toronto on October 20-22, 2017. Please consider joining us where we will be Stepping up for Recovery!

I wish you all the gift of abstinence, one day at a time. It is available to all of us and it works!

Thank you for allowing me to serve the fellowship.

Karin H.

Region 6 Trustee trustee@oaregion6.org