Third Quarter 2005 Volume 15, Number 3    Page 2 of 2 Call for Stories USA Full Addresses Needed Roving Lifelines Need Your Help Web Links Lifeline Monthly Topics 2006 Dateminder Call for Stories The OA Conference Literature Committee is developing a pamphlet designed to reach out to black men and women around the world, who are underrepresented in OA. Are you a black person with a story to share of recovery from compulsive eating? You strengthen us all when you share your recovery with others. Tell us how you felt coming into OA, especially if you felt you didn’t “fit in” because of your size, color or background; share recovery issues specific to your culture. We want to provide newcomers and members with a sense that they belong, even if they may not look like most people at their OA meetings. Stories should be in English, no more than 750 words and preferably typed. They become the property of OA and may be edited for length, grammar and clarity. Please include your full name and address for our records. We will notify authors of selected stories. Deadline: September 30, 2005. Send to World Service Office, Attention: Jeanne, PO Box 44020, Rio Rancho, NM 87174-4020 USA or fax: 505-891-4320 or email: jeanne@oa.org. Thank you! Top USA Full Addresses Needed To enhance the OA Web site, the WSO plans to create new search options for finding OA meetings. The first phase of this ongoing project will focus on developing search options to find meetings in the United States by county (not country) and zip code. Once this first phase is online, the WSO will consider meetings outside the United States. The implementation of the search engine depends upon enough meeting groups sending their updated information to the WSO. For groups within the US, please update the following information if you have not done so: Meeting number Full address of the meeting location, including number, street, COUNTY (not country), city, state and zip code This is a continuing effort to provide up-to-date meeting information; if your meeting changes location, please notify the WSO immediately. The WSO will use this information only to create search options on the Web site; no mail will be sent to the address. Please make your changes online at www.oa.org/registration_forms.html or contact the WSO to request a change-of-meeting form. Thank you! Top Roving Lifelines Need Your Help OA members often refer to Lifeline as a “meeting on the go,” but Lifeline is only effective if you receive it every month. The Lifeline staff tries to ensure that your issue arrives each month in your mailbox, yet each month the postal service returns 1 percent of the mailed copies as undeliverable. Processing the returned items and attempting to deliver them to subscribers can be costly and frustrating. You can help by contacting the WSO immediately with any change to your address. The post office will not forward your magazine even if you have a change-of-address form on file. Instead, it returns the magazine to the WSO (at a cost) with your new address information. Did you know that even if you have a hold on your mail, the post office might not hold your magazines while you are traveling? Again, the WSO receives returned issues marked “temporarily away,” with no way of knowing when you will return. The WSO staff is happy to help you receive all your Lifeline issues. Just let us know your plans, and we will hold your magazine until you return. With your help, we can keep our database current, and you can enjoy Lifeline every month. Top Discover interesting and helpful OA Web-site links in Web Links. Ask-It Basket Question—"How can a person be powerless over food but have control? How much control can I have if I'm powerless?" WSO Newsletters—Un Paso Adelante, Segundo Trimestre 2005 Recovery Story—"Reaching New Heights" World Service Business Conference 2005 —Wrapup Report Top Lifeline Monthly Topics 2006 Lifeline is created from OA members’ letters. Monthly topics are suggestions. You may write about any subject important to your recovery from compulsive overeating. Send your letters to Lifeline, PO Box 44020, Rio Rancho, NM 87174-4020 or email: info@oa.org. FEATURES: Stepping Out, Service with a Smile, Living Traditions and Taking the Spiritual Path continue. Newcomers Corner: Speaking from the Trenches gives newcomers a place to share their OA experiences and concerns. OA Around the World presents a brief history of OA in a country or area, significant accomplishments and sometimes short pieces from local members. Please send your history today! Generally Speaking (general OA topics) and How OA Changed My Life continue. Main Attraction focuses on public information and attraction. DEPARTMENTS: Ask-It Basket, Datebook, For Discussion and Web Links continue. Share It and World Service Notes run only if sufficient material