Recovery
Brandywine Intergroup
November-December 2018 Newsletter

The Recovery newsletter is bi-monthly.
The Blast sends out a monthly report and any time-sensitive alerts.

The Steps, Traditions, and Concepts of OA

Step Eleven - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. The principle is Spiritual Awareness.

Tradition Eleven - Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television and other public media of communication. Principle is Anonymity

Concept Eleven - Trustee administration of the World Service Office should always be assisted by the best standing committees, executives, staffs and consultants. Principle – Humility

Step Twelve Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive overeaters and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The principle is Service.

Tradition Twelve - Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities. Principle is Spirituality

Concept Twelve - The spiritual foundation for OA service ensures that: (a) No OA committee or service body shall ever become the seat of perilous wealth or power; (b) Sufficient operating funds, plus an ample reserve, shall be OA’s prudent financial principle; (c) No OA member shall ever be placed in a position of unqualified authority; (d) All important decisions shall be reached by discussion, vote and, whenever possible, by substantial unanimity; (e) No service action shall ever be personally punitive or an incitement to public controversy; and (f) No OA service committee or service board shall ever perform any acts of government, and each shall always remain democratic in thought and action.
Principles- Guidelines
A-Selflessness
B- Realism
C-Representation
D-Dialogue
E-Compassion
F-Respect

Brandywine Intergroup Website: www.brandywineintergroup.org

For submissions to Recovery, send by the 20th of the month prior if possible: brandywineintergroup@gmail.com
Please share your news, experience, strength, and hope.

From the Editor

This newsletter is for you, the members of our local BIG meetings, and you make it yours by sending in your own stories, thoughts, prayers, poems, favored readings that express your experience, strength, and hope. You may include your first name and last name initial, or leave anonymous.

Send to BrandywineIntergroup@gmail.com and I will get them in as soon as possible.

Information regarding "The BLAST"

"The BLAST" news update of the Brandywine Intergroup is sent out once a month. It is meant to precede the monthly Intergroup meeting which is held on the 2nd Saturday of the month. Submissions forThe BLAST must be received no later than one week BEFORE the Intergroup meeting.
Please send all submissions to:theblastfrombrandywine@gmail.com

Chair's Corner

Consider subscribing to our OA magazine Lifeline; it is filled with wonderful stories of recovery. One of our area members had a story published in a recent edition. You can submit your story, too.
http://www.oalifeline.org

OFFICERS

Co-Chairs: Cathe S and Marilyn
Ex Officio: Mary Frances

Vice-Chair: Louisa

Treasurer: Laura W

Corresponding Secretary: Linda R

Recording Secretary: Irene

October Minutes

Brandywine Intergroup Meeting – 2nd Saturday,10am-11:30am
Paoli, PA 19301
255 West Lancaster Avenue Board Room 206
Paoli Hospital Board Room

A speaker meeting follows the intergroup meeting from 11:45 am to 1:00 pm. All are welcome! (Bring a brown bag lunch.)

Do you or does your meeting have a voice? If no one from your group attends Intergroup meetings, you have no OA voice outside of your group. All are welcome to attend to check it out. Please consider being a representative for your group if no one is currently in that role.

Thank You!

The Board would like to thank the following meetings which made financial contributions in the past few months:

Sunday - Malvern
Monday - King of Prussia
Monday - Media
Tuesday - West Chester
Wednesday - Devon
Saturday - BIG Speaker
Saturday - Downingtown

Note on donations: Donations are down at both our local intergroup and the national levels.
Automatic Recurring Contribution (ARC) is available for our World Service Office here.

Please give to keep our Fellowship thriving.

(https://www.oa.org/files/pdf/seventhtradition.pdf)

UPCOMING EVENTS

Region 7 Convention, Nov. 2-4 (flyer)

Speaker's Bureau

Speakers sharing their experience, strength, and hope are a great benefit to members. If you would like to obtain a speaker list for your regular OA meeting, please contact Carolyn M; she can be reached at 267-255-2639 (call-text) or carolynmcgill@comcast.net.

Important Meeting Notices

NOTE: THE BRANDYWINE INTERGROUP MONTHLY MEETING WILL NOW BE ON THE 2ND SATURDAY OF THE MONTH, SAME TIME AND LOCATION.

A Vision for You meeting on Sundays!

