Media Category: Tools

(Committed to Action for Recovery, Encouragement, and Support)

Correspondence Program Guidelines

The OA C.A.R.E.S. correspondence program was created to establish a network of support for compulsive eaters who are incarcerated. By describing how OA has affected your life, you can help deliver OA’s Twelve Step program of recovery directly to those in need. Thank you for volunteering to share the very essence of our program—one compulsive overeater reaching out to another.

These guidelines have been developed to help facilitate your correspondence by suggesting ways to adhere to OA Principles and comply with special requirements established by the participating institutions. Please adhere to these guidelines in all your correspondence.

Your letter should share your experience, strength, and hope about the problems associated with compulsive eating. When discussing your experience, remember to focus on the solutions you found by working the OA program. The hope of our program lies in the recovery we have found through the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. The program can work no matter what our life circumstances.

Keep Your Focus on OA

You may be in other Twelve Step programs, but you have been selected as a volunteer for the OA C.A.R.E.S. program because you are a compulsive overeater. Keep it simple.

Participants will be assigned to individuals of the same sex. The inmate you are corresponding with may discuss issues seemingly unrelated to compulsive overeating, such as their convictions, legal matters, or medical problems. Keep in mind that we cannot solve these problems and should never give advice on any of these subjects. Your response should address these issues, if at all, only in the context of working our Twelve Step program.

The following are some useful suggestions for OA C.A.R.E.S. volunteers:

Remember

OA members in correctional facilities are compulsive eaters simply looking for the hope of recovery.

• Use your sense of humor. Be lighthearted.
• Be courteous. Respond to letters within two weeks.
• Write legibly.
• Be mindful of Traditions Six, Eight, and Twelve.*
• Tell your story (what you were like, what happened, and what you are like now).
• Relate your experience. Describe how you work through your problems thanks largely to the growth you have experienced in the OA Twelve Step program.

Keep the Following Cautions in Mind

You are embarking on a Twelfth Step relationship with a person whom you have not met, who may be unwell in several areas, and who may be using this relationship for motives unrelated to recovery. It is important that you be cautious and alert. We would like to hear from you about your experience so we can help others.

For your protection, all correspondence between the inmate and you will be handled by the Member Services Department at the OA World Service Office (WSO). The Member Services Department will not personally identify you to the inmate. You will write to the inmate and mail the letter to the WSO. Letters should be signed only with your initials. Do not reveal your name or any other personal information, such as where you live, your marital status, or the names of family members. Use universal identifiers, such as “my relative,” “my friend,” or other general descriptions. In sharing your experience, strength, and hope, avoid sharing details that might be too identifiable. While you are anonymous to the correctional facility, OA is not. OA received clearance to communicate with the inmate, so it is essential that you not do anything that could reveal your identity or jeopardize OA’s clearance. Member Services will forward your letter to the inmate, and any response from the inmate will be sent to you in care of the WSO. Never communicate with an inmate without going through the WSO.

Certainly, you will want to avoid being used for purposes other than Twelve Step work. To offer to carry messages to anyone or to contact family members, a third party, or the prison administration on the inmate’s behalf might hinder rather than help the inmate’s recovery or might breach the institution’s regulations. Doing so might compromise you and the good reputation of OA. Breaches of institutional regulations may result in discipline, or even criminal penalties. Never send anything, such as food, money, gifts, or cigarettes, to the inmate. We suggest that you stick to the program of recovery. That is, after all, the only thing you can provide: the message of recovery through the Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous.

• Tradition Six: An OA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the OA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
• Tradition Eight: Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
• Tradition Twelve: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

 

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
©1991, 2002, 2010, 2018, 2019 Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. Rev. 5/2023. All rights reserved.
#570

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

Reprinted from Lifeline, Ask-It Basket, August 1999

Question

What is cross talk? Are all responses and comments to another person at a meeting cross talk? Is thanking someone for something he or she shared cross talk? Or is it cross talk only if the comments are negative?

Answer

OA literature does not specifically define cross talk. The Suggested Meeting Format states: “As you share your experience and strength in OA, please also share your hope. Please confine your sharing to your experience with the disease of compulsive eating, the solution offered by OA and your own recovery from the disease, rather than just the events of the day or week. If you are having difficulties, share how you use the program to deal with them. If you need to talk more about your difficulties and seek solutions, we suggest you speak to your sponsor and other members after the meeting.”

Discouraging cross talk provides the freedom in OA to say what is difficult to express elsewhere. Shares not focusing on your own experience may constitute cross talk, including comments in support of or opinions in response to another person’s share. Such responses are not sharing your experience; they are offering your view of others in the room.

However, members do frequently share situations or describe feelings common to the group. Members want to hear about others’ recovery, to see how others have dealt with similar situations and to know that they are not alone. Your intentions and tone determine whether responding to another’s situation is the best way to share your experience, strength and hope. Clearly this is a gray area, and since you never know how others will interpret your remarks, sometimes it is best not to comment.

It is especially difficult not to respond immediately to a member in pain. A loving hug, a pat on the shoulder or a talk with the person after the meeting is the best expression of support.

Interrupting is also considered cross talk. Interruptions may disrupt the meeting and deny the speaker adequate opportunity to share. To prevent this, many groups ask members to raise their hands for recognition before sharing.

If cross talk troubles your group, request a steering committee meeting to discuss the problem. Consider each member’s personal definition of cross talk. Ultimately, the group’s consensus on what constitutes cross talk in its meeting should apply.

—Members of the Board of Trustees provide answers to these questions

Statement on Approved Literature

(Business Conference Policy Manual, 2010a [Amended 2012, 2023])

“In accordance with our Traditions, we suggest that OA groups maintain unity and honor our Traditions by using, selling, and displaying only approved books and pamphlets at their meetings. This includes OA Conference- and board-approved literature; AA Conference-approved books, booklets, and all future editions thereof, with original edition copyright 2010 or earlier; and locally produced OA literature. Although groups may choose to focus on only one piece of OA-approved literature, individuals and groups are encouraged to use any and all OA-approved literature. Locally produced literature must be developed according to OA Guidelines for Locally Produced Literature, and should be used with the greatest discretion. Local literature should be considered temporary and discontinued when OA literature approved for general use is available to cover the topic.”

Statement on Literature That Is Not OA-Approved

(Business Conference Policy Manual, 1993b [amended 2010])

“It is the group conscience of the 1993 World Service Business Conference that the sale or display of literature other than OA-approved literature and AA conference-approved literature (as described in WSBC Policy 2010a) is an implied endorsement of outside enterprises, and therefore in violation with Tradition Six.”

To determine whether you have the most recent version of a piece of OA literature, see the OA-Approved Literature List by Copyright Date and compare it to the copyright date on your literature.

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OA Board-approved
©1990… 2018 Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. Rev. 10/2025. All rights reserved.
#570

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.

---

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