NCCA Meeting

24 February 2005

Sue, John, Joan, Carmen, Carl, Lloyd, Susan, Irene, Jeff, Bobbie, Ann Strong

Checkin

• How are you staying connected to the community?
• Lloyd: Rotary club, Character Fort Collins council. The Coloradoan talked about character development in the detention center. We're developing a program in connection with CSU around parent education.
• Carl: I'm involved with my church, on a team that brings new people into the church. I'm doing a lot of things with the community of coaches inside HP.
• Carmen: I'm helping at Boltz with the School Resource Officer review. I'm on the board with Poudre Wilderness Volunteers, and the FC Business Women's Network. I bring coaching concepts and tools to those groups.
• Susan: I'm an officer in a NC renewable energy group. I teach whitewater rafting. I'm involved in starting up a new business women's group in town.
• Joan: This last week I gave a talk at a Benedictine Abbey in Massachusetts. I go to Boston about once a month. I'm part of the FC Women's Co-op, and the E-women network (I act as one of 7 "premier coaches" in the group)
• John: I'm working full time and coaching. I volunteer in NoCoNet, one of the organizers. This is connected with other job networks in the front range.
• Jeff: I just completed my training with the Academy for Coach Training, and I'm departing from that community. I'm helping to form a diabetes support group in the area, I volunteered to speak at the first meeting in April. I'm on the board of a diabetes support group in Longmont and a local tech startup.
• Sue: I'm exploring different networking forums. I'm on the board of the Namaqua center, and am doing community work around mediation and restorative justice.
• Ann: I'm a member of the DCF. Sometimes we reach out and coach a non-profit. I did something for coach awareness at Whole Foods a few weeks ago, and this went quite well.
• Irene: I've been involved with the lesbian community for quite awhile, I'm co-publisher of a regional lesbian newsletter. A few years ago I combined my school efforts with coaching efforts, and am working on an academically oriented coaching field. I'm involved with a community of coach researchers around the world.
• Bobbie: I live in a tiny community, and am active in the chamber. I recently completed a labyrinth on my farm, and on Tuesday I'm making a Yurt available for people who want to have workshops or retreats. I have little community groups everywhere.

Creating a Sacred Space for Coaching - Ann Strong

• www.AnnStrong.com
• I find that a lot of coaches aren't using these tools yet.
• It's about absolutely knowing that you're giving the most value in your coaching sessions.
• I find it also makes my work easier.
• I worked with Elizabeth Parlet (spelling?), who has a structured process for drawing out very deep things from inside clients.
• About half of our group regularly uses prep forms and call openings/closings.
• This is something which is best made personal to each client.
• To me, this helps to connect to our God or a higher power in the universe, this helps things to flow more powerfully.
• I tell clients that the prep form helps them to track progress, to make things visible. The most impactful section of it seems to be "Gratitude: What I'm grateful for...."
• I tell them they'll get more for their money if they use it. I allow them to elect to not use it if they don't see the value.
• Lloyd: Hans Selye found that Gratitude is the least stressful of all the emotions. Another researcher also found that the physical act of writing would increase cancer killer cells, because it's a creative act which makes your thoughts manifest in the real world.
• Joan: This connects with how memory works - to enhance creativity, extracting useful information.
• We've been using the Opening ritual at the DCF for about 4 years, and it seems to make a big difference to the tone of our meetings.
• The centering makes a difference to my coaching sessions. It helps provide focus and helps clients with follow-through. I find they tend to treat is seriously.
• Carmen: Sometimes I ask my clients to bless a situation, and they find that there's no way they can be mad at it after blessing it.
• The Value and Flow Questions help people to focus on achieving something important. These questions can help them to get unstuck. They help keep the coach on the client's agenda.
• Joan: I ask clients to remind me of their life purpose. Who would you be if you were living that life purpose?
• Other words for "sacred space": Safe, focused, present, "retreat to their inner office", get connected, higher purpose, shared purpose, inner strength, best self, letting go, cleared space, your space. It has to be natural TO YOU.
• I had some resistance to using the closing. But this helps people to clarify what's important TO THEM. If someone says "everything was important," then I wait for them to clarify and get specific.
• I try to recap something which they may not have observed themselves.
• I do a centering exercise for my 15 minute sample sessions. I use the word "centering". And I ask permission.
• In an initial call I would tend to do the centering exercise first, then talk about the coaching relationship.
• My preparation includes e-mails, planning, pre-work, centering - the whole thing. I find that 80% of my sample sessions sign up for coaching. Sue: I will interview Ann about this process and capture it for the group.
• Joan: I participated in a chat room interaction recently which had striking interaction

Financial status - Sue

• About $1300-$1400 in the bank

Expansion coaching - John

• John contacted the president and program director at the DCF and BCA but hasn't heard back yet.
• Quid Pro Quo coaching is a way for us to do coaching in a barter way, which helps to add experience hours to our coaching.
• John has created a Yahoo group for people who are participating: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/QPQC/ - 8 members so far!
• Bartering can extend to trading coaching services for other services, as long as it's fair value.
• Please contact John Spencer, john_r_spencer@msn.com, if you are interested.

ICF - Sue

• The ICF gets about 500 e-mails a day, it's tough for them to respond to this quantity.
• The ICF has 130 chapters, over 8000 members.
• We're trying to figure out what makes the most sense for the direction of the NCCA.
• The ICF has requirements for chapter leaders becoming certified over time, a requirement for ICF chapters and charter chapters.
• We will need to elect new officers in the next few months.
• The current plan is to continue ICF affiliation for at least the next year.
• Sue spoke with Lucinda and she's supportive of us having this discussion.
• ICF membership is now being tied to being certified by the ICF.
• Irene was involved with the chartering, and then later with implementing the requirement to pay the NCCA $25 activity fee.
• The ICF have made their decisions and set the direction, it's not negotiable at this point.
• The proposal is to have an evening meeting in April, invite lots of non-member coaches, and discuss the future of NCCA.

Future meetings

• March 24th, 12:00-2:15, Coaching-related research with our own Dianne Stober