Congress Scuttlebutt

International Congress Snubbing of Barstow Teacher Trainers Have you noted that at the coming Irish Congress, as Teacher Trainers for the Continuing Education series in the morning, neither myself, Cathy Madden, Don Weed, Catherine Kettrick, Bruce or Martha Fertman are offered as Presenters for the Master morning classes? I am not sure of the process these days, but the last Congress I attended (the first Lugano Congress) I was invited to be one of the teachers in the Continuing Education morning classes. So were Cathy and Bruce. For those who don't understand: the Congress divides into three parts. Afternoons are for those who submit workshop plans, evenings for special events. The morning consists of the "leading AT Teachers of the world" offering their insights as "Continuing Education" for the benefit of all other Congress participants. These teachers are by invitation only, I assume the same process continues? Looking at the Irish Congress line up, I am struck by the absence of any teachers (who also train teachers) that are directly representative of Marjorie Barstow’s teaching technologies. The teachers who trained with Marj, that's who I mean. Mio Morales is the only candidate, yet Mio has not (as far as I know) been involved in the biz of training his own teachers? Mio is a great teacher and a wonderful man - I’ve had him come teach at BodyChance in Japan and LA, so I am a fan - but Mio is not an active teaching member of our teaching profession in the way that Cathy, Don, Bruce/Martha, Catherine or myself have been. Cathy Madden, for example, has been a Continuing Education teacher at ALL the previous Congresses, but was not invited to the Irish Congress to teach. Why? I’d love to know, maybe you would too? So please write to the Congress Directors - NOW! - and ask. I wrote to the Congress Directors asking for a reason, and expressing my strong wish that she be invited, but all I first got was a polite reply from their secretary, with no immediate personal explanation from any of the Directors. Apparently this is not an issue that merited the use of their time for a considered reply. Why don't you try? admin©atcongress.com I hear there's been a changing of the guard recently - maybe the new lot are more responsive. I tried and got nowhere. I was not invited as a Continuing Education teacher, but I expect that. No surprises. Nor I assume was Don Weed, Bruce Fertman, Catherine Kettrick, Martha Fertman - but I don't know that. I know that Cathy got no invitation this time, despite the fact that Cathy travels the world giving AT teacher workshops and is a hugely popular and widely recognised teacher of teachers. Why no invitation this year? The spirit of an “open Congress” sounds rather hollow and empty to my Barstow ears. There are lineages in our work - it’s the way we are in terms of our craft - so this is not sour grapes, this is a genuine question concerning balanced representation of these lineages. I am the only writer I know to include descriptions of these lineages in an AT primer book - and I (naively?) assumed that a Congress that purports to be apolitically representative would give equal opportunity to each lineage? At the coming Irish Congress, that is sadly not the case. A huge piece in the development of the work is notably absent from the morning classes. Perhaps I should start our own Barstow Congress?