Below is an open letter that I sent to the American Group Psychotherapy Association in response to my experiences as a blogger at their annual meeting. It has generated some interesting discussions and I look forward to the next steps.

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I want to thank you for providing press credentials to me to cover the 2008 AGPA Annual Meeting. It was a very interesting experience that I hope we can all learn from so that AGPA can more effectively communicate its message to a broader audience. To help facilitate this, I am offering you some of my thoughts, reactions and experiences from the conference and afterwards. I will also offer thoughts about things that can be done moving forward.

Conference Experiences

When I first arrived and checked in, I was pleased that the person checking me in easily found my badge. I was surprised to see that there weren’t other press badges apparent waiting to be picked up. I asked if there was a press kit and/or a pressroom, and was disappointed to find neither. Finally, a day and a half later, someone gave me a copy of the program. Until then, I had to rely simply on data that I had printed off of the Internet. I was also disappointed that there were no Wireless Internet connections available.

Thursday morning, I attended the Large Group Open Session. Before it started, I spoke with a friend about my dilemma between being in my role as a member of the press and an observer, and my belief that you cannot talk fully about a Large Group without being a participant. She encouraged me to take the role of the participant-observer. It was some of the best advice I received.

On Thursday, I attended two other open sessions, both of which had demonstration groups. With each group, I held back initially. For the first group, the chairs filled up rapidly, and I observed the demonstration group. However, the second group had problems getting men to join the group, so I came forward. This was a very difficult group for many of the participants and there seemed to be significant parallel processes taking place. Some members of the group expressed a desire to debrief afterwards and several of us stayed around for the debriefing. During the debriefing some information was revealed that needed to stay within the group and one of the facilitators reminded everyone to respect the confidentiality of the group. When it was revealed to him that I was a member of the press, he became very concerned and we had a long discussion about media relations with the AGPA. We shared ideas about how the process could be improved and I said I would write down my experiences so that AGPA could benefit from them.

Thursday evening, I attended the Group Psychotherapy Listserv dinner. It was through the Listserv, which I’ve been a member of for many years, that I first learned about AGPA and it was members of the Listserv that encouraged me to attended the AGPA annual meeting. During the dinner, one of the workshop leaders asked if I would attend her workshop. I explained that I had been told I could only attend plenary addresses and open sessions. I went on to mention what had happened during the Wednesday afternoon Open Session. She encouraged me to reconsider.

Friday morning, I showed up early at her workshop. I spoke more about my concerns and we agreed that I would attend if the leader of the workshop and all the participants agreed that it was okay. Obviously, the leader of the workshop agreed. She was the one trying to convince me to attend. So, she started off the workshop by introducing me and asking if it would be okay with everyone if I attended. Many people knew me from the list and were glad to have me attend. Others voiced two important concerns. I could only attend provided that I joined in as a participant and that I respected the confidentiality of the group. I agreed to both of these and was glad to participate in her workshop.

I then attended the Presidential Plenary Address. Paul Cox sat down next to me and noted the Press badge. I had a brief discussion with him about my experiences. He spoke about having received training in dealing with the press, a sort of Media Relations 101. During the keynote, he provided a great deal of useful information about people mentioned, the history of the organization.

The only other information from the conference that seems particularly relevant was my continued participation in the Large Group Open Sessions. At times the Large Group dealt with boundary issues and who should be allowed in or kept out of both the Large Group as well as AGPA as a whole. I was a useful symbol of what is external and frightening. I will note that one participant who had been particularly hostile to me initially warmed up considerably as he saw that I was there as a participant-observer, and not simply as an observer.

Lessons Learned and Recommendations

What can we learn from my experiences? I believe that having a press kit is essential. It should contain a copy of the program, a copy of any press releases that have been sent out about the conference. Additional information, such as biographies of keynote speakers or information of how to contact them during the conference for interviews would be beneficial. To the extent that it is possible to set aside a room as a pressroom, that would be very good. Press releases and other information could be available there.

Since I am a blogger, or online journalist, I believe that open Wireless Internet connectivity should be provided, or at least hard wired connections in a pressroom. Many people AGPA members, especially those that I knew from the email list also expressed a desire for open Wireless Internet connectivity, although some expressed concern about it interfering with their attention to the conference.

I believe that the rule that plenary and open sessions should be open to the press is the right rule. However, I can see the point that some people running an open session might want the session closed to the press and some people running workshops might want to invite the press. To address this, I would recommend that leaders of Open Sessions be told that their sessions are expected to be open to the press unless the leaders specifically request that they be closed. To the extent that session leaders are made aware of the possibility of press attending their sessions, it will alleviate some of the concerns that came up during the Thursday evening session. In addition, workshop leaders should be offered the opportunity to make their sessions open to the press, provided that all the workshop participants agree to the terms of the attendance of the press.

The list of Open Sessions that are not open to the press and of workshops that are should be included in the press packet. Either way, members of the press should be encouraged to participate as much as possible as participant-observers.

Chicago Open Session on Interfacing with the Media

After the conference, I had a great discussion with Bob Klein who lives in a neighboring town. I talked with him about the idea that has emerged during and after the conference. One idea is to have an open session in Chicago about interfacing with the media. We talked about how it might be best if a person like Paul Cox, with close ties to AGPA and training in media relations facilitated the session. Leon Hoffman has expressed interest in participating in such a session. I would be willing to help.

Rob mentioned a writer from the New York Times, whose name I forget, that might be a good addition to such as a panel. I suggested that adding a writer from a more specialized press, a science writer, for example, might help round out the panel. Bob suggested that Diane might have ideas for good participants from the press. I am not sure if Paul or Leon have time to focus on this, but I will gladly work with anyone who would like to pull together such a panel.

Other ideas: Blogging Scholarships and the Carter Foundation

I believe it was Paul who suggested that another way of using new media help get the message of AGPA out would be to ask or require scholarship recipients to write about their experiences at the AGPA conference, perhaps using blogs to distribute their writings. I would be willing to help facilitate such an effort if there is interest in that area as well.

During my discussion with Bob, he mentioned other outreach efforts by AGPA. He mentioned how AGPA works with The Carter Center. In doing research on the Wellstone Act, I visited the Carter Center website, and noticed that they offer The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships For Mental Health Journalism. It would seem like AGPA might want to encourage journalists to write on the use of Group Psychotherapy, particularly in terms of dealing with disasters or helping soldiers returning from Iraq.

My blog is a small blog. I only reach between two and three thousand unique viewers each month. Yet I hope that my articles about the AGPA annual meeting has gotten more people to think about the use of Group Psychotherapy to address problems we have in our world today. More importantly, I hope my thoughts here are useful in helping AGPA expand the way they reach out to a broader population. I have copied others that I felt might be interested in my thoughts. Please feel free to forward this to anyone else that you feel would be interested. If you have questions, concerns or other areas you wish to follow up, please let me know.