New policy on minors in meetings

ByMichael P.

OA’s board of trustees has issued what it calls a significant new policy regarding whether meetings should allow minors to attend face to face, online, telephone, or non-real-time meetings.

As you know, OA is a bottom-up organization, and no trusted servants govern OA, so this question remains with each local meeting.

The board said, “the change is necessary to protect minors from potential harm and to protect OA, Inc. from potential liability.” The official statement adds, “legal advice should be obtained before allowing such individuals to attend and before creating or instituting any applicable policies.”

As a consequence of the policy, the board has removed the following resources from oa.org:

  • The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions: A Kids’ View
  • Billy’s Story
  • How to Start a Teen Meeting
  • “Teen Friendly” specific topic in Find a Meeting
  • References to children and teens on the Family & Friends web page

Read the full announcement.

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