Greetings dear members of IYASE β
It is hard to believe that we are in the last weeks of 2019, and what a year it has been! It is not easy to write about a year in a short letter, but I will do my best. Here are a few important highlights:
Highlight #1
: The Logo and our official IYASE T-shirt! With the help of one of our members, a fantastic graphic designer and dedicated yoga student, Lilian Heyward, IYASE has a new logo. Our goal was to create a memorable and meaningful logo that would represent the art, science and philosophy of Iyengar Yoga and I believe we achieved that goal. With the help of the Board and the team at Custom Inc., we released our first T-shirt in April. Thank you to those who purchased a T-shirt or two during the Dallas Convention! The money we received will go towards IYASE Member benefits. We have plans to bring the sale of the T-shirts on line. In addition, the new logo was used to create two IYASE ads in the Yoga Samachar.
Highlight #2:
IYASE first Membership Survey. In April IYASE conducted the first Member Survey. While we have not heard from all of you, we have received valuable responses about the needs of the community, which will shape our work in the upcoming year. We hope to hear from you on the next Member Survey, please do not pass up the chance to be heard!
Highlight #3:
IYASE held a General Member Meeting. During our May Convention in Dallas, TX, we were able to hold an unofficial General Member meeting. Thank you ALL who attended! I had a great pleasure meeting you and connecting with you in person. You may ask how it is a highlight. Let me explain, our region is the vastest in the US, we have 13 states, which come under the Association of the Iyengar Yoga of the Southeast. It is not often we have a chance to meet people across this vast space. My hope for us as 13 different states of the Southeast to become more of a community despite our geographical span, despite our differences of opinion or choice of food, or any other differences that may seem to make us different, under all those differences, we are one. As it is sung in the Upanishads βThe Self is one, though it appears to be manyβ¦β
Highlight #4:
Bringing Membership benefits to our members! A word of thanks goes to our Membership team of Sam Cooper and Maria Doiranlis who put together 11 free membership workshops for our members, as well as the teachers and studio owners who taught and hosted them! We hope that you enjoyed them. Please stay tuned to communications from our Membership committee about Free membership workshops in 2020!
Highlight #5:
Scholarships 2019. IYASE awarded 11 scholarships! Four Partial scholarships, 4 Full scholarships for Dallas National Convention, 3 Scholarships for Assessment Certification, 5 Continuing Education/Teacher Training scholarships and 2 India Studies scholarships. Our dedicated Scholarship chair, Inge Mula Myllerup-Brookhuis, and Scholarship committee spent countless hours sorting through and reviewing applications, and hosting meetings to provide support to our members.
Highlight #6:
Newsletter β We started a monthly newsletter as a way to bring interesting news as well as learn about our students and teachers alike. My hope is the newsletter will become a medium for all our members to learn about different studios and spots to practice, as well as interesting places to visit. We thank those of you who made your contributions already and we are looking forward to publishing others. Please share your articles, photos, videos, articles, blogs, or questions that we could help answer for you.
Highlight #7:
IYNAUS National Convention 2022. Yes! IYASE has submitted a proposal to host the IYNAUS Convention in 2022. We have proposed holding the convention at the Art of Living Center in Boone, NC. Big thanks to Denise Rowe for putting together our proposal. Just to let you know, we are competing with a few other regions. The final decision will be made in January.
Finally
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A big shout of thanks goes to our Webmaster, Vidya Viswanathan and Communications chair, Karla Ingram for their dedication and hard work on the website and E-Communications that bring you news, workshop, scholarship announcements and all other communications from the Board.
Also
- It is my pleasure to introduce Mariana Scotti as the President of IYASE 2020! It has been a great honor to work with her in 2019; I wish her a fruitful and exciting year! Although my time as President is ending, I will be still on the Board as Past President and will also support the Newsletter team.
Welcome Newest Board Members:
Please welcome our newest Members of the Board. I am looking forward to working with you in 2020:
Jason Propsom
Laura Plofchan
Xinzhen Mcminn
I would like to wish you all a Happy New year and end with a quote from Confucius:
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βIf you think in terms of a year, plant a seed;
if in terms of ten years, plant trees;
if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.β
Yours in Yoga,
Leah DiQuollo
IYASE President 2019
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