- Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon O.A. unity.
- 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.
- The only requirement for O.A. membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively.
- Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or O.A. as a whole.
- Each group has but one primary purpose-to carry its message to the compulsive overeater who still suffers.
- An O.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the O.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
- Every O.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
- Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
- O.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
- Overeaters Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the O.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
- Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
- Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
Reprinted with permission from the World Service Organization of Overeaters Anonymous