President’s letter 2022

President’s letter 2021

December 2020

Dear IPNFA Members,

I hope this message finds you all healthy and safe with your families and friends.

We will never forget this special year of 2020. This difficult pandemic affected all of us and the entire world has changed since then. In March, many countries started to take their decisions in order to deal with the new situation. Lockdowns, masks, face shields, desinfection, social distance, etc.

We, the IPNFA® waited until June to realize that our AGM in Okinawa wouldn’t be possible. For the first time since 1990 we couldn’t be together for our AGM. Nevertheless, mobilizing our reserves and living our positive approach, we decided to try a new experience: an Online Congress.

We have been discussing how to develop our concept and our Association for the last few years and we needed to be present on the internet and in social media if we really wish to continue spreading our great concept. That was our chance!

So therefore, in a very short time we invited some of our experienced instructors from different continents to record a PNF lecture in just 30 days, in order to be part of this new project. Besides the lectures, they also contributed with many small videos and texts for the advertisements. We must thank them once again for this commitment.

Dear Fred, Reba and Terry, Vicente, Fernanda and Benedikt, this Congress wouldn’t be possible without your participation!! We really appreciate all you have done.

Our Online Congress results were way beyond our expectations. We had almost 5.000 registrations from 56 countries. You will get attached a summary of our results, with feedbacks from the participants, etc.

We really believe now that we should continue having an Online IPNFA® Congress annually, besides our traditional AGM. We came to the conclusion that we should keep the Call for Papers process for the traditional AGM, but the speakers for the Online Congress should be selected by the Executive Committee, in order to fulfill the main purposes of the event: experienced speakers from different countries, with good English, and basic PNF lectures. The aim is to reach potential PNF course candidates, all over the world. Carsten already started making contacts with our potential speakers for the 2nd Online Congress.

We also had part of our business day covered by the votes for our proposals and elections by e-mail. And we had even a small virtual meeting after our live online on October 17th. It was just great to see some of you at least for some minutes!!!

I really hope and wish that we will be able to be together in Sophia next year!!!!

I am really looking forward to being with all of you!!

Mônica Cilento
IPNFA® President

December, 2019

Dear IPNFA members,

One more year is almost gone and we continue together as the IPNFA Family, making our plans regarding  the future of our association and the quality of PNF teaching around the world. May our PNF philosophy continue guiding our steps.

We had a great meeting in Vallejo this year! Thanks a lot to Terry, Tim, Reba and all the Vallejo staff for the wonderful organization! It´s always so good to be there, close to the roots of our concept and among so many friends.

Our Business Day was very productive with 13 proposals and the committee reports. You will find all the details in our minutes  attached to this letter. The main topic was again IPNFA Marketing and Social Media and we are definitely going further with that, working now on a new updated and modern website. At the end of the day, we had a very pleasant evening event at the Coal Shed Brewery, with a wonderful view and nice food and drinks.

Instructor Day was a very active day. Thanks Carsten for the great preparation! The Education Committee presented an updated version of the assessment form with a very didactic Clinical Reasoning part. That was also a discussion about how to deal with course translation, concerning time versus content.  And some suggestions for script updates were presented. Shin and Leandro brought up a very important topic for our PNF teaching, which was differentiation between Activity Limitation and Causal Impairments. Britta had the opportunity to show us her work with “Coordinative Locomotion Training”. Benedikt gave us practical details on assessment and testing of UMNS, after requests from last year. Frits proposed a patient information form for the patient treatment during courses and Carsten gave us again good tips for PNF teaching.

Our IPNFA Dinner with the great “Doctors Band” was, as always, wonderful!! We had a lot of fun eating good food, being with friends and dancing together.

The Education Day was very interesting with the well-known Professor Mary Massery, talking about Breathing and Postural Control. She is such a charismatic teacher, keeping the audience attention  during the whole day. It was also a good example for high quality  teaching.

May Christmas bring joy to your heart and happiness to your home.

December, 2018

Dear IPNFA Members,

Time just flies and we are already at the end of another year… I always think how good it is to have the opportunity of getting together with most of you, at least once a year. It is not so common in an international association like ours, to have an anual meeting like we do have for so many years. I hope we will keep our motivation to continue doing that!

We had another great Meeting this year in Croatia. Thanks a lot to Gordana, Sinisa and all their team!! Everything was so well organized, the country is beautiful and with very friendly people.

Our Instructor Day was very productive with a mixture of practical and theorical topics. We worked a little more in our common script and we also discussed our course patient demonstrations and variations of grips for gait training. We had a very interesting presentation from Elke about Motor Learning, which matches very well our philosophy. Benedikt’s presentation about UMNS gave us a taste about the topic and we wait to have another chance to listen and practice with him. We also had discussions abour research and pre and post tests. So, a very productive day! Thanks Carsten for all the efforts in organizing the topics.

About Business Day you all had a detailed idea from the minutes, which were send last month. Besides the proposals and the committee reports we also discussed IPNFA Marketing and Social Media. We do appreciate any other ideas about the promotion of our concept. Then, in the evening we had the traditional Croatian dinner with very good food and nice music for listening and dancing.

Instructor Day was very interesting too, even though we didn´t have many local participants, due to another PT Congress around the area and the Opatija location. Lectures will be available on our website members area soon . We will set up a dropbox for a certain amount of time , where you can download whatever suits your personal interest.

May the joy and peace of Christmas be with you all through the Year. Wishing you a season of blessings. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mônica Cilento

IPNFA President

December 2017

Dear IPNFA Members,

In the middle of our spring season now in Brazil we can see flowers all over the places. That helps us to keep our positive approach in life and not put all our attention on the bad news we keep watching on TV. After being  a bit nervous with this new position, as the IPNFA President I must say that I´m happy to have the opportunity to write this annual president´s letter. Thanks everyone for the confidence in my work and I´m sure I can count on your support to help me.

We had a wonderful meeting in Warsaw, Poland. Special thanks and congratulations to the Warsaw team for the so successful 2017 AGM!!!

On Instructor Day we were happy to finish our work on the common script, with a final review and improvements of the current version. We made small changes like:

–       “Reinforcement” is now classified as a procedure, instead of a basic   principle;

–       The pictures for mat activities are going to be revised again by the Education  Committee in order to be more clear;

–       The unit gait is going to have a shorten version.

And also we thank Carsten for his work of putting the references in every chapter. Look forward to additions coming soon to the website. 

Please note once more:

If you use the common script material as it is on the website, please be sure to include the IPNFA logo/trademark.

If you make some of your own editing/additions to the Common script, include this at the bottom of the page: IPNFA logo with edits/additions by “your name”. 

If you directly translate the Common script, please note at the bottom of the page: IPNFA logo + “translated by “your name”.

