Trustee Application – AD

The Assembly will be held on the 18th of May from 2 pm to 7 pm UK time

• Name: AGD – (Name removed due to GDPR)
• Years in OA – 15
• Number of years of service beyond the group level – 14
• Date continuous abstinence began – March 2011
• Date maintenance began – January 2012
  

I have read the qualifications for trustee, which are reproduced from the Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. Bylaws, Subpart B, on the last page of this form. As a candidate for a position on the Board of Trustees, my signature affirms adherence to those qualifications. (The application was signed by the applicant and dated for 10th May 2025)

Summary of my OA service responsibilities:

• 2023 – present: Chair of Trustees for OA Region 9 Charitable Incorporated Organisation (legal entity for OA Region 9, based in UK) overseeing development of policies and procedures
• 2024 – present: WSBC Delegate for OA Region 9, on Bylaws Committee / Reference Subcommittee, recently became chair of the “Everyone has a Voice” subcommittee of Bylaws
• 2024: Centre Mic for the OAGB National Assembly
• 2024: WSBC Delegate for Red Dragon Intergroup for Conference 2024, acted as Region chair for part of it, sat on Unity with Diversity Committee
• 2023 – present: Treasurer to OA Red Dragon Intergroup
• In 2023 my local intergroup hosted Region 9 for our first (very successful) Hybrid Assembly and Convention (I understand that was the first hybrid business meeting in OA ever)
• 2020 – 2023: Chair of OA Region 9, and member of the Region Chairs Committee – attended 2 virtual WSBCs as Region Chair, chaired 3 region assemblies 2 online and 1 hybrid
• 2017 – 2020: Treasurer of OA Region 9, Board Member and sat on Region committees including Service Traditions and Concepts, Loving the Differences (from 2017 to present day I travel with my work and offer OA workshops wherever I go; have spoken at national assemblies and workshops in Iceland, Denmark, South Africa, Poland and also delivered online workshops to fellows in Iran, also speaking online at numerous online international meetings with interpretation. As Region Chair my peace-building skills were used often in disputes between service bodies)
• 2018: Founder member of OA Red Dragon Intergroup – establishing new intergroup from scratch (acted in Treasurer role as the intergroup was small, unofficially as I was on the Region Board)
• 2017: Representative of NorthWest of England Intergroup to OA Region 9 in Rejkavik, Iceland
• 2015 – 2017: Vice Chair of NorthWest of England Intergroup

I can bring the following business, professional or other experience, and skill to the board:

I have a bachelors degree in Modern Languages and speak French and Welsh to a high standard, I have a post graduate degree in Management from Warwick Business School and a Masters degree in International Relations and Peace Studies. I have undertaken high level leadership programmes including winning a place on a prestigious senior management fast track scheme in my 20s which saw me in a senior management position in the Fire Service by the time i was 25, I also completed a year long leadership programme led by a council of Indigenous Elders from around the globe. I am director of two companies; the first is a Social Enterprise that I founded in 2017 (a non profit) which provides training and education in the field of Death, Dying and Grief; I am also director of my own limited company which holds royalties and income from my book sales, talks, workshops, webinars and I also lead ceremonies and provide doula care for the dying and bereaved. As the managing director of the social enterprise and lead facilitator I have steered that company through the pandemic, and it has scaled to become global in reach. I travel extensively as the lead facilitator of a diverse international team of facilitators that I have trained and manage. I teach and talk on international platforms, am a published author of 3 books on the topic of death and loss from the personal to the collective and systemic, I act as a consultant to community groups and organisations facing collective loss and or closing down their businesses. I am a ceremonialist and also travel internationally to act as master of ceremonies for conferences and festivals. My professional background was originally in youth work with innercity gangs, community development, public policy, social work and later working in hospice and palliative care. My main passions are around community peace building and collective grief and mourning practices. My skills include being deeply intuitive and visionary at times, a huge hearted people person with an endless love of humanity, I am a world class group facilitator, explainer of complex matters in simple terms, I am good with words, communication and in creating safety, inclusion and participation in group spaces. I also synthesise complex information and see patterns and suggest solutions to long standing problems. I am deeply honest, and forthright but diplomatic.

I would like to be a trustee for the following reasons:

First of all giving service keeps me well and being region chair kept me absintent through a pandemic that nearly sunk my company and during the last years of my mothers life and her death; consistently showing up and having something bigger than myself to think about is essential to my sobriety; so it is not entirely an altruistic act. I also see things systemically and holistically, I understand international and global dynamics, I see the threats and opportunities facing OA today; I am not afraid to look into the shadows and speak what I see. I want OA to endure these times, to evolve to meet these times and to meet its worldwide obligations of tradition 5 in a peaceful and abundant way. I am only applying for the one year appointment to “learn the ropes” with the view to applying again next year when I have a clear understanding of where my Higher Power wants me, what I can do best and serve the deepest and highest good; in the meantime I want to learn and to be part of sharing that weight of responsibility that I see my friends and fellows on the Board already doing. In the future, in God’s time not mine I would love to be a region liaison to Region 9 or even the Virtual Region; but region 9 is where my heart is (not that I would unseat Emilia of course) I would be honoured to carry the voice of the international regions alongside my friend Emilia and offer those insights I have from being outside of north america. I bring diversity to the board, if you elect me I believe I would be the first transgender trustee (I am trans non binary), I am also neurodivergent with learning disabilities which (as you can tell from my resume I manage well, but will need support). I have had an application form filled out since 2023 and have resisted until now, waiting for clear guidance from my HP when to submit it; now seems to be the time, thank you for receiving my application.

Brief account of my OA recovery story – physical, emotional, and spiritual:

I maintain a weighloss of over 100lbs from my heaviest weight, I have been abstinent using 301 food plan for 14.5 years, I am healthy, all of the various health problems that I had when I came to OA are no longer an issue. I am in a position of neutrality today regarding both food and my appearance. I practice the 12 step programme daily, I have a sponsor and I sponsor others; I practice the principles of the programme in all my affairs to the best of my ability and am well versed in the 12 traditions and concepts of service. !

I grew up in a addicted home, my parents were addicts, my father also a compulsive eater who died when I was a child, my mother was anorexic. I was obese as a child, anorexic in my teenage years, obese again by the time I was 20, through my 20s I yo-yo’d in diet clubs and on any weighloss fad going. I developed an addiction to exercise and orthorexia through my yoga teacher training years; I only ate green things and did yoga for hours every day. By the end of my 20s I was burned out, in mental health collapse and signed off from work so I sat at home just bingeing; my weight was rapidly increasing and a friend who was in AA mentioned OA to me. By the time I landed in OA I was suicidal and desperate; it literally saved my life. I attended a lone meeting in Chester that was started by 2 bulmics who met in AA, they were Big Book to the core and I knew no different, I did as they told me. I worked the 12 steps using the Big Book with a sponsor in 7 weeks and miraculously my food preferences changed towards a balanced 3 meals a day, no sugar, quite organically. I haven’t binged or purged in all these years.

I practice a very gentle, compassionate programme; I don’t restrict or control anything; I simply see my relationship with food as a barometer of my relationship with God; so if the food is “off” or my mind is “off”; I address it with a step 10. I have a very deep and abiding faith which sustains me, my God is not a deity, I believe God is Process and my process is God. This has served me very well over the years and reveals itself to me ever more as the years go on. I am physically fit, emotionally intelligent and spiritually aligned most of the time thanks to OA.