An Area Reference Persons’ Workshop
At the recent Midwest and South USA Area Reference Persons’ Workshop, it was a treat to discharge with other Area Reference Persons and people leading unorganized areas.
Alysia Tate, the Regional Reference Person for Illinois, USA, led us with warmth and precision.
At one point we broke into small groups—People of the Global Majority or white people, people of different class backgrounds, people of different ages, and Area Reference Persons or people leading unorganized areas—to discharge on the ways these identities impact our leadership.
When we reported back to the whole workshop, Alysia asked us to be very specific about what we had learned or talked about in the groups. For instance, if one of us said, “It was good to meet with my group,” she would ask, “Why was it good?” If the response was, “We felt safe to share our thinking,” she would ask, “Why was that true? What was your thinking?” It was a useful reminder of where fear affects my ability to communicate in my RC classes and when I talk about RC to my friends and coworkers.
Alysia also asked us to discharge on these questions:
- What is important to you about being in an RC Area?
- What conditions are needed for a Community to grow?
- Who references you? What do you appreciate about their referencing?
- What about your current financial situation do you not tell your Co-Counselors? (This was in reference to our role in approving Outreach Funds and charging for classes.)
We talked about the importance of being in a Community in which people try to think about each other, don’t blame each other for struggles, and practice building a community that’s different from what we see in the world around us.
We described how other leaders had referenced us by seeing us as more powerful than we thought we could be, pushing us to work on our hardest chronic distress while remembering our goodness, and not leaving us alone.
Alysia Tate led the Area Reference Persons’ Workshop with such a sense of joy. It was very fun, with time for dancing and connecting and joking around. As a thirty-four-year old, I enjoyed seeing a leader engaged with recent pop culture; we watched a music video and skit that showed how young adult performers are fighting against systemic oppressions with art and humor.
It was helpful to hear about the leadership journeys of other folks—what had worked for them and what their obstacles had been. People who had led in RC for decades shared what practices had sustained them in building and leading their Areas and how they had kept their own journey toward re-evaluation central while doing the work.
We also looked at the value to our broader RC Community of charging for RC activities and doing fundraisers for the Re-evaluation Foundation, to support projects like Sustaining All Life.
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Reprinted from the e-mail discussionlist for RC Community members
(Present Time 198, January 2020)