SCTRI Board of Directors: Report to Members
May 2025
The SCTRI Board of Directors held our May 2025 meeting online, following our norm of 1 in-person and 1 online meeting per year. We worked for a total of 17 hours over 4 days. As usual, the first two days were a process group with the task of reducing the restraining forces to taking up our Board member roles. During the following 2 days, we worked on tasks relating to the organisation vision and policy. Between our last Board meeting in October and this one, we had engaged in 5 sessions of vision work with consultant Ken Eisold. The perspectives we generated were taken up in the 2 days of task work.
Process Work: Reducing Restraining Forces to Taking Up Our Board Member Roles
The Board was satisfied with the considerable progress we made undoing role locks held by several members. We experimented with a novel process proposed by one of our members, in which each member involved in the role lock shared their experiences of reality. Board members then joined, together exploring the experience held within the role. This took the experience out of the individual member (‘unstuffed them’) and into the group-as-a-whole. By doing this, we tested the validity of the theory, hypothesising that role locks organise the energy within a group, stabilising the system at the expense of development, and that undoing the system role lock frees that energy up for use in alternative ways. We collected considerable data which supported this, noticing the return of free energy, humour and playfulness. As a group we were free to join each other energetically in effective task work, including our vision for the future.
This work reminded us all that getting into role locks is a natural consequence of being human, and getting out of them is hard, but liberating. Also, getting out of them does not mean we get rid of them, but rather open them out, attuning so that we can explore what they hold for the system and thus moving from the known to the unknown.
Organizational Task Work
Vision Work
We found threads of vision level emerging as we explored themes that emerged from Action Group reports, such as the development of training in the future and pathways to generate income flow in line with our values and mission. For example, can the SCT Center’s online offerings become broader, even innovating some fee-based choices? This would be part of a larger investment in the online presence for SCTRI and SCT training. Important in this era!
As we worked, we emerged the plan for a small group of members with energy and capacity to “vision” to take the work further and bring back their discoveries to the October Board meeting. The group has 3 long-term members and two of the newer generation who have joined the Board in the last year. This is particularly satisfying as we recognize that many of the Board members will likely not be on the Board in 10 years’ time!
We invite you to join us at the “Meet the Board” gathering at the SCT Conference and contribute your vision for the future of SCTRI. If you are not planning to attend the Conference, send your ideas to Kathy Lum; she can forward to the vision working group.
SCTRI's Finances
We again confronted our financial situation: we are not covering our operational expenses with our primary source of income, the annual SCT Conference. This is not sustainable over the long haul, but useful as a short-term investment if the time and money go to developing income generation in line with our mission and values.
While exploring our income, we looked at our membership fees. These have not been raised since 2011, unlike most other professional organizations. We decided to raise the annual fee by $50.00, beginning in 2026, while keeping our norm of “more if you can, less if not.”
SCTRI Yvonne Agazarian Training and Resource Center
Another cost we examined is that of maintaining the physical space for the SCT Center on Pennsylvania Avenue in Philadelphia. SCTRI bought this suite with resources from the sale of Yvonne Agazarian’s home, which she bequeathed to the organization with the wish that it become a training and resource center. Zoning made use of her home for that purpose impossible, but this suite in a nearby building came available and we purchased and renovated that. We agreed to fund it for a few years until it got its feet on the ground. Then came the Covid pandemic and vastly increased online training.
Currently the Center requires an outflow of about $20,000 per year. This money supports both the physical Center and the Center’s online offerings, which are free to members. This is a member benefit the Board values and wants to continue and even expand. Since the suite is also an investment, there is more work to do around determining the financial driving and restraining forces of maintaining the physical space. The Center and the Finance Group will continue to work on this and bring detailed information back to our next Board meeting.
Director Role
As the organization is looking at generational shifts it is important to lay the groundwork for a succession plan for the Director role. We made a start, describing the role as Mike Maher has developed it and the skills and resources it requires. This work is a starting point; we recognize that any new Director will shape the role in their own way, as Mike did. We also touched on the Associate Director role, a step toward Director that gives the next Director the opportunity to shadow the role.
Revitalising Energy in the US Training System
Our Membership Action Group provided excellent data on our membership and the developing SCT organizations in Europe. One clear observation is that incoming membership is low in the States. This is concerning as it is, in so many ways, new members who bring energy into SCT and SCTRI as well as take SCT out into the world. Weekend trainings are few, mostly in the context of conferences like AGPA, EGPS or the SCT Conference. In the past these have been significant pathways for people to learn about and experience the differences that are SCT. As a result of this discussion, we have formed a work group to explore ways of revitalizing our energy to reach out and offer opportunities to potential new members in the USA. Susan Gantt is offering a weekend workshop at the Center in September – details available soon!
Mapping Our Organisation
We decided to create an organizational map of roles and their relationship, identify what is clear as well as areas of ambiguity so we can see what those hold for us.
A Final Piece of Business
At each Board meeting we re-constitute the Steering Group, which meets weekly between Board meetings to coordinate the ongoing work of the organization according to our vision and policy. We supported Dorothy Gibbons, Fran Carter, Claudia Byram and Norma Safransky in remaining in the roles. Mike Maher is a member as a function of his Director role. Our two administrators, Kathy Lum and Jan Vadell, also attend this meeting each week and are valued members.
In closing, one of our satisfactions was recognizing increased integration of our newer Board members, including more permeability to the extensive resources they bring.
Board of Directors
Claudia Byram, Fran Carter, Rowena Davis, Susan Gantt, Dorothy Gibbons, Doug Johnson, Nina Klebanoff, Jennifer Langdon, Annie MacIver, Mike Maher, Jon McCormick, Jim Peightel, Norma Safransky, Beulah Trey, Heather Twomey, Ros Wood, Alida Zweidler-McKay