8. Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers. ~ 8th Tradition of OA

I don’t have time to move the chairs,
to pull out the books…and put them up.
Let Sara do the secretary job
and Alice take care of the money.
They’ve done it long enough
it’s easy for them and we’d hurt their feelings
if we changed, if we ran them out.
I have a life, you know…a job, a family,
other organizations. Surely someone else
can take care of that.

Someone will take care of it,
but it’s not their job — and that’s GOOD!
Sure, you don’t have to do anything.
The only requirement for membership
is a desire to stop compulsive eating…
but you get there by doing the jobs.
But not your job. It’s not yours by right
for having done it so long. We rotate service,
share the load and the privilege,
of keeping OA vital. Doing service
is not our job, not our duty…
but it is the way to strengthen recovery,
ourselves’ and others’, and to change a job
into joy.