This report is in two parts. First, there is a formal summary, which tells you what happened in the WSBC - read this if you want to know a quick view of the outcomes. Then there is a longer bit of writing, which is more of the partial views of this Delegate’s activities during the convention - read this if you want a view of how it felt to be in New Mexico for this Green Dot delegate.

Derek Knight

OA South & East England Intergroup Rep 2006

8 May 2006

The following new business motions were dealt with at Conference:

Proposed Item A - Change of name of the "HIPM" Committee to "Professional Outreach" Committee - Passed.

Proposed Item B - World Service conventions to be co-hosted by WSO & Region. This was divided at conference into 2 motions - one about co-hosting, and the other about the financing of the event. In discussion, there were views expressed that the conventions are effectively done with Regional involvement, and the WSO paid staff would be required in any case. Counter views were expressed that the setting this up in this way would improve the liaison with the Region, and make for greater personal involvement. The first motion went to a counted vote, and was defeated 98 to 71. As the first part had been defeated, the second part was removed.

Proposed Item C - Move of Unity day to co-inside with the celebration of OA Birthday. Pros and cons were expressed, and the motion was defeated.

Proposed Item D - To add "exercise" as a new "tool of recovery". Before this was discussed, a meeting was held to seek a consensus term to be used in stead of "exercise" as had been suggested by some InterGroups. A form of words that was acceptable to the original proposer, and the suggesting InterGroups, and a substitute motion was written, taking out the word "exercise" and substituting the phrase "a plan of activity". The motion with this wording was discussed at Conference, and the motion was put to a paper ballot. The votes were 62 yes, 115 no and the motion failed.

Proposed Item 1 - To add a requirement that an intergroup had to register its bylaws with WSO within one year of initial registration. (As a change to the bylaws this required a two thirds majority to pass.) There were different expressed, and the concern of Regions with many different languages and countries were expressed, that new service bodies would not have time to get all this translation and so on. The motion went to a counted vote, and receives 111 for and 63 against - it required 121 votes to get the required majority, and so was defeated.

Proposed item 2 & 3 - these were in regard to the same time restriction to Regions and, when Item 1 was voted down, the proposer withdrew the motions.

Trustee elections - The following were elected:

Debbie Wilson - Region 3

Margaret Ann Brady - Region 6

Dominique Buffet - Region 9

Michael Buckley - General Service Trustee,

Hmmm - this is getting "real" now - I'm going to take part in the Group Conscience of OA as a whole - this is serious stuff!! OA is so important to me, and yet there are things happening that I can't control - Well - duh!!!! I hear things that frighten me - like talk about less funds coming into the programme, and meetings being poorly attended - but I also hear such recovery, and new meetings - and, as someone who sometime greets newcomers - I know there is a big demand for what we have. I know that a lot of prayer warriors are our there rooting for us - and I feel I represent not only the South & East England Intergroup - but in some small way these loops and on-line meetings too - it's all about how "Group Consciencee" really works isn't it? It is not that I am a blind delegate doing what "they" tell me without any responsibility - no I must listen to the views of my meetings, and use that and what I think is best for the whole of OA to bear in my discussions - quite a responsibility - but - and an important but - it's not my responsibility what the outcome is - that is up to God as expressed through the Group Conscience of us all. Wow. that's quite a thought, isn't it? We are fallible humans, and can get it wrong - but in the end it will be in accordance with The Plan - and the details of The Plan are on a need to know basis - and I don't need to know, and I would not be able to comprehend it - so I just do the thing right in front of me:) And when I do THAT it works out OK. When I try to second guess, and manipulate the outcome (What? Me? Manipulative???) that is when it all comes to a nasty end - and causes resentments - and resentments cause me to hide behind the food - and so the vicious cycle starts again.

It’s a 10 hour flight from Gatwick to Dallas, and as my flight leaves at 10.30, I have to get out on the road very early this Bank Holiday Monday. but I get to the airport OK, and I get 3 seats all to myself, so I was able to stretch out on them and sleep a bit, which was very cool:) Then the transfer at Dallas was OK - but SUCH a big airport!!! no time to really look at anything before I was boarding my next flight. This was very busy, and I sat next to a lady from Florida, who had been to London so we talked about our respective reasons for going to New Mexico:)

The transfers went OK, and then I got here to the hotel to check in, and was told that I had a message from an OA friend from Florida - so we met up for dinner with a new OA friend:) I didn't attend the workshops that were on - the first one was starting as we finished dinner, and I wanted to unpack and sort my room - but there was an OA meeting I could have gone to later - but in the end, with the 7 hour time difference my body is screaming out for sleep - so I have an "early" night.

