by Renata Reid

Having returned from the National Congress, I’d love to share some my experiences. While sitting in the board meeting and voting on the resolutions were important and yielded new information, the most powerful take home for me was from a break out session during the Board meeting. In small groups, we wrote out what the regional chairs, wing chairs and national helpers felt about “What Worked” and “Challenges Faced” in the previous year.

There were several commonalities among us but also some distinct differences.  California is unique in that we have an entire council and, like the National Board’s executive director, we have the benefit of an office manager who provides a lot of continuity as well as historical information and guidance.

Here are challenges that seem to affect ALL aspects of Subud:

• Lack of continuity from one committee term to the next
• Top heavy and personnel light
• Difficulty getting info out to members
• Lack of involvement or lack of new participation
• Burnout by members who serve without support
• Balancing Subud life with personal/work life
• Not attracting new members and young members
• People aren’t staying
• Disconnect between local, regional and national committees/ boards
• Spin off groups
• Difficulty raising funds

But here are the responses to “What Worked” in the past year:

• Having amazing resources of talents within Subud
• The Latihan! The helpers feel that the latihan is strong and there is evidence of inner growth
• The Dewan and the National Board worked harmoniously together
• Our Regional Dewan and the Council work harmoniously together
• Having an national executive director
• New Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to keep member information up to date
• THE JUICE: meaning, the energy we get from working together
• That our wings, SICA, SES and Susila Dharma are evidence of Subud working in the world– cannot emphasize this enough!

Lastly, our new National Committee is decisively moving to work more closely with the regional AND center chairs. Our new national committee will be kicking off their term with council meetings that will be dedicated to the business of the regions, the wings and the helpers respectively.  If you’ve thought about stepping forward to serve on a committee or pick up the baton of the helpers it has never been a better time.