Media Category: Sponsorship

What is the purpose of the First Twelve Days in OA?

• To help newcomers, returning OA members, and other members learn about the OA Twelve Step recovery program by using this personal, short-term introduction to Overeaters Anonymous.
• To help sponsees learn how the OA recovery program might help them to stop hurting themselves with food.
• To help members who may be ready to sponsor but are reluctant to do so. This is an opportunity for a member to help a newcomer in a very structured way and to experience what it might be like to be a regular sponsor.

This program takes place during twelve sessions, which may or may not occur in twelve consecutive days. For instance, you may want to schedule calls on weekdays only. You also may want to look ahead at the sessions, and if you are uncertain about how to discuss any of the topics with the sponsee, you may want to ask your sponsor or another OA member for ideas.

During your calls, share the experience, strength, and hope you have because of the solution offered by working the Twelve Steps of OA. Without dominating the conversation and without judging the sponsee, share just enough to draw them out, answer their questions, and encourage their unique process of discovery and recovery.

Books that are not OA-approved, as well as diets and other programs, are outside issues.

Remember, it is not your responsibility to force someone to be abstinent (nor is it possible). The journey of the sponsee is between that person and their Higher Power. A sponsor is there for support.

Newcomers’ First Twelve Days: Instructions

The readings for this program are from the pamphlet Where Do I Start? Everything a Newcomer Needs to Know (#705 pamphlet or web page at oa.org/start). Both the sponsor and the sponsee should have a copy of this pamphlet. Page numbers in the table below refer to the #705 pamphlet.

Day	Subject and Reading for Sponsee	Discussion Question(s)
1	Fifteen Questions Read “Dear Newcomer” through “You Are Not Alone,” on pages 1–3.	Ask and Discuss: Review the Fifteen Questions on pages 1–2. Ask your sponsee to circle the questions they relate to. Discuss their responses. Stress to your sponsee the importance of working the Steps as a vital part of a lasting recovery.
2	Requirements Read “What are the requirements for OA membership?” on page 23. Next, read pages 24–25, starting with “Who runs OA?” through “What are the Twelve Traditions?”	Ask and Discuss: What led your sponsee to OA? What does/do “eating compulsively” and/or “compulsive food behaviors” mean to the sponsee? Does your sponsee have a desire to stop? Discuss. Listen to your sponsee’s concerns about OA. Discuss.
3	Symptoms Read “Many Symptoms, One Solution” on pages 4–5, then “Welcome Home” on pages 28–30.	Ask and Discuss: Ask your sponsee to write about symptoms they have experienced. How early did these symptoms start? Discuss.
4	Abstinence Read “Abstinence—Our Primary Purpose,”1, 2 “The Tools of Recovery,” and “A Plan of Eating” on page 5.	Ask and Discuss: Ask your sponsee to write about which compulsive eating or compulsive food behaviors concern them the most. Discuss.
5	Meetings Read “Meetings” on page 6, then “How much does OA membership cost?” and “How does OA support itself?” on pages 23–24.	Ask and Discuss: Suggest that your sponsee make a plan to attend six meetings. This can include face-to-face, phone, or online meetings.
6	OA Fellowship Read “Can I stop eating compulsively on my own just through reading OA literature?” on pages 22–23.	Ask and Discuss: Ask your sponsee to write about their feelings concerning receiving help from other members in OA. Discuss. Suggest that they start contacting members listed on the Where Do I Start? pamphlet provided or their meeting’s contact list.
7	Action Plan and Other Tools Read “Telephone,” “Writing,” “Literature,” and “Action Plan” on page 6.	Ask and Discuss: Help your sponsee draft an action plan for the next several days that will help support their recovery. Discuss.
8	Draft a Food Plan Read “Disclaimer” on pages 30–31 and “Please Note” on pages 12–13, then pages 7–18, starting with “Further Information: A Plan of Eating” through “Structure and Sanity.”	Ask and Discuss: Suggest to your sponsee that, together, you draft an initial food plan that will support them. Discuss, and be sure to tell your sponsee that no sponsor is acting in the capacity of a health care professional.
9	Anonymity Read “Anonymity” on pages 6–7, then “Why does OA place such emphasis upon ‘anonymity’?” on page 26.	Ask and Discuss: Discuss the concept of “anonymity.” Discuss the meaning of “humility.”
10	Are You Convinced? Read “What is compulsive eating?” through “Can’t a compulsive overeater just use willpower to stop excessive eating?” on pages 19–21.	Ask and Discuss: Now that your sponsee has been introduced to the OA program and has taken some actions, does your sponsee now consider themself to be a compulsive eater? Ask them to write their thoughts and feelings on this subject. Discuss.
11	Higher Power Read “What is meant by ‘a Power greater than ourselves’?” through “Is OA a religious society?” on pages 21–22. Then, read “Structure and Sanity” on page 18.	Ask and Discuss: Ask your sponsee to write about their understanding of a Higher Power. If they struggle with the concept of a Higher Power, are they open to the idea that a Higher Power can simply be the OA meeting group? Has their food history been characterized by their own willpower going out of control? Might the concept of connecting with a Power greater than oneself help their recovery? Discuss.
12	What’s Next? Read “Service” on page 7, then “Sponsorship” on page 5. Lastly, read “Conclusion” on pages 18–19.	Ask and Discuss: Ask your sponsee to write about their experience of their first twelve days in OA and discuss. Review their action plan for how they will move forward.3

