President’s Forward

Yesterday was the shortest day of my year. I suppose this means it was the longest in Australia or South Africa.

I’m not going to make the mistake of wishing you a happy new year because these come at different times in our different countries. Yet, we all share a calendar introduced by a 16th Century pope!

Trying to grasp the different seasons and climates that separate us in our various abodes makes my head spin. The experience of time – appreciation of its meaning – dissolves when abstracted from a sense of distance, from the journey that overcomes separation. This newsletter will be published simultaneously everywhere/nowhere at the moment when Viv, our gallant Editor, clicks the relevant button.

As usual this same Editor is sending me reminders with lots of exclamation marks of our deadline, which is tomorrow. And, as always, I’m wondering what to write and whether anyone will read it anyway, when it explodes noiselessly in airless outer space. Writing for the internet is like being one of those doomed astronauts, whose screams nobody hears.

Fortunately Viv has given me a note to remind you about the Reflective Members Groups that we have scheduled in 2023. This decision by the members of the management committee stems from our awareness of changes in that committee, which other members of the Society may not know about. At our 2023 AGM there will be a big changeover of MC members and we will need new people to step in to help with managing GASi.

In organisations such as ours, which depend on a lot of unpaid work by a small number of individuals, it is easy for a gulf of understanding to open between “management” and “members”.  It’s possible for members to interpret this as evidence that the “management” is content to monopolise power, whilst the MC members often feel isolated and unsupported in their roles.  This is such a common feature of organisational life because communication takes so much time and effort and there’s not enough of this to spare.

The Reflective Members Groups will be hosted by the whole MC and they are intended to be an opportunity to improve communication and to encourage fresh engagements amongst members. The next one is January 14th at 2 pm UK time.

I hope that you will join them and consider your own capacity to engage.

GASi needs you.