[Oe List ...] A ToP Trainer Responds

Fri Sep 7 00:37:31 EDT 2007

Hi Marshall and all.  I'm not quite comfortable forwarding the documents for
general consumption, since I am not on the ToP Trainer Network leadership
team.  Not that there is anything particularly secretive or incriminating in
them, but they were really supposed to be talking documents from ICA to ToP
Trainer Network and back.  If the leadership team (you could contact
Sherwood Shankland) was Ok with sharing them I would feel more comfortable
going that way.  The gist of the documents I was referring to was a "white
paper" from ICA interim staff suggesting a structure that would keep ToP
Trainers as an informal network.  The ToP Trainer meeting produced a
recommendation to form an actual nonprofit with a Board that could speak for
ToP Trainers and negotiate with ICA to ensure the support of the methods
courses in the US.  Several options were discussed in Denver for getting
workbooks and materials produced and delivered and supporting ToP Trainers.
But it was more the ongoing non-negotiable attitude on the part of ICA
current Board and staff (as I was reading it) that produced my response
earlier today.  There may be some dialogue going on that I have not been
privy to, which is why I suggested that anyone who is really interested
should contact a member of the ToP Trainer Leadership Team, and Sherwood is
co-chair.  Thanks for the interest in accountability, though I am not sure
it is not too late for it in terms of the present leadership of ICA USA.
Regardless, my primary concern is for the continuation of sharing these
methods of transformation and participation, and there are many who are
involved in that mission, including many who are on this listserve,
regardless of what happens to ICA USA or the ToP Trainers Network.  Peace,
Milan

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of W. J.
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2007 4:48 PM
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] A ToP Trainer Responds

Milan and colleagues,

I'm not totally clueless about what's going on with the ICA-USA board and
staff.

But, like many who are proficient in using our methods and who participated
in their evolution, I was never officially 'baptized' as a ToP Trainer, so I
haven't seen the relevant documents.

Could you share these documents with us, so we can actually READ what the
ICA-USA people wrote? If they never joined the ToP Trainer network, I
wouldn't expect them to be on ToP of it. But I DO expect them to be
respectful and sensitive to the collegial issues. So I'm shocked (but not
surprised) at what you imply they've done. 

So put their cards on the table, and let us all take a look. They need to be
held accountable for their decisions.

Marshall Jones

Milan Hamilton <skillmedproj at dslextreme.com> wrote:

I continue to be mystified and totally puzzled at the arrogance and
insensitivity, and might I say, ignorance (in the technical sense of the
word) of ICA US Board and staff in terms of awareness (or unawareness) of
what is going on out in the real world of facilitation and training.  As one
who goes back to circa 1967 in terms of starting the journey of becoming a
change agent and spreader of methods of participation, I am speaking only
for myself as a ToP Trainer and a member of the ToP Trainers Network and one
who was actually in attendance at the Denver meeting in July 07.

The latest communications which I have read from the ICA USA board president
and the interim executive director just amaze me:  Not even an
acknowledgement of the issues contained in the resulting August 31 response
to the "white paper" written by the interim ICA USA executive director.  All
I could see was a sort of reactionary hard line response, without much
thoughtfulness to the issues raised by the group meeting in Denver.  Did I
miss something?  Has there been dialogue of which I have not been brought up
to speed on any of the issues raised?

Branding?  Is ICA-USA not aware that the brand awareness of ToP methods is
somewhere is the low .00000001 percentile in the nation at the present time?
And as to those who are authorized to hold public courses and advertise
etc., are they not aware that those who were present in Denver represent the
big percentage of the delivery system for these methods.  I am wondering who
exactly the ICA-USA staff and board thinks is this ToP Trainers Network?
Also, in view of the recent support that has been given to this network, and
in view of the intent of the "TTN" (so named by ICA-USA staff and board) to
organize itself to be more able to ensure the delivery of ToP methods, what
makes ICA-USA staff and board so arrogant as to believe that they were being
asked to devote time, money, etc. to TTN, rather than the other way around.

There seemed to me to be the intent of those present in Denver to give
ICA-USA the opportunity to step up and match the rhetoric with action in
terms of support.  "Participation" and "partnership" seemed to be the
watchwords.  I am not sure how the knee-jerk response of ICA-USA staff and
board fit into that picture.

As I mentioned, I am only one ToP Trainer providing input.  But I am still
mystified at what I perceive to be the continuation of a "non-participatory"
and "hard-line" and "acting without thinking" modus operandi on the part of
ICA-USA board and staff, from the summarily dismissing of all those who gave
30 to 40 years of their vocational lives to the (stated) mission of ICA, to
the total ignoring of those who actually are delivering these methods in the
world.

I for one have already shifted my financial support to ICA International and
do not intend to provide any further support to an organization (so-called)
that seems to me to have ceased to exist.  I for one do not intend to pay
any further dues to an organization I no longer consider to be in existence
(although I am totally paid up for this year and intend to exercise my full
rights to speak as a ToP Trainer).

My last comment is addressed head-on to ICA-USA staff and board members:  Do
you believe that you are fulfilling the mission of ICA?  Look around you in
the world and see what the ICA is really and what it is accomplishing.  From
my vantage point, all I see is a dying or dead institution.  ICA-USA is
dead.  Long live ICA

Milan Hamilton

Co-owner, Participation Works

80 North Center Street

Redlands, CA  92373

909-793-4482

participationworks at dslextreme.com

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