Join PHANA

PHANA Membership Application Form

Download the Adobe Acrobat PDF format here.
Download the editable Word RTF format here.
Download the HTML version here.

Dear Pathwork Helper;

This is an invitation to become a member of PHANA, the Pathwork Helpers Association of North America.

As of January 2007, we have eliminated all membership fees. This reduces the association to a single purpose - the establishment of an on-line database of Pathwork Helpers in North America.

Membership requires only your signature, renewed each year, on an agreement to abide by the Stages of Commitment and the PHANA Code of Conduct. The application asks for the name of the Helpership Training Program which certified you, or the region you currently associated with. We will contact them to validate your status as a Helper If you have not been a member of PHANA previously.

We hope in the future to expand this database to Pathwork Helpers in other countries and continents. However, if the PHANA database is not useful enough within North America to attract at least 50% of all certified Pathwork Helpers, then perhaps the concept and overall mission of PHANA needs to be reviewed and updated before being put forward as an international model.

Below is information about PHANA's overall mission and some details about how it functions.

I hope that you will consider PHANA membership.

Regards, Jan
Jan Rigsby
Pathwork in Texas
rigsby@pathworktexas.org
www.pathworktexas.org

PHANA Membership Application Form

Download the Adobe Acrobat PDF format here.
Download the editable Word RTF format here.
Download the HTML version here.

PHANA Mission

Our mission and purpose have been evolving steadily over the past 8 years.

At this time, membership in PHANA is a free service offered to Helpers who have been certified by any North American Affiliate or Helpership Training/Development Program. I use the term 'service' because PHANA is shifting from a membership-oriented group into a community-oriented service program. Current services include:

- Maintaining an online database of PHANA members. This list can be used for locating Helpers as well as an opportunity for new workers to get some idea of the breadth and scope of Helper practices. Our database includes a 200 word description of each Helpers' practice, plus links to their websites.

- Development of a uniform Code of Conduct for Pathwork Helpers, available for download at www.phana.org.

- Creating opportunity for the practice of the Stages of Commitment, by asking that each member make an annual commitment to the Stages and to the PHANA Code of Conduct. Our intent is to encourage ongoing dialogue and peer input which might inspire and support both PHANA members and Pathwork community leaders. The opportunity that we create is for Helpers - both PHANA members and non-members - to know who has made an ongoing, public commitment to the Stages.

- Administrating the Pathwork Teachers Helper (PTH), available at both www.pathwork.org and www.phana.org. This database of worksheets, charts, and program/class outlines is available at no charge to Pathwork Helpers, teachers and Helpership students worldwide.

While some members have suggested that PHANA create a form of continuing education requirements, PHANA Council has chosen to recognize that Helpers have the right to follow their own individual guidance around their practice of Helpership rather than create and impose an imperfect organizational bureaucracy.

PHANA Authority

- PHANA's sole authority is to develop criteria for membership, and to accept or deny applications for membership. PHANA Council has sensed strong resistance to any expression of, or intention to create, any regulatory type of authority over its members.

- Some form of mediation or arbitration may be needed if conflicts emerge between members or should issues develop around a member's practice of Helpership. PHANA Council will take, as it's authority, each members agreement to abide by the Stages of Commitment. There are those who ask, but how do we enforce the Stages? As the sole PHANA Council member for the past year, my perception is that we cannot enforce integrity without there being positive intention on both sides to discuss, uncover and explore openly what differences of opinion or practice might have brought such a question of integrity forward. It is critical that we create a container for enlightened dialogue before we can ever consider what to do in cases where positive intentionality is not present.

PHANA Membership Criteria

- I have attached a PHANA Membership Application in .rtf format, which can be filled out and emailed back. Receipt of the completed from from your email address will be accepted as agreement to support and abide by the Stages of Commitment and the PHANA Code of Conduct. There are no other requirements for membership. You may participate in submitting your information for the online database at www.phana.org, or you may decline to be listed, at your discretion.

PHANA Finances

- Membership dues were eliminated as of February 2007. Donations to PHANA are greatly appreciated, as we will rely upon donations and our current cash fund (collected through previous membership fees) to pay for the www.phana.org website domain and hosting fees. We also encourage our members to make donations to the IPF at their discretion. PHANA funds are held and accounted for through the IPF, as we are not a separate legal entity.

The Outlook for PHANA

Eliminating membership fees created space for PHANA to find its essence and its purpose. PHANA Council no longer needs to focus upon marketing, membership and accounting tasks. The question of whether or not PHANA (as an association) is needed or desired is now placed squarely into the hands of those it claims to to serve: Pathwork Helpers.

If half of the Helpers in North America join as members, our online database will reflect a representative picture of Helpership and a reasonable effort at a national registry. Otherwise, we are only a self-selected group of Helpers and we cannot represent the full flavor and scope of Helpership in North America. If half the qualified Pathwork Helpers in North America won't join a free of charge association, PHANA needs to be dissolved or re-invented.

During 2006, all but one member of PHANA Council resigned. Within that void, it seemed that PHANA's mission needed to be simplified and focused onto one topic: the essence of Helpership. While that decision was made by me as sole council member, Pathwork taught me that there are no accidents, no coincidences. My willingness to take charge and make radical changes must have been what was needed. I can also accept that there may still not be sufficient need or support for a Helpers Association at this time. Therefore, after 8 years as a PHANA Council member, I intend to resign in June 2008 whether or not new council members step forward.

If PHANA cannot attract enough members to remain vibrant, strong and representative by then, or additional Council members to continue the process, in June 2008 I will dissolve PHANA by turning over all remaining funds to the International Pathwork Foundation, and taking the website off line until the domain registrations and hosting contracts run out. Until then, I will work to support and strengthen PHANA by administrating the online database, soliciting membership, and staying in communication with PHANA members about this process.

The Pathwork Teachers Helper (PTH) is utilized and valued by Helpers and Helpership students worldwide. Dottie Titus continues to administrate the database, which is accessed through the www.pathwork.org website. The PTH will be able to continue with volunteer help.