Dear Breath Family,

We have a special report and a few announcements to make. Enjoy! -Steve

Reunion | Certification Process | Roster Changes | Personnel | Award | Refugee

AUTUMN RETREAT: The Breath Family Reunion

We had a wonderful and joyful gathering at New Hampshire’s Opechee Inn in October. Wonderful weather and scenery. We thank everyone who attended; some took a very long journey to join us; such as Rumi who flew in from Bulgaria. We had multiple participants from New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Texas, New Jersey, Michigan, New Mexico, and Florida with attendance from other parts of New England, New York, Washington State, Illinois, Georgia and Maryland.

There were several Feature Presentations worth noting: 1) A “Mega-Breakstate”, essentially a bizarre and humbling Scavenger Hunt, developed by Eugenia that I can’t even really describe though I was conscious for the whole wacky adventure. But it was fun. 2) Judith presented on working with the Pelvic Diaphragm (thankfully not “hands-on”, but it spawned a lot of jokes). Still, it is a valuable advance to what we do. That was followed by Judith working with a group of breathers on their neck and head (contrast that with the neck and throat work that we

TBF Facilitator / Trainer Newsletter – November 2015

know). 3) I gave a 90-minute talk / demo on recognizing and understanding Diaphragmatic Injury & Dysfunction, and with new ways to approach Reverse (Paradoxical) Breathing, and open up the chest and whole ribcage. 4) Senior Trainers Paul Radunz and Kathleen Strong offered a taste of their work in the area of Relationships.

And we ate… and we breathed a lot. And enjoyed sunny mild New Hampshire Autumn days.

But of course, the best parts were the skits. There was singing, general silliness, with a few more serious presentations. There was Cinny breaking boards. I kid you not… she actually broke pine boards… with her hands. You know, like karate? So if anyone is late with payments…

The comedy routines were totally off-the wall. Aubree Saia and Kim Rager in separate skits had us howling. They were rude, crude, and entirely delightful. Not to be outdone, Eugenia, Judith and I performed a basically unrehearsed improvisation on how we prepared for the Reunion itself. It was entitled, “The Dysfunctional Breath Family Reunion” where Rob Leavitt was added in a brilliantly acted non-speaking role.

We plan to have more of these gatherings so don’t miss the next one! Or Cinny “Knuckles” Wikoff may be paying you a visit.

TRAINER / SENIOR TRAINER CERTIFICATION PROCESS

Just as we have a formal process to award Facilitator Certification, we are formalizing the Request and Review Process for those who feel they have met the requirements and standards to become Certified as a Trainer or Senior Trainer.

There have been questions recently about the process so it is best to document it better and allow it to be done online. In the past Judith had trained everyone so this was handled kind of informally. As always the website TOOLS page (“Certification Tab”) has the needed materials.

For each role (Trainer or Senior Trainer) there is a single one-page form to request the Certification and provide some information on the Training requirements. Then for the evaluating Senior Trainer, the familiar Co-Trainer Evaluation Form should be sent to us at info@transformationalbreath.com. (There will likely be more electronic filing options added soon).

We will review the application and, if approved, confer that next Certification along with upgrading access in the Document Download System (DDS). Know that this process is not automatic, a positive Co-Trainer Evaluation does not guarantee approval; the review process is real in that we verify that standards are being met. We have certified too many Trainers and Senior Trainers over the years who are too casual about Policy or lack general professionalism.

Once certification is earned, it must be maintained. There will be internal reviews where the Certification can be revoked, or suspended, or be translated back into a Facilitator Certification. This continued review is no different than that of a Facilitator Certification.

ROSTERS (Best Practices)

Our Rosters sometimes arrive in perfect shape but often still come in a condition that is quite difficult to work with. On numerous occasions it has even regrettably presented issues with an Intern’s Certification, and with some legal and compliance cases.

To begin, let me detail some common problem scenarios we see on rosters and some lessons we have learned:

o Required fields are not filled in. For example, it doesn’t take much effort to fill in the Country. Without that we will be unable to segment a mailing list effectively by country, if we choose.

o In many cases we have no Phone numbers. Though we will never promote our work by phone, we do keep phone numbers for legal reasons (both internal and outside of TBF). In very few instances would someone not have a phone available such as the refugees that Vincent works with in Kenya.

o Further, without phone numbers our Legal & Compliance Officer (LCO) when investigating complaints against a Breathworker may be without contact information for the very people who can help solve the matter. Over the years TBF has had enough serious violations of law and policy. This includes formal complaints about its breathworkers whether the case turns out to be serious or just frivolous. Consider a complaint that comes down to the complainant’s word against the Breathworker’s word because there is no way to get at the truth. Who do we believe? It would be sad if LCO had to suspend a Breathworker because a Trainer/Senior Trainer did not provide any information to help the investigation of a baseless incident. But our client public is our primary responsibility… In addition, if a legal authority ever asked us for contact information for a student or Breathworker, we better have that information.

o Facilitators and Staff information is often completely missing. One cannot assume that we always have current contact information for our Breathworkers. Often folks do not provide us updates when they change phone or email. (These days we change our phones or emails fairly often). Even names change due to marriage and divorce. In the USA we would expect mailing addresses updated also. So just as we ask for accurate and timely data on Participants, we would need Trainer’s help in keeping their Facilitator’s information current even though it is ultimately the Facilitator’s responsibility. Basically, ask yourself, “How can we continue to certify someone we cannot reach?”

o Inaccurate or unusable data. This means someone at TBF has to research or do manual correction before loading data online. Some examples:

Typographical errors are abundant. I have seen Rosters that have averaged one (1) error per person. Misspellings of names, invalid email formats, misspelled email addresses and so on. Either Students need to verify their information upon arriving at your training, or the registration contact needs to record better information when accepting payments.

