In this episode, host Meg M introduces Susan, an OA member from Australia who has been in recovery since 1988 and has served as region chair and trustee. Together, they discuss the differences and benefits offered by face-to-face and online OA meetings. If you are new to OA or if you only attend one type of meeting, we invite you to listen to the extensive experience of these two OA members.

OA members will generally recommend that newcomers attending six different OA meetings to find a meeting that works for you. Go to oa.org/find-a-meeting to search our database of 5,800 meetings worldwide or start your own meeting by looking up "How to Start a New Meeting" on oa.org.

In this episode, host Meg M. talks with BJ, an abstinent food addict and bulimic who has most recently served as an OA trustee and liaison to Region Two. Together they discuss their personal perspectives and practices of Tradition Seven and Step Twelve.

BJ cites her favorite quote from the OA Twelve and Twelve book, "Change begins with honesty" (p. 30), and relates how honestly looking at her varied charitable contributions led her to focus her contributions on OA. "You just do all you can for the nonprofits that you believe in and this is the nonprofit that I believe in," she says.

When it comes to Step Twelve, BJ also made a decision to commit more broadly and deeply to OA service, including carrying the message in her community. "It's really about stepping into the world again, among the living," says Meg. Listen in as Meg and BJ share effective and practical ways to get the word out about OA.

In this episode of Inside OA, host Meg M. interviews Bob, an OA trustee who joined the Fellowship in 2003 and found his first sponsor at an intergroup meeting. Bob has an accounting background, so serving as treasurer is a natural fit, but as he says, "I don't always look for treasurer positions . . . . I like to have fun with service. I do different things that are out of my reach."

Speaking as board treasurer, Bob gives an inside view on what it takes to build and maintain our world service budget. And while the thought of serving as treasurer can be intimidating, Bob reminds us, "When you think about it, everyone has a checking account, everyone has a home budget that they deal with, so it's nothing more than that. . . . there's not really much of a difference." One important difference, however, is that OA treasurers help each other, and the same is true for all other service positions. "It's so wonderful to see that we support each other and we get better, and things get better because of that," says Bob.

If you are curious about stepping up to service, lessons learned by giving service, or if just want to understand better the level of consideration given to your Seventh Tradition contribution, then press the play button!

A vicious cycle of eating and exercising coupled with low self-esteem were her life before coming to OA. Now everything gets better when she works her program with the help of her Higher Power.

This podcast is a recording of a Saturday afternoon OA meeting held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information on Overeaters Anonymous, please go to www.oa.org or call the World Service Office at 505-891-2664.

Bariatric Surgery: Identify don't compare She had surgery after a ten-year relapse. She never stopped going to meetings but kept quiet about the surgery to avoid judgments. Surgery is not the easier softer way. In reaching out she helps herself and possibly someone else. 100 lb. weight loss After a certain point she stopped weighing: "If I'm going to die I can eat and die happy". Literature from a co-worker led her to finding hope at her first meeting. Willing to let go of the food she followed her sponsor's directions to call three people a day. Step work addresses the emotions underneath cravings. There is no one way to work the program.

This 5-minute inspiring collection of interviews depicts the journeys of several OA members from despair to recovery and serenity. Helpful for newcomers, returning members and long-timers alike. For more information on Overeaters Anonymous, please go to www.oa.org or call the World Service Office at 505-891-2664.

Listen to this compelling and moving story from OA member Matt S., who was the banquet keynote speaker at the 2015 World Service Business Conference held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 27 – May 2, 2015.

Health Issues: This speaker was able to see how handling her health issue and working her program had similarities. LGBTQ: Coming out in OA in the late 1970s and starting an LGBTQ meeting focused on the Steps and Traditions was the start of years in recovery.

English as Second Language - Literature in his language was so important to him when he came into program and learned about OA. Young Person – She found a healthy connection among her body, soul and spirit and has integrity with herself. She no longer has to be in control of everything.

Men in OA - "I have met the enemy and it is me." – A journey to surrender and acceptance and long-term abstinence as a man in OA. Non-traditional HP –In his journey through the Steps, he found conscience and a small quiet voice in his head led him to good orderly direction and the God of his understanding.

This series of 9 podcasts features speakers from the 2017 WSBC Forum - Amazing Recovery: Passport to Unity. There are two speakers in each podcast speaking about their experience, strength and hope; each speaker comes from a different background or uses a different approach to working the Twelve Steps. When we try to identify with those who are different from us, we expand our recovery. 

