responses41507

[HV Psychodrama]

    Here are my two or three cents about some of the issues being raised...the ASGPP continues to have similar problems to many other organizations for the simple reason that people have far more limited time and money than they used to years ago. This limits involvement. I presented at the drama therapy conference three years ago and it had around only 200 people. Conferences are time consuming and have become expensive. The is a concern throughout the field of creative arts therapies. On the other hand, the American Group Therapy Association had over 1000 attendees to its NY conference.
    I attended my first conference thirty (Yipes!) years ago. It had over 1000 attendees. Why? First of all it was the main (only?) major conference for all the creative arts therapies, second of all people's work places used to pay for their registration fees (and often paid for their training, too) and third of all it was pretty inexpensive. It was also the era of intense interest in personal growth. There were other things about the conference that were not so good, like un trained people offering workshops that were downright terrible and sometimes destructive. But that is another story.
   My biggest issue with the conference is that we are still holding it in a very expensive hotel. Several years ago, when Mario Cossa and I were council members, we strongly encouraged the council to consider holding a conference in late May through June at a college after students are gone, where costs could be kept down. I am going to bring this up at the membership committee. We need to attract the uncommitted and less committed...and a conference that costs up to a  $1000 for registration and lodging is not the answer. As long as the conference is held at a major city hotel it is going to have to be run the way it has been...because of the involved financial commitment.    I think we are still trying to run conferences like it still the 20th century, rather than meet the needs of this century. We are stuck in a conserve. 
    Why not hold it at a college or boarding school. Or remember the one in 1994 that was held at Mt Airy Lodge in the Poconos off season? What fun. Some folks ended up six people to a large room to keep down costs. We all ate meals together, sang songs late into the night around the heated pool....I think this was organized by Clare Danielsson. The cost was reasonable. 
   My concern is less that people within out community feel marginalized, I suspect that ebbs and flows. In my personal experience I was very uninvolved for about ten years when I was raising young children, then I found my way back in. ..But I am concerned  about not attracting and keeping new and younger members. We are rapidly aging, and we are not being replaced by younger folks. Where are all out members in their 20's and thirties?
   
 Every year there are folks disgruntled by choices, schedules, inclusions, exclusions. I have also been, and I don't consider myself on the margin of our society!  A recent award winner's conference proposal was rejected...only her pre or post conference proposal was accepted. My own pre conference proposal was cut to a half day. There isn't going to be any playback theater this year. I am not happy about all this, but neither am I privy to all the issues/concerns/etc with which the program committee had to deal. Next time I am going to ask to be on the program committee. 

We need to remember, PEOPLE VOLUNTEER to do the work to put on the conference.  It is easy for us to sit in our offices and homes and type out both deserved and undeserved criticisms of the ASGPP,  If we want there to be changes we need to roll up our sleeves and get in there, run for the council, get on committees. Offer to put on a conference in your own area and get involved from the start. Elect council members who share your concerns.
   
    I am very involved with the efforts to get the theater at Boughton Place restored. (more about that at a later date). What I have noticed is that there are many people who have feelings and opinions about what needs to be done, how it should be done, what should be saved, what should be discarded, but very few willing to show up and do the actual work. And those of us who are showing up for the work,  get bombarded from all sides. We spend hours of our time and tremendous quantities of out energy. It would be nice to hear a thank you for all that you are doing. 

So I want to extend my thanks to the council members and the conference committee(s) for the huge amount of work they are doing.

And I want to address my concerns and express my criticism with out attack and without making it pesonal. 

It is raining cats and dogs and rhino here in NY. Hope the rest of you are a bit dryer.
Rebecca
  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Adam Blatner 
  To: list at grouptalkweb.org 
  Cc: drkateTSI at mac.com 
  Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2007 11:31 PM
  Subject: responses41507


  A number of comments to grouptalk and to the last three correspondents:

       1. First, to Patti... your email for Zerka is out of date.  it is no longer TMCeline at aol.com   but rather  tmceline at comcast.net

       2. you wrote to her...though I don't know if she has seen it yet, "I understand from Kate's email that you do not believe ASGPP is holding to these ideals."
              I am not doubting dear Kate, but I've found in such group networks that, as in the parlor game, "Telephone," what Kate heard may not have been what Zerka actually said or perhaps meant. So my approach is to be very questioning. I tend to ask, did you say something like this? What did you mean? And then think and check it out more with questionings. And of course you kinda said that..PD: ... would like to hear more about your thoughts on this." 

