The European Focusing Association
Minutes of General Assembly 2022
Bassano del Grappa, October 15th 2022, 15:45 – 18:15
Present: Dietmar Steinbach, Ruth Hirsch, Cornelius Gehrig, Amona Buechler, Lucy Hyde, Regina Jürgens, Bo Zimmermann, Monica Lindner, Yehudit First, Ria van Hage, Michael Callifronas, Hejo Feuerstein, Georgeta Niculescu, Florentina Palada, Karine Audeguy, Teresa Dawson, Heidrun Essler, Rosella Salari, Fiona Parr, Sari Pekki
1. Opening the EFA General Assembly 2022
Welcoming words by Cornelius Fiona introduced the colour cards – how to use them to support our communication.
The minutes of the assembly were recorded by Sari; checked by Fiona, Amona and Dietmar
2. EFA Vision statement
Fiona introduced the EFA vision statement to the meeting participants.
The EFA vision statement can be found on the EFA webpage.
3. Next EFA gathering
Dietmar opened the discussion on the next EFA gathering.
To have the meeting in 2023 in Bassano at Villa Angarian was suggested.
Decision:
• Amona will check available dates with the villa. We will propose provisional dates and decide tomorrow.
– The suggestion: the weekend of October 28th-29th, 2023 and related days
– Maybe having one day more than this year
• We need to check If there is a conflict with other events or conferences. Members were asked to let EFA know if they had such information.
Other suggestions and comments:
• Next time it would be nice to have the possibility to go to the town and explore the city, maybe considering this in the programme
• A suggestion to fix the dates as soon as possible
• Focusing Conference Vienna 2026: Regina had information from Catherine Torpey that there are plans for 2026. However, this is not confirmed yet.
– Celebrating the 100th birthday of Gene Gendlin
– Making a film about Lore Korbeit: an invitation to contribute in the form of materials, stories, money, etc. Please contact Regina: kontakt@regina-jurergens.de
4. Website & Facebook
Dietmar introduced the EFA website project.
Currently, there are constant technical problems with the EFA website. Due to the old structure of the website, it is essential to move forward, to have a stable website. Dietmar and Amona have been carrying forward the project, based on the ideas that Hejo, Michael and Sari started in 2021.
The new EFA webpage is utilising the BFA webpage structure, on their permission. The first step is to define a basic structure, and then move content from the old website to the new one. The technical expert is Gilbert from Germany. To fund the website, the members can contribute some money for the website work and server fees. Gilbert will send an invoice against the payment. An interest group is also needed to carry on the webpage project to the next phase when the first step is completed.
Comments:
• Approx. 1200 euros will be needed in the early stage
• Michael volunteered to be an editor of focusing text and help with the translator tool with Hejo. This will be the next development step when the basic webpage is published.
Facebook
The Focusing Europe Facebook page is currently not updated, and only a limited amount of people can publish there (5 administrators). Rather than giving administration rights to more people, it would be better to form a Facebook group in which all members can publish their events and start conversations. An interest group for Facebook development is also needed.
5. Funds collected
Funds to cover meeting room costs were collected at the gathering. The assembly decided to give a portion of the remaining funds after the payment to the website project and a portion to the villa personnel as a tip or donation to the community.
6. Interest groups
The following interest groups have been mentioned or were formed in the gathering. Should anyone like to join an interest group, they are invited to contact interest group members directly.
1. Teachers group: 3-4 members usually participating, formed by Fiona and Freda
2. Website project, first phase: Amona and Dietmar; in the next phase, Michael can join
3. Facebook page and group: Ruth, Yehudit, Sari
4. Interest group for having practitioners to be recognised by TIFI: Ruth and two other members
5. EFA conference 2023-24: Michael
6. Climate change: Teresa
7. Monthly meeting for all EFA members: Hosted by Fiona, supported by Amona, Michael and Dietmar
8. Suggestions / under consideration the following groups
• Suggestion having another interest group about “How would that Focusing city look like?: Monica and Ruth
• Maybe: Social Oriented Focusing – How to bring focusing in our daily actions: Yehudit
7. Other suggestions or comments
• Suggestion to have organised meetings 2 or 3 times a year in the monthly meeting
• Interest groups will be made visible on the EFA webpage, informing how to join
• Ways to contact the members and be in connection
– Newsletter
– The new EFA webpage
– Facebook and Facebook group in the future
– Monthly meetings
– Email discussion list: european-focusing-discussion-list@efa-focusing.eu
• EFA is gathering input or insights about our gathering
Please send to email efa@efa-focusing.eu and Dietmar will include it in the website
8. Steering group
• EFA invites people to let the steering group know if they are interested in joining it.
• Ria von Hage joins the steering group as a new member
9. Closing the General Assembly 2022 by Cornelius