Who would have thought fate would have led us here?
And where was “there” and, now, where is our “here,” you might wonder?
“Here” is the present situation, with New Horizons’ Beyond Gender Tyranny movement, related projects and programs, looking to be, not only our present, but central to our future, as far as we can see.
And this, alongside the personal upheaval related to the Ethics Complaint, submitted, May 13, by our Founder and Executive Director, Anastasia Rosen-Jones. The complaint was tendered to the Ethics Committee of the International Transactional Analysis Association, Anastasia’s primary professional association of forty-five years.
Already the process of working through the issues of the complaint, related to charges of sexual harassment and power abuse on the part of one of Anastasia’s long term mentors, is taking her into uncharted territory, personally and professionally.
Such as she has never before seen or experienced!
How the procedures of this intense healing and reconciliation effort will impact the day-to-day operations of New Horizons is anybody’s guess, at this time; much too soon in the unfolding process to determine.
At New Horizons, up against this backdrop, between “then” and “now” much, of enormous proportions, has occurred beyond these personal happening of Anastasia’s.
(Note added July 12: At the center of these events is the "how" we, as a working board of directors, managed to navigate a brewing polarization among ourselves and re-route it into the synergistic harmony that has uniquely marked the culture of our board since its inception in 1995.
We are truly "walking our talk." I will delineate some of how we lived out this motto and went from a threatening polarization to get ourselves back in sync in some of the text I will be writing for this summary of events of our past year.
We, the members of New Horizons Board of Directors hope you will understand our process and, thus, our journey to overcome polarization with so much appreciation that you will want some of "IT" for yourselves and invite us to be your guide in achieving the same in whatever venue is of central importance to you in your life.
Check out our link on "Exceptional Community Building" to read a selection of articles that demonstrate the challenges we were facing, among ourselves, last year at this time, and how we pulled ourselves through to get ourselves back to synergy.)
Starting below is a summary of some of our key transitioning events of the past year, as the New Horizons Board Of Directors prepares, now, for its annual board meeting, scheduled for this coming Sunday, July 15.
One of the most important resolutions of New Horizons 2017 Annual Board Meeting, was that Anastasia, our “best kept secret,” was to, now, emerge out of her hidey hole where she had kept her past professional experiences and expertise mainly behind closed doors. By this time last year, however, that space had grown too confining for her – and -- a bit limiting in terms of how the future of New Horizons was to be shaped.
As we, at New Horizons, are always a part of the whole organism of our local area, our region, our nation and the world, intent on serving these various spheres, “Thinking globally, acting locally,” is one of our main guiding principles.
And – given that these realms were being turned upside down, mostly brought about by the social and political mayhem, following the 2016 presidential election, as we saw it, Anastasia, in keeping with that which she has believed to be her destiny, was feeling more and more called to, somehow, make her return to the D.C. fast track that had been her initiation into adulthood -- and – to which she has always had strong kinship and allegiance.
This situation, we realized, as we approached last year’s board meeting agenda, had the potential for creating a conflict of interest situation within our organization, with Anastasia heading it. Thus we began, seriously, considering a separation between New Horizons and Anastasia.
Because we, by mandate of our 501 C 3 status, are bound to remain apolitical, and have been doing our best to remain so – and – although we have been highly impacted upon by the results of the last presidential election, we were more than aware that maintaining that dictate seemed to be at odds with Anastasia’s personal and professional goals.
Thus, at last year’s board meeting, our main resolution, to be implemented immediately following it, was to formally announce the separating of New Horizons and Anastasia. We would do this, initially with a press release announcing our plan.
You can read that press release here.
But how, in actuality, were we to separate the two became our next challenge.
After all, it was Anastasia who gave birth to New Horizons. And, that many years ago, with our forerunner, Anastasia’s private psychotherapy practice, dating back to 1973!
A recap of New Horizons transitioning events, paralleling all that was going on with us, beyond us and in the world around us, is in order. I will offer this review in readable portions, in order to assist you, our loyal readers, in having a glimpse of what has been going on behind the scenes at New Horizons and how that these happenings are shaping what you are and will be getting from us, from here forth.
I begin with New Horizons Annual Board Meeting of 2017. One of the most important resolutions of that meeting, as I have stated, was that we announced the biggest shift we have ever had -- New Horizons “best kept secret,” the life and world, both personal and professional of our Founder and Executive Director, M. Anastasia Rosen-Jones, would no longer be hidden away.
For Anastasia coming out of her long held storage chest, maybe a genie’s bottle is more like it, into high public visibility (how high we could only imagine) was to be no small task. She had done it before, becoming an overnight entrepreneurial celebrity and hadn't much liked it!
To be continued with “When The Personal Becomes Political And The Political Personal.”
Look for details on future postings for the extended report.
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