Committee Report: 

Conferences & Publications Committee

Meeting Date: 6/25/13

Attendees: James, Patricia, Bonnie, Brent

On the topic of publications, we discussed:

• · Producing a periodic academic journal
• · Establishing an Editorial Board, hopefully confirming some high profile names
• · Whether or not to make it available in print (minimal cost, no color) or to keep it as an e-Journal
• · Whether or not to assign a theme for each issue
• · Whether we should bundle our first issue with the conference and publish a selection of the papers presented at the conference—that way we have a theme and sure contributions
• · Whether we might have people post blogs on the Alliance as proposals and draw from that for articles
• · Whether we should turn “successful” issues into print books and sell them
• · Whether we can adapt the current e-Zine, Depth Insights, to make it fit our goals

I’m not sure we discussed, but additional comments & info that occur to me are the following:

• · Depth Insights eZine is just beginning a new publication cycle with submissions for the Fall issue due next week, the reading and editorial group in the process of being confirmed, and me and Alliance member Paco Mitchell managing the process together as we did last time. I think it makes sense to keep everything as is for this cycle, then revamp for the next issue, Spring 2014 (publication in March or April) with submissions due in December. That will give us time to start on the next steps: that is, to put together an Editorial Board and revamp the strategy and branding of publication.

• · Currently Depth Insights is free, so we will need to determine if we charge subscription fees or request voluntary donations.

• · I’m wondering if/how we could make our journal totally unique from the others out there. My vision for the “eZine” was to make it interactive (especially making use of the “e” part of it. Being online and not having to translate to a print version gives us lots of potential, meaning more pictures and links. We’ve even accepted a video as a submission this time around. Is the use of multi-media the angle that can set us apart, or is it just doing what everyone else does but really well, with more integrated topics?

On the topic of Conferences:

Brent is fresh off of producing a large conference on the Pacifica campus and has some worthwhile experience we can draw from

• · We should be able to plan and execute a conference in 6 months to a year
• · Where would be a good location? Bonnie suggested San Francisco because:
  • it’s a destination that easy to reach with flights (vs someplace like Santa Barbara where people often have to fly in to L.A., then rent a car and drive for an hour to get there).
  • It’s also someplace most people would like to visit anyway so they may be motivated to pay to come for a conference. There is already a broad base of people who are interested in Depth Psychology: we had around 70 people last year for an event the Alliance hosted for Patricia and her co-editor, Naomi Lowinsky’s, book launch and we’ve regularly had about 30 people for meetup/speaker eventings (granted they’ve been essentially free events)
  • There are lots of schools in the area that might offer to host for free, including CIIS right in SF, or JFK in the East Bay, or Sonoma State University (back to driving an hour or more from the airport for the latter two, though).
  • It’s close to Bonnie and Patricia, somewhat to Brent who is in L.A. and Jesse who is in San Diego. Uhh…Mark, James, and Esther. Should we consider Denver, Chicago, or London instead? J
  • · Maybe the conference theme could be based on the Mission Statement for the Alliance – something about educating people about depth psychology, possibly “What is Depth Psychology moving into the future?” Patricia mentioned the idea of finding places where things intersect, so maybe we could have speakers on various topics that explore how depth psychology has expanded since Jung, who didn’t want it to be “fixed.” We discussed “Jung and Shamanism,” “Jung and Neuroscience,” “Jung and Bion,” “Jung and Philosophy,” etc.

Next steps would be:

1. Finalize a theme
2. Find a location
3. Pick a date
4. Find keynote speakers
5. Work out the finances – how much to charge, would we need seed money, etc
6. We didn’t discuss, but possible call for volunteers from the community to help bring it all together

Bonnie will put together your input on the mission statement this week and send it out so you all can see where we are currently and we’ll finalize something (even if its provisional) so we can use it to determine the theme for the conference and aim of the publication. After that, we agree on a city and start scouting locations (or vice versa—maybe the organization who steps up with a location will determine the city!...)