(As the chapter president and study group host for Coachville Vancouver, I designed, developed and organized 30 coaching symposia over four years. This is the circular to the group outlining the theme for an upcoming year.)
Dear Fellow Coaches,
The theme behind our fourth programme is an historical overview of the evolution of coaching through the activities of master coach Thomas Leonard, the founder of key coaching organisations Coachville (2001), the International Coach Federation (1994) and Coach U (1992). In this process we will hone our proficiency coaching skills while we learn, move and grow, all the while revitalizing ourselves, our communities and our practices, in addition to creating awareness of our discipline.
We also hope to form closer links over the 2004/2005 year with ICF, one of the organisations Thomas established, thereby following up on the new leader’s October 2003 initiative.
We will have a drop of eaux de vie (expensive but luscious and inspiring) as our exotic refreshment at all of the meetings, along with alluring non-alcoholic alternatives and exotic nibbles. The programme (see below for full details) will again be held at my home and will consist of two activity-based, four-hour coachathons, “Coach U, ICF and Coachville: Thomas Leonard Perfects the Proficiencies,” and “Coaches, Clients, and Observers: Proficiencies and Perspectives.”
As November, December and January can be months in which coaches flee the damp and cold of Vancouver, we will keep these clear of meetings, leaving these months open in case we wish to add extra events in Vancouver’s fellow municipalities. We will keep ourselves busy with significant others in these reflective months with a number of important coaching exercises detailed below.
On Friday, February 11, we will celebrate our third anniversary and Thomas’s life with “Longue Vie Thomas Leonard: Living Lessons from a Master Coach, and Conversations from the Floor.” We first met as a chapter and study group on Feb. 28, 2002 to listen to a tape of a Jan. 11, 2002 session on defining success with Thomas which I had attended and taped.
During Coaching Week, we will strike out boldly with “Have Coach, Will Travel: Entering New Territories.” In the spirit of Coachville proficiency number 12, we will take a coach (hopefully getting sponsorship from a coach company) on the road, moving between communities in Vancouver — from Richmond, Delta and White Rock in the south to Burnaby, Port Coquitlam and New Westminster in the east, and perhaps also across the inlet to North Vancouver if we have members there. This travelling show will involve all of us as a community as we create coaching pit-stops in our particular neighbourhoods, will attract media attention, thus helping us create awareness of the profession, and give us further opportunities to learn, move and grow.
June 18 will be the finale, bringing the 2004/2005 series to a close. It will be a moving meditation in line with our theme of growing, moving, travelling and revitalizing. I have asked Whirling Dervishes to come and show us the art of moving meditation, and await a response. As well, I have asked someone from a First Nation community to speak about meditation.
We will again be supported by study group and chapter teleconferences as is the protocol for CoachVille’s international study group and chapter communities.
Coaches interested in the details of this programme should e-mail me at dr.s@shaw.ca.
©S Fuller 2011