Acting chair report These last twelve months have been a strange mix of


developments, some generative and some devastatingly sad. The greatest contextual change has, of course, been the global pandemic and the impact on all of our personal and professional lives, as well as a huge pressure on societies as a whole and, particularly, the more disadvantaged, as is so often the case in such disasters. I want to lay out some of the challenges that we have


faced within AFT, as well as some of the opportunities and generative developments. Before I do though, I want to highlight the dedicated work of our staff and volunteers across the organisation. We have only a small paid workforce and rely heavily on the generosity of many volunteers to attend to the significant needs of running such a complex organisation. We have all had to face the anxieties, both professionally and personally, that have emerged with COVID-19 and I am in awe of the manner in which hard pressed staff have adjusted to home working, under the intense pressure of additional workloads. My huge thanks to them all for keeping AFT going as they have faced the need to address new developments whilst continuing to carry out their usual tasks, and all in such a destabilising context. At the same time, our hard-pressed volunteers across many committees have faced not only their usual heavy workload but have taken on the extra work of adjusting to these challenging changes. Again, my huge and sincere thanks to them, on behalf of us all. The impact of COVID-19 has been felt across all AFT domains,


and no greater than within our accredited training Institutes, where the pressure has been, and continues to be, enormous. It has led to a great amount of work, across AFT, to try to find a healthy balance in adjusting our criteria to account for the need to work online. This is ongoing and work in progress, but we are all needing to adjust our sails to withstand the winds of challenging changes, whilst retaining our direction. Alongside the organic devastation of a virus, we have also


experienced the social impact of the killing of George Floyd, yet another in a long line of such atrocities. Whilst we are probably more attentive to the impact of marginalisation and discrimination than some psychotherapies, this is a time to truly reflect on how we as an organisation and systemic tribe take our theoretical learnings into lived action. Whilst it has been important for us to put out a public statement regarding AFT’s position, it is most important that this is not a token action, but that we truly look inwardly to see how we live our beliefs around racial discrimination. It is also a time to look harder at the intent behind the social graces generally, and we are putting forward a range of initiatives to ensure that that we can further embed


our beliefs within our organisational actions, at all levels. I recall Satish Kumar, at our Canterbury conference, stating that now is the time to “make all ‘isms’ ‘wasms’”. Our staff are continuing to rise well to the challenge of


reorienting our internal staffing structures. In this regard, we are currently undertaking a review of how the AFT board is internally structured as a whole, and how we relate to all stakeholders. This is work in progress, but we intend to ensure that AFT internal processes become more collaborative with a flattened hierarchy, more in keeping with our systemic beliefs. We will release more news on this as we move forward with the restructure. COVID-19 brought challenges to ongoing initiatives and,


sadly, we have had to cancel both our Bristol and Manchester symposiums. In response, we have already launched a series of webinars for members and look to increase these as part of an ongoing programme. We are also needing to move our AGM online and, at the time of writing, a date is being finalised. There has been huge pressure on our staff to move us to a


new website and membership payment system, in response to Wiley, our publishers, ceasing this area of work. With some 8,500 pages on our current website this has been a significant and unexpected task, which staff have again managed professionally and with fortitude. As well as the challenges to our organisational resilience,


there have been some exciting opportunities arising. The webinar innovation is leading to new possibilities for us all to connect and spread our knowledge and experience, as well as to have dialogues in new ways. We have launched a monthly events digest and are trying, through our newsletter, to keep members more informed. A significant amount of work is taking place in connecting with like minded organisations and professionals as we work towards having a greater presence in the political and social arenas to take our modality forward. The restructure that we are undertaking will allow for greater representation from all stakeholders, including members and service users. We are also using this opportunity to look at how we can best support the work of our paid staff in a manner that lessens the load on such a small team. The pandemic interrupted some important strategic projects,


notably the training review and seeking to align our membership categories to the needs of the public. This work is now resuming, and I am confident that, through collaborative dialogue, we will become a fitter and more resilient AFT to attend to our mission of supporting members and spreading systemic therapy and practice wherever we see opportunities.


Nigel Jacobs


Context 170, August 2020


53


Acting chair report


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