Members

Amanda B. MacDonald - M.AmSAT, MFA, R-MPA   on Thursday 06/25/2020 at 05:19 PM

I would like to thank the slogan committee for the thorough process you went through in your work and for including some of that information in the email that went out for slogan selection this spring.

I am speaking in support of this motion. I plan to vote yes. There are many ways that this slogan can be used to expand awareness about our work with the public.

This resolution gives us something to move forward with with for the next two years. If individual members do not like it, I encourage you to vote yes to this motion and then participate in the process of creating a new slogan for two years from now. (It will take nearly that long to go through the process & bring it to a vote!)

As for the conversation during the Zoom meeting about trademarks, that is separate from the motion itself. FWIW, it is my understanding that if AmSAT trademarks this slogan, it will be available for all members to use in the same way that the logo is available.

Amanda MacDonald, Chicago

Jill Geiger, M.AmSAT, M.STAT   on Thursday 06/25/2020 at 10:59 PM

I thank the Slogan Committee for all of their work and as Co-Chair of the Definitions Committee serving in the capacity of a consultant to the committee, I appreciate the process they went through.

The purpose of an organization's slogan is to be a short phrase that represents the organization. Our current slogan conveys who we are (expert teachers) but nothing about what it is that we teach so I think it can be improved. "Mindfulness in Action" references the AT but not AmSAT so I don’t think it works as a slogan for AmSAT.

My suggestion would be something like:
"AmSAT: Experts in teaching you how to move through life with balance and poise" because I think it conveys both who we are and what we do.

Though the current slogan isn't perfect, I'd rather see us stay with it during the time it takes to arrive at one that's a better fit.

Jill Geiger
teacher of the Alexander Technique for 30 years
Newton, MA

Tracy Einstein, on behalf of the Slogan Committee   on Friday 06/26/2020 at 12:38 PM

Here are the results of the slogan survey:


AmSAT: Mindfulness in Action: 82 (60.74%)
AmSAT: Discover ~ Integrate ~ Thrive: 34 (25.19%)
AmSAT: Bringing knowledge and expert teaching of the Alexander Technique to a world in need: 6 (4.44%)
AmSAT: Standards in Teaching the Alexander Technique since 1987: 1 (0.74%)
AmSAT: Experts in teaching you how to move through life with balance and poise: 2 (1.48%)

Write ins: 10 7.41%

Total voting member votes: 135
Total non-voting member votes: 10
Total votes: 145

Ruth Rootberg   on Friday 06/26/2020 at 12:47 PM

I am in agreement with Jill Geiger that this slogan raises confusion regarding whether we are promoting the profession or the society. I also understand Amanda's encouragement to give it a try for two years and then keep improving/updating.

I would have liked to have seen the 10 write-ins, not just the statistics. That might help us all to brain storm.

If it is within the scope of the motion, I will move to amend the motion by adding the word "teaching." I think that is a very simple way to bridge the divide between society and profession and still maintains brevity.

So: AmSAT: Teaching mindfulness in action

Jill Geiger, M.AmSAT, M.STAT   on Friday 06/26/2020 at 01:17 PM

Thanks for posting the survey results. Members haven't yet had the opportunity to consider the write-in suggestions in the "other" category of the survey so I think that those should be part of our discussion before we vote.

Best,
Jill

Tracy Einstein, on behalf of the Slogan Committee   on Friday 06/26/2020 at 03:32 PM

Here are the write-in slogan suggestions from the survey:

AmSAT: Experts in teaching you how to move through life with balance and poise
A. T. - A Skill for Life
A. T. -The thinking person's response to pain and stress
Mindbodyfulness in Action
The American Society for the Alexander Technique Discover - Integrate - Benefit
AmSAT: Standards in Teaching the Alexander Technique since 1987
Conscious Choice in Action
Educating, Healing and Strengthening the Whole Person
"Alexander technique: Meet LIfe's Challenges with Poise"

Ruth Rootberg   on Saturday 06/27/2020 at 08:05 AM

Thank you for posting the write-in suggested slogans. I also submitted one and don't see it on your list. I don't need to push that particular slogan, but wonder about the accuracy of the submissions and statistics. Is it possible that other votes and write-ins were not counted properly?

Lisa DeAngelis   on Saturday 06/27/2020 at 09:43 AM

I plan to vote in favor of this motion.

