Sat Naam Dear Teacher Trainers,
- Exploring Conscious Change – As the world around us is transforming so must we continue evolving our current decision making processes to design a truly collaborative world-wide system. In an effort to move in this direction, instead of having our April TTEC meeting online as originally planned, we will look for a professional third party facilitator to help us design and then run an inclusive and transparent process for setting up a new KRI decision making system. The professional facilitator (or facilitator team) will need to meet the following criteria:
- Experienced in facilitating large group processes, ideally with a variety of methodologies
- Demonstrated passion for inclusive and transparent systems, and experience helping organizations find the right processes for them
- Able to advise and guide communities to an appropriate balance of full inclusivity (slow) and delegated decision-making authority (more efficient)
- Experienced in helping groups to design decision making processes
- Experience working with spiritual communities
- Experience working globally – being sensitive to the challenges of language, time-zones and cultural differences
- Ideally experienced in planning and facilitating online group processes, not only in-person
Once we find the appropriate professionals to support the process, the next step will be the planning phase. The goal of the first phase will be to attain collective agreement on how we will make decisions going forward, and to clarify the scope of change that needs to happen. From there, we will be able to work on such initiatives as: how to begin finalizing the new edition of The Aquarian Teacher, decide what changes we need to be made to our certification requirements, etc.
The new process we will develop together will be a process to serve us in the long term as a worldwide community. It is not limited to updating the training manual and training requirements. We are looking to involve stakeholders beyond trainers, such as teachers, in this decision making process. This will be an upgrade to how KRI functions, ensuring that KRI serves its worldwide community, and remains relevant and responsive to our times and able to continue to deliver the teachings in their integrity to future generations.
- Tips for more effective online trainings –
- Ask the group to keep the focus on the training (i.e., put away cell phone and don’t deviate into doing emails)
- Ask the group to keep video on and gallery view open so you and everyone can be “seen” during dialogue times
- Encourage the group to use the “chat” function; encourage them to use chats to ask questions AND pass notes to each other in class by sending private messages. Obviously not to the point of distraction but a small amount helps them keep going with the organic relationships of the in person experience.
- Updates from the Collaborative Response Team – Zoom Call – Shanti Kaur and Sat Nam Singh from the Collaborative Response Team will join members of the Aquarian Trainer Academy on zoom calls for an informational update on the work of the Collaborative Response Team and a review of the issues regarding allegations of misconduct against Yogi Bhajan. They will be available to answer questions.  The remaining dates/times for these calls are Thursday, April 9 from 9 AM to 10:30 AM New Mexico Time and Thursday, April 9 from 5 PM to 6:30 pm New Mexico Time, and the zoom link is https://zoom.us/j/5254726198.
- The Aquarian Teacher en español now available digitally – Those of you who are in a Spanish speaking country will be receiving a complimentary copy shortly, with instructions about how you can order them for your future trainings. If you don’t see anything related to this in your email, please email KRI’s translation coordinator, HariShabad Kaur. When the next edition of this manual is ready, these digital copies will automatically be updated.
- North American Level Three Mela will be online this year! – We are working with participants to create an online experience for the Level 3 mela this year in June. Depending on what happens with the European Yoga Festival, we will either have the mela in person, as planned, or move that one online as well. If you are in Level Three already, or planning to begin this year, please look for details in your emails!
- More free resources for Teacher Trainers!
- 6-part webinar on Pedagogy – how to keep adult learners engaged. Attend live or watch the recordings. Practical suggestions on how to make lecturing more in line with the neuroscience of how adults learn, and how this knowledge can be carried into action in Level One Teacher Trainings.
- Transformational Learning Online with Lorenz & Natasha, Sutra’s creators. Tools and tips to teach online and engage people in a truly meaningful way! Join us for this live webinar with Lorenz and Natasha Sell, watch the recording one week later: Tuesday April 7th 10 AM EST (New York City) and 15:00 (GMT+1 London) British Summer Time. The link to join the live presentation is: https://zoom.us/j/3131045746.
- Changes to our ongoing Zoom calls – Next week KRI will schedule zoom in different countries or groups of countries for trainers instead of the open zoom calls that we sponsored for the past two weeks. Hari Charn Kaur will reach out to establish times for the calls. The calls for South America will be in Spanish or with Spanish translation. We want to continue to hear all voices and to support each trainer though these challenging times.
- New zoom link for the ongoing, global, healing meditation – The Global Ra-Ma-Da-Sa meditation is continuing through May 25th. You, and anyone in your community (so please share this link!), can join a zoom call to meditate together at 6:30am Mountain Daylight time here:
https://zoom.us/j/551818097?pwd=VXY1eWZaU1NqV2NHblNNUXZ0OUZOUT09
- Yoga Alliance’s online training best practices – As it is helpful, check out Yoga Alliance’s online training best practices here.
- Grants available for US based yoga teachers with income lost due to COVID-19 – More info and to apply can be found at the website for Reclamation Ventures here.