[Ec] apologies and I'm not feeing very helpful

[Joe Hovey]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts here, Christine. I resonate with your
concerns, especially that the Journal might be scapegoated in some way (I'm
not so sure I hear people saying the Journal is misaligned, but there does
seem to be discomfort around committee independence, and anything that
implies there won't be oversight/accountability). I have this feeling that
there is a big relational barrier between Keith and April, which I'm not
quite sure how to work with.

I also hear from our Board that there may be deeper pains and harms: Susan
for example keeps alluding to a story she wants to share with us. I will
try to connect with her this week. Fanita, I think you are rightfully
inviting us to maintain a stance of curiosity about the harms.

The reality remains that the implications of cancelling this presenter and
how we communicate it feel quite weighty, if we indeed do cancel him.

I'm very uncomfortable about all of this.

This whole situation feels important, and also a distraction from other
important goals: for example, the Conference *needs *to be my/our top
priority this month.

 I'm glad that we have an *EC meeting scheduled for this Thursday Mar 12 at
10am. This issue and the **Conference will be our two focusses*.

Best,
Joe

On Sun, Mar 8, 2026 at 7:39 PM Fanita Henderson <fanita.henderson at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for taking the time to share your frustrations. I thought you were
> tired, as we talked about before the meeting. You do great work for EGPS,
> but you are human.
>
> I do think we need to give people a floor to talk about their injuries. If
> people think we don't believe them, they are not going to speak up. We have
> to create an environment for people to be able to speak up. Right now, they
> are feeling defensive. It can be humiliating to speak about being a victim.
> I would like to hear what they have to say.
>
> Fanita
>
>
>
> On Mar 8, 2026, at 7:15 PM, Christine Schmidt <cschmidt535 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Dear SC,
>
> I'm feeling a little ashamed of my behavior at the Board meeting today
> because I didn't contain myself and at one point "screamed" in all
> capital letters in the chat. I thought about writing to the Board but am
> decided against that because I'm still too inflamed. I am sorry that I
> contributed to derailing the conversation from the plan to explore if the
> Board needs a procedure when there are differences with committees.
>
> These are some of my unfiltered thoughts about the Board meeting:
>
>    - I can't tolerate the way April lashes out at Keith - consistently
>    and predictably and it has nothing to do with what he says.
>    - I can't stand the way April accuses people of interrupting her and
>    then she takes a platform and lectures the group about white supremacy in
>    the organization
>    - I am furious about statements that the journal may be unaligned with
>    the anti-oppressive mission of the EGPS because I believe that most of the
>    Board members haven't even read the journal articles
>    - I am fearful that the Board is about to cancel a p*erson* and not an
>    *event* without evidence of egregious wrong-doing. ("A problematic
>    person?!?")
>    - Stavros didn't shut down the AGPA listserv. AGPA reformatted it from
>    an unmoderated listserv to a limited and highly moderated one. There are
>    many versions of that story. It is hard to trust when we don't agree on the
>    truth.
>
> I'm not sure where to go with this but wanted to let you in on my
> frustration. I don't feel like I'm doing very good work for EGPS at this
> point.
>
> C
>
> Christine Schmidt, LCSW, CGP
> Past President, Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society
> --
> Ec mailing list
> Ec at egps.org
> http://egps.org/mailman/listinfo/ec_egps.org
>
>
> Fanita Henderson, PhD, LMHC, NCC, CCMHC
>
>
> --
> Ec mailing list
> Ec at egps.org
> http://egps.org/mailman/listinfo/ec_egps.org
>


-- 
*Joseph Hovey, LCSW, CGP*
LGBTQ+ | Relationships | Groups | Youth
EGPS <https://egps.org/> President
josephhovey.com <http://www.josephhovey.com/> | learnsavi.com
<http://www.learnsavi.com/>
Want to talk? Schedule here <https://cal.com/hovey/meeting>.
*pronouns: he/him/his*
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