A Vision for You, Big Book meeting.
Sunday at 6:30, Grove Methodist Church in West Chester. Group Contact: Louisa ‭215-796-4323‬

When I make time for daily reflection (Step Eleven), I experience that Higher Power as a loving voice that guides me to do the next right thing. I have “tapped an unsuspected inner resource” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., pp. 567-568), which I now identify with my own conception of a power greater than myself. (Overeaters Anonymous, Third Edition)

Step Twelve also reminds me I need to practice what I preach.
(Overeaters Anonymous, Third Edition)

You don't have to understand the Steps to work them.

You work the Steps to understand them.

What works for me is to get out of my head and into action, working the Steps and using those wonderful tools: a plan of eating, meetings, telephone, literature, sponsorship, writing, and service. I can abstain, no matter what. Thank you, OA!
(Voices of Recovery, Dec. 25th)

TWELVE STEPS TO A BETTER HOLIDAY SEASON
( November 2007 edition of Lifeline)

We admitted the holiday season has a deeper meaning than devouring food.
We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could help us see and celebrate the true meaning of the season.
We came to believe our Higher Power could help us appreciate the joyfulness of the season as we understand it
We made a searching and thorough examination of our relationship with food during the holidays and other things we enjoy about the season.
We admitted to our Higher Power the exact nature of our food habits during holiday seasons past
We became entirely ready to allow our Higher Power to remove our attachment to food as a necessity of the holidays
We humbly asked Him to remove our desire to partake of holiday treats
We made a list of all persons whose presence makes the holiday season joyful for us and with whom we would like to share our joy
We made plans to spend time with those people whenever possible, except when to do so would remove us from our primary purpose of abstinence.
We continued to enjoy the company of friends and family and other nonfood aspects of the season.
We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our appreciation of the season, praying for knowledge of its meaning and the joy we feel at this time.
Having realized that sharing the joy of this season with others far outlasts the fleeting pleasure of food, we gave ourselves the gift of abstinence throughout the holidays and gave others the gift of our full attention and appreciation.

Tools of the OA:

Plan of eating, Sponsorship, Meetings, Telephone, Writing, Literature, Action Plan, Anonymity, Service

🦉🦉🦉 🦉 🦉

Members sharing Experience, Strength, and Hope

Food is not the Whole Problem, but the Hole Problem

I learned from working the program that food is but a small part of the problem with compulsive overeating and food addiction. Once I learned about the foods I reliably abused, I could eliminate them; then I learned that the urge to binge was not about hunger, but more about years of stifling my emotions. Not facing the emotional issues that troubled me was the true source of my binges which I began to address working the Twelve Steps. In the process, I remember a woman dear to my family who spent most of her life overweight, and very self-conscious about it in a time when everyone else in our wider family was very-thin-to-average in weight. She was well-loved for being kind, and her other virtues. Then in late middle-age she became a thin person, and, in the process, became an awful bore. She no longer had any conversation that wasn’t about how thin she was, or how her clothes were too big, or how her sisters were fatter now than she was after decades of the opposite. It was sad, but showed that fat or thin, if your real problem is the hole in the soul of poor self-confidence and self-esteem, then weight changes won’t make that magically go away.

Someone told me that there are no good binge stories, and it's true. Every binge has an unhappy ending. No binge ever lived up to its promise. To binge is to submit to self-will run riot. For me, a binge is to give in to all that's sad and sick in my soul. There is no good binge. (Anon)

The Winter Solstice is the time of ending and beginning, a powerful time -- a time to contemplate your immortality. A time to forgive, to be forgiven, and to make a fresh start. A time to awaken. ~ Frederick Lenz

2018 Phone Marathons

On many holidays during the year, The World Service Office of OA conducts phone marathons for those who need help during these times. The marathons run from 8:00 am - midnight eastern time.
Dial-in information here:

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/11390c72-e5d2-488c-a77b-7c58dbcfd225

Men's Group Tele-Meeting

Men in OA will want to get acquainted with this special men's Tuesday evening telephone meeting.

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/b0e3232c-7316-4bf9-8e25-5b081f6d3d55

Speaker's Bureau

If you are willing to be a speaker for regular OA meetings (or for an OA event), please contact Carolyn M. to give her your information. She can be reached at 267-255-2639 (call or text) or carolynmcgill@comcast.net. Each meeting has been provided with a current list of available speakers. Please do not call Carolyn to find a speaker.

