WSBC 2008

Unless something else comes to mind, my blogging here is done.

For whoever picks up this service in coming years, some suggestions:

1. We’re here to do OA service. Take it seriously but not personally. Ultimately, nothing we do, or don’t do, is really very important. The changes we make tend to be incremental. Either the changes are small or they capture something we already do.
2. Take names. Take numbers and e-mail addresses too. Make friends. Find people who have what you want and keep in touch. In general, recovery at WSBC is very strong.
3. Keep your commitments. You’ll be on some committee and you’ll probably sign up to do something after the close of WSBC. Do it. Perfection is not a requirement. Just get it done.
4. Get to one OA meeting a day. At WSBC there are at least 3 OA meetings every day. Try hard to get to one of them each day. It helps make the entire experience even better.
5. Have fun! Soak in the hot tub (I recommend 9pm-10pm). Go for walks. Meet friends for dinner. Take meal times as a chance to sit down and talk to new people.
6. Keep coming back. When you get home, get right back into your OA routine. It will help with “reentry”.

Being a delegate to WSBC has been my favorite OA service to date. I’ll miss it, a lot. Please, get involved. Do this service. You won’t regrete it.

Your grateful servant - Steve - OA ACE (Abstinent Compulsive Eater)

Each WSBC there is one, all hands, forum. Last year the topic was Diversity. This year, we were asked to brainstorm on the OA Strategic Plan. Based on Abstinent members, OA’s Strategic Plan centers on developing and maintaining: strong meetings, public awareness, committed service bodies and financial health.

This forum was organized by the Region Chairs. They had us setup at 20 table, each with a different topic to brain storm.  We looked at each part of the Strategic plan (strong meetings, public awareness, committed service bodies and financial health - 4 Goal areas) at each level of OA (Abstinent Member, Groups, Intergroups, Regions, WSBC - 5 levels). So, with 4 Goals and 5 Levels we had 20 unique topics (4 times 5). For example, there were 5 tables looking at Strong Meetings:

1. What actions can the WSBC and its committees take to promote Strong Meetings?
2. What actions can the Regions, their assemblies and committees take to promote Strong Meetings?
3. What actions can Intergroups/NLSB and their committees take to promote Strong Meetings?
4. What actions can Intergroups and its committees take to promote Strong Meetings?
5. What actions can Groups and Meetings take to promote Strong Meetings?

Repeat this pattern for each goal in the strategic plan. I think you get the idea.

Here is the WSBC 2008 Strategic Planning Workshop Summary. Give it a read. Remember, this was a brainstorming session. All ideas were captured. Not all may be great. Not all may apply to all service bodies. They are ideas that deserve thought and consideration.  There are bound to be some good ideas here that we can apply in our area.

Steve - OA ACE

Imagine Rosanne, one of our co-founders, was born and raised in Greece and our first meeting was in Athens? Imagine that OA World Service Office was in Alexandroupolis and all WSO communications was in Greek and not in English? You write to WSO and, in reply you get:

Steve

P.S. The Greek above is a translation from a free on-line service. It’s quality is questionable.  At this workshop, we found just such a translation in front of us. The Greek idea is not mine. It’s from the workshop. I did embellish a bit, as is my wont.

Here we go! The last business session of this WSBC. After the normal CSC introductions and the day’s ready from Voice of Recovery, Dodie, the Madame Chairman of the conference addressed the conference asking that we try hard to limit our questions and amendments so we can get all the way through the mornings business. By all means, ask questions if you really need to but if it’s not really important, please, sit on your butt.

Motion 1 removes the Central Illinois Intergroup from Region 4 and places it in Region 5. This was a request made by the Central Illinois Intergroup because it is geographically more convenient to attend Region 5 events. This pass. No con speakers.

Motion 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 all concerned the creation of the Virtual Groups service structure. You’ll recall that virtual groups are groups which do not meet face to face, like on-line and telephone meetings. All these motions passed. Here is an outline of what each does:

1. Motion 4 - Just adds some detail to the definition of a Virtual Group.
2. Motion 5 - Allows virtual groups to affiliate with any Intergroup or they may form their own IG.
3. Motion 6 - Makes clear that virtual service boards are not part of the region structure while other types of service boards are part of this structure.
4. Motion 7 - Normalizes language in this bylaw. Drops “National/Language Service Board” and replaces it with “service boards”. Makes clear the service board can and do cross boundaries.
5. Motion 8 - The virtual groups and service boards need a trustee to represent their interests and deal with their issues. Rather than incur the expense of another trustee, one year at a time, one of the 10 region trustees will rotate through representing the virtual groups/service boards.
6. Motion 9 - Normalizes language in this bylaw, which sets the guidelines for Intergroup and service board representation at WSBC. Drops “National/Language Service Board” and replaces it with “service boards”. I was concerned about virtual groups potentially being over represented. None the less, this did pass and I did vote for it. Last year I argued against this. This year, I’m just trusting all will be ok.

