Co-chairs Foreward
Dear GASi members,
We are writing to you this time after the first in person meeting since Belgrade Symposium and the horrible traumatic events in the Middle East. The 47th Foulkes’ Lecture took place in a new venue, the home of the Kings Fund, which proved to be very suitable and welcoming for our society. More than 100 participated in person and 30 online with a good technological support. The lecturer, Kevin Power, and the responder, Inge Hudson inspired us to think about the power of language and non-verbal communication in groups and in the community. During the Study Day the discussion was enriched by neuroscientific and clinical points of view with the responses of Catherina Mela and Felix Korf.
The lecture and respondents’ presentation are now available on the GASi website.
Despite the very important possibility of online meetings that we hold every month, it was a pleasure finally to meet in person and be reminded of the so precious advantage of bodily and non-verbal communication in our being together holding difficult and traumatic emotions. The Summer School in Turin is the next occasion to meet in person.
Since January, during the Reflective Members’ Groups and the Seasonal Gatherings there was the possibility to reflect on many themes. We started talking about the result of the survey, about members’ preferences and possible solutions with regards to the GASi Forum. A point that had a general agreement was the value of a space to write and communicate between members but being moderated. At the same time the Charity Commission required GASi MC to have in place a Code of Behaviour; a Complaints Procedure; an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policy, and to close the present Forum.
In addition, this new MC with 4 newcomers and a new structure of co-chairing had to learn a lot and responsibly exercise the roles they were voted into. As we believe in “learning through experience”, we continue to hold hope for the future.
Sometimes we have experienced fears of annihilation, fragmentation and division and it has seemed particularly difficult to foster aspirations for a more thoughtful form of communication through the written word. We both think and hope that we will regain our knowledge and the skills to bear ambiguities and conflicts and also find ways to solve them.
After the Covid-19 pandemic, every society started recovering from their losses but other traumatic events followed. There is a need to learn how to bear differences between us during situations which escalate or de-escalate and when control on them seems lost. The world has lost many lives. It has often been difficult to continue to think together, meanwhile the society has lost members.
The MC, with the help of members working groups, was and is working hard to fulfil different tasks suggested within GASi and at the request of the Charity Commission in order to become a safer place for the membership. We hope that with the intense work being undertaken some members who have left will feel able to rejoin GASI and the group-analytic task of communicating even when it feels almost impossible.
As co-chairs we inform you all that Marit Joffe Milstein has decided to step down from co-chair role, and only from this role. Her written resignation was sent to all the trustees. During the long MC meeting held on June 22, 2024, it was decided unanimously that Sanja Janovic will take the role starting in this position in July.
In the upcoming period there will be another Monthly Reflective Members’ Group on 14th July. You are all invited to share thoughts, give new meaning to discourse and make words ‘facts’ of a shared reality.
On 15th September the AGM is scheduled to be on zoom; we are waiting for your support.
Sincerely,
Marit Joffe Milstein and Francesca Bascialla
GASi Co – Chairs