Gratitude in Action - February 2015

What is Gratitude in Action?

Gratitude in Action is a newsletter published by the WSI 12th Step Committee of Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) to inspire you to get involved and do service so that you and others can be helped. We will bring you the latest FA worldwide information, remind you of tools and resources available within FA, and highlight upcoming FA worldwide events. Remember – “Service keeps us abstinent!”

The start of a new year is often a time when people resolve to lose weight, go on a diet, exercise more, quit smoking, spend less, etc.  As we know, FA is a way of life that provides us a system for healthy day-­to-­day living, year-­round.  With a consistent practice of our tools and reliance on a Higher Power we are able to stay abstinent through a wide variety of life events and transitions. Abstinence is the foundation for all other service.   We would like to start the new  year with an emphasis on this simple message: “We do service by staying abstinent, giving us the freedom from compulsion and obsession with food to allow us be available to others.” The A.A Thought of the Day from the June 16th page in the Twenty-­Four Hours a Day book reminds us, “But even faith is not the whole story. There must be service.  We must give this thing away if we want to keep it.  The Dead Sea has no outlet and it is stagnant and full of salt.   The Sea of Galilee is   clear and clean and blue, as the Jordan river carries it out to irrigate the desert.   To be of service to other people makes      our lives worth living. Does service to others give me a real purpose in life?”

Although, none of us knows exactly what the new year will bring, each of us will most likely experience a variety of ups and downs throughout the year related to such things as dating, planning a wedding, getting married/divorced, having a baby, changing jobs, relocating, grieving a death in a family, suffering serious injury or illness, or managing challenging finances. Fortunately, there are many tools and resources to help us stay abstinent through these transitions and beyond. It’s always good to remember the basics:

• Pray
• Keep your basics in order – do all of your tools
• Talk to fellows who have gone through a similar experience
• Stay in the day – avoid future-­tripping
• Practice gratitude – consider a nightly gratitude list

Depending on your individual situation, you may want to consider the following:

• Go beyond the basics – call your sponsor more, re-­read your literature throughout the day, write more, go to extra meetings, do a second quiet time
• Make time for a new sponsee
• Take on a new service commitment or simplify if your plate is too full
• Outreach to newcomers and/or fellows on the frontier

Local Service Group (LSG) Information

A Local Service Group consists of two or more FA members from more than one FA meeting group who combine resources to do service for FA.

The types of service LSG’s typically participate in include:

• Information Sessions
• Monitoring an 800 or centralized number.
• Ordering tri-folds in bulk.
• Contacting corporate wellness representatives to discuss having information sessions, lunch and learns, distributing tri-­folds within the company, or working with their Employee Assistance Program.
• Working with FA Weblinks to get links for local high schools, colleges and businesses.
• Coordinating classroom information sessions for local high schools and colleges.
• Setting up and coordinating booths at local health fairs.
• Updating letters to Health Care Providers and Faith Community Leaders with accurate contact information, making copies, and distributing the letters to FA meetings.
• Coordinating a connection writing workshop.
• Coordinating efforts with local media such as newspapers and radio stations.

How do you know when an area is ready to form a Local Service Group?

• An area is ready to form a local service group when FA members from different meetings see a need to get together to do service.
• If you  find  two  or  more  people  from  two  or  more  meetings  getting  together  to  perform  service-­oriented activities (such as those described above) then the group is already performing as a local service group.

** Note that even though the LSG may coordinate efforts, members of the LSG can and should call other members in the area to help with the work.**

Traditions Review Committee

Issue: A member on the FA Frontier suggested that the FA conference approve a “Skype” phone list so that members who regularly use this service as a medium to make their FA phone calls could save money and time (because of the convenience of seeing when others are online).

Response: The TRC suggested that any FA phone list, specific to one company, would not be aligned with the guidance provided by Tradition 6. (An FA group ought never endorse, finance or lend the FA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose). The TRC would be comfortable if a column headed “VOIP” (Voice over Internet Protocol) was added to a FA phone list where addresses from multiple VOIP companies could be listed. This column already exists on the WSI FA Frontier Phone List. This is similar to current FA phone lists which include an “email address” column where email addresses are listed that end with specific company names such as “@gmail.com” or “@hotmail.com”. If members qualify for this list, they can simply add their names to the Frontier List with their Skype names listed in the VOIP column. If they live within 100 miles from a meeting, their local meeting group could agree to add a “VOIP” column to their meeting phone list.