My conductive Congress preparations

Books, papers, posters and colleagues

My new book!

In 2010, during the weeks before the 7th World Congress for Conductive Education that took place in Hong Kong, I published several pre-congress postings on my blog.

Hong Kong 2010

With only a few days left before the 8^th World Congress there has been little said about it on my own Blog. I have already published copies of my own abstracts and have mentioned my preparations for presentations, posters and books, both my own and those of other people.

I was away from my practical conductive work in Germany for five weeks and only two weeks ago I was thrown back into the deep end with not only new children in our groups, which often also means new parents, new school assistants and new schools, but also with last minute preparations for the conference.

On the Monday of my return to Germany, my latest publication arrived from the printer, the last decisions before printing having been made, long-distance from England, a couple of weeks before. Six copies have already been sold, but we need a few more sales, at the conference and after, to balance the finances.

 

 

 

Every evening of the following week I was busy, either proof reading my colleague Évi's wonderful Conductive Cookery book, so that too will get to the printer on time, and also doing some last minute translations for her, or designing my own or other colleagues’ posters.

In-between-times I was also translating the odd sentence into English for other people who are preparing for the WCCE8 and discussing a paper on Conductive Education with my friend who presented it today at a completely different kind of meeting to people who know little about it.

I hope that my poster will arrive tomorrow. I waited with excitement for the final design to appear in my email in-box so I could press the all-clear button so that it could go off to the printer. All that leaves for me to do apart from going to work every day is to read, re-read and then read again my presentations. Making changes here and there and finalising the layout so it will be ready for publishing here on my blog and in a small publication with others.

I must also remember to send it off to the Congress organisers, the simultaneous translators want to have copies in advance.

Book IV in the Susie Mallett’s Conductive Upbringing and Lifestyle series will contain all the abstracts of presentations at the Munich Conference that I helped bring to fruition, either with the writing, the translation, the proof reading or editing, or just the long distance encouragement to take part – as with the two trainee conductors from NICE, Birmingham, who I know are now very well prepared.

Be prepared

I realised quite a while back that I would have to have all my writing, and publishing finished well in advance of my trip to Munich. This was because I was expecting to have to lend my skills in the English language, and perhaps also in condcutive upbringing and pedagogy, to my colleagues and I had long since decided that my own work must be finished by the end of my summer with my Dad, so that I could give the others my full attention. 

Gardening with Dad, September 2013

 

 

 

How glad I am now that I did so, because after a five-week break from being with children with runny noses it took just five days before I caught something and I ended up cuddled up in a blanket, with no voice, a bottle of medicine beside me and mug after mug of herbal tea for chesty coughs and colds! I ended off the week with a migraine from which I was rescued by Évi and one of her friends who visited me after sending her book to the publishers. They fetched my medicine and made me tea and toast, in my opinion the perfect cure for a migraine!

Many days of sunshine in Norwich

 

I enjoyed some lovely sunny weeks in England, keeping fit doing lots of cycling, I got lots of exercise gardening in the fresh Norfolk air, and enjoyed eating lots of fresh, home produce but the bugs still got through my immune system. Something usually gets through just once in the autumn but I hope that this is it and that it will have passed by October 9^th and my voice returns loud and clear.

 

 

 

 

I was able to do a little bit of correction and editing while ill but I was not in a fit state to put two presentations together. They were thankfully completed long ago and are on the floor in front of my reading chair, opened ready for my at-least-once-daily practise performances.

I often wonder what the neighbours must think now that I have begun to speak to myself everyday!

Despite the respite, or maybe because of it, all seems to be going to plan as one by one things fall into place. My books are here, Évi’s book at the printer, my poster design has been finished  for a week but it has not reached my hands yet and I am beginning to wonder where it is? Two colleagues’ posters where proof-read by me and sent for printing yesterday and a third will go tomorrow. 

Eight out of eight equals twelve

In Nürnberg there are now eight conductors working in the various conductive centres of the Association for People with Physical Disabilities. All eight of us are presenting either orally, with books, in poster-form or a combination of all three, at the World Congress. All of us and many more members of the Association staff will be present, listening, talking, or working towards the smooth running of the four-day event.

There is a coach trip from Nürnberg for families who wish to attend the free Family Day activities on Saturday 12th October, with the Association’s office workers busy organising this among others things including sending a mini-bus to our centre to collect all our boxes of books, posters, flyers etc. that we will be displaying at the Association’s trade stand.

As one members of the Congress Organising Committee said to me on Wednesday when we just happened to come in contact on the phone – ‘we all have our own jobs to do’. It is the same here in Nürnberg and at the top of that list of jobs is helping each other.

I have no idea exactly how many people are in the Congress party from Nürnberg but I think if I include staff, presenters, listeners, clients and families in the number, it will be well over thirty.

We are spread out in many different centres all over the city working on our own jobs. Next week we will come together and all see the fruits of each other's work. We are beginning to drop like flies but hopefully there will be no more illnesses before the big Congress begins.

PS. Some of the creatures that I met in the Norwich garden