What we have seen, after a few months of working in the previous dedicated committee format is that the Alliance is increasingly dedicating itself to events—to that extent that each of the four committees are actually involved in or charged with creating events. In fact, it is really what the Alliance is all about. All those events that are now being offered or considered typically fall somewhere within the four areas we articulate on the home page (and the navigation menu): Dialogue, Explore, Experience, and Pollinate. 

• For example, the Deep Meet and Greet is really an event that focuses on Dialogue—interaction, interconnection among Alliance members, creating a welcome and valued member experience.
• More traditional webinars such as the Cross-Cultural/Archetypal Psychology webinar with Pat Berry and Gustavo Barcellos that took place on December 10 is an example of an event that might primarily fall in the Explore category (these are the events that are mostly educational).
• A dream group, or a group such as the Vocation group you may have heard about was highly Experiential—that is, a group that focuses on actually using Depth Methods such as Active Imagination, Dreamwork, using the IChing or Tarot, etc.. These, of course, fall into the Experience category.
• “Pollinate” events will be focused on how to help people access tools or resources that will help them extend depth psychology in the world. These offerings will range for “how to” kinds of classes that teach people writing, publishing, how to build workshops or webinars, or marketing/promotion— through to depth coaching groups or courses that help individuals discover their calling and identify how to share their work or amplify an existing practice.

With the evolving understanding that all board members, volunteers, and likely many community members could and should be able to vision events of one kind or another and make them come to fruition, we wanted to open the opportunity and suggest that committees become ad hoc, or project-based—that is, they come together around a particular project, and once that project is complete, they either dissolve or shift focus to another project. This also relieves pressure from any one committee or committee chair to make events happen. Instead anyone who has the time and passion to take on a project can do so, either championing or leading a project on their own by plugging into our emerging EventStream process (Vision, Validate, Vivify)

To that end, we are implementing a “Library of Ideas” where anyone who would like to see a certain event or program take wing can fill out a standard 1-page proposal (Vision) and have it reviewed (Validated) by the board (or a review board) for relevance, ease and/or cost of implementation, and experience/credibility of the presenter, and then make it come to life (Vivify) by plugging it into the program management process. These ideas/proposals may be created by anyone, even if it is not something they would want to teach or facilitate directly.

Once the idea goes into the Library, others may step up to teach or lead it, or the sponsor may seek out or identify someone else to do it. If other board members, volunteers, or Alliance members want to be involved in making it happen, a new ad-hoc committee comes into being—or the sponsor may take it to an existing committee/task force and see if they will take it on.

Under this new format, the previous committees, especially the Education committee led by James and the Programs/Events committee led by Donna, for example, will likely continue to exist much as they have, but they will be free to focus on the programs or events that James and Donna personally want to champion and pursue. 

I know James, for instance, initially dedicated himself to the Education committee with a desire to help create a more sophisticated and detailed certificate program in Depth Psychology, so hopefully he will continue to focus on that with the existing committee members. He has been distracted over past months with other educational events/standalone webinars, etc. that, while educational, aren’t necessarily what he would ultimately like to focus on. This allows him to return his focus to a more specific goal.

Donna, for example, has lots of ideas in areas of her own personal interest, storytelling, writing, etc. that she will want to pursue on behalf of the Alliance; she also has a gift for helping and supporting others who want to Vision and Vivify their own offerings, so I suspect she (and that group) will not be short of projects anytime soon!

I just wanted to reiterate how grateful we are for your continued engagement and desire to be involved. As a volunteer-led organization, every single one of us counts. We want to continually ensure that each of us has the opportunity to be involved a way that makes sense and that supports and enriches any individual’s gifts, desires, goals, and passions.

I see this shift as a wonderful opportunity to assess if there is anything else/different you would like to be working on than you have been in past months—and, by the way, that includes helping with the process itself. As you can imagine, there is a lot that needs to happen in the way of 1) helping everyone organize their ideas for events or programs, along with their filling out the proper proposal forms and 2)building the “Library of Ideas,” then actually 3) executing on the ideas. We will need more people available to interact with project sponsors and presenter/facilitators, to help get event registrations set up and notices on the calendar, and to keep everyone involved up to date. It’s an extensive process, and one that is bound to grow exponentially in 2016.

I want to continue to encourage everyone to involve yourself in at least one working group/ad hoc committee. Besides Donna's group and James' group which both have active projects under discussion, there is also the evolving Pollinate group, initiated by me but led in large part by Dorene, and the Conference Planning group, which will be primarily headed up by Brent, with input from Jennifer Selig, one of our volunteers and core faculty at Pacifica. I will continue to be involved in each of these where I can.

If you are planning to lead or sponsor an upcoming event or group, please reach out to Audra Miller (Audra Miller) and copy the Ops Committee (Craig, Bonnie, Dorene, and James) so we can make sure we are tracking and troubleshooting the process as we get up and running.