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Service Matters • November 2016

What has been happening since the World Service Committee in September?

As you will have read from the list of motions and recommendations put forward by the service committees at the 2016 World Service Conference in September, each service committee has their 'plates full' of jobs that need to be done between now and the next World Service Conference in 2 years time.

These service committees are made up of members like you and me - members of this fellowship with 90 days or more of back-to-back abstinence, who are working with a sponsor who has a sponsor - and who have volunteered their time to help GSA carry the message to the compulsive eater.

An Update from the Literature Committee

The literature committee is the committee who are working on pieces of GSA literature which the fellowship is using to communicate our program of recovery to our members and to those who are still suffering and who may be searching for a solution.

If you have editing, writing, organisation skills and experience, please contact the chair of this committee, Richard O, richardso285@gmail.com, +1 (424) 208-4813. This service committee needs your support. Our literature cannot write itself.

The committee are currently working to finalize the pamphlets "To Professionals" and "A Solution for Compulsive Eating". An announcement will be made when they are available for download from the Literature section on our website. Remember to visit this link to order your copy of GSA's Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.

The Literature committee are also collecting stories from members for the next GSA book to include a chapter on the History of GSA, the Family Afterwards, the Potential 18-34 year old Compulsive Eater, the Traditions and Concepts at Work. Please email your stories to richardso285@gmail.com, or call to chat on +1 (424) 208-4813. The literature committee meets via phone every Sunday at 3:30pm EST. You're welcome to join. Contact Richard O for phone meeting number.

An Update from the Communication Committee

Please contact sharonleighterry@gmail.com with any ideas for topics of service you would like to read about in this newsletter; email us with any service-related questions you would like answers to – and these will be published in the next edition of Service Matters.

If you have 90 days or more of back-to-back Greysheet abstinence, are social media-savvy, understand privacy settings on Facebook - the communications committee needs your help to finalize GSA's "Using Social Media Safely Guidelines". Please email sharonleighterry@gmail.com if you can help.

GSA Events

Check the website for the latest GSA Events coming up. A February Queens NY Roundup is being planned. Dates to be confirmed.

Register Your Group/Change Group Information

If you have not done so already, please make sure you register your group on our website at Face-to-Face Meetings/Group Registration Form.

If you have registered your group, take a moment to check your group information. It is your responsibility to make sure your information is correct. This is to ensure that newcomers and regular members get the correct information they need to attend your groups – and that your group service representative gets updates from GSA World Services to bring to your group. Please email any changes to your group information to webservant@greysheet.org.

International Phone List

Members that elect to be added to the list may email phonelist@greysheet.org. If you want to unsubscribe from this list or your information has changed, you need to email phonelist@greysheet.org in order to do this. It is your responsibility to ensure that information is correct for subscribers. For example, if you are no longer available to sponsor, please make sure you email phonelist@greysheet.org to let them know – so that your record can be updated. This list is as up-to-date as the information it receives. When you as a sponsor are directing newcomers to these resources, please let them know that not all this information will be perfectly up-to-date and that when they come across numbers that are no longer working or members who tell them they are no longer members of GSA – to please email phonelist@greysheet.org with these updates. This is the only way this list can be kept current.

Sponsors List

If you volunteered to put your name down as a sponsor on the sponsor list on the website, please check that your information is still up-to-date. If you are no longer available to sponsor and want your name removed from this list, please email webservant@greysheet.org with this information and your name will be removed. It is your responsibility to let us know when this information changes, so that we can make sure this information is as up-to-date for the newcomer as possible.

International Contacts List

If you submitted your email address as a contact person in your country for international visitors to reach when they are travelling, please check your information is still up-to-date. If you are no longer the contact person in your country for visitors, then please email webservant@greysheet.org with these updates. Step up to service – this is your time to make history too! 

