The
main body of the report below describes PHANA Council’s progress and immediate
forward program. Appendix 1
contains proposals presented by the Council Coordinator for the Board’s consideration.
1.
PROGRESS HIGHLIGHTS SINCE OUR SEPTEMBER 2000 REPORT
1.1
Contact Information
We completed collecting
contact information for US and Canadian Helpers, Counselors, Apprentice
Helpers, and Trainee Helpers. We
need this information to enable us to send out invitations to join PHANA, and
to determine the size of the potential PHANA membership. We collected the information directly from regions and
chapters because existing Foundation records were not up to date and did not
include Pathwork Counselor, Apprentice Helper and Trainee Helper information.
Not including Trainee
Helpers, the maximum potential current US and Canadian membership of PHANA is
162 :
147 Helpers, 4 Counselors, and 11 Apprentice Helpers. We also collected contact information for an additional 49
Trainee Helpers, and 13 Trainee Counselors.
1.2
Leadership Circle Consultation
We completed a project
to consult the Pathwork Leadership Circle concerning critical elements in our
plans for setting up PHANA. These
elements are: (a) Annual Fee Schedule; (b) Helper Criteria; (c) Design of the
Public PHANA Register; (d) Design of the “Members Only” PHANA Register.
All the comments that
we received were positive in tone. The
proposal attracting the most attention was that relating to annual fees.
Views generally supported the proposal as it stood -- i.e. a graduated
schedule of suggested fees based on total income from all
sources, leaving it to the individual to choose whether to pay more or less
than the suggested level of fee – subject to a minimum of $25.
A minority advocated approaches involving fees fixed at one or more
levels -- either a fixed fee for each of the different categories, or a single
fixed fee.
1.3
Helpership Standards
During this period, we spent considerable time and energy discussing what
approach to adopt with respect to Helpership standards, particularly standards
for Helpership training and qualification.
One of the critical
considerations in our debate was that standards are of little value if they
are not implemented. Given the
autonomous nature of the regions and chapters in the US and Canada, the only
standards that are, in practice, going to be implemented are those that the
leaders of training programs agree with, support, and commit to.
This
key consideration eventually led us (after considerable debate) to adopt what
might be termed a “community consensus” approach to Helpership standards.
In practical terms, we propose to prepare materials for discussion by
leaders of Helpership training programs.
We envisage the need for a future meeting of such leaders, at which
these leaders can come to some consensus concerning how far and how fast they
wish to go in setting Helpership standards.
The next Pathwork International Conference is a possible venue for such
a meeting.
We have started
the work of preparing materials for discussion by leaders of Helpership
training programs. So far, we
have developed a table of “Initial PHANA HTP comparables.”
This seeks to document simple objective factors such as “Minimum # of
years of PTP normally required prior to entry into HTP”.
We have scanned the HTP documents available to us (all HTP programs in
the US and Canada, except one), and have completed the table as far as
possible using information in the documentation.
There are currently many more table slots that are empty than table
slots that are full, so we will be seeking information from the different US
and Canadian HTP programs to complete the missing information.
1.4
PHANA Web Site
We had previously set up the PHANA web site (www.phana.org)
as a means of opening PHANA Council work to the community.
In this connection, we had posted minutes of PHANA Council meetings; a
draft PHANA mission statement; a statement of benefits that complements the
mission statement; the October/November 2000 Pathwords article on PHANA;
and a Council Membership page that explains the Council's membership and names
Council members, including their affiliations.
During this
period, we started the process of developing the site as a resource for
materials relating to Helpership. To
this end, we have posted the following verbatim Guide materials:
2.
IMMEDIATE FORWARD PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
2.1
Invitations to join PHANA
Our
principal tasks in the next months are to:
We
propose to send a tailored version of this package to Trainee Helpers and
Trainee Counselors.
In
addition to issuing invitations within the US and Canada, Foundation Board
members have asked us to open PHANA membership to overseas Helpers. At
the same time, they ask that we have adequate procedures for verifying the
qualifications of people accepted as PHANA members.
Additional
work and consultation will be needed in connection with overseas invitations,
for example consultation concerning whom to invite, determination of what fee
levels may be appropriate, and work on questions relating to verification.
