NCCA Meeting Minutes

22 May 2003

The Past

Welcome and introductions

• John, MaryKay, Irene, Joan, Carl, Lynne, Martha, Christine, Carmen Ruby, Sue T, Anne, Bobbie

History - Irene

• We started out as a group of Coach U students who met every month on Sue Pouppirt's back porch, the Back Porch Gang. This was about 1997 or 1998. We wanted to help and support each other, and make a difference in the world. For awhile we met at the library, and decided that we needed a central sense of purpose. About that time the ICF was starting to create chapters. We connected with them as a way to contribute to the profession and became a charter chapter. We came up with the "circle" idea as a way to remain more connected, centered, and focused on our potential.
• This is only the third year of leaders, the second "pass the torch" ceremony.

The Present

Pass the Torch - Irene

• New officers:
  • Bobbie - member liaison
  • Carl - secretary
  • Martha - treasurer
  • Lynne - vice president
  • Christine - president
• Lynne and Christine are acting as co-leaders and have been using the informal names "Thing 1" (Christine) and "Thing 2" (Lynne). So you might see those terms in the future!
• Anne and Carmen are going to share the leadership of PR for the group - thanks!

Affirmations sent in by members

Irene, I look forward to another year of exciting progress with the new leadership team! Carl

Hi Irene, Here is my affirmation for the new officers. Thanks, Donna

To Christine, Lynne, Carl and Martha, You are a fine team, each bringing your special and diverse talents to our leadership positions. You bring experience, knowledge, energy and spirit to the team and I am looking forward to working and playing together with you as member liaison. Bobbie

Dear Irene, I would like to affirm the wise women and wise man who have agreed to be a part of the team, with me, who will be leaders for our NCCA clan for this upcoming year. Lynne is so much fun to work with! She is thoughtful, expansive, wise, a woman of integrity, a dependable partner, a brilliant spirit who calls people to a much bigger way of thinking. It will a gas to play Thing One and Thing Two with her!!! Carl is so generous with his time and his expertise! His contributions to our clan are huge. His dedication to our website and the communication that holds us all together is a tremendous gift to us all. And he does all of this in such a loving way. Carl, you remind me of an oak tree - a strong, upright presence we all rely on. Thank you. Martha has been a constant in our clan, guiding and participating in our process of defining who we are and how we want to live. She, too, is generous with her time - such dedication to be our money keeper for several years! Sage, mentor, fire keeper - we are quite fortunate to have Martha be willing to continue her good work. To get Bobbie's warmth and enthusiasm in the role of Member Liaison is a big score for the NCCA! It will be my pleasure to get to know her better and to have her insight, intelligence, and warm heart on the leadership team. I also want to affirm, express utmost gratitude, celebrate, acknowledge, and give big hugs and kisses to Irene and MaryKay - our valiant leaders for this past year. Thank you both so much! You did a fabulous job and left us with big shoes to walk in. Christine

Transitions - Christine

What's the difference between Transition and Change?

• "Transition" suggests an ending of something and a beginning of something else
• "Transition" is transformative, something has changed inside
• We experience movement, change, all the time
• Transitional learning means that something has to shift, not just information being added to our store of knowledge
• Change causes us to transition
• Transition is very personal, everybody goes through different experiences
• Transition has an element of the unknown - jumping from the known into the new state - flying from one trapeze to another

How do you coach transition?

• Look at the larger picture, to find comfort or purpose to the change
• Acknowledge the unknown
• Acknowledge the question "what's wrong with me?"
• Trust the process
• It's a gift to the coach to have someone in transition, that's where people need help and it makes the coach's job easy
• I look for where the momentum is, what's driving it
• I take people into the moment, to experience exactly where they are right now
• This is very much gremlin territory
• Some people are very good, to thrive on transition
• Transition can be internal and/or external
• We help people to trust their knowing, and trust their unknowing
• People can be at different stages of transition in different aspects of their life
• Celebrating the steps along the way, since transition is never truly done
• Use ritual, at least make it available, and in the form that's best for the client
• Being a human BEING rather than a human DOING
• Help the client to thoroughly enjoy the process

What are the pitfalls for coaching transition?

• Imposing our own picture on them
• Feeling like we need to move them
• The coaching relationship may need to be redesigned
• Let the client go through their own questioning, floundering, until they find their own truth
• Different people have different experiences of change
• Being too married to a particular process
• We need to be constantly learning, growing, educating ourselves
• Clients want to speed it up, to get DONE with it
• Getting hung up on "should"
• Recognizing the major transitions as a rite of passage, something we don't tend to do in our culture
• Getting too hung up on what's important to us rather than the client
• Understanding transitions versus controlling them

Next steps

• Books/references people find useful: Please send information to Carl < carl@dierschow.com >
  • From Joan King: Shaun McNiff. Trust the process, Boston:Shambhala, 1998.
    William Bridges. The way of transition, Cambridge, MA:Perseus Publishing, 2001.

• Hold this discussion of transition and think about it until the next meeting

The New

Summer Coaching League

• Last year was our first Summer Coaching League
  • "Learned a lot about what others are up to"
  • "Good way to meet others who don't always come to meetings"
  • "Great to just BE with other coaches, without a specific agenda"
• For people who want to sign up, Irene will set up pairings of coaches about every week
• E-mail Irene by JUNE 5 with name, e-mail, phone number, and a short statement of what you hope to get out of the experience
• See the attached brochure

Vote on topics for the summer/future

• In previous meetings we talked about what we want to be as a group, and what we want to do.
• Today we voted on possible topics that we want to cover in future meetings

8	Our role for ICF conference	Christine
5	Discussion of spirituality	Joan, Martha, Bobbie, Carmen
5	Coaching tools	John, (Lynne, Christine)
5	Leadership - egoless, new paradigms	Anne, Sue
5	Radical networking - new paradigms	Carmen
3	Colorado laws regarding coaching
2	New members mentored by old ones
1	How to be more global, ex: sister chapters
1	Taking on fear/critic/gremlins
0	Laws of attraction
0	Shifting your vibration
0	Ethics
0	Appreciative inquiry

• In addition to this, there are opportunities to follow through on these or other topics, form your own circle, and make progress.

Leadership intentions - Christine

• I want to build this into a cohesive group
• I want everyone to know who we are, what we're about, what we're up to
• I'd like to do less business, and have more time to share our wisdom
• We'll do more business at the leadership circle meetings on the 2nd Tuesday of every month
• I very much want us to have some high visibility at the ICF conference in Denver this November
• Long term, I want us to build the vision and gather together as a cohesive group

Announcements

• Bobbie's been contacting old NCCA members and got a couple of replies
• Anne is working with KRFC (the new radio station in Fort Collins) to put together a talk show on coaching
• John is on the formation committee for a support group for displaced professionals. It'll be at the Faith Evangelical Free Church on south Shields at Wabash. This is currently called "NoCoNet", an outgrowth of the High Tech Network.
• Joan found a company which will print 1000 business cards for $89: www.4over4.com

Facilitator for next meeting

• The next planning meeting is Thursday June 12th at Tortilla Marissa's in Windsor
• Next month we'll talk about our role at the ICF conference
• July - Tools
• August - Radical networking
• September - Leadership
• October - Spirituality
• June facilitator: Bobbie