Motion 2 - This motion makes a change to trustee qualifications by changing the abstinence requirement from “five years of continuous abstinence” to “five years of current abstinence”. This passed easily.

Motion 10 - Changes the the paperwork requirement for service boards from requiring bylaws to requiring bylaws OR statement of purpose plus operating procedures. Which ever document they use, it must include a statement indicating it’s primary purpose is to aide those with the problem of compulsive eating through the 12 Step and 12 Traditions and 12 Concepts of OA service of Overeaters Anonymous. This motion passed.

Motion 11 - Same as 10 but for Intergroups.

Motion 12 - Same ass 10 but for Regions.

With all the bylaws changes dispatched, we return to the motions which had been referred to the reference sub-committee.

You may recall Motion F which proposed to create Compulsive Overeater Awareness Week (COAW) but that appreciation just didn’t fly. An amended version of the motion came back from committee suggesting the week be named “Overeaters Anonymous Awareness Week”. Pros suggested that a focus on the OA solution to the problem would make this a good week to get recognized. The Cons suggested that the focus on OA was not appropriate because it focused on the organization rather than the disease. Ultimately, this motion lost. I think it lost because it was not well formed to start and there was no ground swell to help it along. It may come back in another form in the future.

Motion G, amended came back and this time was passed. Motion G, amended will have us create recovery chips denominated for  years 1-20 plus 25, 30, 35 and 40.

Emergency Motion I was a request for $20,000 to fund translation services. We didn’t actually see the language so I’m not 100% certain what exactly it proposed. The motion was not discussed because we ran out of time. Ultimately though, the BOT through a process I’m not aware of, 20K was allocated to this activity. It was a good thing to do but I was never comfortable with how it happened. I’ll ask for an explanation.

With the last motion over, we had about 30 minutes of closing ceremonies including Dodie’s good by from the chair (she’s still on the board) and the wonderful Green Dot Ceremony which has first time delegates removing their green dots from their badges.

After lunch and a few hours off, our committees reconvened for a wrap up session to review goals and actions.

Another hour off before the evening gala event…

Steve

‘ll bet you can guess what I was doing between morning and afternoon sessions? Yes, exactly: Lunch. Each day, I prepared my own weighed and measured breakfast and lunch. Normally at lunch, I eat 16 ounces of cooked vegetables but here it was easier to eat 16 ounces of salad. Here is a picture of a typical lunch.

• 16 Ounces salad
• 2 Ounces cheese (lovely Irish cheese).
• One ordinary supermarket apple
• 29 grams salad dressing (I forgot to mention this in the original post, so this is new on 17May08)

Motion L once again, suggested a change to OA’s definition of abstinence. Here is our current definition:

According to the dictionary, the word “abstain” means to refrain from. Abstinence in Overeaters Anonymous is the action of refraining from compulsive eating. Spiritual, emotional and physical recovery is the result of living the Overeaters Anonymous Twelve-Step program.

The proposed change would have make it:

Abstinence in Overeaters Anonymous is the action of refraining from compulsive eating by following a plan of eating that reverses the damaging consequences of food obsession. The result of abstinence and living the Overeaters Anonymous Twelve-Step program is spiritual, emotional and physical recovery.