We also had on Instructor Day nice lectures from our colleagues Shin, Gen, Shozo and Marcel. You may check the lectures on the members area on the website.Our secretary together with the webmaster is working on a special tab that would include a folder with all the details from the AGM.

In the evening we had a walking sightseeing  tour of the old part of Warsaw, with a friendly guide who gave us the opportunity to know part of the country’s history.

We had a smooth Business Day with not so many proposals.  The details of the day will be summarized in the 2017 AGM minutes, which will be posted on the website (and sent to you by email). Then, in the evening we had a traditional Poland dinner in a special restaurant with music and dancing!

The Educational Day has been just so great! We had around 500 people attending the lectures and workshops. Our record in all those years of our AGMs. It´s so good to see how PNF is well known and recognized in Poland.  Thanks to all who participated! You may  find the lectures from Education Day on the website soon.

The holidays are just here!

May this Christmas bring joy and love to your heart and soul, and may you start the New Year on a beautiful note. Wishing you all the best for  Christmas and a happy healthy  New Year!

Mônica Cilento

IPNFA President

Dear IPNFA Members,

With the US elections recent results, I am reminded of the democratic process. How fortunate I am to live in a democratic country and to have the privilege to vote.  The world is an ever changing place and what the future holds we never know. Whatever comes our way, it is my hope that the integrity of the IPNFA and safety of each member be in our hearts and minds.  Within our organization, we too have a democratic process….and though we may not always agree with the voting outcome, we must abide by the rules set forth by our members. This is simply, how it works.  You know what to do…..

Fall is a time for reflection, and in so doing, I am so grateful for all of you and all that you contribute to the organization as a whole and to me personally, as many of you I call friend as well as colleague. I could I never do, what I try to do, without your support! Thank You!!!

And….Special thanks to the Munich team for organizing the 2016 AGM!  I am proud of the wonderful environment they created for a successful meeting.

On Instructor Day we continued our work on the common script. Look forward to additions coming soon to the website (goal is 31 December)!

Please note:

If you use the common script material as it is on the website, please be sure to include the IPNFA logo/trademark.

If you make some of your own editing/additions to the Common script, include this at the bottom of the page: IPNFA logo with edits/additions by “your name”.

If you directly translate the Common script, please note at the bottom of the page: IPNFA logo + “translated by “your name”.

On Business Day we faced a record number of proposals and somehow we managed to end on time!  The details of the day will be summarized in the 2016 AGM minutes which will be posted on the website (and sent to you by email) in early December. In the evening we had a site seeing tour of Munich (with beer and pretzels!) then a traditional Bavarian dinner with music and dancing! Our special guests were Heinz (our webmaster) and his lovely wife, Moni. So fun to meet them, and everyone had great fun!

We heard many interesting topics on Education Day. It is always good to learn!!! Thanks to all who participated! You can find the Lectures from Education Day on the website…home page!

On Sunday we had a Mentor workshop. The idea of “mentors” came about when a few years ago we had 2 Instructor Candidates who were not able to succeed. At the time, everyone agreed that we needed to explore how to ensure that we do not get to this point again. The Senior Instructor Group organized the workshop and about 30 people attended. As the day concluded, the group came away with several key concepts. One core concept is that we all hope that our assistants will succeed. The question then is:  how we can go about this in a way that is better than what we have done before? The Mentor workshop group will be sharing their perspectives and the IPNFA will be keeping all members informed on this topic…perhaps we will continue on this journey at the next AGM in Poland…stay tuned.

Regretfully, this year I must announce that I will not run for a 3rd term as IPNFA President. It has been my great and humble honor to be a part of the organization and to work with so many passionate and intelligent people.  My hope is that I have served the IPNFA well over the past 5 years. I still have this year,  but now is time to start looking for the next President….please consider this carefully….what do we want the  IPNFA to be like in the future…and who has the talent to  do this?

Suddenly, it seems that the holidays are here!

In the spirit of the season, I send each of you my best wishes of peace and joy, as well as a Happy and Healthy 2017!

Reba Butler

IPNFA President

Dear IPNFA Member,

As I start to write to you, I am feeling the uncertainty of the times. Since the October Meeting there have been attacks on innocent people in Paris, California and around the globe. Being that we are an international organization and many of you travel frequently for vacation and to teach courses, I deeply hope for your safety at home or wherever you may be.

This annual letter allows me the opportunity to thank all of you for your contributions to the IPNFA. First on my mind is the Vallejo staff for all that they did to make the 2015 meeting a success…our new staff and the PNF participants who treated patients, those who organized food/nametags/signs/buses/etc, and master organizers Terry Grzybowski and Allison Stevenson…Thank you SO much for making everything go smoothly.

At this year’s meeting we had 73 participants from 16 countries!

Thank you to everyone who made the journey to Vallejo!

I am happy to announce that we have locations for the next 3 meetings!!!

2016 Munich, Germany! 2017 Poland! 2018 Croatia!

I also want to thank all of the committees for their hard work and dedication… the various committees are more frequently collaborating with each other and I am certain that this is a great way to use all of our talent toward the IPNFA objectives!

*Education Committee for their ongoing work on the common script and organization of Instructor Day

*Research Committee for keeping the literature list updated and 2 annual newsletters…this year they were able to reward Tomasz Maicki (IPNFA assistant from Poland) and colleagues the research prize money for their article about PNF after Total Knee Replacement

*PRGC for their willingness to work toward quality IPNFA instructors and courses *Nominating Committee for finding election candidates

* Executive Committee for their commitment to the IPNFA…this year we said farewell to Seongsoo Hwang after 3 years of service and welcomed Connie Schmitt-Baerend as the new secretary.

In addition, many thanks to the Senior Instructor Group (SIG) who have answered the request for more transparency. To keep us informed of their work, they now give an annual report on business day and have a tab on the website.

.

In trying to keep everyone informed on the business of the organization, the Education Committee has sent information from Instructor Day. The Meeting Minutes are completed, and you should have received them by now. Jeffrey Kleim’s presentation on Educational Day was well received. He provided as copy of his PowerPoint to those in attendance. If you were not able to attend, email Connie with your request for a copy.

Next I want to mention a couple of highlights from business day:

It is very important that everyone understand that the IPNFA Course System will be changing starting January 2016. The details are in the meeting minutes. If you have any questions about this, please contact the Education Committee.

Also in the minutes you can read about the new rule for instructors, in addition to the established duties:

-attend an AGM once every four years (1993)…

NEW:  “attend” means BOTH Instructor AND Business Day (2015)

-teach an IPNFA course or equivalent once every 3 years (1995)

-post-graduate training (1995)

-notify the National Contact(s) if you will be teaching in their home country (2006)

NEW: Instructors should have 300 hours of clinical practice per year (2015)

The aim of all of these rules is to ensure that the IPNFA maintains high quality Instructors and Courses. Clinical practice, Continuing Education, participation in the AGM and teaching courses are an effort to address this goal. In the interest of quality, in the upcoming year, the Executive Committee will be working with the Peer Review Grievance Committee toward a uniform course evaluation. Please be open to these processes because as the IPNFA continues to grow, there is more need to protect our reputation.

