The Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous

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 non-professional, 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.