Service Matters • August 2020
Welcome to the August 2020 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.
As we welcome you to the August issue of Service Matters, we are aware that the COVID-19 pandemic NMW continues to stretch from days to weeks to months. The long view can be a distraction, but the literature tells us we have a daily reprieve and we do this 3-0-1! Even though this is a long-term No Matter What, we still have to do it One Day at a Time. We don’t live in a future knowing when COVID might end. We have a program that helps us live in the present, staying abstinent just for today. And abstinence requires our commitment to focus on the preparation of that next meal and to set up protections against that first compulsive bite. As Summer approaches Fall, we wish our dear readers days of delicious meals, peace in our hearts and continued devotion to our life-saving abstinence, One Day at a Time.
Save the Date!
Saturday October 17, 2020, 11:00 am ET- GSA World Service Update Video Forum
ISRs & GSRs - Please read/distribute in your meetings
The GSA Responsibility Statement
When anyone, anywhere realizes they have a problem with food, I want them to think of the GreySheet solution. For that I am responsible.
At the June 21st Literature Committee meeting, this ’new’ Responsibility
Statement was unanimously voted in. It then went to the ISRs/Chairs committee meeting on July 11 where it was again voted in unanimously.
How did we come to have our own responsibility statement? Our current Board has been very sensitive to the requests of Alcoholics Anonymous not to reprint any of their literature without permission and, even with permission, to cite AA as the source.
When the Board wrote up its Four Core Functions, they wrote their own version of responsibility that they hoped would trickle down to every member of our wonderful organization. The Chair of the Literature Committee suggested that we should have our own GSA Responsibility statement that we all need to “Pass It On.’
For two or three months, suggestions went back and forth between the Literature Committee and ISRs/Committee Chairs. The final version is as simple and as direct as we could make it, focusing on the membership as a collective—that each one of us is responsible to make sure that we as a whole have done everything possible to make information easily available to the newcomer, the long-timer and everyone else in between.
This statement is available to all of you. Use in your business meetings, as a prayer, etc.
Please make sure all your meetings get this information.
Statement was unanimously voted in. It then went to the ISRs/Chairs committee meeting on July 11 where it was again voted in unanimously.
How did we come to have our own responsibility statement? Our current Board has been very sensitive to the requests of Alcoholics Anonymous not to reprint any of their literature without permission and, even with permission, to cite AA as the source.
When the Board wrote up its Four Core Functions, they wrote their own version of responsibility that they hoped would trickle down to every member of our wonderful organization. The Chair of the Literature Committee suggested that we should have our own GSA Responsibility statement that we all need to “Pass It On.’
For two or three months, suggestions went back and forth between the Literature Committee and ISRs/Committee Chairs. The final version is as simple and as direct as we could make it, focusing on the membership as a collective—that each one of us is responsible to make sure that we as a whole have done everything possible to make information easily available to the newcomer, the long-timer and everyone else in between.
This statement is available to all of you. Use in your business meetings, as a prayer, etc.
Please make sure all your meetings get this information.
Upcoming Meetings - all interested GreySheeters are Welcome!
1. Committees Connecting meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/663470166
Sunday, August 9 at 12:00 Noon ET
-- The Nominating and Public Information Committees will be presenting, and while all delegates are encouraged to attend, all interested GreySheeters are welcome!!
2. Concept 10 meeting ID: 791 453 380
Sunday, August 16 at 1:00 PM ET
3. Tradition 10 meeting ID: 791 453 380
Sunday, August 23 at 1:00 PM ET.
4. Next One Meal at a Time Reflections Writing Workshop: https://zoom.us/j/203332604
Saturday, August 29, at 11:00 AM ET
Q&A
Q: I recently heard about a new way to donate to GSAWS that does not involve PayPal and charges less in fees. How does one do that?
A: It’s called Text to Donate and it’s really simple if you live in the US. I just texted the letters, NMW to 44-321. I was then sent a link immediately that allows access to a website that manages the donations. Beside each level of giving were ideas for what could be accomplished with that level of support. Each description indicated the various tasks we’ve asked the BOT to do over the next year. I found it informative and inspiring. I thought the whole Text to Donate idea was BRILLIANT! It created in me a belief that even my small donation would make a difference! I had 18 months at the time, so I donated $18. Thank you, GSA. I desperately want this program to be available to the person who still suffers as it was available to me.