I will ask that you please continue to send your course information so that we can place them on the IPNFA website. This is free marketing!

Website updates are an ongoing challenge…but we are working with the various committees and the webmaster to streamline the process.

At the 2012 AGM in Budapest (my first meeting as president) Susanne Hedin wondered what the IPNFA would do to celebrate the 25^th Anniversary in 2015…finally 2015 was here and I’d like to tell you about the event: After business day we gathered at the Chardonnay Golf Club for our celebration. Everyone who attended was greeted with a silver lapel pin that had IPNFA on it. The reception area had a slide show with IPNFA photos through the years. Over the bar, there were videos of Maggie Knott teaching and with patients. A large world map was posted and everyone was invited to place a pin where an IPNFA or PNF course had been taught by someone from the organization. At dinner, we recognized everyone who had met Maggie Knott and Dr Kabat; the original International Instructors; past and present committee members; past Vallejo participants, etc. Next Tim Josten took the microphone as our evening host. He shared the stage with our invited speakers…Sue Adler spoke about the early days of PNF; Inge Berlin talked about how PNF went international; Susanne Hedin explained how the IPNFA was formed (first the idea and 5 years of hard work to become an official organization); Carsten Schaefer took us through the years of IPNFA and Fred Smedes talked about the future of PNF.

The last event of the evening was getting the answers to the IPNFA history quiz…the quiz was the idea of Dominiek Beckers; and it was a lot of fun throughout the meeting to try to find out the answers…sample quiz questions…

Who has attended the most IPNFA meetings? Kitty Hartman

Who travelled the longest distance to attend the 25^th Anniversary? Fernanda DiNatal

Who has a lumbrical grip tattoo? We got to see it!!!

Overall the event was an important tribute to those who had the vision to start and then progress the IPNFA. Some of our special guests included Sue Adler, Inge Berlin,

Pat Banks, Sharon Nicolas and Hink’s daughter, Kristen Macintyre .

It was an honor to be among everyone in attendance!

On behalf of our patients, in the ever changing therapy world, we have the task to maintain our reputation and to share PNF with therapist worldwide. The future of PNF and the IPNFA is the task at hand….a toast to where we have been and where we are going!

May the spirit of the season be with you…

Reba

Dear IPNFA Members,

I hope this finds you all well… how wonderful to have seen so many of you in Thessaloniki Greece just a few weeks ago. A very big Thank You to our gracious hosts Savvas Mavromustakos and Sakis Adamidis!! They did a fantastic job with the meeting organization and wonderful evening events…including a night of traditional Greek Music and Dancing!!! We appreciate all of the time and energy their entire team spent to welcome us in Greece. Because of their exceptional effort, the meeting was a huge success. Yamas!!!

I also want to thank everyone who has supported me in my role as president. There is no way I could do the job without the “behind the scenes” knowledge and support I have from the various IPNFA Committees, Senior Instructors and the Vallejo staff. I prefer to work in collaboration, and though in doing so, it takes more time to get business accomplished, I feel it is the best way to ensure that our decisions are thoughtfully made. It is hard to believe that 3 years have passed since I was elected as IPNFA President. I appreciate the trust you have given me by re-electing me for another term.  I will continue to do the best I can to balance the needs of each individual member with objectives of the entire organization. I will continue to support the effort to maintain high quality IPNFA Instructors and Courses; to support the PNF concept with appropriate literature and research; and to improve marketing of IPNFA courses worldwide. As I said in last year’s letter, in order for all of us to be successful, it is very important to market all IPNFA courses. This is why I strongly urge each of you to inform us about your courses, so they can be posted to the website! We need everyone’s participation on this! Keep in mind, that even a short weekend course with PNF content, taught by an IPNFA Instructor can be posted. We need to maintain worldwide presence so that participants can be informed about IPNFA courses vs. some other PNF courses.

Thinking of the website, I am happy to say that the new IPNFA website is finally a reality. I hope everyone has had the chance to have a look at it.  We still have some sections “under construction”, and I apologize for any delays. We are now starting to populate the rest of the information, so please stand by. In the meantime, should you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

In 2015, the Vallejo team along with the Executive Committee will be preparing for the next AGM which hap
pens to be the 25th anniversary of the IPNFA!!!  Mark your calendars for October 22-24, 2015! Your participation in the preparation will be crucial, so keep your eye out for emails requesting any historical stories, photos, videos which you may have in your possession. I hope some of you will volunteer to speak about the history of the IPNFA. Just as the PNF concept developed over time, so has the organization grown and evolved. I want those of you who have been involved through the years to share your thoughts and perspective as we celebrate this important milestone.

Again I thank all members for your dedication and participation in the IPNFA. I am so honored to have the opportunity to be a part of such a dynamic group! I send my best wishes for a healthy and happy holiday season and a Happy New Year!

With warm regards as always, Reba

Dear IPNFA Members,

It is a beautiful sunny but cold December day in California. The leaves have been blown away by strong winds but the trees stand strong and true.  I am fortunate to have the opportunity to write this annual President’s letter. For those of you who were not able to attend the 2013Annual General Meeting October 16-20, I hope this information will keep you interested and informed. In addition, the 2013 Business Day meeting minutes will soon be available in early January for your review.

We had a wonderful meeting in Seoul, South Korea. Seongsoo Hwang and IPNFA Korea were gracious hosts. I am grateful for all of the time and energy they spent making the entire meeting a success. This year we had 41 participating members representing 11 countries.

As always, we enjoyed reconnecting with our IPNFA colleagues during the Wednesday Evening Gathering.  The next morning, we went right to work on Instructor Day.

Our first task was to look at the common script and to continue to make decisions about the main content. The goal is to ensure that all course participants have the same basic information to take forward in to the more advanced courses. This year’s topics included review of Philosophy, Basic Principles/Procedures and Techniques. We also discussed patterns, gait topics and transitions. Of note was Benedikt Boemer’s discussion about the Content and Objectives for Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology. He reviewed the objectives as stated in the manual. Next he posed several thought provoking questions such as: what should be emphasized? What literature should be used? Should there be a uniform group presentation for all instructors to use? Could there be a pre-course reading list/ possible links to websites with desired content? What copyright laws should be observed? There is so much to consider as this topic is being further explored.

As each topic is completed, final versions of the common script will be available on the IPNFA website. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact the IPNFA Educational Committee.

Also on Instructor Day:

Britta Dietz presented PNF and the Sprinter Skater and Carsten Schaefer presented his work with PNF and fall prevention.

