Many thanks to an OA buddy who posted this on Facebook:
Building contractors are looking forward to updated building codes requiring floors in all publicly accessible spaces to be reinforced. To be fair, this could have happened at lots of Overeaters Anonymous meetings I’ve been to except, when I reflect back, the meetings where the members tend to be heavy, also tend to be lightly attended. Perhaps for OA, this is a self regulating problem?
Wait! Is there a mathematical formula that we can bring to this situation:
P = Population within 45 minutes of the meeting site.
M = Meeting size
B = Average BMI* of population within 45 minutes of the meeting site (+)
b = Average BMI of OA member at meeting (-)
A = Average months of continuous abstinence from compulsive eating(+)
W = Willingness factor (increases after January 1) (+)
B/b = Attractiveness ratio. Values greater than 1 are attractive.
Yielding this formula:
M = P x (B/b) x (A/12) x W
Essentially, larger population centers start with a larger audience. Meetings where members are thinner** than the local population have a higher attractiveness ratio. The willingness factor is a tiny fraction and is determined empirically based on local experience and is affected by meeting facility, time of day, day of the week and competing meetings.
For the meeting I attended this morning, which had an attendance of about 100, W = 0.000005
Whew. Thank God it’s Lunch time!
* I know. BMI is not a perfect measure but it is a measure that is not unreasonable for most Americans, which is where I attend meetings.
** Thin is not well. I get this. The reality though at the OA Meetings I go to is that most members are not there due to under eating. Some are and they are very welcome.
4 users commented in " They don’t make floors like they used to. "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI was flummoxed by your math until I was completely gobsmacked by the fact you had 100 people in the last OA meeting you attended.
Wow. The largest meeting I attended maybe had 15 people in it. Recently, we’ve been getting newcomers in droves, though it never seems to really raise the population that much. We probably get one person who stays out of every dozen who drops in (and drops out for the most part). I feel sad when they don’t come back because I kinda I want people to feel okay about themselves. It was hard to keep coming back in that first month, but I knew that I had to give it a fair shot before I went seeking my miracle in a new place.
Turns out I’m gonna stick around until I get my miracle.
I don’t know if this is the biggest meeting in the area but it probably is. This meeting has a lot going for it. It’s early on Saturday so you can attend and still have a full day ahead. There is lots of long term abstinence at the meeting and it shows on the member bodies. There are sponsors available every week. The cafeteria is a 10 second walk from the meeting room and lots of members bring their breakfast and continue fellowship over coffee. Parking is free. It’s also a very diverse group of members.
I would love to have more diversity in our meetings. We have a Saturday morning meeting that sounds similar to yours (large, full of long term abstinence that shows on bodies) but we do not have a lot of diversity. We’re mostly average basic white women and men (we do have about 25% men in our meetings, so that’s something).
But I’m from a very diverse area and I know there is such a large population that we are not reaching…yet.
I’m aware WSO is working on getting literature out to non-English speaking persons or persons that English is not their most spoken/read language, but it takes time. We have to attract one, who then attracts another, who then attracts another…well, you get the picture.
Where’d'ja gooooo?
I’m hoping that you’re so busy with work and recovery and all the good things in life that the blog’s gotten put aside for a bit while you’re out there making the world a better place.
If it’s not so sunny, well, I’m still looking in on you. After all, yours was the first OA blog I really started following. Your blog was what made me think: “Holy cats, I really can do this . . .”
So, hope to see you soon–unless you’re wind-surfing off the coast of some gorgeous sandy-beached paradise taking in the azure sky and clear cobalt waters and the stunning bleached-pale sands. Life is a really good reason to miss a few installments.
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