The year in review can be summed up as “fallow.” Our region took some time to reflect on what we needed and wanted given the land mass that we’re spread over and the few workers for harvest.

Our region is still without a chairperson. However, in some ways, this has provided an opportunity for shared leadership. Although there were no executive committee meetings, there was a regional conference that was well planned and well attended by our region’s standards. The folks at Pastoral Counseling for Denver under the direction of Werner Boos organized this along with Foy Richey’s group from the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy. About fifty people came for the day to watch a video of Ed Friedman’s with discussion questions that followed. After lunch, we had our business meeting.

At that time, we voted to spend $3,000 on setting up and maintaining a website for our region. Given our need to connect with other members and other cognate groups, we think this is essential to revitalizing our current membership. We acknowledge that new membership will continue to be scarce because we lack a training center in our region. We continue to look at other possibilities for training.

A plan for leadership was included at this time. Mary Ann Van Buskirk asked who could attend the Action Council in January to make sure our region was represented. Several people said they would consider this. Additionally, a number of people signed up to be part of a leadership team to meet in January to plan out the year.

The leadership team did meet on January 7. Those in attendance included: Jean Clift, Nadine Swahnberg, David DeBord, Werner Boos, Don Ricard (new) and Mary Ann Van Buskirk. Our agenda was to schedule the year with executive committee meetings, a day retreat for members in May, and a regional conference in November. John Jeunnette came to the meeting to report on our website and to get our input for content. We’re very excited about the prospects of this new endeavor. Our thanks go to the Midwest region from which John borrowed heavily from. We’re in your debt!

Our agenda also included what we needed from national. Several items of interest are:

• What kind of support can the Association provide for marketing in our region?
• How can we get CEU credit for our regional conference?

In summary, our region is reflecting on how best to use our resources. Fallow ground does eventually produce abundantly.