I was awake at 4am and phoned home, as it was 11 am there!!! I did some e-mails and stuff, then down to breakfast and to the OA meeting that started at 7 - and lead by someone I'd never met f2f, or even spoken to in IM or on the phone - but I'd "spoken" to him many times over the last couple of years by e-mail - it was good to see him and hear him share and read one of my favourite passages from the BB:

Like the step 9 promises this promise comes with an "if" - IF we keep in a fit spiritual condition - and many shares after that told of their ESH on that topic - *my* share, however, was a totally self centred (but brief!) one - I just needed to share to be there, so thhat is about all I did!! Then I took myself off for a short walk, and then went and talked with the people on the help desk about my "mentor" - I have his name, but he hasn’t arrived yet. Then I went into the Webmasters meeting - discussing web sites and mentioning loops and the recovery found there, and in on-line meetings. A delegate from Israel was there and neither of us had eaten lunch, so we ate together - a fellow Region 9 person!

After that I went on to sit in on the Board of Trustees meeting for a while, and when they had a break, I went back to my room for an "afternoon" nap (albeit that my body clock tells me it’s almost midnight). Then on to dinner with some people from Region 9 - with 8 people round the table we had 5 different nationalities, and 5 different native languages - that really showed how diverse our region is!!

Following this there is the Conference Orientation meeting - specially designed for us "green dot" newbies to learn about how the business meetings work, and how we need to act and so on. This was really good, with lots of helpful hints about the procedures and so on - and we met a professional "parliamentarian" - I never even knew that this existed as a job!

Another early morning start, I went down to breakfast, and joined a big table of fellow delegates - and was sitting opposite an American who understood football!!! (the real game, not American Football!!!!). Then on to an OA meeting at 7, and a "Regional forum" at 8 - we were split into tables, and after some short talks by some of the trustees we got to talk about and write on different topics per table - on our table we talked about using the internet and e-mail and about how WSBC works - we brought up the question of translations into different languages - in our region we have 30 different languages - but to come to take part in the working of OA above IG level you need to talk English. And on the web stuff, there were lots of thoughts on how to use e-mail more effectively and things on web pages. Then I got my 2 minutes at the microphone to present our one hour’s thoughts to the rest of the delegates!!

Somewhere in there it was lunch break too, and I really wanted to get out and see the sky (the meeting rooms are all enclosed!!) so I did that and walked out to the old town area, and wondered round the shops, and got a couple of presents for the family:)

We finished the meeting just in time for a get together with our Regional people and dinner due to start at 5 - but I ducked out of that because I was having trouble keeping awake:( So I slept - just as well I set the alarm, or I'd have missed the next meeting at 7.15 - and then I was done - totally washed out and just needing some quiet time.

Early breakfast with my OA buddies again, and then my plan was to go to listen to the reference committee briefing at 7 - but HP had other plans, apparently, and I was still talking with someone about loops and internet stuff when it started. So I sat in the sun for 10 minutes, and then went into the OA meeting at 7.30 instead - and the topic was from the For Today reading, and the first share was about Willingness and Ability not being the same - this struck a cord with me and my panic attack yesterday, so I shared on that for me and my recovery. But during the day 3 people came up to me and thanked me for sharing what I did - seems I'm not terminally unique after all!

Then into the first of the business meetings at 8.30 - we sit at tables for our region, and the place is moved for each session - for the first session Region 9 was right at the front! We had introductions and reports were presented from the trustees and committees, and we had an opportunity to ask questions on them. Then the people standing for new trustees talked, and were grilled by the delegates. These are some really dedicated people up there - and they work so hard too. Then we started with the new business motions - we will look at 5 of them altogether in conference.

The first motion was to change the name of the HIPM committee to "Professional Outreach" - which passed. Then a motion to have world Service Conventions co-hosted by WSO & a Region. This started off as one motion, but was split into 2, one dealing with the co-hosting, and the 2nd with the financials.

The first motion was discussed and the main area of contention was that the "pro" people thought that Regions were not involved enough, and the "cons" thought they were. In the end the first motion was defeated, and one would have thought that the second would then fail because it was linked - but someone objected to it being withdrawwn, and we had maybe 20 minutes of discussion before it was disposed of!

Then we looked at a motion to move Unity Day from the 3rd weekend in Feb to the OA birthday in January. The original motion as presented by the Intergroup needed to be re-drafted, and the by-laws committee trustee had done that and we voted to discuss the substitute motion. There was lots of discussion on this, and it was asked why there was Unity day in February anyway - and it turned out that it just was!!! There was some opposition from particularly Canadian groups who just don’t go out in January - not even to have intergroup meetings! and others who have planned events into the future for Unity day. There was an amendment to the motion agreed to take the reference to Pacific time out (so that it would be celebrated at 11.30am local time), and this was accepted, but in the end it didn't convince conference and it was voted out.

