The reality we manage to get into our heads is largely that reality which is abstracted through our symbol systems.
Anon

 

Time-binding: The uniquely human ability to build on the accumulated knowledge of others, potentially to an exponential degree.

Australian Society of General Semantics Inc.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

President’s Report: 25th July 2010

This has been a very exciting year for our small group. We are still one of the longest running GS groups in the world, particularly regarding our ongoing seminars and membership.

We have witnessed the wedding preparations of two of our most exciting and vibrant members, the 50th birthday and BIG BIRTHDAY hip’n happening party of our esteemed President, and the 92nd Birthday of our revered founder Laurie Cox, this month.

New Members We have also been fortunate to have an explosion in new membership through enquiries via the website. Thanks to the follow-up work from Robert and Laurie in organising meetings in Melbourne with our new members, Earl Livings and Tom Valcanis, they have joined AGS and may form a Melbourne Australian General Semantics Group.

Robert and Laurie have also had several meetings with Peter, Daniel and Deborah from Newcastle (in May and yesterday), who learnt about our group via the website and Robert is working at getting Daniel Fogarty to be an AGS contact person in Newcastle.

UN NGO Conference and AGS Inaugural National Conference In order to nurture the Melbourne group along, we decided to hold our first National Conference in Melbourne, at the Initiatives of Change Centre. After some deliberation, the title of the conference was determined to be “Living Well, through the effective use of language in thought and action, with General Semantics.” I would like to thank Robert for organising the venue, creating a fabulous brochure, and worked out costings etc etc. I would also like to thank David for his tireless work in liaising with the IGS and the United Nations regarding the conference, organising participants, and submitting our proposal to present a workshop entitled "Improve Your Thinking Skills for Better Health" for their 63 DPI Non-Government Organisations Conference. Unfortunately we were not given a spot to present the workshop, so will just be attending as Delegates for IGS.

We trust the efforts involved in presenting the Conference may result in an increase of our membership. Recruitment of new members has always been a task that we have not had too much success at, despite many hours deliberating and implementing ways to find and attract new members. I would like to thank Robert for his many hours of work maintaining and updating our website, particularly his interesting summaries of the monthly seminars, which I think is an excellent enticement to people who may be interested. The Website seems to be the best ongoing form of advertising the group to people who are likely to be interested, as they find it themselves, generally through web searches.

I got some interest from several people at the NLP Course I just participated in, so I will further follow that up over the next few months.

October also beckons the auspicious 60th Birthday of our long term and valued member, Jeanne James, which will no doubt include an expanded meeting of the ACT AGS Group.

The Monthly Seminars in Sydney have now found a new and spectacular venue in Bonnet Bay in Sydney’s south. October beckons the first AGS wedding between the current President and our long term Treasurer, Gavan (where did the calculator go!) Callaghan.

With all members of The Tuesday night group moving in the past year, only 2 members have been meeting on Tuesday nights, with a much more informal focus than in the past.

I would like to thank the members who have shared their expertise and presented some very interesting Seminars over the year, particularly Robert, David, Laurie and Dion. Needless to say, it is vital to our group, and building and expanding our knowledge and application of GS to have these generous and enthusiastic members put so much of their time and effort into researching and presenting our monthly seminars.

Topics covered in our Monthly Seminars in 2010:-
February - ”GS formulations as a system” How do we organise our GS knowledge? Led by David
March - Sharing and TeachingGS, How to bring S&S to the masses Led by Robert & Laurie
April - Non Violent Communication (NVC) -Led by David
May - ”Enemies of Science”- Alternative / Complementary Therapies Led by Dion
June - Logical Fate and our premises - P1s /P2s Led by Pauline
July - Cause and effect formulations led by David, incorporating time for 2010 AGM
August - "Here's Something About GS - A Primer for Making Sense of Your World"-
...The thoughtsof Steve Stockdale', former IGS Director, Led by Robert
Fri 27 Sun 29 August - National Conference, Melbourne
October -The Four Horsemen of the Problem-Solving Apocalypse A day on how we make errors,
... what to do about it, and problem solving. Led by David
November - Scientific Method and Falsification Led by David
December 5th - Christmas party

Thank you also to David for continuing his work in being Public Officer of AGS, and keeping us “legal”.
Thank you to Gav for his tireless work in keeping up with membership dues, meeting fees etc in his work as Treasurer and chief chef and host of the monthly seminars.

The AGS Library
The AGS Library, kindly hosted by Gavan, has continued to grow during the year, so don’t forget to have a peek at it when you are on the way to the bathroom to see if there is anything of interest to your studies.

The rest of 2010 and 2011 seems to be an exciting time of ongoing individual learnings, and connection with the wider local and international communites, particularly through the UN Conference, our Website, and by participating in other groups that embrace ways of improving our abilities to strengthen our grip on the map/territory formulation etc.

I wish you all a fantastic year!!

Kind Regards,
Pauline,
AGS President 2010

(Updated 26 July 2010)

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