Elections for six trustee positions will be held at the World Service Business Conference (WSBC) in 2025.

A trustee application is available on the OA website for use by any qualified OA member wishing to apply for the position of trustee. All applications must be submitted on the original trustee application form. For a specific job description, please refer to page 3 of this letter.

Eligible OA members wishing to be candidates for trustee should contact their region office or their region chair for information about the region’s procedures for selecting nominees and for the appropriate deadlines. Each region may nominate up to three candidates. All applications for trustee must be signed by the region chair affirming the candidates’ nomination by the region.

All candidates for trustee must be present to address the delegates at the World Service Business Conference. Candidate speeches, followed by questions from the delegates, will be held on Monday, May 5, 2025, and elections will be held Thursday, May 8, 2025. Trustee application forms must be received by the World Service Office no later than Monday, February 3, 2025. This is a firm deadline. Applications received by the World Service Office after that date will not be considered.

In addition, the Board of Trustees created a Trustee Nominee Reimbursement Fund that commenced in 2005. It is available to OA members submitting an application for a trustee position under the following conditions:

  1. That the nominee is qualified according to OA’s Bylaws, Subpart B;
  2. That the nominee is present at the World Service Business Conference business sessions;
  3. That the nominee is not a region chair or fully funded World Service Business Conference delegate;
  4. That the nominee has requested funding from the affirming service body. In the spirit of Seventh Tradition self-support, it is requested that, where feasible, each nominee be funded in some portion of the expenses by the affirming service body. If the affirming service body is able to fund one or more delegates to Conference, the trustee nominee shall be one of their funded delegates. If appropriate, the trustee nominee may apply for assistance and attend as a visitor;
  5. That the nominee submits a request for funding along with their nomination, and confirmation from the service body as to the amount of funding they will provide the
    nominee, as well as a current financial statement from the service body. The request Trustee Nominee Application Instructions 2025 Page 2 must include an estimate of room (shared) and transportation costs and the amount of advanced funding required, if any;
  6. A nominee may apply three times within a ten-year period and may not request funding in consecutive years. Each nominee’s ten-year cycle will begin with their first year’s application;
  7. That the nominee presents the requisite receipts within thirty days of the end of Conference; and
  8. That the total amount of the reimbursement fund be divided among all nominees requesting money on a pro rata basis but under no circumstances will any nominee
    receive more than $1,500.

For a trustee nominee reimbursement application, please contact Sandy Zimmerman, World Service Office associate director/member services manager.

As per OA, Inc. Bylaws, Subpart B, Article VII – Board of Trustees, Section 2c), Item 1 (see job description starting on page 3), below is the list of 2025 Executive Committee and Board of Trustees meetings.

Executive Committee Meetings
May 24, 2025 (videoconference)
June 21, 2025 (videoconference)
July 19, 2025 (videoconference)
September 20, 2025 (videoconference)
October 17-18, 2025 (Albuquerque, New Mexico USA)
December 13, 2025 (videoconference)

Board of Trustees Meetings
August 18-20, 2025 (Orlando. Florida USA)
November 14-15, 2025 (videoconference)

If there are any questions, please contact the World Service Office by telephone, mail, or email.

Application Deadline

February 3, 2025: Deadline for trustee nominee application forms to be received by the World Service Office

Questions?

Please contact Sandy Zimmerman, CMP, Associate Director/Member Services Manager at the World Service Office.

Overeaters Anonymous, Inc.
PO Box 44727
Rio Rancho, New Mexico 87174-4727
USA

Phone (505) 891-2664

szimmerman@oa.org

OA Inc. Bylaws Subpart B, Article VII – Board of Trustees, Section 2 – Duties and Responsibilities

  1. Each trustee shall serve and represent Overeaters Anonymous as a whole. The members of the board, subject to the laws of the State of New Mexico, are expected to exercise the powers vested in them by law in a manner consonant with the faith that permeates and guides the Fellowship of Overeaters Anonymous, inspired by the Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous, in accordance with the Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts of OA Service, and in accordance with the bylaws.
  2. Subject to the limitations of these bylaws, and to the action of the delegates at the Conference, all powers shall be exercised by or under the authority of, and the business affairs of the Corporation shall be controlled by the Board of Trustees. Without prejudice to such general powers but subject to the same limitations, it is hereby expressly declared that the trustees shall have the following powers:
    1. To act as guardians of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, ensuring that they are not altered in any way, except as specified in Article XII of these bylaws.
    2. To act as guardians of the Twelve Concepts of OA Service and to promote the understanding and implementation of the Twelve Concepts of OA Service at all levels of service.
    3. To conduct, manage, and control the affairs and business of the Corporation and any charitable foundation organized in conjunction with or allied with Overeaters Anonymous as they may deem best, and to make such rules and regulations consistent with law, the Articles of Incorporation, or with these bylaws, or the action of the Conference taken through the delegates at the Conference.
    4. In reference to Article VIII, Section 1, to designate a manner or method for holding meetings of the delegates or any other meeting as required.
    5. To manage in such a manner as they deem best all funds and real or personal property received and acquired by the Corporation, and to distribute, loan, or dispense with the same and the income.
    6. To call to the attention of any group or service body any non-adherence to the Twelve Traditions or the Twelve Concepts of OA Service which the trustee believes the group or service body has made, acting only in an advisory capacity in matters affecting Overeaters Anonymous as a whole.
    7. To speak on behalf of Overeaters Anonymous in all matters affecting Overeaters Anonymous as a whole.
    8. To provide for and supervise publications of Overeaters Anonymous.
    9. To furnish counsel and guidance to the members, groups, and service bodies.
    10. To supervise and guide education and attraction efforts of Overeaters Anonymous.
    11. To provide forums for the interchange of ideas and information among groups and OA service bodies and to be instrumental in carrying the OA message of recovery to compulsive overeaters.
    12. To perform such other duties as may be directed by the delegates at the Conference.
    13. To prepare and present an annual report to the delegates at the Conference.
  3. Specific Duties
    1. The trustees shall attend Board of Trustees meetings and Executive Committee meetings, if applicable, and the annual World Service Business Conference.
    2. The assigned trustee liaisons shall be the representatives of the Board of Trustees in their respective regions and at the region assemblies.
    3. The Executive Committee shall have general authority with respect to the routine conduct of the business affairs of the Corporation, including the following specific duties:
      1. To maintain a World Service Office and to receive and disburse all funds contributed to the World Service Office for the benefit of Overeaters Anonymous as a whole, so that the Fellowship of Overeaters Anonymous need never be organized in any legal or official manner.
      2. To receive, manage, control, use, and disburse in such manner as the board may deem advantageous to Overeaters Anonymous, all gifts and contributions, monies, and properties of every kind received by the Board of Trustees for Overeaters Anonymous. The board must decline all outside contributions in accordance with Tradition Seven.
      3. To have the books of the Corporation and any and all affiliated bodies, foundations, and nonprofit corporations audited and to furnish an accounting of all financial transactions at the regular annual meeting of the Conference.
      4. To submit minutes of the Executive Committee meetings to the Board of Trustees.