Women and Leadership

Little history
The idea for a gathering of women came into being after we had the experience of Moving the Edge in March 2006 in Denmark.
The gathering, early March '07 in Belgium, was deeply inspiring and exceptional! You can read the whole story on my blog, and a reflection afterwards on Helen's blog and you can look at the pictures, who tell the same story.
The next gathering is planned in the US, October 2007. Some women already talk about a next European gathering in Spring '08!

Women Moving the Edge

Of emergent collective leadership

Oct 26 – 29, 2007 Western Massachusetts, USA

Purpose

A purposeful gathering of conscious women who:
• will explore and move the edge of what it means to know, sense, and be our emergent collective future potential
• hold, embrace, and birth the unfolding wholeness together
• co-create the grooves in consciousness beyond our individual and collective edge
In this gathering we will not only explore the edge, we will be it, we will do it. Our world requires of us the courage to open engage, to inquire, to suspend, and to explore beyond what we think we know. Together we will co-create and be the vessel to awaken the inter-subjective “We”, the Being who comes alive through all of us together, who awaits our invitation to bring collective leadership into fruition.

Guiding Questions

• What unique qualities of leadership do women hold to bring positive change for all life on this planet?
• What are the active roles of silence, listening, sensing, and holding? Are these a kind of feminine action birthing a higher level of embracing/consciousness?
• Can we hold the paradoxes: the chaos, the stillness, the movement, the joy, and the pain? And give birth from this uncertain yet fertile place?
• Who are we collectively? Is there a collective holding back? A collective inner knowing? Is there a collective source for stepping forward?
• What does conscious collective women’s leadership look like? How to reclaim the right to re-order the world?

What we will do

As conveners and hosts our work is informed by the Art and Practice of Presencing, the Art of Hosting, and a commitment to creating the space for the magic of emergence. As our time together unfolds, we will open the way for collaborative engagement with various modes for creatively and organically exploring into Wholeness of Knowing and how it leads to emergent and collective leadership. As we sense into our circle and its unfolding, some ways we may create a self-organizing field of women’s wisdom could include:

• Collective practices like World Café, Open Space and Circle
• Emergent practices like Generative Dialogue, Constellation, and the U Process of Presencing
• Ritual and celebration
• Movement, dance, voice/tone/vibration
• Art, music, poetry, journaling
• Nature in her beauty and presence
• Silence and meditation
• Invitations to practice leadership in the moment – to view the system and patterns from the balcony or to actively step in-the-moment into the chaos on the dance floor
• Opportunities to take responsibility for next steps, collaborations, or projects

How will you show up?

• Open - be prepared for surprise
  * Leave behind what you already know so as to co-create in the moment
  * Hold the courage and intention to find and move your edge
  * Be in a constant state of evolving inquiry, of curiosity, and open to grace.
  * Be steady and patient in deep respect for one another and the process
  * Be ready to take risk, to move beyond safety
  * Hold the paradox of doing really important work and HAVING FUN.

Dates

Friday Oct. 26, 3:00pm to
Monday Oct. 29, after lunch.

Venue

Angel’s Rest, an amazingly tranquil retreat centre held in the peaceful and natural and nurturing energy of Western Mass hills, is about 2 hours drive west of Boston or 1 1/2 hours north of Hartford, Ct.
00 1 (413) 772-0648

• Hosted by a warm and friendly staff
  * Delicious food with preference options available.
  * Comfortable sleeping, usually 2 sometimes 3 to a room.
  * Bathrooms are nearby and plentiful.
  * Silence, sounds, and beauty of nature are all around.

Invitation

If what you have read, speaks to you; if you are ready to fully engage in this way, you are invited!
We are looking forward to meet you!

Ria Baeck & Judy Wallace

Fee

All inclusive Fee $750 for Workshop, Meals, and Lodging

• In a few cases we are open to a sliding scale fee. The minimum accepted would be $550 for the weekend.

• As part of the conscious use of money as a resource and our responsibility as emerging women leaders, we are open to each paying as much as one can and a little bit more. Please open this conversation with us if appropriate for you. If you can pay (a bit) more than full price, we can create a fund for scholarships.
  

• Space is limited to 20 people. Therefore, we encourage reserving as soon as possible.

Registration

Contact us by email of your intention to attend, as well as sending your check or money transfer. After we receive your deposit / payment, you will receive a letter by email with more specific information, travel suggestions, your payment acknowledgement, as well as further instructions to join in the pre-gathering on-line conversation.

Reservation and payment

Payment in full or a Deposit of $200 with balance due no later than Sept. 15, 2007.
for US and Canada: please write a check to: Judy Wallace and mail it to: Judy Wallace, 79 Mount Pleasant Ave., Gloucester, MA 01930 USA
for Europe: pay to: 001-3834298-61, Account name: VITIS, Fortis Bank, Bekkevoort
IBAN BE62 0013 8342 9861; BIC GEBABEBB

Information

Ria Baeck, Belgium
+32 (0)13 31.59.76 mobile: +32 (0)473 50.21.76
email
Judy Wallace, USA
+1-978-283-8183 mobile +1-978-771-5811
email

Facilitation Team

Ria Baeck - Belgium
Ria is fascinated by communities – in work and in daily life –and how we can make them work. She is a self-employed psychotherapist who combines deep compassion, bodily awareness and a lust for life. She is a trained facilitator of Systemic Constellations. Her focus is always on the here-and-now; doing the action right now instead of talking about it. She founded Vitis whose core purpose is to bring deep transformation in individuals, organisations and society.
Ria is a coach with a lot of experience in individual and group work. She initiated different new forms of collaboration on the edge of community and collective leadership.
More about Ria

Judy Wallace - Boston, USA
Judy is committed to promoting and exploring ever-evolving ways of building understanding and sparking creative thinking through meaningful conversations. For 10 years she has worked as a consultant and facilitator for global businesses where cultures intersect, where multiple ways of communicating and interacting are crucial. In recent years, Judy has enhanced her knowledge and skills with groups choosing to consciously engage collective wisdom, to step outside the box, to move to the edge of knowing and there to discover the emergent. Recently Judy completed a Masters in Conscious Evolution (the Graduate Institute and EnlightenNext) with a project entitled “Moving Beyond the Personal to Engage Collective Intelligence”.
More about Judy

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