Council meeting in Duncan, BC – August 2018

03 Sep Council meeting in Duncan, BC – August 2018

l to r: John Glanzer (Treasurer), Claudette Leblanc , Bert Chase (General Secretary) Dorothy LeBaron (President), Micah Edelstein (Secretary), Susan Koppersmith

The Council has monthly two-hour teleconferences and we contact each other, as needed, by phone or through email. We also meet in person two or three times a year.

As we are a “newish” Council (two new members confirmed in May) working with a new General Secretary, it was thought ideal if we could have our next retreat in a quiet, rural setting. We selected Duncan BC in beautiful Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. We met at Glenora Farm over the weekend of August 17-19.

Duncan is a thriving community, home to many people actively working out of anthroposophy. There is the Sunrise Waldorf School, the Community Farm Store, and the Sol Centre which hosts study groups, etc. as well as other initiatives. Glenora Farm is a therapeutic community — one of two Camphill Communities in western Canada where adults with developmental disabilities live, work and learn together with their caregivers. They grow a broad range of vegetables plus an extensive range of herbs, both for their own use and to sell.

Glenora Farm was a peaceful, magical setting for us; though our agenda was heavy, our time together flowed easily. Our meetings were held in Trillium a beautiful stand-alone hall at the edge of a forest. They lasted 3 days with a space on Friday night to meet local and visiting Class members. There was also a whole afternoon on Saturday devoted to meeting the Duncan community.

We started the Council meetings with a personal and regional check-in.

Claudette (our Quebec rep) is busy as a Branch Steward in Montreal. She and former General Secretary, Arie van Ameringen, are already planning a speaker for next year’s conference and AGM to be held in Montreal. She is actively encouraging all members in her region to write about their activities for inclusion in our monthly eNews for members.

Trillium hall

One of the courses which Bert taught recently at the West Coast Institute for Studies in Anthroposophy was on Christology. In the class were students from all religions and cultures. He found it enlivening to make tangible to them the link from their culture to the universality of the Christ impulse. He is working closely with members of the US Society to clarify matters around the Collegium of the School of Spiritual Science.

John, our busy treasurer from Calgary, also holds down a full-time job as Director of Infrastructure Planning with Enbridge, Inc. He finds himself in the intense epicentre of all issues having to do, for and against, with the building of pipelines and all the benefits and risks to society they represent. He shared with us some key moments as a witness in an important regulatory hearing where so much was at stake for both sides.

We heard that Micah is organizing a Waldorf Alumni festival in late August 2019 in Halifax. The festival will be for Alumni but will be open to parents, teachers, and interested individuals from all over the world. The festival will celebrate the experiences of Waldorf education through inspiring field trips, workshops, conversations, and presentations. The theme of the conference is “celebrate, experience, inspire.”The North American Youth section is exploring having their next youth conference  overlap the Alumni festival. Micah is also working with Dorothy and Laura Scappaticci, Director of Programs for the US Society, to plan some joint webinars around the theme of Bridging Borders. Council warmly supports both initiatives.

Susan (our BC rep) reported that she is near the end of contacting all 19 branches and groups listed on the ASC website to make sure that everything is up-to-date. More and more members and others will use our website to learn about anthroposophical initiatives in Canada when travelling for pleasure or for conferences and even for thinking where they might like to relocate. It is important that all the information on it be recent and that those who agree to be branch or group contacts on the website be willing to answer calls or emails within a few days.

We were not able to hear Dorothy’s check-in! Unfortunately, she had come down with sudden flu-like symptoms that very morning and could not attend the first day of our meetings. We were very glad that she soon felt better and could join us for our second and third days.

Bert then gave a report of the history of the Collegium. There were many initiatives leading up to the Christmas Conference. Rudolf Steiner was not directly linked but everyone came to him for advice. The impulse with the Christmas Conference was to find a new way of carrying the principles so that there was a more unified whole. The Vorstand was meant to be a sense organ for what was trying to come to birth from the supersensible with the active working of the School for Spiritual Science. Members today who take the next step to join this School are part of the General Anthroposophical Section and are able to join a Section of their special interest: Medicine, Pedagogy, Agriculture, Science, Social Science, Visual Arts, Literary Arts and Humanities, Performing Arts or the Striving of Youth. The North American Collegium is composed of representatives from the Sections well as others active in the School. The Collegium wants to welcome a new generation of members who are outward-looking in their working lives as well as being active in their Section as well, of course, as carrying a deep meditative practice with the 19 lessons of the First Class. Members of the US and Canadian Societies are planning an event in 2023 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Christmas Conference.They hope to involve members in Mexico as well.