is available. OTHER MATERIALS: Lifeline accepts letters, artwork and photos (no faces, please) for publication. Credit lines and rights to submitted work apply equally to articles, artwork and photos. Submitted materials are not returned. Lifeline may edit articles and crop photos. Lifeline promotes “unity with diversity” regarding the race, nationality, gender, age, physical challenges and sexuality of its writers. Please submit articles at least three and a half months prior to the first day of the month of publication. Deadlines appear in parentheses next to topics. Indicate the topic and month for which the article is intended. Typed letters by mail, fax or email are preferred. Letters must contain the author’s name and address, even if the author wishes to remain anonymous in print. Thank you. January Working with Others: Sponsorship, Sponsorship Role Models and Carefrontation (9/15/05) How did you sponsor at different levels of your recovery? How did you learn what to do? What makes an effective sponsor? How have a sponsor’s words and actions changed your recovery? How have you used WSO literature to improve your sponsorship skills? How is sponsoring newcomers an important part of your recovery? What makes your sponsor a role model? February How OA Changed My Life and Unity and Using Lifeline in Recovery (10/15/05) March Seniors and Youth in OA and Anorexia and Bulimia (11/15/05) If you came to OA as a senior, how has OA changed your life? If you are a longtimer, how does OA work in your senior years compared to your earlier life? What is your experience as a young person in OA? How does OA reach out to a new generation? How has OA helped you overcome anorexia and/or bulimia? April Relationships in Recovery and The Telephone Tool in the Age of Cell Phones and Email (12/15/05) How have your relationships changed in recovery? How have your relationships helped or hindered your recovery? How do you use voicemail or telephone meetings in recovery? When is email a good choice? What precautions should one use when making outreach calls to work or cell numbers? May Defining Humility and Its Meaning in Program and Achieving and Maintaining Recovery through Humility (1/15/06) How do you define humility in the OA program? What Steps helped you achieve humility? How do you maintain humility, especially as you work through various levels of service and recovery? June A Life without Shame and Guilt and Forgiveness (2/15/06) What shame and guilt did you carry before OA? How did the Steps help you overcome these feelings? When these feelings surface in recovery, how do you deal with them? How did you achieve forgiveness, both for yourself and for others? July Generally Speaking (3/15/06) Please send stories on any topic relating to OA. August The Importance of Threefold Recovery: Physical, Spiritual, Emotional (4/15/06) Which part came first for you: spiritual, emotional or physical recovery? How do the three parts work together for you, and how have the Steps helped you? September Recovering from Relapse and The Twelfth Step Within (5/15/06) What caused your relapse, and what helped you recover from it? If you haven’t relapsed, what helped you avoid this pitfall? How have you helped others recover from relapse? How has Twelfth Step Within work helped you and others? October How to Make Amends and Living Amends (6/15/06) What process did you use to determine to whom you needed to make amends, and how did you make your amends? How have you incorporated Steps Eight, Nine and Ten into your daily life? November Defining Abstinence and How Has Your Abstinence Changed with Time? (7/15/06) How do you define your abstinence in relation to your food plan, your emotional and spiritual life, and special circumstances such as illness and pregnancy? How have you adapted your food plan to accommodate changes in your life? December Maintaining Hope and Turning Burdens into Blessings (8/15/06) How do you maintain hope in the face of difficult or seemingly hopeless situations? How do the Steps help you cope with these experiences? How did you achieve the ability to change your “half-empty glass” view of your life to a “half-full glass” perspective? Top   DATEMINDER IDEA DAY International Day Experiencing Abstinence November 19 EACH GROUP HAS BUT ONE PRIMARY PURPOSE — TO CARRY ITS MESSAGE TO THE COMPULSIVE OVEREATER WHO STILL SUFFERS. Top Previous page   Attention Intergroups: Please inform the WSO whenever you have meeting changes to your directory. A Publication of: Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. P.O. Box 44020 Rio Rancho, NM 87174-4020 USA Phone: 1-505-891-2664 Fax: 1-505-891-4320 E-mail: info@oa.org OA Homepage Registered OA service bodies may reprint articles crediting A Step Ahead and Overeaters Anonymous. © 2005 Overeaters Anonymous®, Inc. All rights reserved.