That was the end of the business session, but for the next motion to be discussed - to consider exercise as a ninth tool - there were a number of suggested changes in the offing - including one from me for our Intergroup. So a meeting was called of the reference committee (to which all delegates were invited) to try to reach a consensus which would be acceptable to the proposer, and to the InterGroups that wanted it changed.

Our intergroup has wanted it changed to "moderate physical activity". Other reps had similar thoughts, and we came up with a list of 3 possible alternatives We talked for over an hour I guess, and came up with a 4th form of words that most could live with - "a plan of physical exercise". This will be presented as a substitute meeting tomorrow.

Woke at 4 o’clock as seems to be normal for me here and onto breakfast again with a wonderful table-full of fellow overeaters from various parts of the world. Then on to the 7.15 OA meeting - there was a guest there, who was doing some sort of documentary about losing weight. Many of the shares were directed in that way I think - more people sharing how there were, what happened, and what it is like now.

Then conference re-started at 8:30 with the serenity prayer. The first item was elections of Regional Trustees and General Service Trustee were asked to stand and face the body, before we voted.

Following this we went back to the business motions with the one about adding a ninth tool, which was now to be called a ‘plan of physical activity’. There was a lot of debate and questions, I guess the discussion can be summed up as:

Pro - exercise is a good thing, and should be added as a tool.

Con - Exercise is indeed a good thing, but it’s not a tool central to abstaining from Compulsive Overeating.

In the end we had a paper ballot, and voted 63 for, 115 against.

Then the first bylaw amendment was discussed which said that Intergroups had to register their bylaws with GSO within one year of first registration. I think most people - especially from the US states, had no idea that anyone would object to this - but those of us representing regions with variety of languages and cultures did see a problem in the future. The history here is that it was really directed to those intergroups who won’t update their by-laws - but the application will be for new intergroups who just won’t have the time to do it in a year. I had my say on the worries that we in Region 9 had on this, and our joint arguments swayed the assembly I guess, as it failed to get the required two thirds majority that it needed to pass. The next 2 items were the same time frame but for Regions and National Service boards, so the proposer withdrew them.

The next session was the Trustees answering questions form the "ask-it basket". I have to admit to not taking full notes - but here are some that I do remember:

A person in a meeting is always gives advice instead of sharing their own ESH. It made the other members upset, how could they stop it? It was suggested that they try to talk to them or their sponsor, reiterate the cross talk proviso in the meeting format. Also to use the suggested format if that is not used, as this does say no cross talk allowed.

A delegate wondered why copies of the agenda were not available to visitors. They are available on the website - it would be costly to replicate the delegate binder for visitors as well. (The delegate binder we get at the start of conference is 286 pages long!)

A delegate wanted to know how to share at home about their experience at WSBC, thinking that more people would want to come. It was suggested that we share our exuberance in reports to region, intergroups, meetings and our fellows.

Some members change "God" to "HP" or other acronyms when reading the literature - is this OK? The trustee reminded that it violates OA Policy and group conscience.

There is a big book available with blank pages in it on the right. It is not AA (or OA) approved literature and not proper to be on a meeting literature table, as this would implied endorsement of an outside enterprise.

Someone wanted to know how to approach a long term member in an unhealthy body size. The trustee said that all members have the freedom to choose. Hard to help when help is not requested. But we can also tell our friends, in a kind way, when we notice them putting on weight. It may be the most loving thing we can do.

Travel expenses are higher for some delegates in far reaching intergroups and regions to attend WSBC. Why not move it? The answer was that it is very cost effective to have this meeting here, near the WS Office for utilisation of staff and materials necessary for the conference. It was pointed out that there is a delegate support fund, which 9 intergroups took advantage of this year.

A member said that they meet at a hospital which does not want a donation. Was it necessary to give them a donation in this case? The trustee reminded us that we are self supporting and that paying for meeting space was appropriate.

The ‘Hearing is Believing" promotional tape is void of a young person’s voice. WSO will work on finding a young candidate to remedy that.

Some meetings/intergroups were doing 12 step/big book studies and wondered if they could advertise. These functions can be promoted, as long as they are sponsored by intergroup or group, it is not a problem. Names are not permitted on promotional flyers.

Why was there so few candidates for Trustees and how is the BOT addressing this. The Trustee had no idea why and expressed maybe time, travel, work or other things might be factors. We were challenged to look into our own hearts to see what we could do to promote this.

How can OA get more multicultural – need in the afro American areas. The trustee reminded us that a new pamphlet is under development and that this is an area we want to be more visible, to the black community.