The key point of the Pro side was that OAs, particularly newcomers where confused by our definition of abstinence and that by changing the language, as suggested, abstinence will be easily explained. The Cons were quite clear that abstinence was about much more than a food plan. There were some rather passioned appeals to defeat this. It was defeated. Motion H was proposed to prompt some OA self examination by having us, through the BOT, look back ten years to see if there is a trend of qualified people of color being passed over to fill leadership positions. This one got a little messy. A substitute motion was penned, but this was ruled out of order by Dodie (our chair). I think this was ruled out of order because this motion substantially changed the meaning of the original motion so it didn’t really qualify for consideration at that time. Introduced next, Amendment H1 tweaked the language a little bit. It tried to make the language clearer. It was defeated. Next, a motion was brought to postpone consideration indefinitely. That was defeated. Ultimately, the main motion, unamended, was brought to a vote and it lost. Last business of the day was Motion J which really did deal with special focus meetings. Here is the original language with the inserted, new language, underlined:

The following policy statement was adopted: The Fellowship of Overeaters Anonymous recognizes the existence of special focus meetings, (i.e. gay and lesbian meetings, women’s meetings, men’s meetings, 100-pounders, maintainers, old timers, and people of various cultural backgrounds, etc.) which have been formed of persons who can more readily identify with fellow OAers with similar attributes. According to the Traditions, bylaws and policies of OA, the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively. We ask each person attending a meeting to respect and consider the group conscience by not attending the special focus meeting when a general meeting is nearby. All registered meetings shall welcome and give a voice to any person who has the desire to stop eating compulsively.

OK, so you can see the changes proposed. Right away, there was a motion to divide this motion. That means consider each of these changes separately. The motion to divide passed. We debated the first addition: and people of various cultural backgrounds, The Pros (and I stood and spoke pro), simply defended the change as really reflective of OA reality. The best pro case was made by a speaker who said she didn’t want to be an “etc.” The Cons felt we were making too long a list. Where would it end? I have to admit, I could relate to that. I can to believe that we’d be better off just deleting that text altogether. No “i.e.” at all. The vote on the first change passed. The debate on the second change was a bit more passionate. The Pros really wanting these special focus meetings to stay safe places for the interested parties. An example was given of a meeting where someone, not a member of the special focus group, was welcomed the first time because they said they really needed a meeting, but they kept coming back even though there was another OA Meeting nearby on the same day and starting within about an hour. The Cons argued that this was not the way OA should treat anyone attending a meeting. This part of the motion was defeated. Business for Friday was over. A walk followed by dinner followed. Steve - OA ACE (Abstinent Compulsive Eater)

202 OAs present and reporting for business duty on this Friday morning.

At the start of each session, the volunteer Conference Support Staff (CSC) is introduced. These OAs run around the room, receiving and delivering messages. You see, you are not permitted to get up and talk to other members or pass notes through the conference. As communication during the conference can be important, the CSC volunteers watch for raised hands with notes, and swiftly delivery these to their intended recipients.

The first order of business was By Laws Proposal 3 which modified how the votes for nominee trustees are counted. Prior to adopting this change (which we did), nominee trustees needed to receive a majority based on the total number of voting delegates present at the time of the election. For example:

• 100 Voting delegates present.
• Majority required: 51 yes votes.
• 50 vote yes
• 40 vote no
• 10 not voting

The result of this election : The nominee is not elected.

After this change, the trustee nominee must receive a majority vote of the delegates present and voting at the time of the election.

• 100 Voting delegates present.
• 50 votes yes
• 40 votes no
• 10 not voting
• Total votes cast: 90
• Majority required: 46

The result of this election: The nominee is elected.

So, before this change, not voting was the same as casting a no vote. After, only votes cast are counted.

This motion was taken out of the normal order because the next item of business was voting for the nominee trustees. Even though each trustee position had only one candidate, a vote is still needed. It is possible that a nominee will not be elected by the body. In this case, all nominees where elected.

• Region one trustee: Ev C. from Edmonton Alberta, Canada
• Region three trustee: Wanda S. from Abilene Tx, USA
• Region four trustee: Teresa K. from Iowa City IA, USA
• Region seven trustee: Donna A. from Reading PA, USA
• Region nine trustee: Esti O. from Meraseret Zion, Israel
• General Service Trustee: Robert F. from Toronto Ontario, Canada
• General Service Trustee: Kayla W. from Scottsdale AZ, USA
• General Service Trustee: This position is open. Consider applying!

While waiting for the votes to be counted, we had some time for Ask-it Basket Questions. Not sure how well I captured these answers. In some cases, I’ve used my own words and it’s possible I missed the point :-). I hope they will be posted to the OA website some time after the conference closes. Here’s what I have:

Q1, Answered by R6 Trustee Margaret Ann: Why do our bags say Overeaters Anonymous? Isn’t this a break of anonymity?

A1: For many, this is a 12th step opportunity. We took an informal poll of the conference attendees and most supported this. It was pointed out that members could turn the bag inside if they are uncomfortable.

