‘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)