By Andrew Holmes, 4th March 2021

One of the things that makes us special as an association is that we’re very largely run by our members. We have two fantastic part-time paid staff (Nicola our Office Manager, and Lina our Marketing & Communications Officer - as of February 2021), but everything else we do is envisioned and created by us, the teachers who make up this community. About 25 different people offer some of their time and energy to make this a nourishing and engaging place to be. (That’s about one eighth of our members!) Why do they do it? We asked them.

One answer is the feeling of service:
“It’s a privilege and a joy to co-create offerings for our community of members.”
“I like being able to give something back to the wider field, after all that I have received from it over so many years.”
“I love to belong to something greater than ‘I’ and feel that I can be part of a body of influence and inspiration.”
“I’m inspired by our collective intelligence as we face and work with pressing global issues - ecological, social justice, racism.”

Another is the sense of belonging to community:
“I love the deep connection to the people that I work with, our friendship, having colleagues with such dedication, generosity and integrity.”
“Even though we are far apart I feel we are family.”
“I like meeting colleagues that I haven’t met before and the pleasure of working with them and with friends is truly heartening and enlivening.”
“I feel well met, well held, and well loved.”

Then there’s the chance to get to know teachers from different cultures, different traditions:
“I value being part of the international conscious dance community, meeting colleagues from around the world, and sensing their passion, wisdom, and love for their job.”
“I enjoy working closely with other teachers from different schools.”

And the opportunity for personal growth and empowerment:
“I value the inspiration I receive for my own work.”
“I am amazed, again and again, by the calibre of people that I work with at ICMTA. It’s a privilege and an opportunity to learn every time we meet.”
“I love the process of a group of people learning to work well together, and the opportunity to practice deep listening and open curiosity as we hear different intelligence to our own.”
“Being in a circle is such a huge opportunity for learning, for giving and for loving.”

And finally there’s the remarkable collective intelligence of dynamic governance, our way of working together:
“Dynamic governance offers me endless inspiration for my personal life and professional work - the embodied acknowledgement of diversity and conflict as a source of fresh alive next steps.” “I’m constantly surprised and delighted by the collective intelligence that grows out of our shared perspectives.” “I really believe that doing things together is the way to go further...and better.”

They're clearly having a great time!
And we’d like to thank them anyway for all their hard work and dedication.

Some of the working members at the ICMTA Strategy Meeting, January 2021.