Improper Case. Names, email addresses, cities and such appear sometimes in CAPITAL LETTERS, or in all lowercase letters. This requires manual converting of data to “proper case” before loading. Otherwise, we would be sending out

emails like: “Dear JOHN SMITH, …” or, Dear john smith, …” It just doesn’t look good, and capitals are not considered good etiquette online.

Legal Names: Please let’s leave out the fanciful names; our database is not someone’s Facebook Page. Take legal names of staff and students. Unless Jean Miller’s credit card or personal check has the name Pinky Dragonfly, then give us the name Jean Miller and not Pinky. Other than marriage or divorce, names should be fairly consistent throughout the training path to avoid confusion or to give folks credit for their trainings. If Miller and Dragonfly are added in the database as two different records (two people), each may not get credit for trainings or may have old contact information stored; Judith and I do not know everyone. I just came across someone who did not get credit for Seminar and hence her Certification was denied until the unnecessary name situation was straightened out.

Another person’s email: Make sure the email address is accurate. One wrong letter or character may end up being a valid email address for someone else in the world who didn’t take our training. This happens and I get the complaints when we email unsolicited messages out.

o Delegating: Trainers are still responsible for the roster even if they give the roster task to someone else. You must review them, and if necessary, correct them. The newest roster template is always on the TOOLS page. Use that one please. We cannot use rosters in whatever format one chooses. There is a new format there now with a date of November 2015 (i.e. 1115). This format has added a drop-down list for Country, so that the country data will be standard. Also, to help the Proper Case issue, there is a check in Excel to reject those JOHN SMITH, LONDON type entries. Last, there is a syntax check for a valid email format. NOTE: You can submit the TBF Registration Ledger instead of Roster if you want to include both financial data and roster data in one Excel document.

o Labor. Understand that it takes far longer to process a roster than to fill it out. o Certification. Now that the Certification Process has been refined since 2013, it has

become tightly linked with the Rosters; we see too many data issues when we want to award someone certification. Late or missing rosters will hold up one’s application for Certification; we no longer have time to research or guess where someone may have done their Internships. Thus if a Roster does not support Internship attendance at a Training we cannot accept the Certification application. And when the missing Roster comes in, Certification will be awarded only after the Roster is processed, which will not necessarily become a priority.

o Prudence: I advise all of us to do regular backups on our PCs. And secure your machines... When hard disks crash or when PCs, Tablets and Phones are stolen, realize that your Rosters may not have been delivered to us. You would need to reconstruct one from whatever records you have available. Again, don’t let someone’s Certification hang in the balance because of lost data.

PERSONNEL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Legal and Compliance

I’d like to take a few words to announce our new Legal & Compliance Officer (LCO), Abraham Taliaferro. Some of you know Abe as Judith’s youngest. He is also working as a paralegal, which is convenient, and he is keen on protecting his Mom’s life’s work. In time, you may hear from him if an issue arises or if he requests your help. Our Regional Liaisons especially are likely to converse with him going forward.

CEO

Dear Breath Family,

Stephen Gooby, our devoted leader who has worn quite a few hats with TBF over the past 10 years, is letting go of some of his roles and responsibilities with us. I am forever grateful for everything Steve has shared with me and TBF.

He will continue to work on document translation, websites, media, science, and rosters/data.

The Certification Process will be managed by TBF Operations at: info@transformationalbreath.com. Invoices will come from TBF Operations via requests to Judith or Cinny. Anything of a Legal, Compliance, or Policy nature may go to Abe Taliaferro (below) at legal@transformationalbreath.com. I receive emails at that address also. At this time Steve will not be available for Personnel issues or concerns. Those can be directed to info@tranformationalbreath.com and will be answered by Operations as well.

Thank you, Steve for all your loving service, Breathing in Love, Judith

AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE

TBF has decided to give a yearly Certificate of Commendation for

Excellence and Dedication. This year, 2015, the Certificate is being

awarded to Indalecia Rohita Ziritt who you all know as Italy’s Regional Liaison (RL) and its most senior Breathworker. More recently she was made RL of Ireland. This kind of award makes me say, “Wow, how do they do it!” Inda has done so much more, even beyond Italy, as our Certificate will read.

“Building a Breath Community in both Ireland and Northern Ireland, and guiding three breathworkers there to the cusp of Trainer Certification all within a short period of 24 months, and while managing rapid growth in

Italy, representing TBF admirably at GIC, managing some document and book translations, and organizing several breathworker retreats.”

While we appreciate all that you each do for TBF—and believe me it does not escape my attention—we have to give the award to someone very deserving. There will be another award late next year. Indalecia will receive this from Judith fairly soon while in the US. Please join me in congratulating Indalecia for her awe-inspiring and tireless contribution.

REFUGEE SEMINARS

We have heard of the great work done by TIBA-Africa. But there is another vital project recently launched in Kenya: this is for African refugees. It is a series of special Seminars for Refugees living now in Nairobi who have come from places like The Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. Vincent has been working with them for a while on a smaller scale but the need has grown to go deeper. These refugees

have been traumatized by war and many other life issues so attending a free Seminar would be helpful to them. And it already has.

The first Seminar took place in October and we are hopeful to continue this series though much depends on the availability of funds. We would appreciate any Support: Financial Aid or sending Supplies to help the refugees.

Account Name: Breathe Africa International Account Number: 01148421828200 Bank: Co-Operative Bank Of Kenya Swift Code: KCOOKENA Branch: Ngong P.O. Box 1036 – 00208 Ngong, Kenya

TO HELP, please Contact: Vincent Oloo, Director of Breathe Africa +254721691553, vincent@breathe-africa.com