A Strategic Plan for the BSD
The Journey to the East
This fable by Hermann Hesse describes the quest for wisdom and spirit, undertaken by members of the League of Journeyers to the East. It begins…
“ As it has been my destiny to take part in a great experience, and having had the good fortune to belong to the League and allowed to share in that unique journey, the wonder of which blazed like a meteor and afterwards sank into oblivion - even falling into disrepute - I have now decided to attempt a short description of this incredible journey.”
One group of Journeyers were subjected to a test - which, as many of us do - they failed.
Towards the end of his life Hesse wrote The Glass Bead Game, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In that book the League had survived, but ossified into a structure which was no longer responsive to spirit.
As I say, a fable.
The Challenge
Finance
According to documents presented to the BSD’s recent AGM, during the 2018-19 financial year, total funds had fallen by around a quarter
(£26,477)
from
£105,363
to
£77,086
.
Net current assets at the end of 2018-19 amounted to
£21,057
.
If the 2018-2019 rate of loss continues at anything like the same pace, the organisation could soon face closure.
People
Governance
There have been a number of resignations by Trustees from the BSD Council.
Membership
It is now thought that membership is around 666, perhaps half of what it had been assumed to be. How beastly.
Staff
The BSD’s staff is now reduced to one person
Media
In the last twelve months only two issues of Dowsing Today were produced
The website attracts a huge amount of internal criticism, and as a member states…
“in the modern world, a national organisation with no proper digital presence is all but dead in the water.”
Groupings
There are no longer Special Interest Groups functioning as part of the BSD
The Professional Water Dowsers Group functions outside of the BSD, as does the Dowsing Research Group
The situation with Trainers is unclear
So, what is wrong, and what is to be done ?
The following theses were recently found nailed to a church door in Wittenburg
The BSD’s organisational structure is that of a 19th century Voluntary Organisation
A representative democracy with annual elections to a governing body, from an electorate consisting of individual dowsers
But this does not recognise that the real life-blood of the organisation is made up of around 33 Local Dowsing Groups, who provide support and development on the ground, and draw people into the BSD. Yet the Local Dowsing Groups have no constitutional existence.
The BSD Special Interest Groups have all but disappeared. They are not represented on Council.
The interests of the large number of individual/lone dowsers outside the Local Dowsing Groups, are not catered for.
One bright spot amidst the encircling gloom has been the emergence of regional and sub-regional initiatives, such as D Fest in the South West. An initiative which – as far as I know – originated locally.
Dowsing - Dowsers - and Other Practitioners
The rudiments of dowsing are quickly acquired, but mastery and gaining real proficiency can take many years
We have separated out the skill, and created a professional group of ‘dowsers’. This is not a bad thing.
Yet there are other ways of thinking about this. For example, medical professionals might like to acquire the dowsing skill (and make it part of their tool kit), without wishing to become known as ‘dowsers’.
We may have missed a substantial trick by not encouraging the use of
what might be called ‘bite-sized’ dowsing, or dowsing modules, by those
whose
primary
interests and concerns are in fields like health, or bee-keeping,
and not in dowsing, as such.
Guardians of the Galaxy
It is interesting to note the wide-ranging approach of the American Society of Dowsers to the
nature
of dowsing. It could perhaps be summarised as refining and developing the nature of perception.
There is also the Scientific and Medical Network, and the American Institute of Noetic Studies. And we are blessed to have the Dowsing Research Group.
These are potential Ladders of Lights.