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Grasp My Abstinence A Lot Harder Than My Day Count

Hi Greysheeters I am abstinent and grateful.  I commit my food to my sponsor - I weigh and measure each meal without exception and abstinence is the most important thing I do no matter what today. I was talking to a friend in AA yesterday.  In a cafe she had a soda with flavouring added that contained the stuff she is addicted too.  It slipped past her radar because she can normally purchase it without 'the stuff' at the corner store.  She was rebelling against her sponsor's suggestion she go back to day one.  The lesson I learnt from her, that had not sort of hit me before is that I need to grasp my abstinence a lot harder than I grasp my day count.  Clean abstinence is infinitely more important and useful to me than a long day count.  Goodness knows I've had my share of technical stuff ups (and not so technical also :-}) and each time struggled with the head talk that goes - "it's not a big enough deal to go back to day one with".  Today my abstinence is clean because 309 days ago I fessed up and let go of my day count to stay rigorously honest with this program - and I haven't stuffed up since - Thank you HP and sponsor and GS family!! Anyway, I am stoked to be abstinent as I head towards Christmas, the traditional time of physical, emotional and familial binges! Yay only 12 days to Boxing Day!!!!

IDCGSNMW
Anonymous, NZ
December 13, 2005

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DENMW: What does it mean? Ring the chime of abstinence.

Hi, I'm [Anonymous] and I'm a compulsive overeater.  My abstinence is 3 weighed and measured meals a day off of the Greysheet and I write my food out, call my sponsor, commit my food and weigh and measure without exception.  As a result of these actions I've been abstinent from compulsive overeating since Feb. 15, 1990, and abstinence is the most important practice that I do in my life today, one day at a time. What does DENMW mean?  *I* can't not eat compulsively.  Left to my own power I eat no matter what.  So why do I say DENMW! This familiar phrase is a reminder of the priority that I must place on the actions which I take to support my abstinence.  Truly, if *I* could "not eat NMW", if I could do this truly by myself alone, by my determination and will power, born from the desire to eat in a fashion which would leave my life free from ill effects, then I would not have to be here to address this problem of compulsive overeating.  But alone I cannot do this. I can, however take action which make it possible for me to accept God's grace and abstain from the behavior of compulsively overeating.

First, however, it is essential that I admit that don't have the power to abstain from this behavior.  Next, I am able to look else where for the power to abstain.  I'll not elaborate on Step 2 here, but it too is essential so that I'm able to act with conviction on Step 3.  Having admitted that I have a problem which is insolvable by myself, and believing that there is a power which can help me then I'm able to decide to avail myself of the power of that assistance to address this problem. At this point I have attained abstinence, but though my actions have not confirmed this to myself yet.  Like preparing to strike a chime which I may have heard before, I know what it has sounded like in the past when others or myself have struck it.  The sound may ring in my mind, but the true sound current of abstinence does not yet actually vibrate in my body.  Now I must strike the chime.  Without striking the chime with the hammer of action, abstinence is theoretical, without cause and without effect.  And the paradox is that I alone have the power to swing the hammer. Swinging the hammer is essential to feeling the true sound of abstinence.  No one can strike the chime for me.   It is necessary for me to strike the chime every day so that this sound actually vibrates and I can truly feel it rather than only hearing it in my mind.  The sound must vibrate every day. There is more than one way to swing the hammer.  How I hold it, the direction and power of the stroke can vary and that may affect the sound of the chime. How do I swing the hammer?

I swing the hammer every time I call my sponsor.
I swing the hammer every time I commit my food.
I swing the hammer every time I weigh and measure my food.
I swing the hammer every time I plan time in my day for meals and food prep.
I swing the hammer every time I attend a meeting.
I swing the hammer every time I make an outreach call.
I swing the hammer every time I stand to sponsor.
I swing the hammer every time I take a food call.
I swing the hammer every time I read about a Step.
I swing the hammer every time I pray.
I swing the hammer every time I meditate.
I swing the hammer every time I speak to the positive picture of abstinence.
I swing the hammer every time I take the time to help another CO.

These are only a few ways, there are others. None of these actions comprise abstinence in and of themselves, but I must do enough of them so that I keep the sound of abstinence vibrating in my heart not just in my mind.  Thinking of abstinence will not do it, I must think of how I swing the hammer. I must swing the hammer no matter what.  NMW is the priority that I must place on the actions which I take to support my abstinence.  If I don't swing the hammer, I don't feel the sound of abstinence. Thus, "Don't Eat No Matter What" is an affirmation of how I have come to live because of swinging the hammer, it is a statement which urges others to do the same, and it is a reminder to keep the sound of abstinence vibrating in every part of my life. DENMW
Anonymous, July 3, 2005

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