"Learning To Dance Together"

by

Bruce A. Robertson, M.S.
President

Bruce Robertson's Editorial first appeared in the AAGT Newsletter, Summer, 1998, as "The President's Corner." The AAGT Newsletter is free to all members of the AAGT. If you are interested in membership in the AAGT, contact Todd Butler or Sarah Toman, membership co-chairs.

Attempting to create a way of operating as an organization that would be guided by the principles of Gestalt therapy has been the consistent and focal energy. From the early Town Hall meetings to the completion of our third independent conference, we have been committed to the ongoing, unpredictable process of attempting to keep the balance of building organizational structure while questioning and developing the way we operate. A particularly difficult challenge.

We ask a lot of ourselves as a community. We meet only once a year face-to- face, add new members while losing others, and continue to move forward between our meetings; we attempt to hold on to a balance of open, inclusive dialogue over great distances within the press of timely deadlines. From my perspective, this year's conference presented some very encouraging signs that both our process and the supporting organizational structures are maturing.

With the addition of a second day to our Community Meeting we were able to create a progressively contactful environment that provided much better support for us to delve into the important issues. In general, we were able to support open, lively dialogue, hear minority views and allow them to influence the majority, resolve some dilemmas quite creatively, all the while supporting time boundaries. While we need to continue our growth in this process, the sense of community support and "good will" was very evident.

As we moved into the general conference, I was impressed with how far we had come in just our third year of meeting independently. Things seemed to go so smoothly that I was aware how easy it might be to take for granted the systems that have been built and honed for the last four years of Conference Planning Committees and the guidance and leadership of Liv Estrup, our Conference Coordinator. Although the conference planning has taken a great deal of our energy, in my view it has provided us a foundational experiment in organizing, developing and debating structure, and learning how to use and focus our energy.

Lastly, there is nothing like a great party. Our Saturday Dinner/Dance was, to put it mildly, amazing. The energy, fun, and shedding of inhibitions seemed the most illustrative of the current sense of our community. It was such a grand experience being amidst all of the energy and movement; people fluidly changing partners, dancing in groups, wildly enjoying themselves. At one point I had the fantasy of walking up to the microphone as the band was playing and proclaiming, "Ladies and Gentleman, I believe we have achieved consensus!"

While I came away with a great deal of optimism, I also carry with me a sense of continuing to focus on where we are heading. As good as things can get, we must always make room to hear the voices of those less satisfied. We need to continually improve our ability to hold both our pleasure and others difficulties together without letting one spoil the other.

As President, I have a couple of items important to me that I would like you to consider. First, I would like to see our energy expand beyond the success of our conferences towards other important interests in our organization throughout the year. I would like to continue creating infrastructure that relieves our volunteer staff from time consuming details and allows them to focus on creating and expanding the membership's areas of interest. Second, I want to address our communication and associating between our meetings. Our increased reliance on information intensive/low contact mediums like e-mail, while important for our efficiency is new to most of us and has nuances and difficulties that need to be addressed. We all disperse to such great distances that holding onto the fullness of our community throughout the year is crucial for our growth.

I hope we dance again soon.