Also of interest, Marianne Heidmann gave a short presentation about a new situation in Germany where a new neuro rehab postgraduate training course has opted not to include Bobath, PNF and Vojta concepts due to lack of direct evidence. As a response, our members Renata Horst, Werner Wimmeroth and Marianne Heidmann created a manual “Postgraduate Training-PNF concept; Evidence and Development”. This manual has scientific references for all aspects of the PNF concept, and was supported by Dr. Stefan Hesse MD in the preface. Clearly the use of supporting evidence in our courses is vital, and the need for direct evidence continues. The Research Committee has a long list of references on the website and will be exploring the ability to link articles to the various aspects of PNF course scripts. As copy write laws permit, perhaps a digital PNF Library can be established.

That evening, there was the opportunity to take a Seoul city tour: highlights included Seoul Tower, the Deoksugung and Changdeokgung Palaces. Bento Boxes were provided which had Korean treats, one of which had the IPNFA logo on it!

With Carsten Schaefer serving as parliamentarian, I conducted my second Business Day.

The details of the Business Day will be forthcoming in the 2013 AGM meeting minutes. The highlight was that Louise Rutz-LaPitz was unanimously approved for Honorary Member!

One topic which was discussed and I want to emphasize here: In order for all of us to be successful, it is very important to market our courses. This year, a PT from New York attended a basic course with Fred Smedes in Korea (the course was in English with translation). She learned about the course from the website course list!!!…all reports were that this was very successful and fun! This is why I strongly urge each of you to please inform us about your courses, and I am hoping for everyone’s participation on this! Keep in mind that even a short weekend course with PNF content, taught by an IPNFA Instructor can be posted on the website, currently under “special courses”. We need to have a presence so that participants can be informed about IPNFA courses vs. other PNF courses. To this end, one idea is to start to collect participant email addresses and send frequent reminders to them about upcoming IPNFA courses…most of us receive emails like this…the hope would be that participants continue their PNF training and tell their colleagues about our courses! The details of such a project will need to be clarified…but we hope to follow through with this at least on a trial basis by spring 2014.

After the business day, we enjoyed a delicious traditional Korea banquet meal. We got to meet Mrs. Hwang who proved to be just as gracious as Seongsoo in hosting us. After dinner, we found ourselves at a karaoke bar! The dancing star of was Shozo, with singing stars being Shige and Seongsoo…both were so professional that I expect they have potential for a second career! Others sang songs from their country of birth: Brazilian, Polish, German, Japanese…Together Fred Smedes and Atilla Szabo sang a KISS (70s rock band) song that related to my power point presentation earlier that day…well sort of (Keep ItSimple Stupid)… I believe that they really had fun being rock stars!

I, on the other hand, needed “appropriate assistance” from several supportive colleagues to get through my song and it is definitely clear that a singing career is not in my future.

Educational Day took place at the Seoul Baekje Museum in beautiful Olympic Park. Several important people from Korea were on hand including the President of KPNFA, the vice president of the Korean PT Association and IPNFA Honorary Member Seongsoo Bae, who is the person responsible for introducing PNF to Korean therapists.

During Educational Day and the extra day of PNF Workshops, several of our members as well as Korean speakers gave interesting presentations. I want to acknowledge and thank each of them for the time and effort they have spent to educate us, and I hope you will contact them if you have any questions about their presentations.

The presenters were Prof. Sung-Rae Cho, MD; Fred Smedes; Prof Chong Lee; Marcel Grzebellus; Agnieszka Stepien; Aleksander Lizak; Shige Ichikawa; Anke Muessigbrod; and Carsten Schaefer. Again, I send huge a thank you to all of you for the time and energy that went in to these simulating presentations.

Also on Educational Day we had a special treat. In order to “wake us up” after our lunch break, we were delighted to be entertained by about 20 young women students from The Dept of Child Care and Education, Shingu University. They gave an inspiring performance of Korean drumming…with sweet smiling faces they showed us both gentle and powerful aspects of this Korean tradition!

I am always inspired when I have the chance to spend time with everyone at the AGM. We have an incredible group of people with a wealth of knowledge, creativity and talent. I am grateful for the extra work that all you and our committees do on behalf of the organization, our course participants and the PNF concept. As such, I hope to see many of you at the 2014 AGM which will be in Thessaloniki, Greece 8-11 October.

Until then I send warm greetings for a healthy and peaceful holiday season.

Reba Butler, IPNFA President

Dear IPNFA Members,

Here in California, we are getting ready for the December holiday season.  And as such, we have time to reflect on the past year.  I have had many opportunities for professional development during my first year as the IPNFA president.  I am grateful to everyone who has been supportive and of assistance to me.

I want to thank everyone who was able to attend the IPNFA Annual General  Meeting (AGM) in Budapest, Hungary from October 11 to 13, 2012.  It is always nice to have a group of our members together, as this gives us the chance to learn as well as the ability to build professional relationships and friendships. Our host, Attila Szabo, and his colleagues did a fabulous job with the meeting organization. We had an exciting dinner cruise on the Danube, with traditional live music and dancing.  This year 59 people representing 4 continents participated (ICF) at the AGM!

Here is a recap of the meeting….

Instructor Day:

Fred Smedes gave a presentation on the most effective use of research articles. He defined typical research methodology and terminology. Then he separated us in to several groups with the task of writing a PNF related research objective…this generated a lot of good discussion…it’s more difficult than you might think!

Frits Westerholt demonstrated the use of Microsoft Excel as a tool for helping to organize basic course content. This may make it easier to keep track of the required teaching hours, and ensure that all of the course content and patient demonstrations have been completed.

Dominiek Beckers presented “Results gait survey”:  He gave a review of the responses he had received from the gait survey which the Education Committee had sent to us prior to the AGM. He reported a 60% response rate with 54% useful answers.  The goal was to see what instructors are actually teaching, and may be used to guide recommended course content in the future.

Marcel Grzebellus  gave a nice review of how to teach “facilitation of the loading response”.  He first made this presentation in Bad Ragaz (1995) with Carsten Schafer .  He has offered to send the handout to anyone who might want it. Please contact him directly.

Marcel also highlighted some important points for instructors who are supervising assistants:

a.      When grading the assistant, consider what stage of training they are in…for example a good grade (3) at first assistantship might only be average (2) at a later assistantship.  The assistant should be making progress and improving over time.

b.      Use the “Tools for Teaching” information as resource. This can be found on the IPNFA website:

members area>>assistants>>”Tools for Teaching”

c.       The final score for each section is not an average. Pick a score.

d.      All media, including the course script, should be completed before a “recommendation for Instructor Course” can be made.

e.      Assistants must share their previous assessments to the current supervising instructor.

f.       Near the final assistantships…have the assistant teach more of the content (and not just what they need to check off of the list): perhaps they could teach for part or all of a day; teach 50% of all course content; consider challenging the assistant with “spontaneous” teaching.

