“As for the seven Psycept categories, seven is just an easy number to work with. Seven councilors allow us to spread our attendance at ABQ Area Council meetings to just four a year, thank goodness. Seven also works for voting on proposals as all votes are equal, so we won’t have a tie. In addition, all Psycepts vote equally for the councilmembers. I’m a TouchVoyant, but I was elected by a majority of the eligible 24,000 Psycept voters, not just the thousand TouchVoyants. So, we each represent all Psycepts, though we’re called the councilmember of our Psycept category.
“I hope that answers your questions, but I also encourage you to view previous council meetings to see what we do. Access to those videos will be discussed in the Q&A. That is all the time we have for questions on the material we covered. We have a comment card you can turn in with additional questions for the Q&A session to answer. There will also be an online form you can submit at the end of Q&A that we can answer after today by compiling an FAQ, creating an answer video, or something similar. It is time for our ten-minute break.”
The second section goes well with Libby ducking in to speak about Albuquerque, and her presence allows me to rest my voice and have a small bite to eat. I’m back to cover Bosque, SWACon and the GT. I wrap up my material on the GT, hoping for standard questions and the first several questions follow my hope well enough. “Mic five, you’re up.”
“How come there are so many Bone and Blood Sages in SWACon? Most of our Q&A leaders are Sages and the thought creeps me out. I heard one of my new neighbors say yesterday that SWACon is a haven for sages.” Spoke too soon.
“I am the councilmember in charge of orientation and Q&A sessions today. TouchVoyants include PsyChometrists, like Professor Biobaku and sages like Tiko, Libby, Vic, and Jay. They were all kind enough to volunteer their time and help today. For the entire week, our tours are under our PsyMovers and Variegated councilors. Each day has a different councilmember in charge, tomorrow happens to fall under a PsyWitch. Yesterday, you were welcomed, transported, etcetera by a variety of Psycept volunteers. The reason we have so many Sages is because we are a welcoming Psycept community and over the years, other Sages from less welcoming communities requested to be transferred to our conservatorship. The orientation today is very broad. Beginning this weekend, the Psycept category you fall under will have welcome parties as well as cultural classes to help destigmatize various Psycept categories. Next question on mic six.” I don’t have the patience to deal with such nonsense.
The first orientation session ends, and the room quickly empties as the next group enters refreshed from their early lunch. This group had their Q&A first and they’ll finish with the tour. As all Q&A leaders know the material covered in orientation, any questions that fall under it are directed to be held until the orientation session. It’s unfortunate that all 900 attendees can’t have one big orientation session, but the larger audience would mean longer time for questions, which pushes everything back by an hour and larger groups need longer time for Q&A and tours. The timing plus staggering the language just couldn’t match up. Three smaller group sessions per day just works better logistically and we get to leave at a reasonable time.
The second orientation session goes smoothly for the first section, probably because they had Q&A active learning first and were already exposed to the cell phone management blockade. They make up for it by coming alive during the ABQ and Bosque section questioning. “First question, mic one.”
“I was a fourth-grade teacher in Pennsylvania, and I want to be a teacher here in PsyTown. But I was told I need an apprenticeship which can last over two years and that a teaching transition liaison would be in contact with me at the end of next week. Can you tell me why it would take so long for me to teach? I mean, science is science.”
“I can’t address your specific question but let me give you some examples of what teachers here cover in the fourth-grade. Science covers things like geology, animals, ecosystems, you know, the natural world. Most of that is taking students out for week-long treks to the woods, the mountains, and the deserts for communing with nature. Traditional camp setup is observed. Do you know what that means? Do you know the stories of the coyote, or the rivers, or the rocks, or cacti? What about how to survive in the desert versus the mountains? On conservatorships, science is as much about what is observed and theorized as what is found to be true in nature. And the teaching method is hands-on experience or storytelling. History and culture, the students don’t read books about history, they hear about history. In fact, there is some component of oral tradition in most classes. Plus, it is expected that multiple lessons are taught in Spanish in SWACon.
“The teaching transition liaison will help you to develop a step-by-step plan to learn all that you will be expected to teach. Plus, you’ll be under an apprenticeship with a teacher because the best way to learn is by doing. And for those in the audience with children or who will have children, yes, this is how
