Hello Everyone,

I hope you all are enjoying the summer! It’s a little early to be thinking about our next General Service Board meeting which is still two months away but I wanted you all to have plenty of time to familiarize yourselves with a vote that we will be taking. We want to be sure that we have as much informed input as possible as we move forward.

At our October General Service Board meeting, we’ll vote on two items: Shall we continue to support EDA Groups using outside literature? and Shall we continue to support EDA groups that affiliate with other Twelve Step groups?

If you have questions, please contact Lynn (lynn@eatingdisordersanonymous.org).

Shall we continue to support EDA groups using outside literature?

Current Position: EDA groups can use outside literature in EDA meetings

• We agree that EDA groups may continue to use outside literature
• This means we find the use of outside literature to have negligible impact to EDA as a whole and that the use of outside literature does not dilute the EDA message of what is required for recovery from an eating disorder.

Alternate Position: EDA groups should only use EDA literature in EDA meetings

• Even though EDA shares core components with other Twelve Step fellowships, and many members belong to these, EDA groups should not use outside literature in EDA meetings because it defocuses attention from what we in our collective experience agree matters most for people seeking recovery from an eating disorder that are not explicit in other programs.
• Considering the number of people who have been confused about what is and what is not EDA’s process of recovery after attending groups that use outside literature, we agree that the GSB should advise all EDA groups to use only EDA literature as this keeps the focus on the critical components of EDA’s process for recovery.

Shall we continue to support EDA groups that affiliate with other twelve step groups?

Current position: EDA groups may identify as “(other Twelve Step group) friendly.”

• EDA members who belong to other fellowships may find support at “Twelve Step Group friendly” meetings that they otherwise would not. This means that we think EDA groups can maintain focus on EDA’s process of recovery despite the association with other Twelve Step programs that have a different focus.

Alternate position: EDA groups should not affiliate with outside entities, even other Twelve Step programs.

• While recognizing that any individual EDA member may have affiliations outside EDA, we agree that EDA group affiliation with outside entities is at cross purposes to EDA’s singleness of purpose, and a direct contradiction with Tradition Six.
• We agree that EDA’s process for recovering from an eating disorder is distinct from that of other Twelve Step programs and deserves exclusive attention at all EDA meetings.
• Brief mention of other Twelve Step programs as part of people’s stories is no endorsement. EDA groups should not list themselves as “(Other Twelve Step program) friendly.”

For more in depth discussion please see the GSB Quarterly Meeting notes.