From Hoan Toan Phan:
Hoan Toan Phan
Dear Brother and Sister Regional and Local Helpers,
The National Helpers are now still on the selection process for new National Helpers for coming term. We would appreciate it if you ,( who did not test last year at Albuquerque national congress about this position), would consider helpers you know in your own regional and local dewans, whom you would like to encourage to step forward to test for this important job. Usually national helpers are chosen from those who have served as regional helpers previously, but local helpers may also be considered. The term of service will begin in August 18, 2014 and will end at the next world congress probably in 2018.
Here is how the job has been described: The Dewan of national helpers provide support to the nation’s committee, wings and regional helpers and they are the kedjiwaan link to the zonal and international Subud Association. National helpers are charged with looking into and knowing about the work of the regional helpers, and are charged with participating in addressing members’ difficulties that cannot be solved by the regional helper dewan alone. National helpers “must keep themselves informed about the progress of the members and impart to them a deep understanding of the truth of the latihan kejiwaan of Subud so that the inner selves of the members may be truly Subud.”. (from Bapak’s Advice & Guidance for Helpers, “The Helper Structure:Dewans,”
Candidate Helper Information handbook)
To really understand what is required to do this job well, please translate the above description into a good amount of time and patience needed to stay informed and in touch through regular email messages and participation on frequent conference calls. There is also a fair amount of travel that is necessary. It is helpful to have a space where one can do latihans without interruption and to have an agreement with one’s family, partners and housemates to share your time, energy and attention. There is a great spiritual benefit that comes from being willing to serve in this way.
Those who would like to put their names forward should pretest with their local or regional helpers first. Once pretesting is positive, please send your name to any National helper(Alexandra Boyer, Aminah Ulmer, Laurie Lathrop, Suzanne Renna , Hoan Toan Phan,Humphrey Williams, andSjarifuddin Harris).
The National Helpers will meet together and test about this issue in Denver, Colorado from Jan.30 to Feb.1st , 2014.
We will test with those candidates over the phone by conference call during the weekend Jan. 31 and Feb.1st, 2014.Thank you for your help with this. The final step in the process is to select a new dewan that will work well together from the pool of those who received a positive response through testing with the national helpers.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions that come up as you are trying to respond to this request, and please let us know who is putting their name forward by email or phone before Jan. 29, 2014.
Sincerely,
Your National Helper Dewan
