Jane Wynne Willson

Positive and optimistic meeting

A new name and a new image for IAHECL

A meeting of the International Association of Humanist Educators, Counsellors and leaders took place on 5 March 1994 in Brussels. At the Board Meeting in the morning the name was changed to the European Humanist Professionals, subtitled 'The European Division of Humanist Educators, Counsellors and Leaders'. The meeting focused on the need to raise our image as the only specialist organisation for professional humanists and to be clearer about our purposes and how we should achieve them. To be effective we need more members and adequate funds.

It was felt that, as well as being a forum for the exchange of ideas and experience, we should place greater emphasis on professional training. If we made our training seminars more convincing, employers would be more likely to pay people to attend. For funding we must take advantage of existing programmes, such as ARION (for the exchange of teachers), TEMPUS {for the exchange of students) and the DEMOSTHENES programme, which supports adult education in training towards democracy, which could include humanism.

To cut down on the expense of currency conversion, we should perhaps ask IHEU member organisations to collect money from our members. We could also enlist their help in encouraging more humanist professionals to join us. But we must have enough to offer potential members, so that they see us as a worthwhile association to support.

Rob Tielman stressed the importance of having a professional organisation for humanists at all levels.

The seminar heard of developments in various countries, which could be of interest to humanist professionals, and there was discussion about extending cultural exchanges, such as are already organised from Berlin. Werner Schultz described German involvement in Poland where, after initial funding, members of the 15 Polish groups would themselves run a number of projects.

Lars Gunnar Lingas from Norway spoke of the Nordic seminar, due to take place in Finland in August 1995, on the theme 'Primary School Education in Life Stance and Religion'. Fons Elders, from the University for Humanist Studies in Utrecht, proposed that the Art of Dialogue should be promoted by European Humanist Professionals, and this idea was received with general approval, although Lars Gunnar Lingas was concerned that we might be spreading our net too wide.

Training and exchange of ideas in ceremonies, especially funerals, was well established, but what about counselling? Here there was disagreement, with some people feeling that professional counselling should transcend differences in fundamental beliefs, while others considered it could not be truly effective except between people of like mind, where values were shared.

There followed an exchange of experience in 'Crisis Counselling' - namely skilled counselling after disasters such as air crashes. In Norway, Holland and Germany, humanist counsellors were now invited to help. In Belgium, however, despite their recognition as professionals in other fields, this was not the case. Humanists had tried for six hours to offer counselling help after the Herald Of Free Enterprise disaster, but to no avail.

The seminar closed in a more positive and optimistic frame of mind than it started.