Angela Oldenberg led a workshop where the objective was to find a common sense for grips, patient and therapist position.  We were separated in to 3 groups: 1. Preparation of sitting:  using upper quadrants and head 2. Preparation of sitting: using pelvis. 3. Sit to/from stand.  Our colleagues were very active in discussing and practicing; then each group gave a summary presentation.  In the future, the results of this workshop may be used to guide course content for basic vs. the advanced courses.

Business Day:

With Loise Rutz-LaPitz serving as my parliamentarian, I led my first business day. The members in attendance were patient and kind (another thing to be grateful for). The details of business day can be found on the IPNFA website 2012 meeting minutes. Here you will see which proposals were approved, who the new committee members are and all such IPNFA business.

Educational Day:

It was great to see many of our IPNFA members giving presentations on Educational day.  Thank you to everyone who presented:  Aleksander Lisak, Barbara Dopfer, Marianne Heidmann, Seongsoo Hwang, Dominiek Beckers, Benedikt Bomer, and Marcel Grzebellus.  Their participation and dedication is very much appreciated!!  You can see each presentation topic on the IPNFA website>>meetings>> 2012>>Programme IPNFA Meeting 2012.

Looking to the future, our main goal for the year is to update the IPNFA website.  As you might imagine, this will be a very big task. We will make the changes in stages, and your patience with the process is appreciated. Our goal is to make the site more user friendly and to check that the content is fully up to date.

I want to say that it is an honor to have the opportunity to serve as the IPNFA president.  I especially want to acknowledge Brigitte Gattlen for her willingness to stay on as the IPNFA secretary for my first year. This was extremely helpful in keeping continuity within the organization…so thank you Brigitte!!

During the upcoming year, I welcome your feedback and thoughts anytime.   I hope many of you will join us at the 2013 meeting in Seoul, South Korea. And until we meet again, may you have a healthy and happy new year!

With best regards as always, Reba Butler

Dear IPNFA Members,

I hope this finds all of you well. It is a beautiful fall day in California with cool sunny weather.  In the US, we are celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday.  In the spirit of gratitude, I want to thank those of you who were able to attend the 2011 Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center (KFRC) in Vallejo, California on October 20-22. It is always nice to have our international group together. Through this meeting our organization shares ideas about developing PNF concepts and curriculum, teaching PNF to others, and how to continue to share PNF in other countries. We have the opportunity to learn from each other and our invited guest speakers. We are able to spend time with our long time PNF friends and create new relationships. The ultimate goal, of course, is to teach PNF to our therapist colleagues so they have an expanded ability to help their patients. This year 67 people representing 17 countries from 5 continents participated in the AGM.

Instructor Day:

Shige Ichikawa presented “Reconsideration of the Neck Pattern in PNF” where he experimented with the jaw position during neck patterns. There was a nice discussion afterward which highlighted how important it is for therapists to look at each individual patient position and their individual response when making clinical decisions. For neck patterns, there are considerations of TMJ stability. In addition, we were reminded that Dr. Kabat had said that the original intent for neck pattern performance was for trunk recruitment.

Hwang Seongsoo presented “Weight Bearing Ratio” where he discussed the correlation between patient position and percentage of lower extremity weight bearing. He compared 20 normal subjects with 20 CVA patients in a variety of positions.

Several attendees had attended a course in Los Angeles in the week prior to the AGM.  The course title was Functional Biomechanics Of the Lower Quarter: Evaluation and Treatment of Movement Dysfunction: Main Focus: Running and the use of the latest technology for therapy.  This course was supported by the IPNFA.  The course was taught by Christopher Powers PhD, PT and Kirsten Goetz-Neumann (an IPNFA instructor).

Marianne Heidmann, Kitty Hartmann, Vicente Martins and Monica Cilento gave a review of the course for our consideration.

We could see how PNF could compliment the concepts and exercises which were presented.

Konstantinos Papantonopoulos gave a brief demonstration of a standing device which he has designed called the “Ino 2”. The device gives support to the legs and allows for the therapist hands to be free for facilitation. The device is also portable and can be used by patients at home.

Tim Josten, the Kaiser Vallejo PNF Program Director, facilitated 2 workshops:

During the morning session he gave a review of the history and development of

stabilizing techniques. It was observed that the main differences in teaching and performing stabilizing techniques are with manual contacts, and whether the hold is performed with” intent vs. no intent to move”. It was discussed, what to name the type of “hold” being facilitated.  After discussion, the session concluded by acknowledging variation in the performance/ instruction of stabilizing techniques.  Although there was no final consensus, the discussion led to better understanding of teaching differences amongst our group.

In the afternoon, Tim led a workshop where the group practiced standing approximation with focus on therapist body mechanics. The group liked the opportunity to practice “hands on” with one another and it was suggested that this be included at next year’s AGM.

I have posted a request on the discussion board asking for your feedback and ideas for the 2012 instructor day.

I hope you will respond.

Business Day:

Elections were held and several proposals were discussed and voted on:

Updated information from the AGM onto the IPNFA website is in progress.
Educational Day:
Richard Lieber, PhD from University of California San Diego and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs
presented “Neuromusculoskeletal Physiology and Mechanics: Evidence Based Implications for Physical Therapy Treatment Approaches”

This stimulating presentation highlighted some of the latest research in muscle science.

If you were in attendance, please use the discussion board to share the “key concepts” you took from this presentation.

I want to acknowledge the entire Vallejo staff who worked very hard to organize a successful AGM in addition to providing ongoing patient care throughout the duration of the meeting at KFRC. Special thanks to the current PNF 3, 6, and 9 month participants and to the new PNF Program Coordinator, Debbi Bowen. All were immensely helpful behind the scenes.

In closing, I want to say that it is a great honor to have the opportunity to serve as your new IPNFA president. Please join me in thanking Carsten Schaeffer for his years of service to the IPNFA and for the exceptional example he has set for us all. Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me toward this job, and who has offered to support me in this position.  It is my hope that I will be able to continue to guide our organization to positively evolve over the next 3 years. I am happy to receive your emails at ipnfapresident@gmail.com.

