Adam at the ASGPP Forums

Thu Jun 7 00:37:19 CDT 2007

Dear Adam (Blatner) and others interested in Adam’s comments about  
the ASGPP Forums a few weeks ago,

I can understand your caution about joining the Forum

on the American Society of Group Psychotherapy & Psychodrama website.

Your circumspection is very common I would say.

It may not be as easy a process for many people to go to the website,

and click on “Forums,” in that tiny horizontal blue line of words  
across the middle of the homepage.

It may not be convenient to “bookmark” a favorite Forum thread

so you can return to the same thread of discussion again and again,

without passwords or registration.

(Hamish, and others) As far as I can tell, you can go to all the main  
discussion folders right now

without any special access.  Like this one ;)(This is a link to a  
folder called “Poetry and Word Art,”

a whimsical and creative outlet that I am finding like painting with  
words, mine and others):

http://www.asgpp.org/ForumII/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=191&whichpage=3

You raise a good question when you ask (and I paraphrase)

“Who is invested in getting over there to the Forums right now anyway?”

I know that your time is at least as valuable as mine,

so for me it is also very much a question of where I want to “play.”

By the way, if by “play” you mean thoughtful creative dialogue

with the global community here on Group-Talk versus on the ASGPP Forum,

then yes I agree with your use of the term “play.”  I definitely want  
to play.

The question really is where is my best use of my “play” time?

So I have made my choice, to spend more of my time at the asgpp Forum  
than I do on Grouptalk,

even if it’s a lonely playground right now, but the participation is  
already climbing.

The number of members joining the asgpp forums in the last 6 weeks  
has increased almost everyday,

The number of people “playing” there by looking around,

and reading some of the topic discussions is growing also.

I am following John Rasberry, our new ASGPP Presiden,

in a statement made on the asgpp forum a few weeks ago on May 16,

urged us to be patient: “Hey Adam [Barcroft], Linda and all who have  
logged on.

This is great and can work.

Thanks for coming in. Be patient ! Remember the field of dreams.

John Rasberry

The source is here in the asgpp Mirror Forum:

http://www.asgpp.org/ForumII/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=184

Even if there aren’t enough people participating there to make it  
worth your while,

because there aren’t enough people checking in regularly for you to  
bother

saying anything and think it will be read, thought about, responded to,

you can still “check back” on the forum now and-then to see if  
something new is happening there since your last visit.

I am in the asgpp forums because I feel better focused,

less pressure to keep up with the the flurry of communication that  
happens on Grouptalk,

when I can’t possibly respond to all the different discussuion threads,

because for me it’s too many threads at the same time,

or they disappear a suddenly as they came and I never see them or  
they don’t repeat.

Aside from the topic summaries, Grouptalk is too diffuse, chaotic,  
and disorganized for me.

And I tire quickly of the endless scrolling through redundant emails  
attached to people’s Grouptalk submissions.

It makes my head hurt.  That’s part of why I like the Forums.

It’s a lot quieter and more organized.  Like a library, rather than  
the auditorium that Grouptalk is for me.

But I have to read Grouptalk because I care about our community, and  
I learn from our connections,

and the quality of exchanges I am seeing and so many ideas and  
experiences that I am learning from Grouptalk is educational,  
informational, entertaining, inspiring, often intimate, and a great  
place to “play.”

I feel the same way about the potential of the asgpp forum site, with

different established bands of creativity running through it, and new  
ones yet to be created.

Things are changing in the Forums, and the discussion areas have  
begun to take shape.

The work I have done there in the last 6 weeks to help get a few  
discussions set up,

have laid the groundwork for many more discussions to come.

That groundwork includes background, foundation, in essence, a warm-up

to later discussions with the degree of specificity you speak of.

The “platitudes,”  and “noble-sounding generalizations” that you  
refer to are intentional.

They lay the foundation for our collective discussions on Sociatry,

  for novitiates and students such as myself.   I am sharing the  
foundations of what I am learning,

  and on the Sociatry forum May 10th I asked you about your own  
strategies and ideas for Sociatry,

to help us begin to take the discussion beyond “platitudes and  
generalizations.”

I was hoping you would share with me some of what you know about  
Sociatry.

May 10th on the Forum you mention that there are a number of ways  
that you are approaching Sociatry.

  You also mention “applied role theory as a user-friendly common  
language for psychology and culture.”

I find these comments intriguing, so take as long as you need to  
respond.  Respond on Grouptalk if you like.

How to get the right people to listen to you sounds like a concern of  
yours too,

and where can you be (Grouptalk or asgpp Forum) so the “right” people  
will listen.

And I hear your point that many people that you would like to hear  
you don’t appear to hear you.

John Rasberry has, at my request, added an asgpp Forum topic folder  
called “Message From the President”  http://www.asgpp.org/ForumII/ 
topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=224

Where you can ask him questions, and make suggestions to him.

I think Rasberry is correct about the Forums: Be patient ! Remember  
the field of dreams.

Nothing can ever replace Grouptalk, but I like the new creativity and  
organization in

this national and global discussion community that the Forums provide.

As for the formatting challenges you raise about the asgpp Forum,

You can still cut and paste any email you want to respond to, and  
edit it like any email.

So I am not understanding your difficulty there.

Well, that’s all for now.  At this initial phase of the asgpp Forums,

I want to thank everyone who is showing interest by visiting there.

Talk with you soon, here or there,

Adam M. Barcroft

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/list_grouptalkweb.org/attachments/20070607/ff0a41a8/attachment.html 