Service Matters • January 2021
Welcome to the January 2021 Issue of Service Matters!
Welcome to the January 2021 issue of Service Matters, your answer to the question, “What’s Up in GreySheet?” regarding all the work done for GSA as a whole to carry the message to compulsive eaters who still suffer.
This past year has been hard for many of us, and may have been full of illness, financial hardship, and separation from friends and loved ones. However, 2020 has been enlightening in other ways, helping us realize how important our connections are in our lives, and in the world around us. We can hope that 2021 will be better. Perhaps the pandemic will lose its hold on the planet in 2021. Perhaps we will learn to value each other across the globe and across racial divides. If so, we can truly become one in 2021.
Videoconferencing has helped connect us in this socially distanced time, and we GreySheeters are practiced at using the phone and video to connect across the world. Exciting things are planned for 2021. The GSA Communication Committee is launching a Podcast! Many GSA intergroups across the world are doing exciting work and Service Matters hopes to focus on those Intergroups. We can join one another in carrying the message, sharing recordings of speakers, putting on virtual conferences, and learning to juggle time zones. As a young 12-step group, we are still learning to function on the world stage and be less USA-centric. The Communication Committee will be hosting a Global Speaker Series every other month this year, featuring speakers from all over the world. Unity is the first GSA tradition for a reason. Unity is foundational.
Upcoming Meetings
2. Concept 3 meeting ID: 791 453 380
Sunday, January 17, at 1:00pm ET
3. Tradition 3 meeting ID: 791 453 380
Sunday, January 24, at 1:00 pm ET
4. Board of Trustees Town Hall meeting ID: 717 731 799
Sunday, January 31, at 11:00 am ET
Board of Trustees Column
My name is Tara, I am a compulsive over-eater. I weigh and measure three meals a day off the Cambridge GreySheet, commit them to my sponsor and don't eat in between those meals no matter what. I have been doing this back-to-back since March 14, 2015 and my abstinence gives me a kick ass life today.
I saw a post on social media recently - on January 1, 2021, hindsight will truly be 2020. There are many of us who will be very grateful to say goodbye to this year. No matter where you stand on what is appropriate to mitigate COVID 19, your life has been impacted and hopefully by the end of 2021 there will be changes that bring us back together in person safely. I will say that for me, personally, there has been much about 2020 to be cherished. In March, I celebrated 5 years of back-to-back abstinence and was asked to serve on the Board of Trustees. For a compulsive overeater like me who never hit goal weight on any diet I am not sure what could be more improbable - that I can do this one day at a time for five years or that I would be asked to do this service. In August, my husband celebrated a year of back-to-back abstinence as well, and honestly our life is goofy these days. That's what our 19-year-old daughter calls something improbable.
But now, looking to 2021 I am so excited to work with another board member to revive the North East Intergroup! Working with other GreySheeters to spread the miracle of this recovery is a privilege and an honor. And, well, slimming so I have heard! We meet the first Thursday of the month on Zoom at 7:30 pm, and all are welcomed to attend regardless of abstinence time. I will speak for myself when I say my recovery is dependent upon working with others - be it as a sponsor or just another traveler on the journey. Please accept this invitation to join us! Our first event is on Valentine's Day at 3pm EST - When Greysheet is Your Valentine! Be sure to check the events page in the coming weeks for the Zoom link, and join us to hear what others say when GreySheet and love are in the same sentence!
Thank you for allowing me to be of service which is one of the ways I stay abstinent one day at a time.
Happy New Year to you and those you love!
~Tara
GSA Special Events - Zoom Style
Monthly workshops to gather in fellowship, creativity and connection
First Sunday of Each Month, 3:00 PM ET
Zoom ID: 968 3976 2598
Saturday, January 16, 2021, 12 PM noon ET
Zoom ID: 818 4756 677
Sunday, February 14, 2021, 3:00 PM ET
January 2021 - Monthly Board of Trustees Liaison Report Highlights
December 12, 2020
World Service has four core functions to achieve the vision:
1. Integrity of the Greysheet Program
The Literature Committee and the Board of Trustees are working together to protect our translated publications including the GreySheet.
2. Website
Check out the new website: https://update.greysheet.org
The Website Committee needs a new chair to facilitate its work. No technical expertise required. Contact greysheet@greysheet.org for more information.
3. Literature
We submitted the new Living Abstinent book to the Board in December to vote on publication and printing.
4. Public Information
The Public Information Committee needs a new chair to facilitate improving our public social media presence. Contact greysheet@greysheet.org for more information.
Q & A
Question: Now that our fellowship has embraced Zoom meetings, what are some of the gifts and blessings you have received by participating with GreySheeters you would not otherwise have met in our global community?
S: Sometimes, when I’m sitting in front of my computer and people introduce themselves with the mantra and where they are calling in from, my heart just swells with the miracle of it all. We are such an amazing village in a world that seems not very friendly at the moment.
G: In my travels before COVID, I met GSers in Iceland, Eastern and Western Europe. But I would never have met GSers from Mexico, South Africa, Israel, Australia, and even Canada as I have on Zoom meetings. The truth is, even if I had traveled ten times more than I did, I wouldn’t have met as many of the GSers I have met around the United States. I wouldn’t have gotten to know them as well as I have through seeing them week after week. I have received two gifts. One has to do with my abstinence – the visible proof that GreySheet is entirely portable – there is nowhere I could go where I couldn’t be abstinent. But the other one has to do with my humanity – I am one of many human beings with strengths and weaknesses, challenges and successes, and an infinite variety of experiences and perspectives. It is one of the profound gifts of the Twelve Step program – humility, an appreciation of my place in the world. All from looking other GSers in the eye at GreySheet video meetings.
S: I have never been to a physical meeting of GreySheet. There were only two a week in my country anyway - and neither of them were nearby, so without Zoom I would never have gotten abstinent.
K: The GreySheeters in Europe created a Zoom Newmarket Retreat, so I was able to dance for the first time in the talent show. I learnt the moves to the French can-can and asked my sister if she had a skirt I could wear. When she did not, she offered to make one.
I have attended the Saturday GreySheet London zoom meeting ever since it started in March.
The first meeting was so crowded with new GreySheeters. I have made about 10 new connections.one person is a sponsee and 3 are people I speak to daily for 1 minute each. About 6 people I got to know have come and gone. But this year has gifted me with many people I did not know this time last year.
L: I have learned how important the Israeli community is to our GSA world service, from sitting on the board to helping with Service Matters, from translating the GSA materials into Hebrew to serving as sponsors. Though far away, they are essential to the workings of GSA which gives me the place to find my solution to my compulsive eating.
D: To be able to share with another GreySheeter, and actually look into their eyes, is SO much more meaningful than being on a phone call, feels like a much deeper connection.
A: I love how being on a zoom meeting with people all over the world, hearing the stories of people in other countries and relating to their experiences, makes it clear this is a global addiction, and the connections feel intimate. What a gift!
E: Every time I hear a GSer speak with an unfamiliar (to me) accent my world expands. I listen for challenges that people in other communities are experiencing, whether it’s different COVID restrictions, or similar conflicts with family members who don’t understand what it means for us trying to stay abstinent. Barriers break down, and my heart goes out to people, and there’s the joy in connecting with another GSer, even if they’re halfway around the world!