Letter from NoVA APT (Feb 2011)

Northern Virginia Chapter members,

The NOVA APT Chapter of APTi met on January 20, 2011.  We had a good discussion on the J/P dichotomy, and then an open discussion on some changes to how the Chapter can better serve its members and vise versa.

To encourage a larger, more vibrant chapter, we would like to have Chapter members get more involved with the Chapter’s activities.  To that end, we are making the following changes:

First – we would like to have four scheduled events during the year – one each quarter.  We would like to set fixed dates, but since OKA graciously provides space to us at no cost, we have to make sure that the dates we pick do not interfere with their business operations. By scheduling farther in advance, we hope more of you will be able to attend our meetings.

Second – the agenda for our meetings will be varied.  While we still would like to have some guest speakers, e.g., Otto Kroeger and Hile Rutledge, we may not have them at every one.  However, we will still hold a meeting.  Our meetings can be a place to share experiences, share best practices, try out new ideas, and help to resolve some problems you may be experiencing using “type”.  The idea is to meet frequently enough to get to know one another better, and to help share “type” with one another.  By varying the sort of meetings we hold, and making our meetings more “welcome” to all, this should entice additional members to attend.

Third – as we said earlier, we would like for all members to take a more active role in the Chapter.  This means expressing ideas for topics to talk about, or even help in finding speakers for the meetings.  A more important part of finding speakers is helping in coordinating the actual appearance of those speakers.  Also, if you have some ideas for topics, it would be nice if you, as the originator of the idea, can be the “moderator” or “facilitator” at the meeting (however, this is not mandatory).  As more people get involved with a meeting or activity, it should be an inspiration for additional people to get involved.

Fourth – everyone is invited to the meetings.  The meetings are not exclusive to members only.  We want to share “type” with anyone that is interested.  Bring your spouse or significant other, a friend, a colleague, a coworker, a neighbor, or even the skeptic of MBTI.

Fifth – Denny Baran (a Chapter Steering Committee member), who led the last meeting with the J/P discussion, is going to be the impetus to get this going.  Denny will be the Chapter’s “Event Coordinator.”  If you have any questions, comments, ideas, etc., just contact him at

dennybaran@hotmail.com or (703) 698-0656

So he doesn’t accidentally erase your email before reading it, please put “NOVA APT Business” in the subject line of your email.

We hope you find the changes listed above helpful in creating easier access to our meetings and the many resources we have within our membership.  We are looking forward to seeing more of you at our March 8 meeting.

The NoVA APT Steering Committee