The Twelve Traditions
 

               1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends
                   upon OA unity.

               2. 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.

               3. The only requirement for OA membership is a desire to stop eating
                   compulsively.

               4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other
                   groups or OA as a whole.

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

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

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

               8. Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our
                   service centers may employ special workers.

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

              10. Overeaters Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the OA
                    name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

              11. 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.

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