Q2, Answered by Louise B: What were the results of the Lifeline survey from 2 years ago?

A2: Results were posted. Not sure what the results were or what was done with them.

Q3, Answered by Kayla GST (and now Chairman): Can OA suggest a standard after prayer saying?
Steve’s note: For example: Keep coming back. It works is you work it.

A3: We’ve all heard different endings. This is a matter for group autonomy.

Q4, Answered by Kathleen (R9): What is the difference between an Intergroup and a National Language Service Board (NLSB)?

A4: A NLSB is a service body that can service multiple Intergroups, much like a Region does except that the NLSB services a common language rather than a common geographic area. Actually, this question is answered on oa.org. Read about Intergroups and the NLSB follows right after.

Q5, Answered by, I don’t have that written down: What determines if literature is Board or Conference approved.

A5: Board approved literature is used inside the fellowship. Conference approved literature is used both inside and outside the fellowship (that’s a bit of a vague recollection for me).

Q6, Answered by Charles A: How do we respond to bariatric surgery?

A6: This is a growing issue and is on the Unity with Diversity agenda, but our guide should be the Big Book(page 84): Love and tolerance of others is our code.

Q7, Answered by Craig: How should the chairman of the BOT be addressed?

A7: Per Robert’s Rules of Order-Mister or Madame Chairman is typical but others have been used.

Finally, we moved on to business motions.

Motion F proposed we advocate, through WSO, the adoption of Compulsive Overeater Awareness Week (COAW). Immediately, the focus was on COAW, pronounced the same as COW. Amendments followed to change the name. An amendment was submitted to change this to Compulsive Eater Awareness Week, but the initials (CEA-W) didn’t fly as it sounded like another 12 step program for compulsive eaters. A second and third amendment were submitted. With the third amendment, the motion was taken from the floor and place in the reference sub-committee.

Motion G proposed creating OA Recovery coins numbered from 1 to 20 years. The first amendment wanted to change this to 30 years, the second amendment wanted 40 years. We never saw the third amendment as with the third, it was taken off the floor and sent to the reference sub-committee.

Motion I proposed to change the title of the Unity with Diversity policy to Special Concepts Meetings policy. This lost, largely because the actual policy isn’t all that focused on meetings, though meetings are a part of this policy. The debate was odd. Pro talked like the policy was clearly all about meetings. Con looked at the policy and didn’t see it that way. I voted Con.

Thus ended Friday morning. Can you say, Lunch? Please?

Steve

You may have noticed the lack of progress in new posts about our ongoing business. I would apologize for that if I didn’t have a darn good excuse: Hot Tub Meetings.

Each evening, starting sometime after 9pm, a group of OAs converge on the hot tub. After a day of meetings, often filled with passionate feelings about the day’s business, some time spent relaxing and sharing in the tension relieving warmth of the tub is exactly the next right thing to do. But it’s more than that. The sharing in the hot tub was deeper and more personal than anything in meetings. Better than phone calls.

Better than coffee. I think our 9th tool will be hot tub meetings. Besides, you know that old saying: Bring your message to your meeting and your mess to the hot tub!

Steve

I don’t actually recall any.

We had a nice OA meeting in the morning.  I lead. The topic turned out to be “how my OA  service feeds my recovery”. The Thursday Teasers came from this meeting. I have to say, there was a lot of laughter (but not as much as the next day…the topic then was Humor in OA).

I had lunch at the Reference Sub-committee to present the amendment I had submitted (which passed). I talked to lots of folks and for dinner, I connected with a pod from Region 9. I try, when possible, to have dinner with OAs I don’t know. Learn new stuff from new people. Or, learn the same old stuff from new people. It’s all good!

Finally, I have a new introduction. Instead of “Hi. I’m Steve, an abstinent compulsive overeater” I am now “Steve, an OA-ACE - Abstinent Compulsive Eater”.

Try it on for size yourself!

Cheers.

t’s 5:37am as I write this and I am hungry. ‘nuf said.

The PM session opens with our parliamentarian briefing us on our rights and responsibilities as delegates.

Next, on to the motions. The first, Motion A-a is to adopt the revised pamphlet: Treatment and Beyond

Three members stood and spoke in support. None spoke against, this motion passed.

Next up, Motion A changed how and who decides when to stop printing OA Conference Approved literature. This is literature which is still valid and current and useful but, because we sell very few pieces, printing new copies makes not financial sense. The motion really did clarify  the muddy procedure that had been in place.

