December 2015

Post date: Dec 14, 2015 12:16:11 AM

1 Work of subcommittees

· Best Practice - progressing defining the core values of AVP - this will be summarised in the introduction of each manual and organizing kit, best practice booklet

· Manual writers - progressing the structure of the manuals, and content of each chapter

· Translation - the draft of the Basic Companion Manual in Arabic - it is being reviewed by Arabic speakers

· AVP Informed/Spin-offs - defining and clarifying the 4th Spin-off level within the 5 AVP Circles

2 Education Committee has discussed and defined the 5 AVP Circles

· 1 AVP methodology

· 2 AVP core workshops: Basic, Advanced and T4F workshops - full 18-22 hour AVP workshops, delivered by a team of AVP trained facilitators, within an AVP recognised group. The facilitators must be voluntary ie. they want to be there and can be unpaid or paid (stipend). These statistics are collected by CLARG

· 3 AVP Variations: delivered by AVP trained facilitators in an AVP recognised group, using AVP methodology. They may have different content and may have fewer hours. For example Continuing Learning (facilitator training after a T4F workshop), AVP taster or introductory session, AVP training nights or support groups, or Trauma Resilience

· 4 AVP Informed/spin-offs: designed by an experienced AVP facilitator but delivered by an outside organisation and its respective facilitators, e.g. Recovery to Practice (Rita Cronise & Noelle Pollet, De-escalating Violent Situations (John Shuford), Transforming Conflict (Katherine), Conscience Studio (Nadine Hoover), HROC (AGLI), Circle Learning with Youth At Risk (Lyn Doppler)

· 5 AVP Influenced: organizations or individuals who are interested in AVP activities but do activities/exercises out of the methodological context; where the participants are influenced by AVP rather than transformed, e.g. schools where the teachers have been trained to do circle learning, but not trained as AVP facilitators, a homeless shelter where an AVP facilitator has shared some AVP materials

3 Time audit - the co-clerks have worked with the Time Audit provided by the Finance Committee. We have identified our need for technical support. Katherine has worked over the last month introducing the Zoom platform for all Education meetings. It would have been nice to have been able to ask a technician to do the work that Katherine needed to do. Betty would like the opportunity for a second month audit in 2016 so that the work of the Manual Writers can be included when the writing process begins in depth

In the near future Katherine will need to learn Word Press, Google Sites, Google forms and more about Google Drive. The AVP Education Network website will be extensively expanded during 2016 with the web publishing of educational materials and resources.

4 Introduction of Zoom- the Education Committees and subcommittees have introduced Zoom over the last month. We are still working through the ‘teething’ problems.

5 Education would like to ‘flag’ a future expense for AVP USA. Elzpieta recommends that the typesetting for each manual could cost $3,000. We expect that all the manuals will be simultaneously published in the next 3 to 5 years. We would like to have quality typesetting and proof reading, this will probably be done professionally to a similar quality to The Transformer. We are keen to avoid the problems that we had with the Facilitators Training Manual that was published in 2013 and reprinted in 2015.

ISSUE: Electronic Copies of Reference Manuals

The recommendation by both the Communication and Education Committees is that the Board accept the AVP International Education Committee request:

"that AVP/USA release AVP/International to post behind the firewall on the AVP International website, downloadable, free electronic copies (pdf format) of the AVP reference manuals."

The two Committees also recommend:“that the manuals be accessible internationally and blocked to USA facilitators.”

The reference manuals are the current approved Basic, Youth, Second Level/Advanced and Facilitators Training Manuals.

Currently all other AVP manuals are available to AVP facilitators worldwide from the AVP International website and can be downloaded. Currently AVP facilitators around the world can be sent individual electronic copies of the current AVP reference manuals, however providing access using the AVP International website will be much more efficient.

The International Education Committee is very concerned about the results of our recent audit of the manual holdings of AVP groups around the world. We have found that many AVP groups and facilitators, outside the United States do not have access to complete copies of the current AVP reference manuals and many are forced to facilitate from memory. This impacts on the quality of AVP workshops worldwide. For example, until recently AVP Rwanda had 2 incomplete copies of the 1986 AVP manuals translated into the local language. These 2 manuals were shared by 70 active facilitators!!!