by Rifka Several, 2022 Congress Chair
Thank you to those who attended our Subud California Regional Congress, both onsite and online! A team worked together for more than a year to bring our first “hybrid” congress to you, following successful virtual annual meetings in 2020 and 2021. I chaired the Annual General Meeting, where we needed to elect a new chair and vice chair for the Region.
Ahead of Congress, the methods for testing, either in person or via zoom, were distributed to all members. For in-person testing, we continued to follow guidelines set by the Subud USA National Helpers. For testing via Zoom, the guidelines were provided specifically for our congress by the International Helpers, signed by all eighteen.
We had one nominee for chair at the meeting, and no Zoom nominees. Hanafi Fraval tested to be chair, using all the rounds of testing in the outlined process. As there was not unanimity with our regional helpers, Hanafi did some personal testing with the men RHs, and shared quite candidly about the issues brought up in the congress testing. After sharing his vision for the future of Subud California and his previous roles, which would contribute to this vision, the vote was taken and we have a new chair!
There was one nominee for vice chair at the meeting, and no Zoom nominees. This was Levana Fraval. A member attending the zoom meeting questioned whether a husband and wife could serve on the regional executive committee, and it was determined that our bylaws do not mention that, so it is not a precluding factor. After testing and voting, Levana is our new vice chair.
The final voting was for the 2023 Congress Chair (2023 will be a “gathering” event). The one candidate, Meldan Heaslip, was elected.
We had live reports from Subud USA Vice Chair (Philip Lindstrom) and Subud USA committee councilor (Alexandra Boyer), and David Nicoletti, who gave a report for the National Helpers. You can see:
- a video of the AGM of the elections for chair and vice chair plus those live reports on Saturday HERE
- a video of the AGM on Sunday, which includes the Regional Helpers report HERE
There was not enough time at the meeting for all reports, so please click HERE for links to a number of short recorded reports that will be of interest. These cover what is happening with our “wings” Susila Dharma USA and SICA, as well as work at the regional level.
It was my privilege to be able to chair our AGM, and we will continue to work on improving the integration of virtual attendees at next year’s gathering.