Relapse Survivor: This is my only recovery This speaker "gave her abstinence away" by working OA as a diet. Weighing 260 lbs. gave her the gift of desperation and willingness to use the steps and the tools. The gifts of 17 years of abstinence beyond a 140 lb. weight loss include no more homelessness, no more hospitalizations and no more bankruptcy. This is her only recovery–she no longer takes chances. By helping others in service she helps herself. 

Ninety Day Program: H.O.P.E. Hearing Other People's Experience This speaker grew up always feeling like she never measured up in the competition of life. Boarding school structure gave her temporary relief from overeating. After graduating she gained 60 lbs. OA Ninety Day meetings provide disciplines that work for her today.

This series of 9 podcasts features speakers from the 2017 WSBC Forum - Amazing Recovery: Passport to Unity. There are two speakers in each podcast speaking about their experience, strength and hope; each speaker comes from a different background or uses a different approach to working the Twelve Steps. When we try to identify with those who are different from us, we expand our recovery.

Bulimia: Our insides are the same
This speaker learned to vomit at age eleven. The disease progressed to periods of anorexia, compulsive exercise, purging with laxatives. Although her food abstinence looks different, the feelings underneath are similar. In recovery she monitors compulsive diet behaviours and negative thinking.

Virtual Meeting: Recovery in Brazil
The doctor told her she was going to die but she couldn't stop eating like an animal. At her first OA meeting she identified immediately, got abstinent and lost 100# in two years. Her OA program lives mostly in virtual meetings where she can care for her daughter at the same time.

This series of 9 podcasts features speakers from the 2017 WSBC Forum - Amazing Recovery: Passport to Unity. There are two speakers in each podcast speaking about their experience, strength and hope; each speaker comes from a different background or uses a different approach to working the Twelve Steps. When we try to identify with those who are different from us, we expand our recovery.

Long Term Recovery: What keeps a person coming back for decades?

A Vision for You: An approach focused on the Big Book of AA has been the road to recovery for this speaker.

This series of 9 podcasts features speakers from the 2017 WSBC Forum - Amazing Recovery: Passport to Unity. There are two speakers in each podcast speaking about their experience, strength and hope; each speaker comes from a different background or uses a different approach to working the Twelve Steps. When we try to identify with those who are different from us, we expand our recovery.

OA HOW: Weighing and measuring food and working a more disciplined and structured approach worked well for this person.

Binger: "Food was my friend." Compulsive eating was killing him. His doctor sent him to OA where he found a Higher Power and a solution.

Bob F. has been abstinent since January 1, 1986, and has served as Center Mic Monitor at World Service Business Conference since 2004. Listen as he and host Meg M. discuss the challenges and recovery rewards of giving service as Center Mic Monitor and at all levels of OA.

"Inside OA" focuses on the transformative power of service in action. In this episode, Laurie O. shares about jumping in as an appointed OA trustee, working as a Convention 2025 Committee member, and the many great reasons to attend the upcoming OA World Service Convention this August 21–23, 2025, in Orlando, Florida USA.

This podcast is the recorded script from the OA Foot Steps Intergroup Daily Meditation Meeting called "On Awakening."

It is a very simple format. It starts with a fifteen minute reading period, followed by the reading from Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 86-88, "On Awakening."

We then meditate for ten minutes, and then journal for fifteen minutes.

This meeting is entirely self-directed, and you can use this recording at any time of the day as part of a daily practice. 

A short list of titles from among OA's more than 100 literature items available at bookstore.oa.org.

How to find Overeaters Anonymous in your area or online.

Written in 1980by the late Reverend Rollo M. Boas, this favorable assessment of Overeaters Anonymous offers a timeless truth: compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors are indicators of an individual's starved and suffocated spirit. However, with the encouragement, support, and wisdom of OA's Fellowship, the still-suffering compulsive eater can learn to wean themselves off the debilitating crutch of compulsive food behaviors and find peace in nurturing their spirit. As the individual surrounds themselves with the love found in the OA program, compulsive eating is diminished and a new sense of wholeness and balance emerges.

Written in 1980, this assessment by Peter G. Lindner, MD, still holds true today. Obesity is pervasive and comes at a high cost to individuals and societies. This big picture is populated by the individual compulsive eater who is held in bondage to their unhealthy relationship with food by their own hopelessness and defiance. What OA offers that can solve the issue for compulsive eaters is "ego reduction," a means of letting go or surrendering their self will in exchange for guidance and care from a power greater than themselves.