A HOW meeting was endorsing the "Kay Shepherd" food plan, and saying if you weren’t on it, you couldn’t get a sponsor. The trustee reminded us that our Policy manual on page 63 it clearly states that no member can be prevented from sharing because of a food plan. Policy 1993B states that no unapproved literature can be on display (i.e. the Kay Shepherd food plan). Sponsor also violates the responsibility pledge that when another person reaches their hand, to be available.

A meeting closes with the "Lord’s Prayer". It is not a suggested closing prayer, but a group conscience might allow it. Ask for a group conscience if it bothers you.

An Intergroup struggles on how to list 90 day meetings, which are very structured and may be a problem for newcomers. Each Group is autonomous - Policy 1988b states definition for abstinence is to refrain from compulsive overeating. An Intergroup may or may not list the meeting. (NOTE - I gather a "ninety day meeting" is one where you have to be 90 days abstinent before you can share)

A social night sponsored by another meeting was interfering with another group’s monthly speaker meeting - what could be done? Tradition 4 states each group is autonomous and can do what they like - but it may help to go talk to them.

A group sponsored a 30 second commercial in a movie theatre, costs about $3,000 how do they track the return? Trustee suggested a special telephone number/web address - but it’s often not easy to track, and it may take a long time for someone to use information like that.

there were more of these, but that’s all I had written down.

In the evening, I went to a Men’s meeting - the first I’ve ever been to!! - and then on out to dinner with some of thhe guys from the meeting. And while waiting for our cab back (which got lost!) I witnessed a big thunderstorm - about 5 minutes of heavy rain, which was only their second rain this year apparently!! Very impressive site!!!

Breakfast with the guys again - this is getting to be more and more like family:) Then 7.15 meeting, then Conference last session at 8.30. The Saturday session is to allow for catch up on business motions and by-law amendments, but as we finished all of them, we just had the committee and workshop reports. And then us green-dot newbies were called to the front, and we were told that we had graduated, and could remove our green dots!! Quite a moving occasion:))

When this was finished, and as there was no more "real" business, the chair allowed 2 minutes pitches from the floor for a while - most of us shared about the wonderful fellowship we had here, and how wonderful the opportunity to share here was:)

So we finished early, and the trustees went off for their meeting, and I got to go in the Jacuzzi for the first time, and to sit quietly in the sun:) We had just one more committee meeting at 3.30 to agree our next steps, and then we were "let off" at 4.30.

In the evening there was a dinner/dance, and we had been invited to come along in a costume relevant to our country/region. I had thought and thought about this without coming up with anything, until I was in my local Sainsbury’s and saw all their World Cup merchandise - so I went dressed as an England football supporter - with red and white wig, England tee-shirt and flag:) My outfit was a hit - although I did have to explain several times that it was an England flag - no, that isn’t the same as a Union Jack! A couple of other delegates were dressed up - there was Minnie Mouse from Florida, and someone else as a fisherman - and someone did suggest that they had come dressed as a middle manager - but I think it was just their suit. But most were in their normal attire. We had presentations to the outgoing trustees, and introductions for new board members, and then a really funny entertainment, with 6 people doing their party pieces - really good and lots of recovery focus. Then we had dancing - and something I’ve noticed at OA gigs - as soon as the music starts, most people get up and dance! Oh and the other thing that happens, is that the men are "asked" to go on stage and dance to YMCA!

This was due to go on till 1am - but at 10 there was an OA meeting - so I went to that - and it was full again.

Well I've shared some about what's been happening here in WSBC , and some of the things that have happened. And the way this seems to work is that if I turn up to do service, I get back more in recovery than I could even imagine! Friday, when I went to the men's meeting - the first one I've ever been to!! - and then on to have dinner with some other guys - 8 of us in all - I fitted in. I wasn’t the same, but I fitted in.

This week I've met some amazing people with so much physical, emotional and spiritual recovery. It makes me humble and hopeful in equal parts - these people with so much growth, and I see I have so much recovery still to do. I heard someone share in one of the OA meetings that doing the "business" stuff was great - but that THIS was what he would take back - the fellowship and the recovery and the gut level sharing.

I feel I've grown so much this past week - and that I do have a ways to go yet - and that I can do it one day at a time - if I work at doing the one thing in front of me. I saw in action that two people can have totally opposed views in the debating floor, then show love and respect to each other in sharing. I've tried to grow by not taking first impressions as real. You know - as a bunch of people who couldn't manage their food, we clean up pretty good:) Oh! and yes I've heard yet again that I just need to say "thank you"

I have written this report for Intergroup, I'll work on the sub-committee work during the year, and I’ll try to explain what happened to those that want to know. And I'll certainly hope I get to come again next year. But what I take back with me is much more than these tangibles. It's the love of my Higher Power as seen in my family of choice here in OA. And that is priceless.