I also would like to thank the slogan committee for their hard work on this effort. Their process was comprehensive and they did a stellar job of communicating their thinking around decision making.

I think we have to begin taking steps to move forward and get out work communicated in different ways; and seeing as how there is a built in timeline for its use, I think it provides the opportunity to:

1. Garner feedback about it receptivity to the public
2. Hone both the "voting" and member involvement process in its creation
3. Make AmSAT reflective of our work: adaptive, inventive and relevant, with the idea that we can continuously deepen and expand the organization's mission, visibility and effectiveness.

Monika Gross M.AmSAT, M.ATI, RSME   on Saturday 06/27/2020 at 09:57 AM

1) I agree with Jill that the slogan references AT rather than AmSAT. But I understand that we are not looking for a mission statement for AmSAT but a way of interesting the public in AT.

2) I understand why we would want to adopt the term "mindfulness" when introducing AT to the public. The term "mindfulness" is very commonly used now by the general public, and could be a helpful bridge for them to find our work. However, it is also a very misleading association as a way of orienting ourselves to the public, and it might actually have a lot of unintended consequences.

Replicable mindfulness-based practices are currently very widely adopted, and they all have a number of evidence-based outcomes, for instance in the area of pain management. However, AT has a very different focus, though some of the same outcomes may overlap with mindfulness practices.

Most simply put, mindfulness-based approaches are only focused on physical sensations. In contrast, an AT-based approach is focused on developing the skill of conscious choice based on improved spatial and temporal orientation through proprioception. Changes in physical sensations are certainly an outcome, but they are not the "means whereby" nor the central purpose as they are in mindfulness-based practices.

For reference, here is how a researcher described mindfulness practices for pain:

"Mindfulness techniques are used to empower patients/individuals to become aware of present-moment sensations, thoughts, and emotions and accept these without judgment. Body scans are a key component of MBSR programs and involve systematically drawing the attention to different parts of the body and breath and allowing any physical sensations that arise in consciousness to simply be present. Participants become aware of and accept whatever sensations are arising in the body." (Emphasis mine)

You really cannot have "mindfulness in action" because you are then focused on sensation (which is a "data report" on something that has already happened), and you are focused on parts rather than a whole, as identified by the researcher's definition above; rather than having focus on conscious choice (that is, of course, generating sensations.)

Can we find a better word, or words, to clarify how AT has a different role to help the general public in their personal growth and self-development than an linked association with mindfulness-based practices. Rather than giving us a kind of "Yes, and..." identity, can we instead identify an element that makes us unique? Could "Conscious awareness in action" or "Conscious choice in action" be potentially more clarifying?

Sorry for the long post! :) It's an exciting moment for AT in the 21st century!

Tracy Einstein, on behalf of the Slogan Committee   on Saturday 06/27/2020 at 12:29 PM

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. The slogan committee would like to reiterate that we tested a broad range of submissions with a marketing consultant who specializes in branding & marketing strategy (and who is himself an AT student). He gave his unbiased, professional opinion. We were surprised how many of our favorite slogans didn't pass muster, but appreciated seeing the strategic justification for what did and didn't work - and why. We used these insights to ground ourselves in a strategic framework which became a checklist for what our slogan had to do and what it had to include. Our slogan options were built on that strategic foundation.

Tracy Einstein, on behalf of the Slogan Committee   on Saturday 06/27/2020 at 12:31 PM

Here is the marketing expert's specific feedback on our chosen slogan, voted for in a clear majority by our voting members:

Mindfulness in Action. (Beautifully addresses all 3 of your pillars.  Short and succinct.  Uses the 'name recognition' of a current buzzword but then changes direction/pivots.  Takes something people think they understand and adds a new layer/nuance that will intrigue them.  There is a confidence to this statement and its simultaneous simplicity and complexity - the "speaker" clearly knows what they are talking about and is excited for others to find out, too.  It shows AT has a clear identity, and invites to you understand in more detail).

