November Newsletter
Are you serious about Diversity?
2018-2019 change represents the new year 2019_ three-dimensional rendering_ 3D illustration
Women Moving Forward®

The only Public WMF® in 2019 are in California. Price increase coming in 2019 for WMF® lead by Susan. You have till Dec. 1 to get the 2018 prices in 2019.

See below for details...
Black female boss leading corporate multiracial team meeting talking to diverse businesspeople_ african american woman executive discussing project plan at group multi-ethnic briefing in boardroom
Organization Man Meets Organization Woman©
Gender Diversity
Time for real change?
Deeply held beliefs about the other gender are tough to move; the roots are deep. Nike and Salesforce have moved the needle but does that mean real change for just temporary parity? Will discrimination just go underground? Susan and John will lead this transformational course together. Organizations must sent and male and female team to the course.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: WOMEN MOVING FORWARD®
From Susan:
Since I will be leading 2 Women Leadership Retreats in 2019 I have had to make some changes to my schedule for 2019.

The Women Moving Forward® scheduled for New Jersey is the last community based workshop I will be leading outside of California. I will still be available to lead WMF® inside your company wherever you are. 

So if you have family, friends and associates you want to refer to New Jersey Dec. 5-7, 2018 please let them know these will be the last one held in that location. 

In addition, in 2019, I will only lead 2 community based Women Moving Forwards®in California: March 13-15, 2019 & September 18-20, 2019. The cost for those will be $4750 pp. To register at the 2018 price, $3750 per person you must register by December 1, 2018. 

Let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing you at Graduate Lunch in NJ, Monday Dec. 3. RSVP via E-mail.
40th Anniversary Celebration
John and Sue Denver 30th cel;ebration
SPECIAL EVENT
On August 16, 2019 a very special Celebration of Susan Van Vleet Consultants®, Inc. 40th Anniversary will occur. Save the date Now. Only 40 spaces available! More details coming Soon...
Added: Women's Leadership Retreat® in November 2019 Only 5 spaces left!
See below for Details.
WLR 2018
2018 Public Workshop Schedule    

2018
 Women Moving Forward®
December 5-7, 2018
Princeton, NJ $3,750

Enabling Purpose through Relationships©
December 11-13, 2018
Westlake Village CA $3,750

2019

Managing Corporate Change©
January 8-10, 2019
Westlake Village, CA $3,750

Couples Course© 2019
January 25-27, 2019 Catch up day January 24
Price per couple $3,000
Big Island of Hawaii

Organization Man Meets Organization Woman©
February 26-28, 2019
Westlake Village, CA
Participating Organizations must send a male/female team
Course fee $4,250 per person

Enabling Purpose through Relationships©
April 2-4, 2019
Westlake Village CA $3,750

Women Moving Forward® NEW!
March 13-15, 2019
Westlake Village, CA $4,750

Women's Leadership Retreat®
April 30-May 2, 2019 Catch up day April 29
$4,950
Location TBD

Smart People: Managing and Retaining Gifted Employees©
June 18-20, 2019
Westlake Village CA $4,500

Leading Projects through Relationship, Commitment and Purpose©
July 15-19, 2019
Westlake Village CA $5,000

Advanced Women Moving Forward®
July 25-26, 2019
Westlake Village, CA $3,250

40th Anniversary Celebration of SVVCI®
August 16, 2016
Westlake Village, CA
Details TBA

Women Moving Forward®
September 18-20, 2019
Westlake Village, CA $4,750

Enabling Purpose through Relationship©
September 24-26, 2019
Westlake Village CA $3,750

Advanced Men's Course®
October 15-17, 2019 Catch Up Day Oct 14
New attendees $4,950 Returning from 2018 $4,175

Women's Leadership Retreat® New Edition!!
November 6-8, 2019
$4,950
Four Seasons Westlake Village CA

Advanced Women Moving Forward®
December 5-6, 2019
Westlake Village, CA $3,250
Killing My Children

I grew up in the center of the center.  White, Protestant, Middle Class, Male in the Midwest.  When I decided to convert to Judaism at 45 years old I actually expected little would change.  I had been participating at Temple Sinai 13 or 14 years.  I was totally accepted within the congregation. I assume most had no idea I was not Jewish from birth.  Well, some knew and still no one seemed to care.  I was the one that rebuilt our Sukkah (a framed shell used for the harvest festival of Sukkot).  I used to joke, that the last Jewish carpenter before me was Jesus.

I took conversion classes for a year in preparation for making it official. The religion fit well with my “blows against the Empire” disdain for things like organized religion.  Dissent and arguing about the tenets of the religion wasn’t just accepted it was expected.  It proved you were engaged.  What a switch from my ‘50’s experience of being Presbyterian.  The conversion ceremony that “made me official” was a private little affair in the sanctuary after services with just Rabbi Zwerin Susan, Charlie and Adam.  Very quiet and few prayers, a couple of questions and that was it.