The new “Amazing Recovery: Passport to Unity” Workshop is now posted on online and is available for free download.

Find it online at What’s New (oa.org/whats-new), at oa.org/documents; “Workshops and Skits,” or under Groups/Service Bodies on the Workshop Formats page under Resources. There are six files to download

Use this “Amazing Recovery: Passport to Unity” Workshop, created by the Region Chairs Committee for the 2017 WSBC Forum, to promote unity in your OA community. Inspired by OA’s 2017 Strategic Plan goal to Grow Unity Worldwide, this interactive workshop asks participants to hear and share about each other’s approaches to the OA program and to “identify the joy of recovery that unites us.” The presentation includes the “Amazing Recovery: Passport to Unity Workshop,” a slide presentation, a “passport” to guide participants through the experience (available as a Word document and PDF), and passport “stickers.”

The revised and redesigned New Prospect Card is now available in the OA bookstore.

Here is the direct link: http://bookstore.oa.org/pc_product_detail.asp?key=0B62ED3971ED4216B1DE486D99729F58

Use the New Prospect Card to Invite Potential Members to OA!
Reach out with OA’s redesigned New Prospect Card. The business-size card has OA’s web address, includes space for local meeting information, and carries the message: “OA. It Works!” Look for the New Prospect Card (#450K), available in packs of 30, in the OA bookstore.

Please share the news of this resource with members, groups, and service bodies.
Please share or reprint this announcement in your group and service body newsletters. Thank you.

Thank you,
DeDe DeMoss
Publications Manager
Overeaters Anonymous, Inc.
PO Box 44020
Rio Rancho, NM 87174-4020
Tel: (505) 891-2664 • Fax: (505) 891-4320
www.oa.org

http://www.oalifeline.org
Consider subscribing to Lifeline.
Many wonderful stories sharing experience, strength, and hope.

Free!

The new Twelve Step Within: Fun and Fellowship resource is now posted online and is available for free download.

Find it online at What’s New (oa.org/whats-new), at oa.org/documents, “Twelfth Step Within”; or on the Twelfth Step Within page in the Groups/ServiceBodies section on oa.org, under Resources,.

Here is the direct link: https://oa.org/files/pdf/Fun-and-Fellowship.pdf

New! Twelve Step Within: Fun and Fellowship
What does it mean to live happy, joyous, and free? Enhance your recovery and encourage membership retention by using this Fun and Fellowship download, created by the Twelve Step Within Committee.

BRAND NEW EDITION!

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous, Second Edition

Please note: On March 17th, at the regular monthly meeting of the Brandywine InterGroup announced the new version of OA's "12 Steps & 12 Traditions" book is now available, The BIG purchased one copy for each of our meetings. The list price of the book is $15.00; but, if we purchase them in bulk the reduced cost is $13.50. If anyone or any group would like additional copies, please contact Literature Chair, Irene at irene.cabrelli@gmail.com or by phone at 610-639-5127.

"A Step Ahead"

Latest World Service Newsletter here
Recent newsletters here .

Looking for a way to do service and help your program??

Go to a Small but Strong meeting!!

Monday:
King of Prussia 7:00am
King of Prussia Church of Christ
590 W. Valley Forge Rd.

Monday:
Radnor 10:00am
Bolingbroke Mansion
424 King of Prussia Rd.

Friday:
North Coventry 7:00pm
Coventry Church of the Brethren
946 Keen Rd.

***See Meeting List for more information***

Philadelphia Intergroup Newsletter Awake

OA Preamble

Overeaters Anonymous is a Fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength, and hope, are recovering from compulsive overeating.
We welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively. There are no dues or fees for members; we are self-supporting through our own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations. OA is not affiliated with any public or private organization, political movement, ideology, or religious doctrine; we take no position on outside issues.
Our primary purpose is to abstain from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors and to carry the message of recovery through the Twelve Steps of OA to those who still suffer.

Service

Any form of service — no matter how small — that helps reach a fellow sufferer adds to the quality of our own recovery. The Tools of Recovery

This is the Recovery newsletter of the Brandywine Intergroup (BIG) of Overeaters Anonymous. Use of any content specific to BIG is prohibited without permission.

This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences
Brandywine Intergroup of Overeaters Anonymous · PO Box 605 · Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-0605 · USA

Recovery Brandywine Intergroup November-December 2018 Newsletter