Updates From the Executive Team:
U.S. Intensive, New Practitioners and New Board Qualifications!

Hello, Fellow LTRI Members! It has been a very full couple of months here at the LTRI and I am eager to share some of our success with you and offer a glimpse at what is on the horizon! I hope wherever you are that you and are staying safe, creative and healthy during these very uncertain times.

On behalf of the entire Executive Leadership Team (Myself, Aimee Blesing, President-Elect, Steve Housley, Immediate-Past President and Sean Turner, Managing Director) we hope your Lessac Community will continue to serve and enrich your lives. Our [virtual] door is always wide open. If we can be of service or you just want to chat, exchange ideas or have any questions, please don’t be a stranger (Executive-Team@lessacinstitute.org).

I am looking forward to seeing you ALL at the next Kinesensic Connections Meeting on August 22!

Warmly and Buoyantly,
Kellynn Meeks, LTRI President

THE U.S. INTENSIVE

Caroline Good on the mat at DePauw University

The U.S. Summer Intensive and Facilitator Training finished the first ever remote workshops last month! The dedication, commitment and creativity involved in moving the intensive curriculum to the remote platform was an extraordinary group effort and a true labor of love! The entire Master Teacher Team, the Executive Leadership Team and countless trainers and collaborators who volunteered and/or lent their voices and time to assisting with the creation of asynchronous content deserve our heartfelt thanks and admiration. It was truly an inspiring (and sometimes an anesthetically hair-pulling) process. But with passion and talent there is nothing we can’t accomplish. And we have both in spades here at the LTRI!

Master Teacher Crystal Robbins and Certified Trainer Caroline Good Zoom’d in together from DePauw’s campus while Master Teacher Marth Munro facilitated from 6 hours ahead in Pretoria, South Africa. This Dream Team lead 15 participants through the Intensive with a combination of synchronous and asynchronous content. This is one of our largest groups in recent years and the 15 participants and 3 teachers spanned the globe, zooming in from South Africa, Croatia, the UK and all over the U.S. This multi-lingual group explored Kinesensics for their final projects in Afrikaans, Croatian, English, French, and Korean.

FACILITATOR TRAINING

In addition to the Intensive, Master Teacher Deb Kinghorn led 7 Practitioners (from 3 continents, but whose counting!) through our first ever remote Facilitator Training (f/k/a Teacher Training). The combination of viewing each day’s recorded voice and body classes from the Intensive, small group discussions and assigned reading allowed for participants to have a certain amount of flexibility in their schedules in order to accommodate a very vast time zone span. Judging from the smiles, we think it was a success and we look forward to their continued journey toward certification and to evolving this modality in the future.

We have learned so, so, much and are continuing to examine data from this process to reflect on how to continue to ensure accessibility to our work at the highest level of quality.

Thank you and congratulations to all who participated, planned, reached, shook and floated, through this process! The effect of your passion and determination speaks volumes.

Speaking of…

NEW PRACTITIONERS

The fruits of this year’s US Intensive were bountiful! 10 (TEN!!) participants took and passed the Practitioner exam. We are thrilled to welcome them into the Kinesensic Trainer community. Congratulations to our most recent Kinesensic Practitioners:

Maria Fenty Denison, Nichole Hamilton, Jessica Miler, Atticus Osborn, Elizabeth Parks, Shadana Patterson, Laura Pirret, Nina Sabo, Lisa Velten Smith, and Marc Williams

INSTITUTIONAL INTROSPECTION AND BOARD QUALIFICATIONS

Our ongoing commitment to organizational introspection and growth is still in full force. We have been meeting with board consultants and strategists to find ways to make impactful change. With an all-volunteer Board and staff, this work is sometimes slow (we like to go atom-to-atom, after all), but please know that the ball is always rolling forward and although you may not hear from us, we are working very actively to ensure a sustainable, accessible and inclusive future for the LTRI.

With that in mind, I am excited to announce that the Board has approved the following changes to Article 5, Sections 1 and 2 of its ByLaws (Please see below) which we hope will serve to diversify our Board of Directors and foster creativity and growth. These changes were proposed by the Leadership Team and approved by the Board on June 5.

We encourage all qualified members (see below) to please consider joining our efforts as we will have 2 (two) open seats on the Board to consider for the coming year. This is an exciting time to be on the Board and to make a big difference in the future of the LTRI.

Please look for an announcement in the coming weeks on how to submit for consideration or reach out to the Nominating Committee directly if you would like more information.

ARTICLE 5
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

SECTION 1. COMPOSITION

The corporation shall have nine (9) directors and collectively they shall be known as the Board of Directors. The Board shall consist of the President, President-Elect, Immediate Past-President and six (6) Directors-at-Large, which must include at least one (1) Master Teacher, one (1) Certified Trainer and one (1) Practitioner. The Treasurer and Secretary, if not held by directors at large, along with the Managing Director shall be present at meetings of the board but shall not have voting rights.

SECTION 2. QUALIFICATIONS

All Board Members shall be of the age of majority in this state [New York]. Anyone who meets one of the following criteria is eligible to be elected to the Board of Directors:

a) Has been a Professional or Associate member in good standing of the Corporation for at least two (2) years.

b) Has been a member in good standing of the Corporation for at least 2 years AND has demonstrated extensive leadership and effort in supporting the mission of the Corporation. Extensive leadership is defined as: Serving for a minimum of 2 or more years on a “Team” (i.e. Marketing Team, Newsletter, Membership, Accounting and Admin, Workshops, Conference Planning, Web Solutions, Research Team, Fundraising, etc.).

c) Is a member or non-member nominated by unanimous vote of the board and will provide support or service that addresses a fiscal or strategic need of the corporation. Nominees under this category are not subject to a vote by Membership or recommendation by the Nominating Committee. (see: SECTION 5. VOTING PROCEDURES)

Updates From the Executive Team: U.S. Intensive, New Practitioners and New Board Qualifications!