² In the context of OA members’ individual abstinences, “Our Primary Purpose” references the primary purpose of each OA member, which is found in the OA Preamble: “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.” In contrast, Tradition Five is about an OA group’s primary purpose and states: “Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the compulsive overeater who still suffers.”

³ Upon the conclusion of the twelfth session, you will want to offer either to continue as the individual’s regular sponsor or assist this person in finding such a sponsor.

Remember

In Overeaters Anonymous, there is hope and help. Together we can recover! If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please email info@oa.org.

Find and download Temporary Sponsors: Newcomers’ First Twelve Days in the Document Library at oa.org.

OA Promise

I put my hand in yours . . . and together we can do what we could never do alone! No longer is there a sense of hopelessness, no longer must we each depend upon our own unsteady willpower. We are all together now, reaching out our hands for power and strength greater than ours, and as we join hands, we find love and understanding beyond our wildest dreams.

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© 2020 Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. Rev. 12/2024. All rights reserved.

Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. World Service Office
Location: 6075 Zenith Court NE, Rio Rancho, NM 87144, USA
Mailing address: PO Box 44727, Rio Rancho, NM 87174-4727, USA
Telephone: +1 505-891-2664

As we work the Overeaters Anonymous Twelve Step program of recovery from compulsive eating, we have a number of Tools to assist us. We use these Tools—a plan of eating, sponsorship, meetings, telephone, writing, literature, action plan, anonymity, and service—on a regular basis, to help us achieve and maintain abstinence and recovery from our disease.

A Plan of Eating

As a Tool, a plan of eating helps us abstain from compulsive eating, guides us in our dietary decisions, and defines what, when, how, where, and why we eat. (See the pamphlet A New Plan of Eating for more information.) This Tool helps us deal with the physical aspects of our disease and achieve physical recovery.

Sponsorship

We ask a sponsor to help us through all three levels of our program of recovery: physical, emotional, and spiritual. Find a sponsor who has what you want and ask that person how they are achieving it.

Meetings

Meetings give us an opportunity to identify our common problem, confirm our common solution, and share the gifts we receive through this Twelve Step program. In addition to face-to-face meetings, OA offers telephone and other types of virtual meetings that are useful in breaking through the deadly isolation caused by distance, illness, or physical challenges.

Telephone

Many members call, text, or email their sponsors and other OA members daily. Telephone or electronic contact also provides an immediate outlet for those hard-to-handle highs and lows we may experience.

Writing

Putting our thoughts and feelings down on paper, or describing a troubling or joyous incident, helps us better understand our actions and reactions in a way that is often not revealed by simply thinking or talking about them.

Literature

We read OA-approved literature, which includes numerous books, study guides, pamphlets, wallet cards, and selected Alcoholics Anonymous texts. All this material provides insight into our disease and the experience, strength, and hope that there is a solution for us.

Action Plan

Creating an action plan is the process of identifying and implementing attainable actions to support our individual abstinence and emotional, spiritual, and physical recovery. This Tool, like our plan of eating, may vary widely among members and may need to be adjusted as we progress in our recovery.

Anonymity

Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities (Tradition Twelve). Anonymity assures us that only we, as individual OA members, have the right to make our membership known to others. Anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television, and other public media of communication means that we never allow our faces or last names to be used once we identify ourselves as OA members (Tradition Eleven). Within the Fellowship, anonymity means that whatever we share with another OA member will be respected and kept confidential. What we hear at meetings should remain there.

Service

Any form of service—no matter how small—that helps reach a fellow sufferer adds to the quality of our own recovery. Members who are new to OA can give service by attending meetings, sharing, and putting away chairs. All members can also give service by putting out literature, welcoming newcomers, hosting a virtual meeting, or doing whatever is needed to help the group. Members who meet specified requirements can give service beyond the group level by serving at the intergroup, service board, region, or world service level.

As OA’s Responsibility Pledge states: “Always to extend the hand and heart of OA to all who share my compulsion; for this I am responsible.”

See the full Tools of Recovery pamphlet for more information.

OA Responsibility Pledge

Always to extend the hand and heart of OA
to all who share my compulsion;
for this I am responsible.

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OA Board-approved
©1989 … 2011 Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. All rights reserved. Rev. 6/2022.
#512

Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. World Service Office
Location: 6075 Zenith Court NE, Rio Rancho, NM 87144, USA
Mailing address: PO Box 44727, Rio Rancho, NM 87174-4727, USA
Telephone: +1 505-891-2664