Ron's Org Convention 2006

This years convention was held in a beautiful hotel on the outskirts of Bern, Switzerland, Saturday and Sunday the 26th and 27th of August 2006, attended by approximately 95 people.

Melinda Hauri was the Master of Ceremonies for the event. The various speakers presented their talks in either English, German, French or Russian. There were a series of translators, placed at strategic points around the hall and also on the stage with the speaker.

The event started on Saturday afternoon with a number of people from orgs around the planet giving a brief summary of their position.

There were: Volodya Bychko from Russia, Jennifer Freeman, a guest speaker from the Freezone in the USA. Henrik Sabol, talked about the establishment of Ron's Orgs in Denmark and the UK. He also gave some interesting details of some harassments he had been subjected to. For example, anonymous communications to business colleagues containing false date and attempts to Black PR him - which the English police were very interested to learn about as those types of campaigns come under the heading of 'Hate Mail' - a form of discrimination that is treated as a criminal activity. Tasha Nicol, also from the UK, talked about the establishment of the latest Ron's Org in the UK in the west of the country. Caspar de Rijk spoke about Holland, Ulli Schneck gave details of the their expansion into a new building for Ron's Org Frankfurt. Petra also announced the opening of a second Ron's Org in Munich. Then Yvan Mayor talked about events in Switzerland. These were followed by Ursula Staub and Daniela from Munich giving some details from Ron's Org Munich. Vitek from the Czech Republic talked about events in the Czech Republic.

Next Beate Fritz presented her talk - "Games and Cycles of Action from an OT Viewpoint". This lecture covered data such as using gradient scales to achieve ones goals, step by step.

After a beak for refreshments the event continued. Melinda Hauri presented the new Ron's Org logo. The ideas behind the logo and its development were given. The logo is an R and the symbol for theta together on a blue background.

Then Max Hauri gave a talk on "Ron's Org, Communication and Polices" and "How to bring Scientology to the Future". Max stressed mainly the fact that we must have good comm between each other and especially centres. By not duplicating each other and by not accepting and confronting the abilities of others the orgs or terminals will snap terminals and be in the valence of the other and thus trapped. So policies have to be given that every org can be an individual and independent org and will exchange with other orgs really.

In the evening entertainments were presented: A musical sketch, compositions on the piano and singing from a number of talented artists including Melinda, Nicole and Dirk, they were supported by a cast of many in the opening sketch.

The next morning Erica Hauri gave a lecture on "Freedom". It was stressed that, Tech applied with friendship is the guarantee for a being to be freed of whatever game he played or will play. This proved to be an emotional lecture for many of the attendees as Erica talked of a subject and its consequences, dear to the heart of all.

After a break for refreshments Otfried Krumpholz gave a talk on the subject of "Religion and Scientology". He first developed what exactly is a religion and in how far is it different from a philosophy, as both deal with the "ultimate questions" of life. He gave the three main criteria: A philosophy is a mere school of thought, while in a religion you find groups and organisations who have binding beliefs or rules for members. Secondly, while a philosophy is a body thought built purely on logic and observation, a religion includes a subjective element, which can be beliefs, personal convictions or experiences. And thirdly, while a philosophy is a theoretical endeavour, a religion includes practice, as well on the third dynamic level (like religious services or other communal forms) as on the first dynamic level (prayers, meditations, applications to enhance the personal spiritual well-being). Otfried concluded that while each person may decide what Scientology is for themselves - a religion, a philosophy, a weltanschauung - in its typical form, a Scientology org, we can clearly see all criteria of a religion fulfilled. Thus we as a group should give some thoughts to our positioning in the future, taking into account that a religious group has constitutional protection in most countries of the world which other third dynamics have not."

The event closed with a farewell ceremony, with thanks and acknowledgments to speakers and translators and supporting people, including the hotel staff. It was also announced that next years convention will be in Russia.

Every one thoroughly enjoyed the convention weekend. Old friends met up again and all made new friends to meet up with and work together with in the future! Then there was lunch, informal meetings, hellos and goodbyes till next time.

Clive Nicol

29 August 2006