A recap of our recent 2022 Community Dialogue event

A Heartwarming response to our call for help

The HEN Leadership Team and I are deeply grateful for and encouraged by the level of response we received to our call for support. Even with only 12 days notice, we received 115 RSVPs and a majority attended the sweet and successful event.

What was the event about?

Community Dialogue events serve two purposes: they create an opportunity for community members to connect, and they give the HEN Leadership Team a chance to get support and feedback around ideas that we have on how to make our network thrive. I encourage you to reply to this post with your thoughts and comments if you are so inspired.

Questions Posed to the Community

The event posed two primary questions to the community:

1. Given the priorities we presented, how would you rank them?

2. What does a thriving HEN Network look like to you?

The First Question

We shared our new understanding that HEN is a type of professional association, and as such would be best served by channeling focused energy into the following 4 areas:

1. Marketing:

   1. Raising the public profile of the Hakomi Method throughout the world

   2. Because we're a non-profit, we were able to secure a $120,000/year ad grant from Google

   3. We're going to use the grant to promote HEN-organized events & local training site events.

2. Validating & Publishing Certifications:

   1. Defining suggested training & certification requirements

   2. Publishing the official public record of certification through our directory listing

   3. Providing HEN-published certificates to trainers and their students

3. Supporting Education:

   1. Provide an expanding library of educational resource materials (includes documents & video)

   2. Publish guidelines for every stage of the learning journey: from student to trainer

   3. Provide workshops on best practices for event management to Organizers

4. Supporting Ethical Framework & Process:

   1. The framework was formally adopted at the Bilbao Congress in 2019

   2. HEN offers a series of ongoing Ethics workshops

   3. provides a process for resolving conflicts within the community

The feedback we received from the community at the event was that we should prioritize these areas as follows:

1. Marketing

2. Supporting Education

3. Ethics

4. Certification

The Second Question

When it came to the question of what a thriving HEN Network looks like, we presented the following:

• A sizeable, growing and engaged membership

• Significant proportion of the membership contribute their voices and ideas to guide the evolution of the organization

• Good number of events and good participation rate

• Our network nodes (training sites) experience a healthy influx of new students

• Growing number of certified practitioners, teachers and trainers in multiple languages throughout the world

The response we received from the event attendees was as follows (clustered by subject area, but NOT ranked):

Community / Connection

• connection - more Community Dialogues

• global multi-level practice groups led by volunteers

• more visibility for practitioners

• international congress

• connection and community - how to connect members across the globe

• online forums, a place for innovation

• easy on-ramps for new students

• more qualified teachers and trainers

• more students

Events

• events in languages other than English

• empower teams to create events

• variety of events with different pay structures

• offer tasters

• resources seem less compelling than events; therefore, every month host an event to review videos or other resources

Communication

• communication about the network

• clear communication system, monthly newsletters

• promote network events

Organization Issues

• paid staff

• system to make membership easy including auto-renewals

• financial self-sufficiency

• highlight donations and contributions

• optional top-up donation button when people renew their membership with CLEAR GOALS (eg. fund for translations, executive director)

• market Hakomi into the field of psychology

• cross pollination between HEN and Institute

• clear way to onboard volunteers

Beyond exploring these questions, two beloved trainers offered nourishing experiences to the group. Caroline led us through an experience of gratitude at the opening of the event. Near the end, Donna led us all in a lovely exploration with the topic of Sharing Our Gifts. Lastly, I closed by reminding everyone that HEN Memberships are a significant portion of the financial life-blood that allows the organization to exist. Very soon, you will receive more exciting news about our Memberships.

The Leadership Team will review and reflect on the feedback and then create strategy and plans to realize the goals we've clarified together.

I hope this message leaves you feeling excitement and optimism about the future of HEN and our growing ability to deliver on our important mission in the world.

As I mentioned earlier, I invite you to respond to this article with your thoughts and suggestions if you feel moved to do so.

With Gratitude,

~ Jalen