Monika Gross M.AmSAT, M.ATI, RSME   on Saturday 06/27/2020 at 03:35 PM

I would like to also suggest to the members that any slogan for a profession like ours should not be thought of as only directed as a marketing tool towards the general public. It also very much represents us to our potential colleagues in the scientific, medical, allied health, rehab, and education professions, whom we would, of course, like to be regarded by as a potential new member of any interdisciplinary team involved in whole person health. Any implied association with mindfulness practices — which are already VERY strongly established, highly defined practices in the therapeutic, rehab, and public education professions — will really make our work that much harder for honing carefully crafted language used, for instance, in The Poise Project's published materials and interactions at international professional conferences to clarify how our AT approach is quite different from these incredibly researched, credible, codified, and respected programs. When these professionals follow up by going to the AmSAT website, they would likely group us immediately as just another mindfulness approach, and one without much scientific credibility (yet) behind it. And they already have plenty of great, validated mindfulness programs to choose from.

Ron Dennis, Ed. D., M.AmSAT   on Monday 07/13/2020 at 08:58 AM

To the AmSAT Board

I write to express my dismay at the subversion of due process in the matter of Motion 2 in our recent AGM, in that a ruling was made banning amendments before any question had arisen to which such a "ruling" might apply (Robert's Rules 11, p. 259). Perhaps this was unintentional, the result of mistaken timing, but it was surely not without conscious forethought—in correspondence with the Parliamentarian I learned of pre-meeting preparation for appeals—and surely not without a crucially disruptive effect.

Never mind the collusion of the Parliamentarian, who admitted to concluding that a decisive pre-meeting survey of the membership was tantamount to the will of the membership regarding this motion; no, the will of the membership is exercised only by the Assembly of Members duly sitting under the Rules.

Never mind that the remedies available to the Assembly weren't exercised; for that take I take full responsibility, the unfamiliar setting and my utter surprise notwithstanding. But the point is, it never should have happened in the first place; this exercise of raw executive power, intended or not, is unprecedented in our parliamentary experience, and should be of concern to everyone, particularly those who fomented it.

I was Acting Parliamentarian at the AGM in 1999 that decided the name change from NASTAT to AmSAT. I was also a member of the committee that had moved the change to be "Alexander Technique Society of America." That motion actually passed, and the matter seemed closed. But there were two members, Don Krim and Dan Marcus, who had decided that "American Society for the Alexander Technique" would be better. So Krim, who had originally voted in favor of the committee's motion, immediately moved for Reconsideration (this motion had to come from someone who voted on the winning side). The ensuing debates, both on Reconsideration and the different name, were lively to say the least, and, because I had been a member of the Name Change Committee, conflict-of-interest considerations made it necessary at a certain point for me to recuse myself as Acting Parliamentarian. And minds were changed and motions passed, both for Reconsideration and ultimately for the new name. Some were glad and some sad at that outcome, but none could say that arbitrary power, over that of a duly constituted Assembly, had come into it.

To me, the most disturbing aspect of this whole episode is not the result (which, as above, might have been different, and maybe even better, under unimpeded normal coursing), but rather that it could come to this after almost thirty years (since 1992, to be exact) of dedication to and steady improvement in our parliamentary practice. It's true enough that progress is seldom in a straight line, but the putatively reasonable deviation from procedure foisted on Motion 2 makes one wonder about the best of intentions, where ends so obviously are seen to justify means.

Ruth Rootberg   on Wednesday 07/22/2020 at 04:21 PM

In reference to Ron Dennis's remarks of July 13, I admit I had hoped there would be the possibility of amendment to the slogan motion but do not continue to hold disappointment for any actions that occurred then or at any other time during the AGM. While I was surprised that our Chair informed us the vote on the slogan would be up or down, once I heard the Parliamentarian's explanation of the Chair's right to her action on Sunday, I was satisfied and could let my personal interests around this motion go.

It was helpful that Ron, during the meeting on Sunday, voiced a protest so that we could all hear from the parliamentarian her views. We learned that the Chair's actions were within parliamentary procedure and that, had Ron contested it at the time, that also would have been within his rights. He did not. Any further commentary or criticism seems unfruitful.

Ron Dennis, Ed. D., M.AmSAT   on Saturday 07/25/2020 at 10:25 AM

The Parliamentarian's "explanation" was in reality a thin rationale for an admittedly pre-meditated strategy on the part of the Board and Chair to secure an up-or-down vote on the slogan motion. I would have been "satisfied" had it been made clear that, while the Chair had the right to rule on a question that had already arisen, no such question had in fact done so, and so the "ruling," coming when it did, was what was out-of-order. I think that if the ruling had been properly made, in response, for example, to my substitute motion, then the outcome may not have changed but the path to it would certainly have been different, and true to AmSAT's long-standing parliamentary tradition.