Tom, Orna, and others,

This topic is definitely what I am working on! You will find in this
posting very precise benefits that you can capitalize on. You will
also find how I am not loosing track of the professional society, and
that I am building the necessary building blocks for it.


Outline:

* Two needs
* Practical benefits for smaller schools, or more recent ones
* Practical benefits for all trainings
and the whole professional community
* Regional benefits
* Perspectives for the professional society
* Conclusion



*Two needs:
------------
Last year's postings on this forum revealed a the need expressed by
several practitioners and community members. I personally expressed a
polarity of needs between:

- what would select for the public what level of "orthodoxy" a
specific training has, so that people know which schools have
a "genuine" SI curriculum. I am affraid that, alone, there is very
little I can do in that direction, without the schools getting
together, and beyond very generic disclaimers. See
http://idaprolf.org/Schools.html . Also this enterprise being
selective by nature, it somehow antagonizes itself from the following
need (a positive tension I have no doubt as you will see at the end
of this posting):

- respond to the major geographical criteria that most people around
the world have to figure out to get in touch with our professions,
before they can begin to consider quality of training issues. In
effect most people around the world miss our resources because they
are not accessible in one integrated search tool; such failures are
happening more that the actual successes in connection, because most
people around the world do not have the financial resources to travel
to the established resources, or to the place where they actually
found resources from one school only. This is more specifically what
I am working on:
Organizing the International open Index of our professions,
the SI library of useful info to the consumer and professionals.
Such an index is not a limiting enterprise like the previous point.
It is on the contrary very inclusive and expansive by nature, and it
is also, to me, the priority: like Tom M says, the leading schools
are not doing a thing in the direction of a professional society.
Does that mean that there is nothing we can do? Absolutely NOT is my
point.


* Practical benefits for smaller schools, or more recent ones:
--------------------------------------------------------------
. being listed as part of the family (today)
. when the database is ready, then smaller schools will be able to
use a subsection of it to maintain and customize their own list of
practitioners (6 months - 1 year).
. Practitioners lists will be unified into one search tool, as long
as they are available online, such as the existing lists (there are
some precautions to take here such as disclaimers etc...) (6 months -
1 year)
. waiting for the database, the search page at:
idaprolf.org/Schools.html offers a temporary solution (today)

* Practical benefits for all trainings
--------------------------------------
and the whole professional community:
-------------------------------------
. the ability to show people that we are a larger family than
individual established schools are showing, excellent for marketing
(today)
. A free e-mail account for all that directly associate this
belonging, say on a business card for example (today)
. Opening up to the public's and health professionals' questions.
Today, the only open forum is only open to our professionals (the
Yahoo forum), and that is needed to conduct private discussions and
exchange health and personal info about our clients; there is a
significant limit to that privacy: it is not a technical reality (the
forum is technically open). When idaprolf.org's forum area is ready,
then it will be possible to associate the community of professionals
to the consumer, and forward consumer's questions to our
practitioners (wherever they privately gather), without compromising
professional privacy. I will also offer a really private section for
our professionals, however, in order to be fully private, it will
need volunteers to check on subscriber's references (I simply won't
do that myself); such moderators should be volunteers based and
should be people that the community trust.

* Regional benefits:
--------------------
. At this point I am not quite fully ready for that, unless there are
volunteers locally to take care of it and promote it locally (waiting
for the database to be ready to make an official anouncement of the
regional concept). A regional subsection of idaprolf.org is in
perspective.
For example, Orna, volunteers in Israel can ask me to design a
subsection of idaprolf.org, like : http://israel.idaprolf.org . They
would have to maintain the list of practitioners and trainings
themselves (until the database is ready: the database will allow
practitioners to list themselves, and will also retrieve results from
the other listings like the Rolf Institute, the Guild, Hellerwork,
etc.). Local volunteers would also have to promote such a web page
with local search engines, health resources, etc. Local volunteers
can also customize the local web site with pages in the local
laguage, with local pictures, etc.
Do contact me if you are interested, if there are volunteers to take
care of the local tasks (obsolutely necessary: local volunteers that
can get things done !).

* Perspectives for the professional society:
--------------------------------------------
- today, many have talked about the professional society (for many
years I gather), and nothing has happened
- idaprolf.org should become with alittle time a likely fundamental
building block for such a society, if it becomes popular among our
community, offering:
. a basic web presence
. the organizational and technical tools to define itself, and begin
its activity. (with the server, and a web administrator at the
community's service: myself, who will hopefully have all the
technical skills and tools by then)
. The availability of search tools that allow to organize efficient
communication among ourselves, our various schools, our
professionals, and the public. That is whay I believe even though
what I am working on seems at first sight to be antogonized with the
professional society, idaprolf.org is really is the necessary first
building block, which the future society can use to begin functioning.
Of course, such a society is only possible with mebers, and hopefully
with also participating schools. In other words, with me alone
idaprolf.org will not be such a society.

* Conclusion
------------
In conclusion, Tom, and Orna, I will remind everyone, that I am not
loosing sight of the professional society, and I am actually building
the necessary first building blocks for it, some of which are already
very useful features to some, and perhaps some of which are also
already helping increase business for some practitioners and schools.
Within a year, I hope to have all the tools needed to move forward a
few steps further, including towards the professional society, if ...
... if, members and schools are really interested in the society in
question. If not, at least someone would have actually tried, which
is better that what we have now, and at least there is something that
is working.


Sincerely,

Reda