Soon after I woke up one morning in a cold sweat with the stark realization that individuals around the world wake up with the desire to kill my children.  Not figuratively but actually want to kill Charlie and Adam because of their religion.   Its not like I was the first father to come to that conclusion.  It has of course happened millions and millions of times all over the planet because of what ever historical conflicts of racial and ethnic divide of hating group A because we are group B.  Look, I went to college where I considered myself a student of history; I knew logically that this was a fact.  But now it was personal and terrifying.

There is some thing crazy that happens when you go from being part of the majority to being part of a minority.  Suddenly you see the world from the other side.  You are now privy to the really, really bad news about being a minority.  I don’t mean being left handed or having green eyes, I mean a religious group that had been killed, enslaved, thrown out of their country of origin, and blamed for the ills of the world because of their version of worshiping G-d.  

I had to think of what you would do if the plane you were on were hijacked by Middle Eastern terrorists.  Our last name isn’t Goldberg or Stein should we just lie and say we are not Jewish?  Susan made me promise that I would do just that to save the boys.  I am guessing this is a conversation most of you have not had to have.  

Then on October 29th it wasn’t a Middle Eastern Terrorist it was some 40 year old white guy from Pittsburgh, who killed 11 Jewish men and women while they worshipped. He wounded others including the hero first responders that put their lives in harms way to stop the madness.  

It was another AR-15 mass shooting.  If you want to know why mass shooters select this weapon and why it is changing how we now have to train 30,000 medical personnel, and maybe  you, to save lives. Click here to watch the 60 Minutes special on the AR-15 destructive power that is changing our world.  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ar-15-used-mass-shootings-weapon-of-choice-60-minutes/    (There will be a couple of commercials but well worth your time.)

Beyond Thoughts and Prayers 
(What you can do starting today)
(Editors Note: Updated since the Thousand Oaks Mass Shooting)

You must ask yourself: Where are we in this country that the medical community now accepts the mass shootings are the norm?  What to do? 
I say there are at least 6 ways of addressing this issue: 
1.    Vote for politicians who don’t incite or endorse violence or hate speech.
2.    Equally don’t allow hate speech around you toward any group. Could make Thanksgiving Dinner interesting.
3.    Support the rebuilding of our Mental Health system.  When I practiced we would identify kids at risk of becoming dangerous to society at 5 and 10 years old not when they have a gun in their possession. Our system is overwhelmed and underfunded.  Vote for tax increases to pay for Mental Health. Vote for legislators who will fight for expanded Mental Health services.
4.    Educate yourself.  It appears the shooter here in town was a Marine Veteran who had been deployed to Afghanistan and had been identified with PTSD though he also had psychological issues noted as early as Middle School. Vets (especially female) commit suicide at a ridiculously high rate, about 22 a day.
Therapy does work and there is more that one kind. Check out the trailer for this great documentary on alternative approaches to PTSD.  It is available on several platforms.   
Podcast on female Vets committing suicide:
5.    Take the wave of Anti Semitism seriously.  Violent crimes against Jews are up 57% from 2016 to 2017.  Jews are 2% of the population but are the target of 50% of all hate crimes.
6.    Reach out to 3 people today that you normally would not speak to; co-worker, that odd little kid next door, who ever.  Stop and actually talk to someone.  We have become an emotionally disconnected society.  Disconnection and isolation is now an epidemic and breeding ground for hating the “other” and worse in the Mentally Ill.

Please do something!
The only thing necessary to Evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.  Edmund Burke

As always to invite your comments.
CC 2108
Couples Course©
January 25-27,
2019
Catch up day Jan. 24
Spectacular results again this year at the Couple Course©!

Here are the Photos from the 2018 Course.

Don't be left out of the picture next year!

Join us in Paradise on the Big Island where we have found renewal and enrichment for 35 years.

Cost per couple $3,000

4 of 6 Slots
for 2019
already
filled!

"Thanks for ALL you did and continue to do for us and so many people. We are so grateful to have been here with you both and the other couples. Some who will be lifelong friends."
Advanced Men's Course© 2019
Contest #12

The 2018 theme was Our Relationships and Responsibilities to Women in the age of #metoo. It was intense, raw and powerful with breakthroughs and results for all.
2019 year will be no less.

The theme is under development.
The session will deal with how do we build and rebuild community with in our companies, cities, families to heal to schisms that exist in fractured societies.
Dates: October 15-17, 2019
Catch up day October 14.
Location: Ojai, California
Course Fee 2017 Returnees
$4,250 Newbies $4,950
ONLY 9 slots left!


Susan Van Vleet Consultants, Inc.®
An International Consulting Company
31416 Agoura Rd. Suite 255, 
Westlake Village, CA 91360, USA
PHONE (303) 660-5206
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