A Challenge to the ASGPP

Mon Mar 16 09:38:33 CDT 2009

Dear All,
I have been on the ASGPP Council for only a very short time (2 years) and during that time I have tried to come to understand as much as I possibly can the issues facing ASGPP.  Ir seems as though there have been so many.  We have changed the role the council plays in the conference, we have changed the political structure of the council, including the Executive Director role (which was no easy task and took well over a year to resolve), we have changed how the conference is being administered, in addition to struggling with the 'journal' issue, the website/forum issue, and the increasingly difficult financial issues of having a balanced budget.  Quite a bit for a volunteer group of people who meet in person only twice a year and pay all of their own expenses to do so.  

I agree that there are many things about the conference that require change and certainly I think having a committee research and discuss a variety of structures and possible locations can only be beneficial to all of us.  Does the award banquet situation need to be fixed? yes  Do we need to figure out a way to make the conference more affordable to more people? yes.  Are there other conference models that might work better for us?  Possibly.  Do we need to study the efforts of other successful professional organizations? Yes.

However, Ed, it seems as though you are representing the council as a group of people who don't want to change and are 'resisting' change in some way.   I think that's an unfair representation.  Since, I've been on the council it seems as though all ASGPP has been doing is changing.  Being able to produce any type of conference, given the financial, political, organizational challenges ASGPP has faced in the last two years is an amazing feat (at least to me it is) and only possible due to the determination, hard work and perseverence of much of the ASGPP membership (not just the council).  Will we survive another year?  I don't know.  I've heard from the elders that this organization has been through many transformations and reincarnations so I have some hope that we will weather the storms that we face in this current 'economc' tsunami and find creative solutions to our problems.  

We need to ask the questions you are asking and you need to be on a committee to try and find ways we can re-envision the conference and I'm glad that you are moving in that direction.  Please also recognize the hard work that is being done by many to try and keep ASGPP alive at this point.

Thanks for listening, 
Linda Condon

--- On Mon, 3/16/09, Edward Schreiber <edwschreiber at earthlink.net> wrote:

From: Edward Schreiber <edwschreiber at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: A Challenge to the ASGPP
To: "Adam Blatner" <adam at blatner.com>, "Group talk Listserv" <list at grouptalkweb.org>
Date: Monday, March 16, 2009, 6:01 AM

I just got an email from a long time member of our society telling me, in response to my post, that she will not be attending the conference, that she had to cancel her workshop, that the $1000. it would cost to get there, stay there, be there was now unaffordable.  She is about to receive an award from our organization, and cannot attend.  What more do we need to realize our structure, location, format is keeping people from us?  

We are stuck - mired if you will - in a conference structure, place and timing that is not allowing us to grow.  And what's painful, for me, is our method is one of the most needed.   I have not fantasy about why "people don't change" as Adam suggests.  I am an activist, spiritual at the core and I am putting out the challenge we form a small group to redesign the conference to advance the conserve.  If we don't, we stay where we are, in the decline.   Best,   Ed

On Mar 15, 2009, at 11:05 PM, Adam Blatner wrote:

Dear Ed and all, 
    First, good for you for passing alonng the IEATA conference information. (Interestingly, I've communicated to them my desire to get these announcements but they didn't send me one. What does that say about publicity skills?)
      I do support building bridges with related organizations, and recently suggested to one of their ex-officers that they tell folks about our conferences and also the IAGP conference. 

      Second, you seem to be implying that we model our conference on theirs, though there are a variety of differences. Could you be more specific in your suggestions?
    Please don't assume that any disagreement or hesitancy can only be interpreted as fear of change or any of the other reasons you fantasize that people don't change. Here's another reason: What (fairly specifically) would you suggest as an alternative? What are the pros and cons of your suggestion? Every political move has disadvantages as well as advantages. 
   Warmly, Adam 

--- On Sun, 3/15/09, Edward Schreiber <edwschreiber at earthlink.net> wrote:

From: Edward Schreiber <edwschreiber at earthlink.net>
Subject: A Challenge to the ASGPP
To: "Group talk Listserv" <list at grouptalkweb.org>
Date: Sunday, March 15, 2009, 7:41 PM

Dear Colleagues,
How much are we willing to stay stuck in our conserve, a conference structure that no longer meets the needs of the larger community to hear, learn, grow with our method?  We keep the same format, the same awards dinner for the same selected people who can afford to attend, the same on-going structures that frankly are becoming stale.  A recent letter by Zerka to the President and the Council has called for us to grow.  Yet what I continue to hear is fear, resistance to take a leap.  So here's the challenge:  Read the enclosed and see what we could offer to the world - with the will, creativity, and drive to bring our method to the world in a way that grows us beyond the conserve our conference has become.

Here's an example:best,Ed
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