As always, I send my best wishes to you all,

Reba Butler

Dear members of the IPNFA,
Another year has passed and this was my 5th year as part of the Executive Committee. Our association has now gathered 20 years of experience. I’m glad to see that we have developed positively in different fields. Recently some new tracks have been taken.
We suitably built up a common script, including our teaching contents. This was totally amazing. Thanks to a good job done by Education Committee, the PNF-techniques were prepared and the case was settled in Graz.
Just a few extreme optimists believed that we could complete them all. But we made it! The results have already been sent out to you. Thanks to everybody who supported this successful mission, especially to Dominiek, Marcel and Benedikt.
Secondly, I’d like to mention the use of internet for communication and for information about the association. The use of our “discussion board” is not optimal yet. In Graz we decided to make access a bit easier. Matthias gave us an explanation on “how to do it” with a PDF file which can be found in “Downloads” on our web-site.
In Graz we, the Executive Committee, also asked the attending members for spontaneous feedback (on a simple sheet of paper) concerning criticism, thoughts and requests.
The attempts to oblige members to respect our rules even more seem to be working better. We will persevere with our efforts on this issue.
There still seems to be some uncertainty concerning membership categories. A list with the recent terminology is attached at the foot of this letter. Generally, the category “retired instructor” which we established in Hoensbroek 2008, doesn’t seem to be quite clear. It was initiated for instructors who have stopped giving courses. These members can still give lectures in Universities or present PNF in many other contexts. Do you also feel that the term “retired instructor” is not quite suitable for this type of membership? This question came up in Graz. Perhaps it could be discussed satisfactorily on our “discussion board”!
Another membership category is “Inactive member”. Up until Graz, being “inactive” just meant that the person was not at the meeting for 4 consecutive years. This rule was established to protect the quorum, so that the Annual General Meeting is able to make decisions (even if only a small amount of the members are present).
Since the meeting in Graz, being “inactive” has been given a new aspect: e.g. it is not possible to buy stickers if you are inactive. This rule was established to oblige instructors to attend and participate actively at our meetings, at least once every 4 years, in order to remain part of the organisation and the IPNFA-concept. Also, of course, being present helps individuals to keep up to date with any new information and spend a good time with like-minded people.
Please read the minutes of the last meeting if you would like information about any other decisions made regarding this.
The annual meeting in Graz was full of subjects which needed to be worked through, and with an immense effort from everyone, we completed more topics than I expected. Thanks once more to Susanne Reinprecht, who arranged a convenient summit regarding space and time. At the end of the business day we felt a little stressed since our agenda seemed to be too long this time. I found myself in a strange situation … not particularly amusing. Fortunately Attila and Marcel had an idea and suggested finishing the business day in the conference centre which was scheduled for the next day … and it worked … very well.
So as always in life: “If you don’t know where to go, let it flow …”
Even our association can work as a self-organizing-system (which doesn’t really need just the one high positioned executer).
This leads my mind to the committees and members who are always busy for the association. Thanks a lot for your enormous and exhausting work.
Especially those members who prepared the meeting subjects.
Dominiek, Benedikt, Monica, Fred, Brigitte, Matthias, Terry and Vallejo staff, Anke, Susanne H., Ulla and all their committee colleagues. Marcel and Frits specially have been gratified with a certificate and a gift for their excellent support over more than 10 years.  Additionally, we must mention those members who contributed to the Symposium on Saturday. Fred, Shige, Agnieszka and I would like to emphasize Tomasz Maicki. He is an associated member and he also presented one smart way of how we can base PNF on more evidence. Thanks to all of you! We truly appreciate your efforts for the IPNFA!
Next year we are invited to “go back to our source”.
Reba and Chris presented some pictures of the first steps of organizing the Vallejo meeting. They will play host to us from 20^th – 22^nd October 2011.
On behalf of the Executive Committee,
I wish you a pleasant end of the year
And we hope to see many of you in “sunny California”!
Thanks for your confidence,
Carsten                                                          Hilzingen /Germany, December 2010
President of the IPNFA
_________________________________________________
B. Membership-categories
Art. 5.
a. Full member
recognized instructors…
b. Retired instructor
retired instructors – i.e. they no longer give courses.
Art. 6.
Associate member
…have taken a basic post-graduate PNF course, and…
Art. 7.
Honorary member
… and awarded the honor by a 2/3 majority vote of the GM …
Art. 8.
Inactive member
… pay their dues, but have not attended an Annual
General Meeting for four (4) consecutive years

Letter to the members 2009
Dear members of the IPNFA,
My feet still are trying to move to a Samba rhythm. But the first frosty mornings will make them look forward to a nice winter walk in unmarked white snow.
We had a marvellous annual IPNFA meeting in Brazil. Without any doubts Rio is one of the most amazing metropoles of the world I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know.
Monica and Vicente organized a brilliant meeting with a perfect combination of work and joy. Thank YOU!
Although it took most of the attending members a big effort travelling all the way to Rio, attendance was more than acceptable.  Various refreshing suggestions and proposals came from our colleagues. Constructive dispute and visions are the heart beat of the IPNFA.
Before writing my thoughts concerning the meeting here are some issues of the closing year.
Our web-site is becoming, more and more a helpful tool and many members make use of it.
For some months there has been a new page called FAQ (frequently asked questions), and over the last few weeks we’ve been able to discuss via internet on our Discussion Board.
If ever you have any technical problems accessing these pages, please don’t hesitate to let me know by mail.
In Germany a new IPNFA group has been established. Benedikt Boemer is the first president of this group.
Now I would like to thank my friends in the Executive Committee for their strong, constant and respectful support. This was our fourth year together. I am grateful to work with such an excellent team in harmony and trust. We had five Chat Conferences during this year. This means we are sitting at 8.30 P.M. (European time) in front of our notebooks and start to work up an agenda that was sent to us a week before. Mostly we work for two hours, by typing – not by microphone and camera. Thank you Monica, Brigitte and Frits!
Now back to the meeting.
Thanks to all speakers and committee chairmen who made this meeting possible. Again a lot of exciting lectures were presented every day. I appreciate the fact that many lectures on the educational day came from our own group.  For next year, we had a proposal to announce the educational day using a different vocabulary as “educational day” might not motivate higher educated specialists to participate.
A lot of proposals regarding teaching were discussed. Obviously the attending members are encouraged to get some fresh blood in our veins.  … there’s a lot to do over the next  few months! The attending members (especially the proposing members) promised to support the Education Committee concerning this matter.
The education and the workshop-day were perfect promotion for PNF in Brazil. From all parts of this huge country participants came to listen and to act PNF. On the very first day, the instructors-day, we successfully continued our effort to adapt our theoretical understanding of PNF in order to make it more compatible.
Regarding this, the next day on the business day, we decided the following:
“In order to keep the compatibility of our courses and to maintain the quality of our PNF courses the instructors accept to be asked by the IPNFA to send in their course material if a committee has doubts about the teaching content. Of course we are individuals who put individual emphasis on elements of our teaching items. But we must take care that the core ideas of PNF do not get lost. The IPNFA expects cooperation from every instructor concerning this matter.”
Now to some requests, coming from our committee, on behalf of the whole association.
1-         If a member wants to make a proposal, the following part of our Constitution is important. “Motions to amend the bylaws must be sent to the Secretary no less than 2 months prior to the Annual General Meeting”.
Why?
–           discussions between the author and Executive Committee might be necessary
–           examining if a particular committee may handle the proposal
–           translation if necessary
… These things need time!
2-         Duty to inform the national PNF groups or national contact persons (since Rio called “NCP”) in case a member from abroad is going to give a course in this country:
–           If a member does not inform the NCP / the national PNF group or the national IPNFA group which are mentioned on our web-site, the case will be forwarded to the Peer Review/ Grievance Committee.
–           To announce a course to the national contact all members can use the “form for course announcement” that can be found on our web-site. At the end of the year all courses taught must also be added to the “list (see down below) of courses taught”.
–           The annual GM absolutely agreed that each member has to actively provide information about his/her courses! It is not possible to ask the national contact to get the information for himself from his/her web-site instead!