We are unwilling to delay setting up PHANA in the US and Canada while we
address questions and concerns relating to overseas invitations. We
therefore propose to concentrate our initial efforts on invitations to
Helpers, Counselors, and Apprentice Helpers within the US and Canada.
When this work is sufficiently advanced, we will be in a better position to
work on details relating to invitations to overseas Helpers.
2.2
Register of US & Canadian Pathwork Training Programs
We
propose to start posting Pathwork training program (PTP and HTP) information
on the PHANA web site, subject to the agreement of the programs concerned.
We propose that individual programs be able to post more or less information,
depending upon their individual wishes, subject to some minimum set of fields.
Assuming that a program wishes to be listed, certain fields would be required.
Examples of proposed required fields are: the name of the program; the
location in which most of the training takes place; the duration of the
program; and how to obtain further information.
.
The 4 Counselors already
enumerated are also Trainee Helpers, so the total number of Trainee Helpers is
49 + 4 = 53.
APPENDIX
1
TOWARDS
MAKING PHANA FINANCIALLY SELF-SUPPORTING
THIS APPENDIX
The
ideas in this appendix arose out of a conversation with Louise. Although
time did not permit adequate prior PHANA Council discussion, Louise advised me
to document the ideas in time for consideration at the Trustee’s Sao Paulo
meetings.
PHANA’S
MEMBERSHIP/FINANCIAL PROSPECTS
These
prospects are not good! As things presently stand, there is little
incentive to join PHANA. Helpers who do not join PHANA can continue
to call themselves Helpers and can continue to practice. In addition,
they save themselves the cost of joining. This position is much less
favorable than that in more established professions, in which there are very
strong incentives for professionals (e.g. medical doctors, lawyers,
psychologists) to join and maintain membership of their respective
professional associations.
If
PHANA is to achieve financial self-sufficiency and make a substantial
contribution to the Pathwork, it will have to find ways to make membership
more attractive. The best way to do this is to find ways to provide a
number of useful services that are available only to PHANA members, or for
which non-members have to pay. Examples of possible services include
referral services, web publicity services, and provision of useful contact
information. The remainder of this appendix focuses on the last example,
because the imminent establishment of PHANA and other developments offer
particular opportunities in this area.
CONTACT
INFORMATION OF PEOPLE INTERESTED IN THE PATHWORK
Adequate
access to contact information is needed for effective promotion of the
Pathwork, especially in areas without a strong regional center. If
Helpers in an area can learn of the new people in the area buying/using
Pathwork materials, they can include these people in their mailing and/or
email lists and are in a better position to encourage these people to join
local Pathwork groups and (say) start working with a Pathwork Helper.
Without adequate flow of such contact information, growth of the Pathwork in
new areas is greatly hindered.
The opportunity exists to both improve the flow of contact information
(assisting the growth of the Pathwork, particularly in new areas), and improve
PHANA’s membership/financial prospects. One way to do this is as
follows. When PWF/PWP sells materials (e.g. the new CD-ROM, books, and
– subsequently – distributes lectures via the web), the recipient could be
asked to indicate if he/she did not want to receive occasional publicity and
information concerning Pathwork activities, events, and new materials.
This procedure is used by many businesses, particularly in sales over the Web.
If the recipient does not indicate otherwise, his/her contact information
could be passed to his/her nearest individual PHANA members and
regional/chapter organization. There are different ways that this
procedure could be implemented. One way would be for PWF/PWP to pass the
contact information to the PHANA Coordinator, who would administer the
distribution. If necessary, further safeguards could be worked out.
For example, conditions could be set on the use of the contact information
distributed in this way. PHANA members and participating
regional/chapter organizations not agreeing to these conditions would not
receive contact information.
Implementation of the arrangements outlined above would help ensure PHANA’s
financial viability by giving Helpers more incentive to join PHANA. By
joining PHANA, they would receive contact information for new people in their
area that are interested in the Pathwork. This would help their
promotion and publicity and would help them build their practices. The
improved publicity and promotion and expanded individual practices would
assist the growth of the Pathwork.
PROPOSALS
1.
That PHANA Council indicate in its forthcoming invitations to join
PHANA that it is developing new services for members, including the provision
(with safeguards) of access to contact information.
2.
That I work with PWP and the Foundation’s Technical Committee to find
ways to implement services along the lines outlined above.
Roddy
Duchesne
PHANA
Council Coordinator
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