Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon The Recovery Group's unity.

Overeaters Online Recovery loops and meetings are set up for the express purpose of sharing experience, strength and hope with one another. We ask that there be no posting of disruptive messages. Anything that one would share in a face-to-face OA meeting is welcome here. Anything not appropriate to share in a face-to-face meeting is not appropriate on our loops or in our meetings. We also ask that no chain letters, virus warning hoaxes, and things of that nature be sent. In our loops and in our meetings, our members are lovingly guided to keep the needs of the whole group in mind. We are not alone anymore ... we are connected to our fellow human beings around the world. The Recovery Group's unity is a life and death situation for us and we take this tradition very seriously.

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.

When there is a need, the Recovery Group will have a group conscience where each loop member is entitled to vote. The group will abide by the collective decision of the group. Our trusted servants volunteer for their respective jobs and rotate service every twelve months. The head of Overeaters' Online Recovery is a loving God expressed in our group conscience. Each member of our fellowship is important and each member shares a responsibility for the operation of our group.

The only requirement for membership in the Overeaters Online Recovery Group is a desire to stop eating compulsively.

The only requirement to be on our lists or to attend our meetings is a desire to stop eating compulsively. No person who has this desire will ever be barred from our group. The Overeaters' Online Recovery Group is where we learn to open our hearts. The Recovery Group is where we have unconditional acceptance. And, if we want it to, Overeaters Online can become our recovery home.

Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or the Recovery Group as a whole.

The Overeaters' Online Recovery groups seek only one affiliation ... and that is with Overeaters Anonymous. Because guideline Four gives OA groups the freedom to do what works best for them, the Recovery Group has set up guidelines and procedures which work best in cyberspace. Our discussion groups and meetings are unlike face to face meetings because we serve hundreds of compulsive overeaters 24 hours a day 7 days a week. There are technical skills demanded here of Trusted Servants that face to face meetings do not require. But because we are OA members we are more alike than different and the Twelve guidelines serve us the same as they serve our brothers and sisters in the face-to-face meetings we also attend. Overeaters' Online Recovery groups strive to always live by the principles embodied in our twelve guidelines.

Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the compulsive overeater who still suffers..

Our primary purpose is to bring the message of recovery to the compulsive overeater who still suffers and is reaching out for help in cyberspace. This is a vast medium which has been underutilized and has great potential for carrying this message. Recovery Group members realize that we cannot keep the precious gifts of our own recovery unless we give recovery away by sharing the message of the Twelve Steps of Recovery.

An Overeaters Online Recovery group ought never endorse, finance, or lend its name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

Overeaters Online Recovery is neither for nor against any outside enterprise. We turn away dozens of requests to use our fellowship for everything under the sun. But our mantra is "Keep it simple" and we know if we deviate from our primary purpose of carrying the message one iota that we will no longer be able to keep the simplicity and the wonderment of our beloved guidelines. So we are dedicated to "First things first." We are blessed to have this miracle in cyberspace. We will not take it for granted by participating in outside issues or enterprises.

Every OA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions

The Recovery Group does not accept outside contributions. We urge members to make contributions to OA through the World Service Office. Our Trusted servants who rotate their services volunteer their time. Our staff and administrators are also OA members who use their skills both technically and otherwise to help their own recovery through service to others. Our operations are simple and our members send their donations directly to OA and to those who benefit us technically. Because the collection of money is precedent setting and dangerous in cyberspace, we ask that all contributions by members be sent directly to the OA WSO office and, if they wish, to the University Foundations which provide us with services.

The Recovery Group should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

The Recovery Group has no need for service centers, thus, no one is employed by the Overeaters Online Recovery loops. While we have many "professionals" among us, there are no professional Recovery Group members; therefore, we all have an equal opportunity to do service. We have found no need to have paid professionals in our Overeaters' Online group and no need to have a Treasurer among our Trusted Servants. All contributions have been and will continue to be sent directly to OA WSO where there is a need for these contributions.

The Recovery Group, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

The Recovery Group has Trusted Servants who work with other Trusted Servants in an Intergroup. This Intergroup is responsible for dealing with any business matters. Because of this Intergroup and the procedure for members to participate in it with business matters, our loops and meetings are left free to discuss experience, strength and hope rather than business matters. Our emphasis is on fellowship .. not organization. We live by the spiritual principles embodied in the steps and guidelines. Our personal and group survival depend on this.

The Recovery Group has no opinion on outside issues; hence our name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

Our world thrives on controversy. The Recovery Group does not. We are a diverse group and have members coming to us from all over the world representing different backgrounds and cultures. While the world around us may be in turmoil, we have found a haven. The Recovery Group takes no position on those controversial matters. Recovery is where we learn to live and let live. Seeing someone come into our rooms hopeless and finding the miracle of the twelve steps of recovery provides us with our own miracles day after day. So we carefully guard this tenth guideline of having no opinion on outside issues.

Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television, and other public media of communication.

The Recovery Group loops and meetings are open only to people with the desire to stop eating compulsively and who request to sign up on the lists or attend our meetings. We are not a public medium of communication. Members may use their real names, or screen names, whichever they choose. Members are urged to respect the anonymity of those they meet on the list. We have faith in our program ... attraction and not promotion.

Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these guidelines, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

We ask that the Recovery Group members respect anonymity and confidentiality. Anonymity is one of our most precious possessions. We know that we must always place principles before personalities if we are always to have our fellowship. We know that what we could never do alone, we can do together ... and that breaking our anonymity or the anonymity of our fellow sufferers is just not an option. And in the Overeater Online Recovery groups ... blessed with our Higher Power's help ... it will never be an option.

The Recovery Group is a recovery home and flames, attacks and unkind words are not welcome here. Those who persist in doing this will be reminded of the guidelines and asked to stop. If necessary, they will be disallowed to post until they can commit to the Trusted Servants that the guidelines will be followed.

We speak the language of The Recovery Group here. Religion and politics are two subjects that seem to cause controversy and we ask that members confine their sharing to their experience, strength and hope. We do unto others here in the Recovery Group as we would have them do unto us.