2004 Conference Workshops

Interactive workshops will involve participants in exploring a variety of business and personal history issues with expert presenters. You need not pre-register for sessions; you can decide at the conference which ones will be most helpful to you.

Thursday, November 11

Session I - 11:00 am

Personalized Business Strategies
— Carl Huber
When one says “I am a personal historian,” the term relates better to what “I” do or produce than to who I am. Yet, who I am drives what I do in a fundamental way. Getting in touch with and articulating my underlying being can transform the nature of my results. This session will help participants begin to identify and articulate a part of themselves of which they may never have been consciously aware that may bear directly on their work as personal historians.
As a life and business coach through his company Grand Design, Carl Huber draws on a varied background in sales, engineering, and the study of consciousness. He trains people in the ontological skills that allow them to be more attuned and aligned with their underlying being and life purpose so that they can focus and express themselves more clearly in their work and in their lives.

Hispanic Culture, featuring a discussion of Operation Pedro Pan and an Oral History of Brigade 2506
— Victor Andres Triay, Ph.D.
HBO has recently aired the documentary Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, about the migration of over 10,000 children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany and elsewhere before World War II. Victor Andres Triay will share his expert knowledge of Communist Cuba’s version of Kindertransport, known as Operation Pedro Pan. Prompted by the totalitarianism of the Castro regime, Operation Pedro Pan involved 14,048 children in a loosely organized effort to help Cuban parents send their children to the United States between December 1960 and October 1962. It was the largest unaccompanied children’s refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.
Victor Andres Triay, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of History at Middlesex Community College and the author of Fleeing Castro: Operation Pedro Pan and the Cuban Children’s Program and Bay of Pigs: An Oral History of Brigade 2506.

Let’s Go Back to School: History Review, 1920-2004, Part I
— James Walsh
Serving as our “historian in residence” throughout the conference, James Walsh will present a two-part series on United States 20th century history, primarily from the perspective of working class people. He will focus on how the events in each era resonate through music, photography, film, and oral tradition. He will use stories gathered from his college students who have been researching the oral tradition of their ancestry for the past six years.
James Walsh currently teaches United States history full time at the University of Colorado at Denver and part time at Regis University. Originally from Butler, Pennsylvania, a steel mill town near Pittsburgh, Jim earned his B.A. at Duke University and his MA at the University of Colorado.
He uses oral history in his classes and considers it a valuable technique for teaching and preserving history.

Session II - 2:30 pm

Turning Points: Trigger Your Memory by Creating Your Own Artwork
— Lissa Ann Forbes
Thinking too much and writing too little? Lissa Ann Forbes invites you to indulge in a change of pace and explore your creativity. Leave your critic at the door. You don’t have to be an artist to bring forth life’s turning point stories by drawing with markers, colored pencils, chalk and good old crayons. You’ll be surprised to see how your artwork stimulates you to write interesting, long-forgotten stories of your life.
What is a turning point? Moments that make a difference, a pirouette, a fork in the road, the “right” turn, a life-changing event, a point on your connect-the-dots map, leaping from the edge of a cliff and “growing wings on the way down.”
Learn a great technique to use with your clients. Experience it from their point of view! Reflect in a quiet space, revisit the innocence and freedom of your youth, spark old memories, and enjoy an opportunity to show and tell. Guaranteed: you will leave with an inspiring work of art that speaks to your heart!
Lissa, a member of APH, founded The Elemental Press in Lafayette, Colorado, in 1999. She encourages journaling, and publishes unique memoirs, journals, and bookmarks.
To assure a positive experience for the attendees to this hands-on interactive workshop we are limiting the attendance to 20 persons. Please arrive early!

Psychology of the Interview Process
— Teri Friedman
The interview is the heart of the personal history process: a great interview successfully elicits a client’s life stories and, perhaps more
importantly, creates a strong sense of client accomplishment. The interview experience can vary widely, from amazing to so-so to nightmarish. In this workshop, we will examine the “dos” and “don’ts” of interviewing: What can we do to improve the likelihood of a positive interview? What are the pitfalls? What is the relationship between client and interviewer and how can that be used to encourage stories (and, adversely, when can it defeat the interview)? What is “truth” vs. “facts,” and which do we go for at any specific moment? Many of our clients are elderly: what is the potential impact of the experience on them? While personal history is not therapy, it can be therapeutic (which translates into client satisfaction). It can also be painful. How do we deal with the difficult questions, the intense emotions? Do we reveal our own thoughts or feelings, or do we relegate ourselves to a version of Freud’s “blank slate?” Please bring your own stories, thoughts, and experiences to this interactive, thought-provoking workshop.
Teri Friedman, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Westchester County, NY. She is also owner of Reminiscence, a personal history business specializing in personal memoirs and family histories. She conducts a variety of workshops, her latest entitled Life Stories and the “Power to Heal: The Therapeutic Uses of Memoir and Reminiscence.”

