“Meetings are gatherings of two or more compulsive overeaters who come together to share their personal experience, and the strength and hope OA has given them. Though there are many types of meetings, fellowship with other compulsive overeaters is the basis of them all. Meetings give us the opportunity to identify and confirm our common problem and share the gifts we receive through this program.”
Tools of Recovery pamphlet, p.4 © Overeaters Anonymous, Inc.
You are welcome to attend any meeting without calling first. However, there are sometimes unexpected changes due to holidays or unforeseen circumstances. While these changes will usually be mentioned on the website, it may be wise to call the phone contact and check.
Please also note the definition of open and closed meetings:
Open Meeting: Open to OA members and non-OA visitors. All meetings are considered open unless otherwise indicated.
Closed Meeting: Restricted to those who desire to stop eating compulsively (OA members and others who think they may have a problem with food).
COVID 19 NOTICE DECEMBER 2021: All face to face meetings were forced to close during the initial pandemic lockdown in April 2019. Since then, as restrictions have eased, face to face meetings in our Intergroup (and around the UK) have been slow to reopen with many choosing to move online for the foreseeable future.
If you are looking for a meeting please use the ‘Find a Meeting’ function on OA.ORG in the first instance, there are a number of ways you can access a meeting:
Please be mindful that this service is run by OA volunteer members and while they endeavour to keep it as up to date as possible some details may be slightly out of date or have not been updated yet so please check in with the individual group where possible.
For virtual meetings in the UK please visit the OA UK Virtual Meetings Spreadsheet hosted by our friends at the Overeaters Anonymous UK, Europe and Beyond Virtual Intergroup.
Guide to using the oa.org meeting list
Face to Face meetings
There are 3 different ways to find a Face to Face meeting using the oa.org Find A Meeting function. Start by selecting Face-to-Face meeting then search as follows:
By town or city
Select ‘Other Countries with Meetings’ in the ‘Select Your Location’ drop down menu. Choose the country (i.e. England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland) and you will be taken to a list of towns/cities with meetings in that country. Choose your town or city and click ‘Search’ then scroll down the page to see the list of results.
By postcode or place name
To search by postcode or place name, please type your search term in the box marked ‘Enter your zip code and select a distance.’ Select a distance then click ‘Search’ and scroll down the page to see the results.
By Intergroup area
Click on the ‘Find a Service Body’ box. Ignore the ‘Select your Location’ option, and where you are requested to enter your 5-digit intergroup/service board number enter 09139 to obtain and then search/sort results for SEEIG meetings.
Online meetings
As well as being a great additional meeting source for all members with internet access, online meetings are particularly valuable to those who might find it difficult to get to a face to face meeting because of location, health, child care or work shifts, for example.
Select ‘Online meetings’ and then choose ‘British Time’ from the ‘Select your Time Zone’ menu. Click search, and if desired sort the results by language spoken, time, day, special topic, special focus etc. by clicking on the ‘Sort Results By’ drop down menu.
Follow the instructions posted for each individual meeting to take part.
Telephone meetings
To join a telephone meeting anywhere in the world, select Telephone meetings and then follow the instructions as for Online meetings above.
Calls into telephone meetings are NOT free of charge. Regular long-distance charges will apply based on the long-distance plan callers have with their telephone service provider. Some members have had problems with phone calls being blocked.