Fourth Quarter 2007 Volume 17, Number 4    Page 2 of 2 First 2008 WSBC Mailing Sent WSBC 2008 Important Deadlines "In OA Love and Service" Web Links IDEA Day Suggestions Professional Exhibits Fund Needs Your Support Remembering OA First 2008 WSBC Mailing Sent On September 4, 2007, the WSO mailed the first documents for the 2008 World Service Business Conference (WSBC), which will convene in Albuquerque, New Mexico USA, May 5–10. The mailing includes the delegate registration form and instructions, trustee application forms and instructions, and sample motion/amendment forms. Also included is the 2007 Final Conference Report, distributed only to the 2007 WSBC delegates and to service bodies that did not send a representative to WSBC. Except for the Final Conference Report, all first-mailing documents are available on the OA Web site. To purchase the 2007 Final Conference Report, please call the WSO at 505-891-2664, or order online: item #800, US$10 each plus shipping. US shipping: $3 for orders up to $18. For orders over $18 or outside the US, see the Literature Catalog page. Top WSBC 2008 Important Deadlines November 1, 2007 Postmark date for Delegate Support Fund Applications December 10, 2007 Postmark date for motions and amendments January 2, 2008 Delegate registration forms due February 5, 2007 Trustee application forms due Top "In OA Love and Service" I’ve used this closing line on all correspondence I have written while serving as a region trustee and general service trustee. It expresses how privileged I feel to serve on the OA Board of Trustees (BOT). While a trustee position does entail work and deadlines, personalities and passions, it also gives me the opportunity to put my program into action daily. My trustee responsibilities allow me to use my God-given talents in service to the Fellowship. Other trustees have helped me grow in the committees and tasks set before me; and attending board meetings, surrounded by so much recovery, is a joy. It humbles me that my God has directed my path to serve on the OA board. Numerous openings on the BOT will need to be filled at our 2008 World Service Business Conference in May. Look deep within yourself and see if now is the right time for you to step forward to serve as a trustee. Pray about it. Meditate on it. I would love to have you sit beside me next year. The deadline for applications is February 5, 2008. You can download the application form from the OA Web site. — Dodie H., Chairman, OA Board of Trustees Top Discover interesting and helpful OA Web-site links. Revised Sample Intergroup Bylaws — approved by the Board of Trustees Lifeline Through the Years — Showcases stories, poems, photos and games from past issues of Lifeline, including a link to a 27-page PDF file with examples from 1964 to 2006 Ask-It Basket — “Why is it okay to collect money for an outside advertising person to spread the message of OA?” Family and Friends — New page with help for those concerned about someone’s behavior with food (Links are current when A Step Ahead is published online; however, some pages will be updated during the quarter.) Top IDEA Day Suggestions Leave a New-Prospect Card on the mirror in the rest room of whatever restaurant you happen to visit, or put the cards into diet books in the library as bookmarks. Go back to Step Three to help you regain your abstinence. Spend time thinking about your connections with others in OA. Write about unity and diversity and how they affect your program. Make a personal commitment to extend the hand and heart to all who share your compulsion. Discuss abstinence with others whose views are different from yours. Top Professional Exhibits Fund Needs Your Support Did you know that service bodies lacking sufficient resources to exhibit at professional conferences and conventions can apply to receive financial assistance from the Professional Exhibits Fund? In 2005, the Board of Trustees created a special fund to help service bodies exhibit at professional conferences and conventions that might otherwise be too costly. Since its inception, the fund has provided assistance for OA exhibits at the American Dietetics Association, the North Carolina Counseling Association, the California Dietetic Association, the American School Counselors Association, the National Educators Association, the Physician Assistant Education Association, the Southeastern Psychological Association and the National Eating Disorders Association. OA members and service bodies provide the fund’s sole support, so donations to the fund are always welcome. By contributing, OA members, groups and service bodies give service by carrying OA’s message to professionals who, as a complement to their practice, may recommend OA to still-suffering compulsive eaters. At this time, requests for funding exceed the amount of money available. If you would like to support OA in carrying the message through large conferences and conventions, please consider donating to the Professional Exhibits Fund. You may send your check to the World Service Office at PO Box 44020, Rio Rancho, NM 87174-4020 USA. Or donate by credit card on the OA Web site. Be sure to indicate on your check or credit-card form that the contribution is for the Professional Exhibits Fund. Your support can make a difference. Thank you. Top Remembering OA In 2010, Overeaters Anonymous will celebrate its 50th anniversary. To mark this milestone in OA’s history, Lifeline in 2010 plans to share with the Fellowship stories and snippets of experience, strength, hope and reminiscences from OA longtimers. We would like to begin collecting your contributions now so we can select from a wide variety in the future. Please choose from the following possible topics: 1) Memory Snippets: In 300 words or less, recall a favorite memory from: creating a format for meetings in the early years of OA beginning the concept of sponsorship in OA debating whether to change the Steps or Traditions of OA debating the choice of a name for Overeaters Anonymous planning the first World Service Business Conference planning the first World Service Convention deciding to move the World Service Office from California to New Mexico planning and publishing the first OA Bulletin (later Lifeline) expanding OA beyond borders coping with growth by creating intergroups and regions discovering and appreciating diversity in OA admitting men into OA accepting anorexics and bulimics in OA debating the merits of a plan of eating creating the gray sheet (and variations) moving past the HOW debates changing habits to embrace cyberspace recalling by-law debates remembering the World Service Business Conference before Robert’s Rules of Order laughing your way to recovery in OA’s early years remembering how some slogans came to be recalling early debates about which leg is more important on the three-legged stool: physical, emotional, spiritual loosening ties to Alcoholics Anonymous deciding to publish OA literature serving as a trustee in the early years recalling an amazing service experience that helped OA grow dealing with the concept of a Higher Power and the question “Is OA a religious organization?” determining the difference between attraction and promotion figuring out what cross talk means sharing the origin of HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, tired) making the first attempts to reach out to young people dealing with schisms and breakout groups from OA creating efforts to retain members establishing the first Twelfth-Step-Within efforts debating the place of prayer in OA creating the OA tools sharing other vignettes from the past that determined the course of OA history 2) Longtimers’ Stories — choose from the following, and be sure to tell us what you and OA were like when you entered the program: Share your story of finding OA in the early years and growing with it Share how OA has changed over the years 3) Longtimers and Not-So-Longtimers: Imagine what changes you see for OA in the future Describe what has been the strength of OA over the years Please indicate at the top of your story or snippet that it is for OA’s 50th anniversary. Lifeline requires full names and addresses but publishes only first names, last initials, city, state/province and country. You may request anonymity for any of these identifiers. Send your contributions via email to info@oa.org with Lifeline 50th Anniversary in the subject line, or by mail to Lifeline, P.O. Box 44020, Rio Rancho, NM 87174-4020. Top DATEMINDER IDEA DAY International Day Experiencing Abstinence November 17 Media Month January 2008 EACH GROUP HAS BUT ONE PRIMARY PURPOSE — TO CARRY ITS MESSAGE TO THE COMPULSIVE OVEREATER WHO STILL SUFFERS. Previous page Attention Intergroups and Service Boards: Please inform the WSO whenever you have meeting changes to your directory. Attention Group Secretaries: Please make copies of this newsletter to share with your group members. 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. © 2007 Overeaters Anonymous®, Inc. All rights reserved.