Let’s Go Back to School: History Review, 1920-2004, Part II
— James Walsh
Please review the Thursday morning Part I session description.

Friday, November 12

Session I - 9:15 am
Business Basics: Attending to the Details
— Ellen Epstein
Do you find you are overwhelmed by the details of starting your personal history business? The questions can be endless: How much money do you need to quit your job and go out on your own? What are the procedures for picking a name for your business and registering with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office? What can you do to protect yourself financially from a dissatisfied client? Do you need insurance of any type? How do you get business? Does it pay to advertise? What will your end product be? How do you set your prices? If some of these questions are challenging you, Ellen Epstein will help you answer them.
Ellen has been a family historian since 1971. She is the founder of the Center for Oral History and is the co-author of Record and Remember: Tracing Your Roots Through Oral History. She currently owns and operates Concierge America, Inc. (www.ConciergeAmerica.com) which finds solutions to just about any problem clients throw at her.

Healing Through Listening and Legacy
— Linda Blachman
Personal/oral historians are fond of saying that our work is therapeutic but is not psychotherapy. Do we really understand what that means? What are the aspects of personal history that are healing and therapeutic for our clients? Are we paying as much attention to the process as we do to producing a professional product? What are specific ways we can maximize this aspect of our work for the client’s benefit, while also using “process” as an additional marketing tool? What benefits might we gain for ourselves professionally and personally? Discussing life review, ethical wills, and stories in need of healing and repair, Linda Blachman will lead workshop participants through specific ways to create a healing environment and experience for clients that will also present new opportunities for their businesses.
Linda Blachman has been a writer and public health professional for twenty-five years. In 1995 she founded the Mothers’ Living Stories Project (MLS), an award-winning San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofit agency that brings compassion, dignity, and support to mothers who have cancer by helping them record their life stories as living legacies. For the past nine years, Linda has also offered private personal and family oral history services with a special focus on the healing process of life review and the creation of personal testaments. Linda brings to her work advanced degrees in counseling psychology and public health, and specialized training in oral history methods, life coaching, compassionate caregiving for the ill and dying, and meditation practices.

The Entrepreneur Who Dared To Be President
— George Fulton
With the personal history profession still in its early years, most practicing personal historians are in the early stages of their businesses where they do everything from project management to bookkeeping to taking out the trash. George Fulton will discuss the difference between being an entrepreneur who engages in all facets of a business and an entrepreneur who begins to think about the business in a more scaleable way so that he or she can evolve into the CEO who acts more like the conductor of an orchestra. George will also discuss issues such as branding and pricing and their relationship to marketing.
George Fulton, of Reading, Pennsylvania, is President/Owner of Renaissance Executive Forums and George Fulton Strategic Directions. He has thirty-four years of business experience with a strong emphasis in marketing and growth planning for such companies as TORO, General Mills, Eddie Bauer, HP, Becton Dickinson, Citicorp, Land O’Lakes, 3M, and Target Stores. He consults directly with CEOs to keep them current on business thinking, challenge them to sharpen their skills, and expose them to a steady flow of new ideas to improve both their bottom line and their personal quality of life.

Session II - pm
Multimedia Presentations:

On Video Storytelling Techniques
1:00 pm
— Bob Judson
— Michael McIntee
You have a couple of hours of interviews, a bunch of old photos, and some home movies. How can you turn them into something people will want to watch over and over again, even if they don’t know your interview subject? The key is in how you structure and pace your story with sound, pictures and writing. Bob Judson and Mike McIntee have a combined fifty years experience telling stories on video. They will show us what works, what doesn’t and when to break the rules. Learn the power of threes, the science of calling viewers back to the screen, and the art of revealing something at exactly the right time.
Bob Judson is the owner of Image Digital Media in Atlanta and most recently finished production on a film about Duke Ellington. He has produced programming for major networks including Discovery Channel, TNT, PBS, and NBC. His new company, Digital Legacies, creates entertaining and engaging personal histories for individuals.
Mike McIntee is the owner of TimeScape Productions in Minneapolis and creates personal and corporate histories on DVD. He ran All News Channel-a national 24-hour news channel on DirecTV-until it went off the air in 2002. Besides covering news for 25 years, he has also produced programming for networks including Lifetime, Showtime, VH-1, and USA. Mike is an APH member and the chairperson of the multimedia subcommittee of the Conference Committee.

On Audio Storytelling Techniques
2:45 pm
— Kelly A. Neary
APH member Kelly Neary will show you how to get crystal-clear audio on a budget. She does on-location sound recording and film soundtrack work and has worked for Dolby Laboratories, one of the world’s premier audio research and development companies. Kelly’s company Storyteller Productions in Pleasant Hill, California creates Audio and Video Biographies and Digital Short Stories. She will show us the correct way to place microphones, how to monitor your audio on site, the correct audio levels for digital and how to license and use music and sound effects. Even if you know the difference between a balanced and an unbalanced input, you will certainly benefit from the depth of Kelly’s experience in the audio field.
Kelly has a Bachelor’s degree in Audio Production from San Francisco State University, A.A. in Electronics and 2 year. Certificate in the Music Recording Industry. She has done freelance sound engineering work for 10 years, both live and recorded.

