The upcoming Symposium is an opportunity to flesh out a comprehensive vision for IASI's future, and we hope you will make your feelings known, whether or not you can come. More than 250 of us will be there from all of the SI schools and several continents. It will be a signal opportunity to discuss issues of interest to the entire profession, and to make some basic decisions about how the membership wants to put our resources to work for the next couple of years. The following are issues that have come up for us. Please take the time to let us know your priorities and how much of our money and time would you like to see spent on each.

SI Professional Development: There are no current industry standards for length of education, curriculum content, continuing education requirements, faculty training, or school certification. Creating a serious profession that will be recognized by legislative bodies, the public and other professionals will include some manner of evaluation and certification process. The most professionally recognized type of exam is the 'psychometrically valid' exam. This will take approximately $200,000 and 2 years of dedicated, continuous work. Considerable volunteer time and energy will be required to make this happen. We need to investigate the evaluation processes other organizations have developed, but SI has unique attributes and challenges. How will we maintain our 'heart' but still reshape ourselves to align with the demands of 21^st Century professionalism? What ideas have you had about evaluation processes for this work? Do you see yourself volunteering to make it happen?

Public Assurance of Competency: IASI can be a useful public relations tool for SI – informing the public that we have professional standards and competencies, that we have a distinct and definable body of work, and raising public awareness of us as a responsible professional group. A good PR program will require hiring a professional, at least part time. How much of our resources should be focused in this direction now, how much in years to come? With approximately $50,000 after operating expenses at our disposal right now, how much of this should go to PR?

Legislative Action: Laws that govern our profession are being made without much input from us. IASI can monitor and offer information to both legislators and practitioners when these situations arise. Only if we institute some of the usual professional standards and safeguards can we expect to get more than token recognition. How important is it to separate ourselves from massage-oriented legislation, and how do you feel about working with established certification organizations like the AMTA or other professions to gain more legal clarity and clout? Do you think it is more important to separate SI from massage legislation or let the profession continue to be legislated as massage? And how much of that budget should we put towards this?

Research: Basic research results are fundamental to acceptance by some professional and legislative groups. What role should IASI play in initiating research, creating standardized procedures for projects, funding and grant writing, or is this best handled by the schools–

some of which are already set up to handle funds and adjudicating research proposals? Should IASI fund its own research efforts, or act as a clearinghouse and information center for these projects already underway? And again, how much of the budget should be earmarked?

Interschool Dialogue: Whatever we do on any of the topics above, dialogue among individual practitioners and among the SI schools is an immediate priority. Exploring our similarities and differences rather than relying on rumor will do much to begin to answer these questions. Forming groups for work exchange, committees to explore curricular issues and continuing education needs, consensus gathering for the certification process, and just plain curiosity, will allow us to base our opinions on observation and can only lead to more effective cooperation. Would you be willing to volunteer to be on one of these committees? What experience or commitment can you bring?

We hope you will come to the Symposium to make your voice heard. To be grandiose: it is something like the Constitutional Convention of 1787 for the US – a small representative group of individuals tussling with the issues that affect the whole population. The dynamics are the same: there was some 'bad blood' between the individual states and regions, but there was growing realization that none of them were sufficiently powerful to go it alone, and that some 'federation' was necessary. The questions of "How much centralized authority will there be?", and "To what ends will it apply its energy?" are waiting to be answered. The individuals who participate in the process will be the ones who generate the answers. This is the time to be one of them.

Please mull over these questions and return your thoughts to us by mail: IASI; PO Box 8664; Missoula, MT 59807, USA; or bring them to the Symposium and participate in the discussion lunches and plenary session where these issues will be discussed. On Saturday there will be a non-hosted lunch discussion for all SI faculty, assistants and teachers-in-training. On Sunday, there will be two non-hosted lunch meetings, one for the "Under-40" SI practitioners, and one for Canadian SI practitioners. If you would like to attend one of these, please email Marilyn ahead of time so we know how large a space to reserve.

Peter Melchior, one of our featured speakers for the IASI Symposium, 'graduated' from this planet in June. We all mourn the passing of a deeply poetic man and a staunch supporter of Ida Rolf's work. Peter was Ida's first designated teacher and was an advocate for dialogue among the schools, even as he himself held closely to traditional "Rolfian" principles.

Peter's wife, Susan, will address the Symposium in his stead – both to remember Peter's contributions and to convey his visions for the future. Nicholas French, their good friend and former Rolf Institute^® instructor, will deliver the last keynote address with his insights on the future of this community.