Written in 1980, this assessment by William Hader, MD, still holds true today: compulsive overeating is a disease. It precedes other chronic disorders, and applying treatment principles to compulsive eating similar to those used for alcoholism can be very successful.

Do you care about the quality of your OA group? Let's "get grounded in groups" in this episode of Inside OA!

Take a few notes as host Meg M. interviews Bruce from Ottawa, Canada. Bruce is a former OA trustee who has been abstinent in OA since April 2005 and who has also served at the intergroup and region levels. Bruce discusses the importance of the group in personal recovery and the questions a group can reflect on to determine whether "its message to the compulsive overeater who still suffers" (Tradition Five) and to newcomers is truly one of hope, strength, and recovery through OA's Twelve Steps.

Dietitian H. Theresa Wright, MS, RD, LDN, explains how coming to understand problems with food as an addictive process improved the program and peer support based care she was already giving. Discovering Overeaters Anonymous, and learning about OA's Plan of Eating Tool, confirmed previous success in her practice and gave her a new and stronger way to provide care to her clients.

A compilation of five keynote speeches that our founder, Rozanne S., was asked to present to World Service Business Conference delegates in 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2001. Rozanne speaks with her characteristic humor and candid humility on such subjects as the origins of OA's Traditions, the importance of principles before personalities, and complicated issues of empathy and sacrifice. Feel inspired to rejuvenate your own program as she ends her addresses with an audibly passionate call for the delegates—and the Fellowship at large—to engage in greater acts of service on behalf of OA.

Rozanne opens up about her life and lengthy journey toward becoming the founder of the Fellowship of Overeaters Anonymous, chronicling how she's overseen the spread of the OA message around the world. Listen as Rozanne speaks with enthusiasm, humor, and joy on the inauspicious yet aspirational beginnings of OA, and gain new insights into how the powers of human connection and compromise shaped our organization from the very beginning.

"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 operation funds, plus an ample reserve, shall be OA's prudent financial principle;

OA volunteers have helped translate OA literature into more than 30 languages worldwide! But to make that happen, registered OA service bodies must first apply for licensing from the World Service Office. If you have any interest in OA's translation process, you won't want to miss this episode!

Join us as Emilia from Rome, Italy, who has ten years of recovery and is the trustee liaison to OA Region Nine, makes a second appearance on Inside OA to explain the translation process and offer valuable insights along with our host Meg M.

Together they discuss the benefits of giving service as a translator—not the least of which is getting to read OA literature while giving back to your OA fellows! Another valuable service is using OA's glossary template to create a custom translation glossary for your language.

"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. – Tradition Eleven

Ana's sponsor taught her early in her recovery to use the Tool of writing to work the Twelve Steps of OA and then send her writing in to Lifeline magazine. In this short recording, Ana reflects on Lifeline's role in her recovery and those of her sponsees. Listen and become inspired to send in your story!

• How do you apply the Traditions to your family and friends?
• How do you take the Traditions with you in all your daily life activities?

"Service responsibility is balanced by carefully defined service authority; therefore, duplication of efforts is avoided."– Concept Ten The principle of Tradition Ten is Neutrality and Concept Ten is Clarity.

· What approach did your sponsor take to working the Steps that was especially helpful to you?
· How has going through the Steps with a sponsee helped you?

"OA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve." – Tradition Nine "Able, trusted servants, together with sound and appropriate methods of choosing them, are indispensable for effective functioning at all service levels."–

In this episode, we meet Emilia from Rome, Italy, who has ten years of recovery and is the trustee liaison to OA Region Nine, which encompasses more than 40 countries and 40 languages in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Together with host Meg M., Emilia discusses what it's like to serve in a multi-cultural and multi-lingual region.

Emilia shares challenges and fears she has overcome on her journey to being elected as an OA board trustee as well as her successes at the world service level that have directly improve service opportunities for OA members in Region Nine.

Listen in as Emilia also talks about the connection and bonds that come with serving such a diverse region and how OA fellowship and service can provide us all with good lives filled with moments of celebration and happiness.

• Do you take time out from your job for meals and quiet time?
• Have you had on-the-job training?

Principles of Tradition Eight – Fellowship, and Concept Eight - Delegation "Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers." – Tradition Eight "The Board of Trustees has delegated to its Executive Committee the responsibility to administer the OA World Service Office."– Concept Eight