3-        Duty to send in the list of courses taught:
–           The AGM in Rio made clear that this duty means : all courses taught must be declared to Brigitte, at the end of a year.
–           It is in the interest of the IPNFA to know how many courses are running and where and how they are developing.
–           Any cases of this knowingly not being accomplished will be sent to the Peer Review/ Grievance Committee.

4-         Duty to send in the list of participation in postgraduate training (no duty for retired instructors):
–           Since it takes such little effort to send in this list, we will forward cases of not-fulfilment to the Peer Review/ Grievance Committee.
5-         Where to put the stickers on?
(The answer can be found on our website, under FAQ)
–           It has to be put on all basic and advanced course certificates.
E.g. one sticker after finishing the second week of a basic course and then a second sticker on the certificate of the PNF 3 course (two stickers after three weeks PNF).
No stickers have to be put on receipts or evaluation sheets given out by the instructors.
You might consider that the Peer Review/ Grievance Committee seems to be over represented in this letter, but I realize that the above requests are a topic in my “letter to the members” every year. Perhaps the requests were not strong enough.
Let’s have a look at another topic! The national contacts will soon be mentioned with a new design on the web-site. National contacts:
1:         National IPNFA groups
and
2:         NPC “National Contact Person”
or
National PNF group (Constitution not similar to the IPNFA Constitution)
–           A national PNF group can be mentioned on our web-site if it consists of at least 5 IPNFA members.
–           The majority of the Executive Committee of the national PNF group must be an IPNFA member.
–           If there are more than one PNF group in a country consisting of 5 IPNFA-members, both can be mentioned on our Web-site.
–           If a country has more than one IPNFA member who would like to be the National Contact Person (NCP), the one with the higher status in the IPNFA will be the NCP if she/he is willing.
–           Only IPNFA members can be NCP`s.
We needed a long discussion to find a compromise which would satisfy the wish for more support for members and their national problems (e.g. conflicts with non-IPNFA-member-PNF-groups). What we can do in the first instance is strengthen the IPNFA national groups by emphasizing their appearance on our web-site. Of course, only OUR members and their groups can be mentioned on our web-site!! For this we wrote up some easy standards whose address can be found on our “national associations” page. For the next meeting the annual GM in Rio made us prepare again some standards to find some criteria for a kind of approval seal for national PNF groups.
For our next meeting we expect even more members to attend since many members will have a shorter distance to travel. Susanne Reinprecht kindly provided every participant in Rio with a nice handout including lovely appetizing pictures for next year’s meeting in Graz /Austria.
The dates are 07^th – 09 ^th of October 2010.
Hope to see many of you next year.
I promise, Susanne won’t make us dance the  samba, …!
Have a excellent end to the year,
Find in yourself a less stressful daily life,

Best wishes,
Carsten
Hilzingen /Germany, December 2009

Dear members of the IPNFA,
Habits give our lives a kind of a frame. One habit is that the president sends a letter to you at the end of the year. This always means looking back and trying to look into the future.
Some of us still have the impressions of our Annual General Meeting in Hoensbroek on their minds.
We had some great days with stimulating lectures and presentations. Gratitude to all speakers, who made us wonder over new ideas, strategies and new points of view. The location was marvellous. One more time a big THANK YOU to Dominiek and Math and their supporting team.
The instructor day was beneficial too. For next year however, we have decided not to include associated members who are not official IPNFA assistants.
The business day was full of exhausting but necessary brain work.
I feel kind of bizarre, when looking back at the results of the voting on the proposals which came from us, the Executive Committee. We tried to prepare all our proposals well. Nevertheless the GM voted “no” to most of them. This is democracy! I am glad that all decisions are made through an Annual General Meeting with a large amount of members and a large amount of countries being represented by them (about 16!).
Furthermore I am glad that a lot of members are alert and brave enough to insist on voicing their opinions and their considerations.
We wanted to strengthen the national PNF groups or associations through recognition by our international group. This idea was not supported by the majority of our members attending the meeting. Some members fear that the IPNFA would have to deal with conflicts on a national level which is not an objective of the IPNFA. Some speakers made clear that the philosophy of our constitution is that the IPNFA supports each member individually.
Please let me remind you – it is an established rule that the national PNF association concerned has to be informed when an instructor from abroad intends to teach a course in that country. The mailing address of every national PNF association or a national contact person can be found under “national associations”.
By the way, please think of sending in your list of courses taught as well as which postgraduate training you participated in, in 2008. In Hoensbroek the Annual General Meeting decided on keeping this rule. It was a general opinion that it is not too much effort to follow this request. If nothing has been sent in, we will assume that the member hasn’t done a course during the year.
During our elections, we had some changes in our offices (please take a look at the minutes).
And of course we had some members being reelected. Thanks to all of them for their work in their committees. Our association largely depends on the energy spent by these colleagues (voluntarily!).
Please have a look at our new website. It is much easier to understand and to handle.
Thanks to Matthias (and his colleague in Germany) for their excellent job!
One of the most exciting and gratifying moments during our meeting was the tribute to Sung-soo Bae. With a big applause and standing ovation the Annual General Meeting made him an honorary member. Congratulations Mr. Sung-soo Bae!
I am very happy about the plans for 2009 and 2010.
Those who attended the Annual General Meeting were amazed by a wonderful appetizer-picture-show from Monica and Vicente. They presented some first impressions of what we should expect in Rio de Janeiro where our next meeting will be held.
In 2010 we will be in Graz / Austria. Susan Reinprecht proposed this nice location when we were looking for places for future meetings. Immediately the majority was in favor of this place.
Thanks to Monica, Vicente and to Susan for taking care of our next meetings!!
Wishing you all a wonderful end to the year!
Fill your days with life…
instead of filling your life with days!
All the best,
Carsten

Executive Committee:

President:              Carsten Schaefer                 ipnfap@freenet.de

Vice-President      Monica Cilento                    monicacilento@serraon.com.br

Secretary               Brigitte Gattlen                  ipnfa.office@bluewin.ch

Dear members of the IPNFA,

It’s hard to believe, but another year has passed in our lives. In my opinion, we are allowed to look back on a valuable year. We had a marvellous annual meeting in California, we have an updated version of our manual and we continued to solve problems regarding “living the rules”. All this was possible thanks to my lovely colleagues Brigitte, Monica and Frits and the fantastic work of Tim, Terry and the Vallejo staff. Thanks a lot!

