Frequency of meetings: Quarterly Date of last AGM: As we have only recently reached our fi rst year anniversary, we are still working towards arranging a date for our fi rst AGM . Brief overview of activities over the past 12 months At a social gathering of West Midlands tutors for the
Birmingham Systemic and Family T erapy Training Programme, the idea was germinated, fermented and brewed for the re-launching of a West Midlands AFT branch. And so on 6 June 2018 we had our fi rst offi cial meeting at a coff ee shop in the centre of Birmingham. T ere was an admirable amount of enthusiasm from some of the nearly-qualifi ed MSc students, two of whom have since volunteered to join the branch commit ee. Amongst coff ee and cake we nominated and agreed commit ee members, set up an email group and recruited members. Over the past year we have met on six occasions. We have
had a facilitated discussion on the topic of co-working; we’ve explored the theme of systemic practice in the digital world; and we learned from one of our group how to create food stories as a way to support families where there is an eating disorder. In one meeting we were joined by conference call by one of our ‘chairs’, which made for some disciplined listening and negotiation around constructive pauses! Our intention is to cover the whole of the West Midlands
which is a large and ethnically diverse geographical area.T e branch aims to provide a key forum for support on professional issues , networking and obtaining CPD. Branch meetings last for two hours and the commit ee meets for an hour prior to members arriving. Branch meetings are scheduled as follows: • one hour commit ee meeting (prior to branch members meeting) • half-hour business meeting (provide updates on local initiatives and developments, raise professional issues, not forget ing networking and mingle time over coff ee and cake!!)
• half-hour journal discussion • one hour for seminars / facilitated discussions / workshops. We are currently in the process of formulating the structure of
the group and future topics and training that will contribute to the CPD of at endees.
Plans for the next 12 months T e next meeting will be held 23 September 5.30-7.30pm at
Parkview Clinic, Birmingham, B13 8QE. T ere will be a short workshop on NVR by Nicky Maund. We are very excited to host our very fi rst West Midlands AFT
workshop which will be delivered in Birmingham (venue SAFS Windmill Community Centre, Smethwick) by our esteemed local presenter John Burnham on Friday 8 November 2019. John has chosen to present on ‘Humour’ and his workshop is advertised later in Context and on the AFT website. We thank Cathy Pet ers for reuniting the branch and Jan
Shepherd for her contributions prior to her travels to India. We especially thank John Burnham, who put the West Midlands
on the map for systemic training, and for his inspirational publications and contributions to the fi eld and to Alison Roper-Hall for her long- standing contributions in systemic teaching and writing.
T e commit ee has very much appreciated the eff orts of Shila
Desai, head of systemic training in Birmingham, for supporting and promoting our local branch.
Hampshire AFT Hampshire AFT continues to put on two workshops a year,
usually in May and November. We are very excited to be hosting Amy Urry on November 15,
leading a workshop on working with those who have a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and their families. T is follows a much-appreciated workshop on NVR recently
which Liz Day put on in May. We are now also running twice yearly free ‘fi lm nights’ and
looking forward to 2020 when we might co-host a workshop with one our neighbouring branches, the Isle of Wight. All details are available on branches section via AFT website. If you want to receive details of upcoming day workshops
(day events usually cost £55 for non AFT members and £50 for AFT members) then send your email to commit ee member
p.hamilton@virgin.net
Patrick Belas, Hampshire branch representative
Advertise with AFT
Adverts on the AFT website:
www.aft.org.uk
Events page listing, £120 Jobs page listing, £170 Discounts available when booking a website
listing at the same time as a printed advert and when advertising more than one event or vacancy concurrently.
Adverts in Context are available from £170.
AFT also off er email adverts for £375.
Contact Louise Norris:
Email
L.Norris@
aft.org.uk; Tel. 01457 872722
Context 164, August 2019
69
AFT branch reports
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