Dear Fellow Imagoeans:

The past three years have been a time of adjustment, change and now transition. The AIRT Board has worked very hard to honor our members desire to maintain a viable professional organization while also establishing a collaborative relationship with IRI. One of our goals has been to demonstrate that in our Imago community we could have “organizational differentiation”. Just as partners can be separate, equal, bonded and able to work together toward common goals and objectives, so could our two organizations – AIRT and IRI. Our commitment to that concept motivated the AIRT Board to initiate a series of meetings over the past two years with members of the IRI Board. We sought to find ways that both AIRT and IRI could collaborate and work together to better serve the needs of Imago therapists worldwide. This, in our view, was a tremendous task. AIRT was attempting to stay afloat while IRI was trying to establish itself as a new Imago international organization.

In 2003 and 2004 we invited team of representatives from the IRI Board to meet with a team of representatives from the AIRT Board to explore collaboration possibilities. The 2003 discussions, while respectful, did not produce the kinds of outcomes that we would have desired for the mutual benefit of both organizations. The 2004 discussions were in place while the AIRT Board was addressing and responding to the realities of our organization.

The charge from our membership was to strengthen AIRT. We worked hard to follow through by providing a membership needs assessment, having open Board meetings, posting minutes on our website, planning the October 2003 Asilomar conference, publishing newsletters, organizing teleclasses, providing peer supervision groups and hosting a weekend retreat with Pat Love in October, 2004.

We honored the decision of our AIRT membership at Asilomar in 2003 not to hold a conference in 2004. We agreed instead to support one conference in June hosted by IRI in Toronto. Our desire was to respect the wishes of the broader Imago therapist community for one conference. Our goal was to have one joint conference with IRI, however we were unable to create thhe necessary mutually satisfactory arrangements.

We were still faced with a steady decline in finances and membership which began in 2001. AIRT members continued to communicate to us that they wanted a professional organization, one conference, and one set of membership dues. Despite our best efforts, this was not to be. By September 2004, we were clear that it was necessary to recommend to our membership to dissolve the organization effective December 31, 2004.

While AIRT may be closing its doors, we believe it is important to note that a significant number of IRI members, who were also members of AIRT, have wanted and supported our Imago professional organization for a number of years. It has been important to them that (1) they have a vote in electing those persons who represented them on the Board of Directors, (2) that they had an advocate to protect them when proposed suggested practices might put in jeopardy their professional licenses, and (3) that they would have a voice in determining the content of our annual Imago conference. And while AIRT may be dissolving, we believe that these needs remain in our community and we encourage IRI, for the benefit of Imago therapists, to provide the vehicles required to address these needs.

As members of the board of AIRT, we were handed an organization with a host of problems prior to the split vote that resulted in the defeat of the merger. We have worked hard in a mutually cooperative, respectful and harmonious manner to keep the organization viable until our two organizations could find a better way to work together for the benefit of our entire community. Our attempts have not always been understood, supported, or accepted, however, that is the nature of evolution and transformation.

The Board is extremely grateful for the assistance of our current and former AIRT Executive Directors, Joyce Gibb and Pat Pelton. As we say farewell to AIRT, we do express our sincere best wishes to IRI and to each certified imago therapist, workshop presenter, clinical instructor, master trainer, and the new Executive Director of IRI. We extend our appreciation to our founders, Harville and Helen for developing the imago relationship model and to your commitment to support the work of imago therapists around the globe.

On a personal note, we want to acknowledge the leadership of former AIRT Board members, therapists from different cities who have hosted AIRT conferences and all those who have contributed unselfishly to AIRT over the years. What we treasure most over the past two years is having the opportunity to get to know and to serve our membership and the imago community. We have learned a great deal from so many and want to thank you for your faith and confidence in electing us as your AIRT Board.

Sincerely,  
Melva Thomas Johnson, President
Jesse Johnson, President-Elect
Waverly Farrell, Secretary
Michael Nygren, Treasurer
Robert MacIntyre, Member-at-Large
Mary DeVries. Member-at-large
Mary Butler, Member-at-Large