A: It’s called Text to Donate and it’s really simple if you live in the US. I just texted the letters, NMW to 44-321. I was then sent a link immediately that allows access to a website that manages the donations. Beside each level of giving were ideas for what could be accomplished with that level of support. Each description indicated the various tasks we’ve asked the BOT to do over the next year. I found it informative and inspiring. I thought the whole Text to Donate idea was BRILLIANT! It created in me a belief that even my small donation would make a difference! I had 18 months at the time, so I donated $18. Thank you, GSA. I desperately want this program to be available to the person who still suffers as it was available to me.
August 2020 - Monthly Board of Trustees Column
Tara T., Board Member
Hello all! I am a compulsive overeater, weighing and measuring three meals a day from the GreySheet, committing them to my sponsor and not eating in between meals no matter what. Abstinence gives me a kick a$$ life today, and my abstinence date is 3/14/2015.
My journey to the Board has been anything but straight. I attended my first GreySheet meeting in 2002, and went out in 2003. In 2008 I found my way back via the Greynet, but was now living in an outpost, attending meetings on the Phone Bridge and occasional trips to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Eventually the only meetings I did were my live AA meetings.
The Facebook GSers NMW group opened my life up to something I honestly never could have anticipated. I started doing service as an administrator on the GS Recipe Group page, then the GSers NMW page. Zoom meetings were advertised on that page, and I found myself struggling to stay awake for the 9pm ET Sunday and Tuesday night meetings. Eventually another east coaster and I started the Why Not? Group on Monday nights at 7:30 pm EST, which led me to service within the fellowship. That group has been going for 2 years now and is up to 30 people in attendance, even prior to the pandemic. And I am writing a Board of Trustees column for Service Matters….who would have thought?
If you listened to the Valentine’s Day SWIG Couples speaker blast, you heard my husband and I share our journey in GSA. One day at a time, he will celebrate 1 year of back to back abstinence on August 7th. I feel I have ‘my’ Joe back, and for that I will forever be indebted to GSA.
My special project upon taking the seat on the BOT deals with the North East Intergroup. Despite living in Maine, our group is a member of the Western States Intergroup. At the beginning we had our own Zoom account, but then we were led to approach WSI and see if we could become part of their intergroup and take advantage of their Zoom membership. Should the NEIG become active, a community Zoom membership may be just one thing made available to groups in the region. I also noticed at World Service last October, only one GSR from the North East was present.
In order to facilitate activating the NEIG, I am hosting Zoom informational meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of the month. Perhaps we can help groups in that area be better represented at the World Service level, either by reorganizing the NEIG, or helping groups find their way to existing intergroups. Members who live in Delaware, Maine , Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York State (not City), Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. may be interested in joining us! The Zoom Meeting ID is 828 4636 6544, and we will be meeting the third Tuesday of the month in August and September with the hopes of having a proposal for the Structure Committee in advance of their November meeting. I can be reached at stampwithtara@yahoo.com or by calling 207-590-8631.
My journey to the Board has been anything but straight. I attended my first GreySheet meeting in 2002, and went out in 2003. In 2008 I found my way back via the Greynet, but was now living in an outpost, attending meetings on the Phone Bridge and occasional trips to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Eventually the only meetings I did were my live AA meetings.
The Facebook GSers NMW group opened my life up to something I honestly never could have anticipated. I started doing service as an administrator on the GS Recipe Group page, then the GSers NMW page. Zoom meetings were advertised on that page, and I found myself struggling to stay awake for the 9pm ET Sunday and Tuesday night meetings. Eventually another east coaster and I started the Why Not? Group on Monday nights at 7:30 pm EST, which led me to service within the fellowship. That group has been going for 2 years now and is up to 30 people in attendance, even prior to the pandemic. And I am writing a Board of Trustees column for Service Matters….who would have thought?
