Thank-a-Thon Phone Meeting Format

Notes for Moderator

Call number: ----

Access code-------- then moderator presses the * key (this is different frommembers, who press the # key). The * key gives you the ability to mute and unmute the group, and also to silence the dinging noises as members call in.

Host PIN----- (this is needed only for the moderator).

To mute the group: Press *51 To unmute the group: Press *53 To silence the dings: Press *8

Note to moderators about meeting format

At a business meeting, the group can voted to do a sharing meeting, a qualification, or a combination.

Volunteer readers are requested prior to meeting ( strongly encourage newcomers to read)

Volunteers

1. Definition of a food addict
2. How it works
3. Twelve Steps
4. Twelve Traditions
5. Promises

THANK-A-THON MEETING FORMAT

• INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the (Arlington MA phone Thank-A-Thon of Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous -- FA. Before we continue,

My name is                 am a food addict and the leader for this meeting. [Pause.] After a moment of silence, will you please join me in the SERENITY PRAYER? [Pause.]

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

• Moderator Reads

The group is now muted, and I’m going to ask that today’s volunteer readers unmute themselves by hitting *6. We’re all set with volunteer readers for today, but if you’d like to read next week, we’ll be looking for volunteers in the minutes before the call begins.

If you are accidentally dropped from this call and have trouble dialing back in, there is an alternate number you can try:---------------------------- --. The access code remains the same.

I will begin by reading the Preamble.

• PREAMBLE

Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous is a fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience and mutual support, are recovering from food addiction.

We welcome all who want to stop eating addictively. There are no dues or fees for members; we are self-supporting through our own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations. FA is not affiliated with any public or private organization, political movement, ideology, or religious doctrine. We take no position on outside issues. Our primary purpose is to abstain from addictive eating and to carry this message of recovery to those who still suffer.

• Volunteer reads
  
• DEFINITION OF FOOD ADDICTION

Food addiction is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit for which there is no cure, but it can be arrested a day at a time by our adapting to a disciplined way of eating and the Twelve-Step program of FA. When we abuse food by using it as a drug, our lives become unmanageable.

Food addicts have an allergy to flour, sugar, and quantities that sets up an uncontrollable craving. The problem can be arrested a day at a time by the action of our weighing and measuring our food and abstaining completely from all flour and sugar.

FA defines abstinence as weighed and measured meals with nothing in between, no flour, no sugar, and the avoidance of any individual binge foods.

• At AA’s request, we read their literature as originally written, so the words “alcohol” and “alcoholic” remain. Would someone please read “HOW IT WORKS” from page 58 of AA's Big Book
• Volunteer reads
  
  
• HOW IT WORKS

Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.

Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it—then you are ready to take certain steps.

At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.

Remember we deal with alcohol—cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power—that One is God. May you find Him now!

Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon. Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery.

• Volunteer reads
  
  
• THE TWELVE STEPS

1. We admitted we were powerless over food—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to food addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

• The following passage is also from the Big Book, page 60: [Leader reads.]

Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.” Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:

1. 1. That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
   2. That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
   3. That God could and would if He were sought.

• Volunteer reads
  
  
• THE TWELVE TRADITIONS

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on FA unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for FA membership is a desire to stop eating addictively.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or FA as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the food addict who still suffers.
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.
7. Every FA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. FA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues, hence the FA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

• Moderator Reads:

The DISCIPLINES of this meeting are:

• To preserve anonymity, we ask that you do not record or share the audio of this meeting under any circumstances.
• Please participate alone, in a quiet, private location preferably free of children or pets.
• Please remember that naming specific foods, or even describing them without a name, may trigger cravings for some members.

• THIS IS A SHARING MEETING

We request that you keep your sharing to three to five minutes so that more members can share this morning.

The meeting is now open for sharing from all those with 90 days or more of continuous abstinence in FA who are working with an FA sponsor.

OR

• QUALIFICATION

Leader shares experience, strength, and hope regarding recovery in FA, with a focus on gratitude. [Share until approximately a.m./p.m. and then proceed to the SEVENTH TRADITION.]

(The length of the speaker’s qualification depends on the number of attendees able to share but it is suggested that it is at least 15 minutes. End the meeting 5 – 10 minutes before the hour to ensure a timely start for the next session.)

Note to moderator: Ask for sponsors somewhere in the middle of the meeting.

SPONSORS: Sponsors are FA members currently being sponsored and living the Twelve Steps. FA recommends that a sponsor be six or more months abstinent. Sponsors help us begin the FA program and guide us in our recovery. We recommend that newcomers and anyone without a sponsor speak with one of these people. Would all sponsors with time available please press *6 to unmute and identify themselves? Please state your phone number clearly. (Note to Moderators: You may also want to ask if anyone has time to help someone get started, or to help someone find a sponsor).

After the call some of us will stay on the line, so that people can pass around phone numbers, and so that we offer help to any newcomers. Also, if someone needs a sponsor or can sponsor, please stay on after the call.

• Would                               please read the PROMISES from the Big Book, page 83