At each person-to-person meeting, the Council reflects on the “Council Imagination” — always a work-in-progress.

As almost half our group is new, we wanted to examine personal core values so that each member understands what is important to his or her colleague. We were committed to practising “deep listening “ with each other. This means that we did not want to think our own thoughts aboutwhat another person was saying but to let theirthinking live in us.

John led this part of the meeting. He had asked us beforehand to come up with ten core values that we each held. This was to work on the foundational element of the four aspects of strategic planning:

Why do we exist? (purpose)

How do we behave? (core values)

What do we do? and

How will we be successful?

(Patrick Lencioni, 2004)

At our meeting we were asked to whittle these down to five. We wrote each one on a sticky note. We were asked to speak for a few minutes about one of our core values. The values that came up for our group were: Kindness, Transcendence, Openness and Honesty, Freedom, Truthfulness, and Development.

By this time we had many sticky notes on the table; we found we could arrange them in groups as many of the core values were related. After much further discussion, as well as jotting a few ideas down, we let the whole topic rest and took it into sleep.

The next morning Dorothy led us into some simple but powerful exercises which she called “social sculpture.” We stepped into a standing circle. Each person in turn formed a gesture and spoke a phrase that related to what quality they bring as an individual to the Council work. Then we were invited to move together until we found our relationship to each other; you could say we moved from “me”to“we”. Out of this new place in the collective, we allowed a gesture to form and spoke a phrase. We then thought of what we each need from the group to work effectively and shared that.

Finally we worked together again to bring to expression our Guiding Principles which were born out of these two day’s work with the nighttime interlude. Here is what emerged:

We, the Council, see ourselves being asked by the membership and intend to engage with spirit consciously:

— to sense

— to respond

— to work with spirit

To be awake

To listen

To take initiative

A few Council members took notes as we didn’t want to forget what had just happened between us. Building the Council Imagination is something that happens every time we meet. Some values may stay the same and others will change. We want to keep this Imagination always fluid and alive and representative of the individuals present.

There was also much business discussed over 3 days. Here were some key issues:

• Working with the GAS How can Council work more closely with the Class holders and active members of the General Anthroposophical Section? We need a new Canadian representative for the GAS who will work together with US counterparts.
• Communication. Is the monthly eNews sufficient? Could we have a hard copy of a publication that would come out initially once a year? One active Society member may be able to help with this. Two Council members agreed to explore funding this venture through advertising. We will keep refreshing our website. We agreed to give updates for events happening at the Goetheanum at all meetings where we meet with the community.
• Purpose Statement There was much discussion on our purpose statement. We are still working on revising it for the Charities Directorate. We want to take the time to do this carefully and have it conform to what was decided at the 1923 Christmas Conference.
• A New Council Member. We need someone from Ontario. Council terms are for 7 years. Dorothy will finish her term at the next AGM. We discussed a possible succession plan.
• Proxies. How can we bring a “voice” instead of a “vote” into our AGMs which are listening organs for all of us. How can we best make space for each member to be heard? We are working on a way to facilitate hearing the voices of those not able to attend the AGM.
• Building a Picture. There are many anthroposophical initiatives in Canada. Do we know about all of them? Each Council member will investigate what is living in their region —Waldorf schools, farms, clinics, study and artistic groups, etc.

The Council wants to thank all members and friends of the Society in Duncan for a fruitful working together a few weeks back. We came back to our lives refreshed and invigorated by our working together and also by learning about various anthroposophical initiatives being nurtured in the lovely Cowichan Valley.

Thanks to Annette Lampson who presented her Glenora Bell Choir at the start of the Saturday community meeting; it was a joy to hear! As well, the singing with Marilyn Lange at the end enlivened us all.Thank-you!

Our appreciation goes to Yiana Belcher and Cari Burdett from the Duncan community who agreed to be responsible for a write-up of the community meeting. Their report will be circulated soon.

The Council also wants to acknowledge Nicolette Genier, manager of the Farm Store and the Sol Centre, for the wonderful tours and for all that she does to make anthroposophy come alive and be known in her communit

Nicolette Genier

We are also grateful to Martha Lampson for the delicious vegetarian meals she prepared for us during our three days 

We look forward to what Claudette and Arie are planning for our next Conference and AGM to be held in Montreal during the Victoria Day weekend in 2019.

Stay tuned!

With warm wishes,

Your Council