     3... when you said, "...as Grouptalk is a listserve that reaches throughout the world, I imagine there are many besides me who read Kate's email and   I have always experienced Grouptalk as a community of folks who offer openness in talking about ideas and sharing opinions given with respect and an interest in understanding group and individual concerns. In this manner can you say more about why you think ASGPP is a dying organization with thoughts on any changes you would like to see? And please, would other grouptalkers join in who would like to comment." -- the following occurs to me:
       ab: I am concerned that most of the executive committee is either not on grouptalk or if they are, they rarely show themselves. Remember, Grouptalk was excluded as an ASGPP-affiliated operation about a year ago, for reasons such as its international scope. Nor are there all that many ASGPP members on this listserve.
        I have spoken up at conferences and witnessed to this listserve being perhaps the most dynamic, "living" interactive process in the ASGPP, if not the world, in the sense of its interactivity, openness, dynamism. Yet many are "too busy" to be involved. 
        
    Then, to Kate: 
           you said:"asgpp needs to stop marginalizing folks and share the sociometric wealth."
                ab: While we agree on so many things, I'm not sure this is either an accurate or a useful diagnosis. I'm not sure what it even means. 
        Your example isn't bad--- the idea that being told only 1 of a person's submission would be accepted and then seeing folks with more than one does deserve some explaining. 
        
      You may be right about not being fully accepted because of some past concerns, and if so, you're right to challenge those concerns. On the other hand, maybe something else is going on. However, even if you're mistaken as to the actual issues involved, what does come across is the apparent lack of transparency. It's the opposite of encounter. We are left to wonder. (I remember Dorothy Satten's line: "If you don't disclose yourself, others will make up their own ideas about who you are.")

  .  It is a loss for aagpp and american psychodramatists that i am marginalized because some people do not presonally like me or are still holding a ten year old ethics complaint against me.
      kh: Zerka oftens talks to me that asgpp is a dying organizations for not sharing sociometric wealth, competitipn and other reasons. 
         ab if this is so, let's hear her reasons. 
      "Dying" is such a strong term. But I agree there's trouble, because the field has been marginalized---yes, that's the term, chosen correctly---in some of the major recent psychiatric texts and psychotherapy texts. And membership and conference attendance is marginal. 

  Then to Ed Schreiber

     4. I know some of us have feelings about our professioonal organization; I know I do.
             ab: I've had "feelings" for over thirty years, buffeted by the winds of sometimes appreciation, sometimes feeling ignored or snubbed... but I am more interested in thoughts, specific ideas. What do you think the problems are, and how might they be formulated so that they can be remedied.
       Over the years I've been free with many suggestions, such as in promoting recognition on the website for award winners. (Now they've got the names up, and I'm suggesting that we do more---put also the reasons for the awards. I think recognition is an important function, and it must be attended to carefully.
       For example: This next year, please tell all in your professional psychodrama networks --- those who are in the ASGPP -- to think about who might merit an award and try to submit some kind of nomination.
       And I'm always noodging about writing for the journal, as does Tom and a number of others.
               So, Ed, let's hear what you think can be improved.

       5. It's interesting that you say, "As someone who has felt on the outside of things with the ASGPP, somewhat marginalized..."  because you've moved toward center stage. Have you realized that yet? What's important is that it's quite possible for people who are sociometric at least semi-stars to not know it. How do we diagnose this element in the system?

         6. As to why people are reticent... well, it needs ongoing encouragement like you're doing, but from people who can be contacted, open to email reply. Look what I'm doing. Does anyone know I'm here? that sort of thing. It's this interactivity, the resonance of back-forth-and-around that raises morale.

     ab continues:  I acknowledge that in todays economy folks are often struggling to make ends meet. I suspect there is little surplus time and energy, volunteer energy to help with committees, etc. 
      
   ES: It's time for we as participant leaders to step up and be present in a kind of presence that respects one another and has but one criteria:  inclusion.
        ab: This is a most intriguing theme, because there are different kinds of inclusive behavior. Many acquaintances, friends and relatives are very inclusive if I show up, and I believe they're happy to see me and have me there.
       There's another level, though: fewer --just some---seem to be willing to go out of their way to get together. Now we're talking reciprocity. Do they email me, telephone me, answer my emails? Do they initiate emails to me?  A few do. Not many. Do they extend their hospitality to me, offer to take me to a meal once in a while? Now we're getting down to it. 

       There are other dynamics. If three people clearly resonate with positive tele and one expresses negative tele, it remains ambiguous: Will anyone support me? Does anyone notice? I'm reminded of the guy in the hospital visited by a member of his temple board, expressing sympathy, "...not only from me, but the whole Board expresses its desire that you should get well, by a vote of twelve to seven!"   (ha ha... get it? who are those seven?)

       In summary, Ed, Kate, and Patti have raise interesting issues. My suggestion is that council members be encouraged to join grouptalk, respond, make their email addresses available to the membership, let people know what committees they're on and ask for feedback regarding various issues. I would like there to be a far more vigorous invitation from ASGPP higher-ups to encourage and support grouptalk.

         What about the ASGPP forum? I've chatted with Mike Traynor, and might be intrigued that that could be a place for discussion, but as yet I'm not aware that there are a minimum of 10 people who regularly go there and are willing to discuss ideas back and forth.  

      Well, those are some thoughts. Warmly, Adam


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