Open Letter from the IFF Assembly, Vienna 2009

May 3, 2009

Dear Colleagues in the Feldenkrais Method,

We are grateful to the Structural Review Committee members for finding such a highly qualified and respected expert in organizational development as Dr Wolfgang Looss.  In the discussion day he led at the Assembly it became clear that we, as a community of professionals, are dealing with essential questions that any profession must ask and answer for itself, including:

Who regulates who may be called a practitioner?

• Who regulates the education of future practitioners?
• Who decides on who will educate the educators?

Given the rich discussion on the SRC responses website, and the intensity of the issues identified in the discussion day, the IFF assembly has agreed there is a need for a conference that encourages dialogue among all interested parties.

The purpose of the conference would be to give guidance to the established authorities (namely the boards of directors of the national guilds and associations) in making decisions on how to distribute the responsibility for regulating practitioners, educational policy and educational faculty in the future.

Following the discussion day, the Assembly has voted :

• To re-affirm the value of TAB's as full voting members in the IFF.
• To amend its membership criteria, thus achieving the longstanding desire to bring the Nederlandse Feldenkrais Vereniging, (Dutch Guild) into full membership, (please see the full IFF Assembly report for details).

The IFF Assembly would like to thank the members of the Governing Bodies, the International Working Group, and the Structural Review Committee.  Their works have started valuable discussion across the community.

We welcome your response at .... src@feldenkrais-method.org