Educational Retreat

Hi

One of the requirements of my contract is that I give periodic reports on the progress of the organizing for the Educational Retreat. This is the eighth and last. Please note that this is an interpretive report, not minutes for the meeting.

1.  Website.  Documents related to the Educational Retreat are online.
2.  Agenda.  We met Thu. August 16^th at M.H. Administration. Right after that meeting I was to go to San Jose International Airport and pick up the ‘Riverside contingent’! The agenda for the meeting was:
   •   Florence Keller Interview
   •   Late Adjustments
   •   Loose Ends
     1.   Gilroy Pickup
     2.   Brenda Herbert Accommodation
     3.   Room Assignments
   •   Work Program
     1.   Bios
     2.   Folders
     3.   Scheduling
   •   Action Details
3.  Florence.  Thursday AM before the meeting Alma-Alicia and I were able to interview Florence Keller, the psychologist who is part of the Acute Psychiatry Division (inpatient services). We both found her accessible, and interested in ‘continuing the conversation’. We learned she is personally an associate of David Rosenhan, whose article On being sane in insane places is much bally-hooed in social psychology. A major component of the social psychology of anti-psychiatry. I found this interesting because we are into dialogics not anti-psychiatric confrontational agendas exactly. I’d have to say she listened intently and will I think learn to hear how what the clients are about here differs from Social Psychology at Stanford.
4.  Changes.  We lost at the last minute several facilitators, the reason being major stress and psychiatric inpatient status. We took on Karen Conrotto and Theresa Georges, two long-time clients of the Santa Clara County system. They were both students in my CIS 41 class last spring, and both now work for the Office of Client Empowerment. We also took on A.C. member Stephan DuBose, a student at CSU-Monterey Bay, and we invited Kathie Zatkin of the Alameda County Network, who unfortunately had to decline our last minute invitation due to personal reasons. There were also some updates on the participant list.
5.  Loose.  Due to a breakdown in the County process, Michele and Jose were left without their expected ride from Gilroy having materialized. However the clients stepped in and Barry brought both Michele and Jose to the meeting, en route to Los Gatos. So I forgot to mention this, but present at the meeting were Nancy, Luann, and six clients — myself, Alma-Alicia, Barry, Tom, Jose, and Michele. It was a wild meeting, with some silliness and in any rate the giddy communication of people who were communicating effectively around an important task, in despite of preconceived notions to the contrary. We also discussed the need for a physical accommodation for the injured San Jose Police Lieutenant Brenda Herbert. I did a double check to see that Terry Fleming would not run into any bad energy for “Registering at the Lodge While Black.” In retrospect this was probably very good because we found when we got there that the Lodge was pretty well psyched out on organizational details by the combo of clients and County M.H. .. and you know racism is not far beneath the surface in civil society. We allotted the rooms not being used, due to scratches, to local facilitators who had not previously been so accommodated.
6.  Program.  Nancy and I wrote up ad hoc bios for the facilitators and participants, which were included in the packets. Pandora of Nancy’s staff made up beautiful packets and Nancy and I assigned the items to be included. Nancy chose a couple of my earlier client Internet postings, on union recognition (with Phil Winn and others), and on entitlement psychology. And also  :-)  the brochure for the Accountability Caucus. We also discussed the problem of scheduling the 2×2 assignments, surely an art rather than a science if ever such a metaphor might obtain!
7.  Luann.  I can’t close this commentary without noting the extraordinary contribution of Administrative Services Manager Luann Hahn, who at every stage and on every important organizational issue made things happen. She made them work at a very high level due to her extreme sensitivity to the issues involved. Thank you so much Luann!
8.  Action.  It was time for action.

Respectfully submitted

Andrew Phelps