Meeting Requirements Motion 2026

MAIN MOTION

The WSI Bylaws Committee moves to amend Article IV, section 1(d) of the WSI Bylaws, and the June 2024 Standing Rule of Order entitled “Meeting Requirements” to clarify the required elements of an FA meeting format.

CURRENT WORDING and PROPOSED WORDING (deleted language in red; new language in green)

WSI Bylaws

Article IV, Section 1. FA Meeting Groups

(a)...

(b)...

(c)…

(d) Registered FA meeting groups must meet the following requirements:

1. Welcome all who have a desire to stop eating addictively.

2. Adhere to the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of FA.

3. Use one of the FA Meeting Formats in the Meeting Guidelines Documents posted on the FA  

            website. Each format must include the following: 

  Use a sample meeting format posted on the FA website that includes these required items:

• The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of FA.

• The definitions of food addiction and abstinence, as stated in Article II, Section 3 of 

these bylaws. 

• The requirement that only members of the fellowship with 90 days or more of continuous abstinence in FA be invited to share.

• The requirement that only members of the fellowship with 90 days or more of continuous abstinence in FA shall have a voice and vote at FA meeting group business meetings.

Standing Rules of Order

June 2024 “Meeting Requirements”

An FA meeting group is an association of two or more food addicts who regularly meet to share experience, strength, and hope about recovery from food addiction through the Twelve Steps of FA. The requirements for registration as an FA meeting group are stated below. The provisions marked with an asterisk (*) come from Article IV, Section 1 of the WSI Bylaws and can only be amended by following the process for amending the Bylaws.

1. Meet in person, by videoconference (including telephone access), or by telephone*

2. Meet for 90 minutes

3. If it is an in-person meeting, meet in a facility that is open to the public and arrange chairs in theater  

        style, in rows facing the speaker

4. Have as it primary purpose carrying the FA message of recovery to food addicts who still suffer*

5. Register with an FA intergroup and comply with its bylaws*

6. Comply with the WSI bylaws*

7. Welcome all who have a desire to stop eating addictively*

8. Adhere to the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of FA

9.  Offer for sale or distribution or for reading during a meeting only the following:

1. 1. FA Conference-approved literature

   2. FA Conference-recognized literature

   3. WSI board-approved material

   4. Material distributed by the boards or committees of WSI, FA intergroups, or FA chapters

   5. telephone lists of registered FA meetings

   6. meeting directories of registered FA meetings

   7. FA Information Session notices

10. Refrain from distributing food plans as approved meeting documents. However, food plans may be  shared between sponsors and sponsees as a component of the complete FA program of recovery.

11. Elect the following required service positions:

1. WSI contact

2. meeting contact

3. intergroup contact

4. chapter contact (if registered with an FA chapter as well as an FA intergroup)

5. Secretary

6. treasurer

12. Use the appropriate FA Meeting Format found on the FA website, which includes these required items.  

      Use a sample meeting format found on the FA website that includes these required items, maintaining   

      the exact wording for items a-i:

1.  the FA Preamble

2. the Twelve Steps as adapted by FA*

3. the Twelve Traditions as adapted by FA*

4. the definition of food addiction*

5. the definition of abstinence*

6. How it Works and “The Promises” from A.A.’s Big Book

7. the FA Tools of Recovery

8. A break approximately midway through the meeting for greeting newcomers and visitors

9. the statement that only persons with 90 days or more of continuous abstinence in FA who are working with an FA sponsor will be invited to share*

10. the statement that only persons with 90 days or more of continuous abstinence in FA who are working with an FA sponsor and who regularly attend the meeting will have a voice and a vote at the meeting group’s business meetings*

11. Announcements welcoming newcomers and visitors, identifying available sponsors, and explaining how to donate as per the Seventh Tradition.

13. By group conscience, meetings may change the language in the sample formats as long as the formats follow the requirements in this SRO,and are consistent with the WSI bylaws and the Twelve Traditions as adapted by FA.

14. Any meeting group that chooses not to adhere to the registration requirements above will not be recognized as a registered FA meeting group. The group will not appear on the FA website or be listed in any FA meeting directories, may not use the FA name or format, and may not have its meetings announced at FA group meetings, intergroup meetings, or chapter meetings.

Items 12(a)-(g), (i), and (j) may not be altered from the wording in the FA Meeting Formats found on the FA website.

Suggested wording for the announcements listed in item 12(k) and for a section on guidelines or rules of meeting etiquette are provided in the FA Meeting Formats on the FA website, but these may be changed to suit individual meetings.

Any group of people that chooses not to adhere to the registration requirements above will not be recognized as a registered FA meeting group. The group will not appear on the FA website or be listed in any FA meeting directories, may not use the FA name or format, and may not have its meetings announced at FA group meetings, intergroup meetings, or chapter meetings.

RATIONALE

Many of the motions received by the intergroups and chapter during this motion cycle involved proposed changes to the FA meeting formats. WSI committees are often asked to approve even the tiniest deviations from the posted formats.

The Bylaws Committee offers this motion to clarify which parts of the meeting format may not be altered. Many fellows ask, “Must meetings use the format, on the website, exactly as it is, in its entirety?”

Yes and No…

• All registered FA meetings must include 14 elements in their meeting format (SRO item 12, letters a-k).

• 10 of these items must be worded exactly as they appear in the formats on the FA website (SRO item 12, letters a-i).

• For the remaining 4 required items (midpoint break and 3 types of announcements), meetings may decide by group conscience whether to use the sample wording.

Each FA meeting format on the website is a sample of an FA meeting format. Each Sample FA Meeting Format includes all 14 required elements and contains the required wording for 10 out of 14 items, as well as an order, structure, and flow that has been shown to work well for decades.

So…. Adding back the word “sample” means that:

A meeting may make adjustments, per the group conscience of the meeting, so long as the format contains all 14 required elements, and includes the exact wording for 10 of those items as shown in the Sample FA Meeting Format. Any variations to the formats must adhere to WSI’s Bylaws, SROs, and the 12 Traditions.

Adding the word “Sample" back in is consistent with the Conference’s approval of meeting formats in the past. The first “Meeting Requirements” SRO in 2011 and the first Conference-approved format in 2012 referred to the format as the “Sample FA Meeting Format.” Until 2024, the SROs repeatedly referred to the formats posted on the website as “Sample Meeting Formats” (SROs in 2011, 2012, 2017, 2018, 2019).

The guidance on the FA website about the edits meetings may make to the formats will be updated to be consistent with this SRO.