Written by Niek | 23 August 2011

CCI Europe 2011 in Hungary (July 31- August 6) is for me 'a coming home'. Open to new approaches and unexpected happenings. Driving Friday night from Budapest on a highway, ending in a small road in a tiny village, and discovering that the hotel of ten years ago still exists, is an example! And so was the stop for a cup of coffee, Sunday morning on our way to the CCI venue in Monor, at the same place as ten years ago!

At the spot we were welcomed by the Hungarian hosts that Sunday evening: Àgota, Csaba, Saci, Gabi, Kami (Ildikó), Levente and others. Àgota reminds us that life has changed since the first CCI meeting in Hungary in1989 with about 150 people. Csaba invites us to look inside, opening our harts and search for exclusion and inclusion of people. Part of the opening of the meeting is also that Àgota takes us far back in the history of the Hungarian language as she also did the next morning.

An active opening of this meeting by saying our names and from which country we came; by an inbuilt session in pairs, Fred handing over to Levente the CCI banner that 'came home' being a gift from the first Hungarian CCI meeting in 1989 to CCI and travelling since from one international meeting to the other. And so was the culture setting an active part of the welcoming ceremony by Fred and Niek starting a sharing and including others with 'what is the core of CCI for you'; Joke and Janice demonstrated how you can start a session when you are from different (CCI) cultural backgrounds. For the next morning we reserved our household items, sharing of greetings etc and the forming of support groups.

where we came from

The participant list, after the CCI meeting published, counts 51 participants and 3 guests for one day: 3 new Hungarian CCI-ers. From the participants came 16 from the Netherlands, 11 from the UK (of which 3 of Scotland), Hungary 9, Germany 5, Ireland 4, Israel 3, USA 2, NewZealand 1.

market place

The next morning we were invited after the opening circle to do a session of 30 minutes each with someone you had never met before to organise our selves and the space around us. We were invited to look at what we needed (in red) and what we had on offer (in blue) for this week like being on a market place. We also split up into five groups of about 10 people each, to practice a coco café, choosing a reporter and sharing for about 20 minutes our personal needs and offers for this week. After reporting there was a plain sharing of these.

Fred and Joke facilitated the formation of support groups to meet each other daily from 7.30 - 8.30. PM. They invited us to find our place at a virtual line. The one end of the line is for those who want a totally structured support group and the other end is for those who are in favour of a flexible one. The participants were invited to take a position on the line for the kind of structure they choose. Those around them are their support group of about 6 members.

On behalf of the Dutch representatives Niek commemorated the recently passing away of the Dutch CCI trainer Nanno Huisman. The opening of the first morning was closed by a circle after reviewing the next afternoon offers, and the early morning activities of the next day.

workshops

I didn't manage to write down all the workshop announcements this time. Papers with offers fell down and I needed time to realize that I needed to make notes during the explanation of the offers in the morning circle. So some offers are noticed and others not.. The schedule of activities like workshop offers etc. of which some may have not been on, by a lack of interest, is incomplete. I tried to make photo's of the schedules but because the windows were used for that purpose the reading is impossible. Early workshops before openings circle were yoga and Xiang Gong (Margaret).

Monday: afternoon: Shaman drumming sessioning, Fred; forgiveness, Marlies; death, laughter, tears, Bobby; evening: opening photo exposition the book of 'listening' (Rudolf) by Dymphna; dance, Alan (more evenings!)

Tuesday: morning: differences, Niek, Janice; (that afternoon I had a talk with Fred about human feelings/emotions today versus those some 200.000 years ago). Joke: voice and gentle touch.

Wednesday: morning stories/ celebrations, Celia; how to grow CCI and why, Niek, Lanette; looking at sadness, Margaret; rising from the ashes, Gavan, Nina; afternoon (every day at 2 PM) singing songs, Ria.; Love, Philo; safety and danger, James; working on age, Janice; secrets, Marjan; evening: woods and water, Corrie; story telling, Dónal, Nina.

