Thanks for the First Full-Day Workshop

The first thing I want to say is “thanks” to everyone who came out to the full weekend workshop.  I was just awed by the response to this.  I’d felt for a while that basic Psychological issues were under-presented in the Community.

I just cannot thank the attendees enough.  Some of you were people I knew, and some people I’d never had the honor to meet. I think the thing that says the most about the caliber of people who came is that every single person/couple who I did not know has commented to me on how friendly the group was and how welcome they felt.  I think that just says a lot about everyone.  Thank you all so much for being the first audience for the full run of this material.

I also want to profoundly thank the rest of the household.  Stephanie, JayLynn, and Miranda did a huge amount of work to get the house ready and prepare yummy food.  Thanks also to Gregg and Alba for Apertifs.

Conception

When I conceived the Course back in November last year, it was just a standalone module linking the things I had learned together.  By mid-spring I’d realized that in doing this I was forming the whole of an underlying practice of consensual power-exchange.  I never changed the course title, because I think the original description was apt.  But I’d promised tying things together, and that became the first presentation of the “Comprehensive Mastery” concept.

I defined “Comprehensive Mastery” as “A results-oriented system of skills and learning which is designed to be applied to the self and partners to form the core of a rounded and pragmatic practice of consensual power exchange.”  I then proceeded to put forward a lot of “it isn’ts” the most important of which included “a cult of personality” and “a replacement for any traditions you have.”  I knew I had a toolset, but I realized I also have a toolbox, and that to present the toolbox coherently I should give it a name.

The concept differs a little from a lot of traditional Power Exchange when we come tot he world “results-oriented.”  I see so many Power Exchange relationships where the practice of this or that tradition is getting only so-so results, or where it’s clear that the results are coming from the New Relationship Energy, not the actual Dynamics, and neither partner understands when things fall apart.   The focus for Comprehensive Mastery is on a good long term outcome.

I think several things are clear coming out of the workshop. I think it was a huge success and I’ve received some very warming praise.  But…enough patting on the back, my personality type doesn’t run to that.

Changes

First, we have more than one day of material.  I’d considered that, but I wanted to give “everything I have.”  The result is that I’m splitting the Workshop into two days.  There’s enough demand that we’ll re-run it in January.

In terms of interaction, the first two thirds were great.  We have some writing exercises, and some fun games and roleplay to get people up and moving.  I heard a lot of laughter and that’s good.  But we need more of that in what will be the second day, and fortunately it lends itself to that very well…creating that will be fun, and I look forward to it.

The manse needs better theatre style seating.  The Manse can hold eighty people comfortably for a party, but that’s with both floors open, and people circulating. A presentation means everyone has to have comfortable space to sit in one room.

Sixteen participants and eighteen people was a lot.  We’d officially planned to top things off at fourteen.  Despite being a “big house” we often don’t get to make the best use of the Manse because the “big room” is also the dining room, and the Foyer and Parlour are split, which is pretty but not space efficient.  We figured out how to reverse engineer everything so that the Dining Room can be the major seating which should take us up to about 25.  I’d say ‘we won’t get 25 people for a two day workshop’ but I also thought we wouldn’t get 16 for a single day workshop.

The Materials

Right now I’m not going to post the booklet online.  I will make it available individually to all the people who attended, and if someone has great need of it, I’m willing to send it to them, but the current plan is to expand it with the material for January and publish it.  There will be an e-book format, priced for accessibility, not profit, but I think we want to get the material out formally.  I promise it will be out *soon.*

The Expansion

Most of the expansion will be fleshing out more details about the various submissive skills and techniques, and drawing clear parallels to the Mastery skills, making it clear that both partners need some measure of both skillsets.  I also want to at least begin to give examples of exercises or play to teach each of the skills, and I want to expand the Mind Control/Behavior Modification segment with examples both of what to do and what not to do.

Again…thanks to everyone.  And for the people who couldn’t make the workshop, it will be offered bigger and better several times next year…and of course as I mentioned with special provisions for folks who were at the first workshop and are primarily interested in the Second-day materials.

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