Service Matters • April 2018
Announcements from the GreySheeters Anonymous World Service (GSAWS) Board of Trustees
Happy GSA 20th Anniversary!!
Every one of us gets to celebrate this milestone of our fellowship!!
Make sure you see our GreySheet Counts results on our website
beginning April 6!
GreySheeters Anonymous World Services - 2018 Operating Budget
The 2018 budget was approved by the Board of Trustees, now available for review on the GSAWS website. Main budget highlights:
Income: $12,150
Operating Expenses: $13,445
Net Income: $(1,295)
Prudent Reserve: (50% of expenses): $6,800
Click here for detailed review of the planned 2018 budget, compared to 2017 Actual budget.
GreySheeters Anonymous World Services - 2013-2017 Profit/Loss
Following is the 5-year P&L (in Quickbooks):
Total donation income: $77,990.18
Other income (WSC registrations): $13,000.00
Total income: $90,990.18
Total WSC expenses: $76,975.39
Total operating expenses: $32,619.66
Total Expenses: $109,595.05
Income/Expenses difference: $(18,604.87)
Click here for detailed review of the 2013-2017 Profit/Loss.
Focus on Literature Committee
The Literature Committee of GreySheeters Anonymous is a group of men and women who are committed to living the GreySheet steps, traditions and concepts. Our primary purpose is to stay abstinent and to carry the message of recovery to compulsive eaters. It is our duty to create clear and concise pices of long and short form literature, spiritual in nature, that is helpful to and speaks the language of both compulsive eaters and food addicts that still suffer and those who are maintaining their abstinence (from the Literature Committee Charter).
The Literature committee has created short-form literature such as the newest, located on the GreySheet.org Home page, “Definitions and Slogans,” as well as public information brochures also available on the GreySheet website, “Young People’s Pamphlet,” and “A Solution for the Compulsive Eater.” The committee is currently working on a GreySheet History Book.
The Literature Committee, in conjunction with the Archival Committee who will record the oral history of GreySheeters Anonymous, will provide a volume to supplement the project with extensive interviews from our old-timers and how countless lives were saved from compulsive eating and food addiction.
The committee is reaching out to the GreySheet community for volunteers in conducting interviews and transcribing with the history book. Anyone interested in serving as a volunteer
on this committee should contact Jmelmore.jm@gmail.com for further information.
Q & A Corner
Question: What does No Matter What mean?
Answer: GreySheet abstinence is saving my life, one day, one meal at a time. No matter what means it doesn't matter what else happens in my day; it doesn't matter who does or doesn't understand why I must do what I must do to stay abstinent; it doesn't matter how graceful or bumbling I am when weighing and measuring my food in public; it doesn't matter how I feel in between my meals.
What matters is staying abstinent today so that I can make that choice tomorrow. What matters is asking for help when I'm confused about something while getting my meal together so that I can have clarity about the food I am eating. What matters is putting my abstinent head on my pillow at night and waking up abstinent. What matters is that three times a day, no matter what kind of day I am having, good, bad or indifferent, I will do what it takes to weigh and measure my food off the grey sheet, food that will nourish me, satisfy me, taste delicious and take care of what my body needs. And then, no matter what happens after that, when my next meal comes, I do the same
thing.
I don't have to be able to explain or prove why GreySheet abstinence works, but my life and the lives of all of us in this community are witnesses that it does work. It really does. How does GreySheet abstinence work? Very well, thank you, one day, one meal at a time.
Seventh Tradition: Every GSA group ought to be fully selfsupporting, declining outside contributions
The following is an excerpt from October 1967 Grapevine, by Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous:
AA's far-flung Twelfth Step activities, carrying the message to the next sufferer, are the very lifeblood of our AA adventure. Without this vital activity, we would soon become anemic; we would literally wither and die.
Now where do AA's services – worldwide, area, local—fit into our scheme of things? Why should we provide these functions with money? The answer is simple enough. Every single AA service is designed to make more and better Twelfth Step work possible, whether it be a group meeting place, a central or intergroup office to arrange hospitalization and sponsorship, or the world service Headquarters (now the General Service Office) to maintain unity and effectiveness all over the globe.
Though not costly, these service agencies are absolutely essential to our continued expansion—to our survival as a Fellowship. Their costs are a collective obligation that rests squarely upon all of us. Our support of services actually amounts to recognition on our part that AA must everywhere function in full strength—and that, under our Tradition of self-support, we are all going to foot the bill.”
New York Metro Intergroup News
The Fourth Annual Long Island Speaker Jam will be held on Saturday, April 14 at Levittown Hall, 201 Levittown Parkway, Hicksville, NY 11801. Details under the Event tab of greysheet.org or at www.greysheetny.org/events
New!! NY GSA Information Line 336-447-3974 or (336-4gr-eysh)
This number is listed on GSA Meetings – Metropolitan New York Area & Long Island, GSA NY Metro Intergroup website as well as upcoming events documentation and flyers i.e.
Speaker Jam. This new Google number was set up for the purpose of people finding us, to find out where to go, what number to call etc. We are using it as public information tool to attract new people or to let people know that there is hope out there versus a helpline for existing members.
Intergroups - mail us your news and we will publish it in the next Service Matters edition!
Inspiration Corner
I am a hopeless compulsive overeater who has found the answer to my problem. Before GreySheet, I was prey to any new diet, any new fad that promised to help me lose the weight that made me so miserable. I believed if I were thin, I would be happy. I lost the weight; I saw the number on the scale that was supposed to qualify me as lovable, capable and worthy of happiness. I bought the skinny jeans, and I was so convinced I would never be fat again, I celebrated with my favorite things: carbs, sugar and grains, of course! And I boomeranged back up the scale, crying into my cartons, boxes and bags and unable to stop. I couldn't stop more than temporarily. I couldn't stay stopped.
I needed more than a food plan, but I needed the right food plan. GreySheet is the right food plan for me. I love food more than most people. I don't have to give that up in GreySheet, but I do have to give up certain foods that are poison for me and set me up to have cravings. Then I have to weigh the right amounts, commit my food to my sponsor, and don't eat in-between no matter what.
I need a fellowship. I need to know that I'm not the only one carrying my scales with me, that I'm not the only one on the planet doing this. And I need to know that every single day. I can't do this alone. I never could. Thank you, GreySheet, for helping me get abstinent, stay abstinent, and help other compulsive overeaters achieve abstinence.