Thursday: morning: business meeting; afternoon: exclusion - inclusion, Naomi, Csaba; stone reading, Saci; Frittering, painting session, Dymphna; honesty, Corrie; creative writing and co-counselling, Joke; evening: talent show, Corrie, Naomi.

Friday: morning: CCI cleaning – and creative service, Niek; helping the client, John; sessions, Sue; ageing/ getting older, Steve, Janice; hot pool, an environment to share, Eveline; afternoon: photo of eyes, Lanette; prayers of Armenian, Marlies; traumatic incident reduction, Celia, Sue; Bohmian Dialogue, Susan; music and co-counselling, Nina; evening: closing circle, dinner with Hungarian music.

CCI Europe business meeting 2011

The business meeting of this gathering is Thursday morning, attended by (approximately) 28 people (some are coming, others are going) and is lovely facilitated by Dónal. Together we first set the agenda. As usual the CCI meetings for the coming years are part of the discussions. Starting in 2012 is first CCI Aotearoa (New Zealand) in January, followed by CCI-USA 2012 in April (no dates available yet). As mentioned in the opening circle on this morning, CCI Europe in 2012 will be in Bakkeveen (the Netherlands) in July. For 2013 CCI Europe will be in the UK and in that autumn Israel organizes its first CCI meeting (October/November while it is in summer too hot). CCI Europe in 2014 will possibly be in Germany, but that is not yet for sure and that is the same for Ireland (2015). We shared local and regional activities reported by the different representatives of the communities. We shared as well personal interests.

the role of the business meeting

The role of the phenomenon 'business meeting' seems to me to be ready for a clarification! Anyway such meetings in Europe. Because it is obvious that the members, attending such a gathering, differ by every meeting. So the so called 'business meeting' is far more a meeting to share actual and sometimes personal issues, than 'a decision making institution of a CCI gathering'.

In fact – because CCI is a non authoritarian body – decisions in a so called 'business meeting' can only be made about the actual meeting and if necessary, the organizers can only be dismissed for their responsibility to organize this explicit meeting by those who are present. And not all (51) participants of this meeting in Hungary attended this business meeting! As is usual by this type of CCI meeting. Still the minutes of these meetings are interesting, because they tell 'something' about the direction CCI is, was or might be moving. Or not.

some impressions

Only a few personal impressions: I enjoyed facilitating together with others 2 workshops outside in the field and enjoyed also the changing weather during the creative drawing workshop outside of Dymphna. Besides I did several sessions and they all were also done outside! The freedom of 'no walls' must unaware have contributed to that!

I also enjoyed to reconnect with a lot of people and especially also with Levente which I hadn't seen for many years. I asked him if the atmosphere of a CCI meeting in his perception had changed. He told me that it was less noisy now with fewer screaming. And there was in his observation less competition between personalities attending.

 

 

The (classical) music (Franz Liszt) of the Hungarian musicians by Sándor Bura and his Gipsy band, was energizing. And the dancers did a great job as well that Friday evening. Besides this all this CCI meeting has been very fruitful for me. New ideas came up, and are under construction and some have already been realized. The organizers of CCI Europe 2011 deserve many thanks for their inspiring contribution!

The CCI banner, coming from the USA was at the end of this CCI meeting handed over to Corrie to travel to the CCI meeting in New Zealand (CCI January 2012), to travel from there to the CCI 2012 in the USA (April 2012) and then to the Netherlands to the CCI Europe meeting 2012 (July).

Representatives of the Dutch community facilitated the end of the CCI meeting in Hungary. First Àgota told us a story about a hungry family asking their members to go and get food, But they never came back. Till at last the mother of the family went away to find food and also she was absorbed! This was the moment that the Dutch took over and invited everybody to sing a song to come together next year in Bakkeveen, the Frisian village from the venue of CCI Europe 2012. Then the Dutch invited the Hungarian organizers to sit in the middle of the closing circle and celebrated their activities making this CCI meeting 2011 so successful. At the exit of the room finally the Dutch formed together an arch to honor the participants of CCI Europe 2011 and inviting them, to come next year to the Netherlands.

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