Inexpensive Lights and Professional Results
4:30 pm
— Richard Neugass
Give your video a professional look that will set you apart from the “do it yourself” crowd. Richard Neugass, founder of NeuBerg Associates, has successfully completed more than 100 video memoir projects using mini DV “prosumer” cameras. He has been on the forefront of digital video technology, working with MCI to develop its video conferencing business and has been a videographer since 1977. Richard’s credentials include Masters degrees from the University of Maryland in Science and Education. He’s also been APH’s Mid-Atlantic Region leader since 2001. Richard will show you how to light effectively, efficiently and how to get your videos to look as professional as possible. He’ll show us how to avoid some of the common mistakes photographers make using digital video cameras. Even seasoned videographers will find this seminar useful since lighting and shooting with consumer/prosumer digital video is different than lighting and shooting with older, more expensive professional gear.

Advanced Marketing: Writing Targeted Marketing Plans
1:00 pm
— Dhyan Atkinson
There are two different ways to plan your marketing projects. In the first, you look over the list of possible marketing activities and choose projects that fit your comfort level, budget, and level of personal involvement. In the second, which is generally much more effective, you look at the goal you want to reach and the date you want to reach it by and choose your marketing plans accordingly. In this seminar we will look at how to change your marketing approach. You will leave this seminar with a targeted marketing project you can start using right away.
A business consultant with a background in psychotherapy, Dhyan Atkinson works with individuals and small companies to improve their business skills, such as marketing, sales, organization, time management, and strategic planning. Her one-on-one support of clients helps them master skills and move steadily toward business success.

Saturday, November 13

Session I - 9:45 am
Creating Presentations: More Clients, Less Unpaid Consulting
— Dhyan Atkinson
In this session, you will discover how to create presentations that actually result in purchases of your services. We will discuss presentations that focus on what you know about the struggles of your target client group, how to build “desire for your services” into a presentation without being heavy handed, and how to get permission from the participants themselves to contact them after the talk.
See Dhyan’s background above.

A Gallop Through Time
— Kim Pearson
This interactive workshop will take participants on a “gallop” through the trends and big events of particular time frames in history and use writing to stimulate memory. Presenter Kim Pearson will provide detailed timelines and suggestions for writing topics that can be used as memory-joggers with clients. Participants will then write for about fifteen minutes and share what they wrote. Pearson finds that this sharing time deeply affects participants, who have never really thought of themselves as a part of history.
Kim Pearson is a member of APH from the Seattle area. For the past two years, she has been teaching a class called “You Make History” at various community colleges, senior centers, and other organizations. She has since written a soon-to-be-published book based on the class, entitled Writing Your History: How to Remember, Record, Interpret and Share the Events of Your Life.

Graphic Design - How Not to Do It Yourself
— Stephanie Kadel Taras
— Lisa Armstrong
If you want your books and promotional materials to look as professional as you are, your best bet is to hire a professional graphic designer. Stephanie Kadel Taras, a writer with a notoriously bad visual sense, uses a professional designer to develop products for her Ann Arbor, Michigan, personal history business. She has worked for over four years with graphic designer and lifelong friend Lisa Armstrong of the Baltimore, Maryland, area. Stephanie and Lisa will present this session together on how the personal historian prepares information for the designer and how the designer creates a “look” for life story products. They will discuss vocabulary, pitfalls, pricing, preparing for printing, and working successfully at a distance.
Stephanie Kadel Taras, Ph.D., is a member of the board of APH and owner of TimePieces Personal Biographies. Lisa Armstrong is a graphic artist and owner of the design firm Ajuga, Inc. in Abingdon, Maryland.

About Workshops: A Simulation
— Pat Kuessner
This workshop will be a simulation of a real LifeStory workshop. Rather than just telling, this will be a live, in real time workshop … a demonstration of a workshop in action. The attendees will be the workshoppers interacting with the instructor, the material, and their own stories. Here you will learn one way to structure a workshop…the opening, the instruction, the discussion, the example, the activity, and the closing. You will also receive Q. & A. sheets, “Mentoring Jennifer...— questions and answers about presenting workshops from my mentoring experience in APH.
Pat Kuessner, MAT English, is the owner of Memory Keeper and has been a member of APH since 1997. Pat taught English for more than twenty years, and has taught LifeStory workshops for more than eight years at conference centers, adult education programs, church groups, scrapbook stores, in her home, and, in earlier days, taught high school creative writing classes.

Session II - 2:45 pm
Community Forum
— Lettice Stuart, Moderator
A panel discussion on Saturday afternoon will bring together three APH members with three members of the Baltimore business community to engage in a discussion of the strengths, weaknesses, applications, and business opportunities of the growing industry of personal history.