April 2006 Business
1) Membership: We discussed how to increase attendance at meetings. Some points touched on were:
• Our mailing list (snail-mail and email combined) consists of 180 people—both dissociative peers and therapists.
• The meeting is drop-in. There are about 12 people who come to meetings at one time or another, with an average of 4-6 people at any given meeting. Last month, no one except the moderator came to the meeting.
• New Landscape costs consist of: meeting-room rental, duplicating, postage, envelopes. There is no charge for attending meetings, but members may make a donation if they wish. (At present, the moderator, Vivian, is absorbing most of the costs.)
• There are many people who like getting the mailings, but who don’t come to the meetings.
• Possibilities of why people don’t come to meetings: The time is inconvenient. Some people feel connected just by getting the mailings, and aren’t comfortable coming in person. Some people may want to come to meetings but can’t.
• New Landscape is primarily for people who come to the meetings. We are glad that other people get some benefit from the mailings alone, but that is not our primary reason for existing.
• We will create a questionnaire to send to the 180 people on the mailing list. The questions to be included will be discussed at the May meeting.
• It was felt that even if one person comes, we’ve done some good.
• The question of having therapists who don’t dissociate attend meetings was raised again. Again, we decided that we want to keep it a peer support group only.
• We might try reaching people with other dissociative disorders, such as depersonalization and derealization.
• It is a Catch-22: the more people who come, the less share-time each person can have. (It was agreed that at present, our problem is too few people rather than too many.)
2) Monthly Meeting Announcement: We agreed to expand the wording of who New Landscape is for. The new wording is:
New Landscape is a peer-led support group for anyone who is healing from DID/MPD or another dissociative disorder, who is in the process of re-claiming self and life, and who would like to share experiences, thoughts, and feelings with peers.
3) FAQ Change:
Do you have to be integrated to come to the group?
Old answer: No.
New answer: No. In fact, most people who come to the group still have a dissociative system and are not integrated.