Seacoast Intergroup is a service board made up of representatives from each of the registered Seacoast OA meetings, and which serves as a liaison between the meetings and the larger OA organization on the regional and international levels (OA Region 6 and OA World Services, respectively). Each individual OA group may elect two representatives to attend the monthly Intergroup meeting.

We gather once a month at York Hospital in York, Maine, to do the business of our groups and of Overeaters Anonymous on the local level. Intergroup facilitates communication up and down “the chain” from members and meetings to Region 6 and the World Service Office. For example, before the pamphlet A Plan of Eating was added to the current OA literature offerings, members’ ideas and opinions were solicited and considered.

The relationship of members to World Service looks like this:

Members >> Meetings >> Intergroup >> Region 6 >> OA World Service

The business of Intergroup is quite varied and reflects what the individual groups and members want and need. The most basic responsibility of Intergroup is outreach—to carry the OA message to other compulsive overeaters. We achieve this goal by maintaining and printing quarterly meeting lists, supporting this web page, and funding the telephone-answering service. Additionally, we communicate to the individual meetings when important changes are being considered on the regional and international levels.

Intergroup also distributes individual meeting contributions sent to us. We follow the suggested guidelines set forth by World Service: 10 percent of all revenues received goes to Region 6, 30 percent goes to World Service; and we retain 60 percent of donations to maintain our budget. The current budget and balance of the Intergroup treasury is reported on each month at the Intergroup meeting.

Intergroup periodically organizes workshops for members or the general public and offers assistance to other local OA Intergroups or Region 6 for other workshops or the annual convention.

Intergroup is available to address any concerns of members or meetings and to offer any assistance it can in helping carry the message of recovery to those who still suffer.