Board meeting - June 2017

Alba Suomi-Finland conducted a board meeting on the 7th of June in Espoo. The gathering happened on a sunny afternoon and it was hosted at the beautiful home of the vice chair Nena Stenius. Other participants in the meeting were the chair María Serrano, the treasurer Carla-Rose Häkkinen and the deputy members Camilla Cedercreutz-Bäck and Paulo de Tarso Silva.  The deputy member Rita Kreivi and the secretary Margherita Zilliacus were not able to attend. 

After having a warm meal and sharing stories in a cozy environment, the meeting was transferred to the garden and over coffee (and rhubarb pie) the group initiated the discussions. 

Before addressing the major topics of the meeting, the group had an activity led by Paulo de Tarso Silva. The aim of the activity was to identify visual metaphors that represent the collective identity  of ALBA and its evolving purpose as a community. The group drew images that symbolised ALBA´s essence and together they identified common themes. As a result, the three major themes identified by the group were:

1. ALBA is an organisation that works with storytelling as a healing art, bridging the commonalities of the human essence.
2. ALBA values the ancient wisdom carried in traditional tales, passed on through narratives.
3. ALBA welcomes the idea of exchange of perspectives through story sharing encounters and community engagement.

With that mindset, the board meeting carried on with other discussions. The topics discussed by the group were:

• The outcome of the ALBA Nordic meeting in Copenhagen in may 2017. 

Finland was represented by María Serrano and Carla Rose. Please read more in the blog posts: 

There was a Nordic ALBA meeting in Copenhagen in May  

"DEVISING A TALE - CO-CREATING A STORY PERFORMANCE" - Reviews on the workshop 

Nordic storytelling evening in Copenhagen    

• The Federation for European storytelling Conference (FEST) that happened in June 2017 in Ireland. 

Alba Suomi-Finland was represented by María Serrano and Nena Stenius.  (More information coming later).  

•  Upcoming activities and collaborations 

Stories Under the Tree, which was a popular daily event initiated in the symposium Tree of Life in Karjaa 2014 (with a couple of follow-ups indoors in Helsinki in Autumn 2014), will continue again in the upcoming autumn (2017).  

As a pilot idea, the concept "Stories Under the Tree" will happen already in the summer (outdoors):                     ⬇⬇

The event entitled Stories Under the Tree Picnic will take place on Friday, the 14th of July (from 16:00 to 19:00) at Kaivopuisto in Helsinki. The event is free of charge and open to all. Please find more information and the directions on ALBA´s event on Facebook. 

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ALBA Suomi-Finland will also continue the cooperation with Story Sharing Universum and several "Story Sharing Cafés" will be arranged in the autumn in Helsinki area. Please follow Story Sharing Universum on Facebook for updates. 

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In addition, the board discussed the possibility of ALBA conducting a workshop in collaboration with Metaphora Consultancy. The potential workshop would explore the talents of the storytelling community in the social context of work. The target audience for the workshop would be storytellers and people that work with any type of social interactions. (A proposal will be discussed among the collaborative parties and shared in the near future).  

•  ALBA members´stories and language

We would like to introduce the members of ALBA in our blog. If you are an ALBA member, please consider sending to us a short description about yourself, including your interest in stories, your experience with storytelling and a picture of your choice. 

As an example please visit the member page of ALBA Sverige at:

https://sverigealba.blogspot.fi/p/svenska-medlemmar.html 

*The official common language(s) of ALBA Suomi-Finland will continue being Finnish and Swedish. As a way to include potential members of different backgrounds, English will also be used whenever possible.   

If you need more information or wish to become an ALBA member, please contact us at albasuomifinland(at)gmail.com and we will guide you through the requirements.

Thank you for reading and feel free to follow ALBA Suomi-Finland on Facebook !

PAULO DE TARSO SILVA 

Board member  

ALBA Suomi-Finland