If you listened to the Valentine’s Day SWIG Couples speaker blast, you heard my husband and I share our journey in GSA. One day at a time, he will celebrate 1 year of back to back abstinence on August 7th. I feel I have ‘my’ Joe back, and for that I will forever be indebted to GSA.
My special project upon taking the seat on the BOT deals with the North East Intergroup. Despite living in Maine, our group is a member of the Western States Intergroup. At the beginning we had our own Zoom account, but then we were led to approach WSI and see if we could become part of their intergroup and take advantage of their Zoom membership. Should the NEIG become active, a community Zoom membership may be just one thing made available to groups in the region. I also noticed at World Service last October, only one GSR from the North East was present.
In order to facilitate activating the NEIG, I am hosting Zoom informational meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of the month. Perhaps we can help groups in that area be better represented at the World Service level, either by reorganizing the NEIG, or helping groups find their way to existing intergroups. Members who live in Delaware, Maine , Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York State (not City), Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. may be interested in joining us! The Zoom Meeting ID is 828 4636 6544, and we will be meeting the third Tuesday of the month in August and September with the hopes of having a proposal for the Structure Committee in advance of their November meeting. I can be reached at stampwithtara@yahoo.com or by calling 207-590-8631.
Monthly Board of Trustees Liaison Report Highlights
July 19, 2020
Vision for World Service:
“Whenever anyone, anywhere realizes they have a problem with food, they think of GreySheet.”
World Service has four core functions to achieve the vision. Here is our progress to date:
World Service has four core functions to achieve the vision. Here is our progress to date:
- Integrity of the Greysheet
- The GreySheet Committee will present its report, Clarifications of GreySheet Abstinence and Sponsor Guidelines, to the Board of Trustees on August 16th.
- Website
- The Website Committee will publish a Group Registration form on greysheet.org so that all GreySheeters Anonymous groups can re-register within 90 days. This will improve the meeting information on the website.
- Literature
- A subcommittee of the Literature Committee is editing the final chapters of Living Abstinent. They will send the manuscript to the entire Literature Committee by August 16th and the Board of Trustees by September 20th.
- The ISRs and Chairs approved the Responsibility Statement and the Literature Committee will publish it to the fellowship by the October Video Forum
- The Board of Trustees has conditionally approved French and Slovakian translations of the GreySheet.
- Public Information
- The Public Information Committee is reviewing new Member Stories for the website. https://www.greysheet.org/getting-started-greysheet/member-resources/member-s-stories
- GreySheeters Anonymous public Facebook page - here is the link to the pamphlet If You are a Health Professional- https://www.greysheet.org/images/pdf/Health_Care_Professional_trifold.pdf
Help Wanted! Service Opportunities
Reflections Zoom Writing Workshop: Next meeting is August 29 at 11:00 AM ET
Zoom meeting ID: 203 332 604
Only 90 days of B2B GS abstinence is required and the willingness to share your experience, strength and hope in this daily reflections for GSers book-in-progress! The title will be One Meal at a Time.
If you cannot come to the writing workshop, email reflections@greysheet.org for guidelines and submit any time.
Zoom meeting ID: 203 332 604
Only 90 days of B2B GS abstinence is required and the willingness to share your experience, strength and hope in this daily reflections for GSers book-in-progress! The title will be One Meal at a Time.
If you cannot come to the writing workshop, email reflections@greysheet.org for guidelines and submit any time.
Audio Links
If you missed one of these meetings, or prefer listening to reading Service Matters, you can listen to the audio or read the notes here:
Notes from Board of Trustees Town Hall July 26, 2020: https://bit.ly/3jJQXRS
Notes from Concept 9 meeting: https://bit.ly/30CkBQr
Notes from Tradition 9 meeting: https://bit.ly/3jF5Vst
Notes from Committees Connecting meeting: https://bit.ly/32JD7bY
Notes from Board of Trustees Town Hall July 26, 2020: https://bit.ly/3jJQXRS
Notes from Concept 9 meeting: https://bit.ly/30CkBQr
Notes from Tradition 9 meeting: https://bit.ly/3jF5Vst
Notes from Committees Connecting meeting: https://bit.ly/32JD7bY