Right before the meeting in Napa we suggested having breakfast together on Friday morning. The Vallejo staff, the Education Committee and the Executive Committee met in order to strengthen the link between Vallejo and the IPNFA. We asked ourselves three simple questions. What benefit would come from a strong link between IPNFA and Vallejo for the Vallejo staff? What benefit would come from a strong link between IPNFA and Vallejo for the IPNFA? If both sides can benefit from each other, how can we improve the “bridge”?

The answers to these questions were going through the whole meeting like a red line. First, it is no longer “here” and “over there” it is “us”! Second, to give courses together is a really amazing possibility to support the connection. Terry and Benedikt did! Both reported how constructive and positive they considered this experience. Third, improved communication has to be initiated. We are planning to exchange practical experience regarding teaching. This means instructors from Europe, South America or Asia should go to Vallejo for workshops together etc.. Tim is going to check the organizational features of a visit like this. We want to stimulate everybody who is able, to organize co-instructorships.

After the talk everybody seemed to have a bigger and more positive approach regarding our relationship, since some major prejudice had been discovered and eliminated.

For the annual meeting itself, Napa was much more than just a simple substitute for Vallejo (where we just ran the third day – instructors day). We all felt the benefit from being hosted in a very pleasant atmosphere.

We had amazing lectures and workshops on Educational day. A big thank you goes to Darcy Umphred and Kirsten Goetz who donated their speech and travel fees. Darcy Umphred donated hers to help pay for the conference fees for the IPNFA assistants and Kirsten Goetz’s went to the Maggie Knott Fund.

Additionally every participant of the meeting received a nice review DVD “Sixty years of caring” which helps us to easily remember Maggie. Again thank you to the host.

The Instructors day was perhaps the most important day. There was a very open-minded exchange of practical and theoretical approaches. There were no noticeable contradictory statements in the fundamental concept of PNF. We sensed a lot of similar opinions and common work.

I am sure there is always this kind of dilemma, also in other concepts associations. On one hand, there is our wish for development, to improve the treatment concept and to adapt it to current science but, on the other hand we must preserve our roots – where we come from and what makes us unique. So we need tools which enable the IPNFA to develop PNF without losing the basic contents (core contents)!!

Another differentiation shows the individuality of our group.

Some seem to favour strong regulation, delimitation and equalization of the contents.

Others tend to appreciate the flexibility of the concept, the freedom of being able to express her/himself in an individual style. As a consequence, in the future, our common roots could be the last identifying features which could link the work of different members in the IPNFA.

What choice do we have? What is the advantage of regulation, what is the problem with too much regulation? What is the advantage of a flexible content of a concept, what is the risk of too much flexibility?

I don’t know the right answer. But since Tokyo we, the Executive Committee, have the impression that we are on a really constructive track. After exciting discussions during our instructor days, we have been able to agree on common guidelines on how to teach our concept; Starting with headlines and all the way through to detailed statements. Everybody will soon receive this in its written version from the Education Committee.

We need enough space to remain creative but we need to have enough fixed declarations to make courses adaptable.

I want to thank everybody who participated actively during the very beneficial workshop in Vallejo and especially for keeping everything respectful. ‘Keep going this way!’

I’m really looking forward to next year; we will meet in the Netherlands / Hoensbroek, Dominiek and Maths region. I know that they have already started to prepare some brilliant days for us!

I wish you all a pleasant end of the year!

Thanks for your confidence,

Carsten Schaefer

__________________________________________________________________________

Address:

Carsten Schaefer

Krützenbühlerhof 1

78247 Hilzingen

Germany

Dear members of the IPNFA,

the year 2006 is almost done. In my country winter time starts slowly and we expect Christmas.

Many members found the way to Ljubljana, where we attended a very pleasant annual meeting of the IPNFA. We went through a meeting with a productive instructor-day, a stimulating business-day, an exciting education-day and last but not least a cosy mood on the traditional evening. Watch the photo-gallery on our web-site.

Thanks a lot to Zdenka, her family and her team for these nice days. And once more thanks to all committee members who prepared their work for the meeting.

The annual meeting is a vital platform. The meeting is the best way to link different instructors, courses, countries and languages. It is highly important to connect and share each others ideas and visions. We discuss common topics and we have fun together on our traditional evenings organized by the host. This always emerges the spirit of PNF.

Here is the opportunity to get to know foreign instructors or assistants, to be interested in his/her experience and to start new partnerships.

This is the opportunity for a big THANK YOU, to all assistants from new countries: They are the “tentacles” of the IPNFA in order to spread PNF over the entire earth.

Relating “entire earth”: I am convinced, that we can support each other by a well-built union.

We need communication between the “IPNFA-Continents”, to get to know the individual problems that need to be solved. And we need contact to get to know the others potentials. Therefore, perhaps we can answer some of our individual problems together.

As you will notice in the minutes of the General Meeting, it has been discussed, to define the status of national IPNFA related groups. Some are already built, some are more or less unofficial because of too less members, no instructors or they are in fact actually parts of national political representative groups (with some IPNFA-members). During the meeting some chair persons of the (future) groups met, in order to start a definition and to create some requirements of upcoming national related IPNFA groups. Besides others it was Monica Cilento (Brasil), Aleksander Lizak (Poland), Werner Wimmeroth (Germany), Sang-Soo from Korea, and Shige from Japan.

Further more it was asked to adjust US-Dollar and the Euro prices for the membership dues once more. We should do it on our next meeting.

As we discussed on our General Meeting, we are planning to create a page on which each member can check its status relating dues, list for courses taught and list of postgraduate training. We will inform you about that by e-mail.

Please visit our web-site frequently. If we have got an e-mail-address that is not up to date, you get to know this because there will be all the mailing twice.

Again we kindly ask you, to send in any questions, hints, opinions and feedbacks to our offices in English. The same goes for the proxy voting prior to the General Meeting. As it is mentioned in our Constitution (Article II) English is our official language. Within our offices we used to share all received mails to adjust our reaction. Therefore it would be a source for misunderstanding if one of us has to translate your letter first.

Although I am sure that it is not necessary, I want to stimulate you to start planning to come to our next meeting.

Yes, back home!!

Vallejo / USA, Kaiser is waiting and we all are looking forward to that.

Look for flight connections soon!

I wish you a pleasant end of the year!

Thanks for your confidence,

Carsten Schaefer                              Hilzingen, 07.November 2006

__________________________________________________________________________

Postadress:

Carsten Schaefer

Krützenbühlerhof 1

78247 Hilzingen

Germany