I was concerned that these conference approved pieces of literature would disappear if we didn’t print them and as they are still approved, we should at least place them on the OA website for members if they want/need them. The amendment was debated. There were two pro and two con. I voted pro but I did not watch the hall to see how the vote went. The amendment passed and I learned later it passed by a large margin.

This motion, A, gave the power to discontinue printing to the Executive Committee of the BOT. This is, I think, 6 people. The second amendment aimed to restore to the full board (15 members), this power. The concern was that two few people would be making this decision. I agreed with the amendment. 2 members spoke pro and 2 con. In the end this amendment was defeated and the motion was passed, with just the one amendment.

Motion E, B, C and D each moved to create official policies in support of OAs Public Awareness Campaign. So, with one motion, we established a Media Policy confirming what we already do: Press releases, website, bill boards, etc. Another motion made clear that yes, it is ok to use Public Service Announcements (PSAs). Still another defined what we mean by Attraction, Promotion, Cooperation and Affiliation.

As the Delegate Co-chair of the Public Information committee, I stood to speak Pro to the first two of these. After it was clear that they would all pass, I just sat on my hands and let them all pass. There was never a con speaker.

Motion K was next and it proposed to combine the Professional Outreach and Public Information committees at WSBC. The case was made that these two committees largely have the same goals and often duplicate efforts. This motion had 3 pro and 3 con. I stood con as I believed and believe that while these committees should consult and share, there missions are different.

After some announcements, thus ended the afternoon business session. In the evening we had a forum on language in OA. I’ll write about that later.

Steve

You gotta walk before you can run, and that describes how WSBC Business Meetings kick off. These are OA business meetings and we open the meeting with the Serenity Prayer, in English and, not English. Members are selected to read the 12 Steps, 12 Traditions and 12 Concepts. We move into introductions. The Board of Trustees (BOT), World Service Office (WSO) staff, Region Chairs and the Conference Support Committee (service volunteers) are all introduced, to great applause from the floor.

Before we can sit to do business, Sandy Allen gives the report of the Credentials Committee, letting us know how many voting members are present for the meeting. From this, we know how many votes are needed for majority and for 2/3s votes. For the morning session we had,: Trustees: 15 plus Voting Delegates: 181 for a Total: 196.

Betsy, our professional parliamentarian (4th year), addressed the conference and explained some useful details about handling motions.

We moved on to the standard practice of adopting the Standing Rules. These are pretty specific rules about how we run our business meeting and are often different or in addition to the default rules in Roberts Rules of Order. If my memory serves, in the past, these were adopted quickly. This year, not so. A member rose to submit a motion to change paragraph 2e, which states:

2E) There will be no children under the age of twelve and no pets except animals assisting handicapped people in the business meetings, committee meetings or educational workshops.

I didn’t write down the changed language, but the change was, in effect:

2E) There will be no children under the age of twelve and no animals except service animals assisting people with disabilities in the business meetings, committee meetings or educational workshops.

This was a good an appropriate change I thought and it took a pretty long change to adopt. We had debate, suggested changes to language, questions. I probably got the final language wrong, but it’s close. We debated the phrases “disabled people” against “people with disabilities”. The case being made that people should always come before their disability. I don’t recall what we adopted so I wrote, above, what I hope we adopted.

We moved on to adopt the agenda, after which, we had what is called the “Parade of Motions”. All makers of motions and all makers of amendments to motions (if those amendments were in hand) were introduced. This included me as I had submitted an amendment (which passed later, btw).

Next, each member of the OA BOT and our managing director took a few minutes to answer questions about their reports (which were included in our binders). Some questions. One of note was about our lifting of the monitary limit on bequests. There was a concern that a large gift could make WSO a seat of perilous power. Bob F, a General Services Trustee and current Treasurer assured the conference that if by some stroke of good fortune this happened for OA, the funds would quickly be dispersed to accomplish our primary purpose. I believe this and it makes a lot of sense because he was also asked, earlier, about WSO prudent reserves. Our accountants recommend, for IRS reasons, not to exceed 4-6 months reserves. A large donation would blow that out of the water so clearly we can’t hold onto that sort of money for too long. Still, we can find a good use for it :-).

I did learn from the reports, that Region 2 has established a phone number for native spanish speakers.

Thus ended the morning session of the business meeting. I was off to make and consume my lunch.