Roundtables 2002: Things I learned on the way to an AFTA Meeting in New York

By Len Sharber

Let's think a moment about it. What is it that makes AFTA unique among membership professional organizations? I would submit that one characteristic is exhibited by the Roundtables. This year's Roundtables at the 2002 Annual meeting lived up to that billing. The coordinating experience certainly enlightened me as to a unique characteristic of AFTA. That unique characteristic is that AFTA supports individual expression and creativity.

It seems like only a year or two ago (actually it was the first San Diego Meeting—the first person to send me an e-mail supplying the year of that meeting gets a free cup of coffee in Miami in 2003!), when I was contemplating my gratefulness for being a member of AFTA and being able to sit with some of the foremost Family Therapists in the country. Not only was I able to sit with them, but they would discuss the latest thoughts that happened to be on their minds. It seemed that I was invited into the crucible of family systems creation. Then, within a few years, I was invited to be part of a roundtable. AFTA had a mechanism that invited all members to share their latest thoughts.

So, after enjoying the AFTA experience that included listening to some of the latest thoughts from my compatriots at Roundtables, I was asked to coordinate the Roundtables for 2002. I accepted Ivan and Jeri's invitation, figuring that it would be both interesting and fun. It was that and a lot more. Soliciting and coordinating a set of group presentations from persons spread across the nation (and even the world) is difficult. Planning for AFTA 2002 became even more difficult than might have been expected, due to the aftermath of 9/11 and the change of venue for the Meeting. The initial appeal went out a few weeks later than initially planned and, as a result, decisions on presentations and combining presentations into Roundtables were still being made over the holiday season. As the proposals came in, I saw the breadth and scope of interest of the membership of AFTA. Some Roundtables fell together easily. Others were unique and challenged our thinking about logical connections for the presentations.

Then, as winter shifted into spring, other preparation issues surfaced. One task of the coordinator is to determine, solicit, and confirm moderators for each session. Because the dates had been changed, more than the usual number of members could not attend this year's session. Different presenters had ideas about best possible moderators. Then, finally, there were the changes that occurred with the selected presenters. Some had emergencies that prevented their coming. Some could only present on a day other than the one they were assigned. However, it all got worked out. Despite the above grumbling, it was not a terrible process. I credit the membership for working it out relatively easily. People agreed to moderate and took their roles seriously. All approached their parts, whether it was presenter, moderator, or participant with expectation that they would get something.

So, the Roundtables occurred. On Thursday evening there were nine roundtables. This was followed by nine roundtable sessions on Friday. There was one two-session roundtable that dealt with the relationship between family therapy and pharmacology. There were five roundtables with international presenters. There was tremendous diversity in presenters and topics. There were also presentations on core therapy issues like couples, client strengths, and supervision. The roundtables may have been some of the richest hours at the meeting.

I learned several things from the experience that I want to pass on to AFTA members at large.

1. The Roundtable is an opportunity to present a concept or idea, not a paper. There just is not sufficient time to present a total paper. But as a venue to think through a concept or a piece of work, and present it for reflection and input, the format works beautifully.
   
   
2. The more persons who propose presentations the better. AFTA guidelines encourage that every effort be made to incorporate all acceptable presentations. I felt some of the matching was forced due to a small number of presentations.
   
   
3. We shouldn't overlook the opportunity to cross-diversify each roundtable. I inadvertently placed two presenters from Israel together rather than try to provide more integration by placing them in separate roundtables. Although I thought the presentations fell together more closely than other arrangements, I lost sight of our value of diversifying the conference and the meaning that value holds.
   
   
4. I attended a roundtable focused on diversity in faculty and was appalled to hear of some of the difficulties experienced as junior faculty of color tried to move toward tenure. The difficulties of making AFTA a truly multi-ethnic organization are myriad and involved. AFTA wants experienced family systems persons, yet experience can be curtailed by factors (many racist in their foundations) which most of us are barely aware of.

I hope to see AFTA continue to use the format of the Roundtable as an experience that lays a rich and diverse table where we can all come and nibble on some new foods!