REFERENCING ATTENDANCE IN ONLINE CLASSES
April 15, 2020
Dear RC Leaders,
Thank you for finding so many ways, old and new, to keep RC Communities moving forward in this challenging and opportunity-filled time. We here in Seattle have heard from hundreds of you about the activities you are creating and experimenting with for your Communities.
Many of you have commented on how many RCers who are not in steady contact with the Community, both for good reasons and for distressed reasons, are now making steady contact with other RCers and with the Communities.
This is creating many great new opportunities, some of which you will need to provide referencing for. Since the activities are now online, it is no more difficult to attend a class or a support group or a workshop a thousand miles away than it is to attend one in one’s own Community.
Some of these distant opportunities in some situations will benefit both the individual and the local Community. Some of these opportunities, however, can be very appealing to some individuals who will be drawn by their distress material to find the “best resource” for themselves, without wider thought about building the local Community. These opportunities may well attract people with “consumer material.”
Helping to figure out whether or not a distant online activity makes sense for an individual is going to require referencing. As before, we are going to require the permission of a local reference person for an RCers to attend activities outside of their Area. This is going to include online classes, online support groups, online playdays, online gather-ins, and online workshops.
Perhaps the general issue to think about is whether or not this individual being part of this distant activity is going to improve the development of RC: the individual’s understanding, the individual’s ongoing Co-Counselors in the local Community. Particular issues you might think about include: does the individual have steady ongoing counseling relationships, is the individual in an RC class, are they in local support groups, do they attend local workshops and other activities? Is the distant activity something that isn’t available locally (class, support group, or workshop for a particular constituency)? Would the individual be committed to sharing the benefit of the workshop with the local Community?
There will also be the question of deciding to let a distant person participate in local activities—gather-ins, classes, support groups, workshops. If the leader of the activity wishes to include a distant person, it should be discussed with the leader’s local reference person.
In this period of great challenge, discovery, and experimentation, we will start with these guidelines. As we gain more experience in these areas we will figure out if they are adequate or what alternations need to be made.
Thank you again for being part of this splendid push to use our new circumstances well.
With love and appreciation,
Tim