Resolution passed by unanimous vote at YOCOTO meeting of 9/30/2010:

“Be it resolved that we gathered here will continue to communicate with each other publicly and privately about the findings of our three workgroups, listed below, leading towards a further exploratory meeting on Thursday, December 9, 2010, to which we will actively invite other interested parties.”

Notes from the first Town Hall Meeting group participation:

Work group #1: tasked with answering “How can teachers and recent graduates can be better supported as professionals”

• There is a need for ongoing mentorship of YTT graduates, in the form of class reunions and regular meetings.  These meetings should be formal in nature.
• Studios should endeavour to create graduate programming for their YTT graduates.
• Training should be given around the expectations graduates bring into the profession of teaching yoga.
• An open dialogue about standard remuneration will be helpful, taking into account experience and qualification.

Work group #2: tasked with answering “How can yoga studios improve the standards of their training programmes?”

• Pre-requisites need to be established for trainees.  Experience in yoga practice is foregrounded here, but other forms of supportive past training and experience should also be considered.
• Teacher trainers should themselves be examined for experience and suitability before validation as teachers of teachers; some kind of peer review mechanism would be needed.
• Candidates of YTT programmes must be examined in some way for competency before graduation. 
• YTT class sizes should have maximum numbers.  The group is coalescing around 20 as a general view.
• The explicit study of pedagogical technique (in all of its aspects) should be part of any YTT curriculum.

Work group #3: tasked with answering “How can Yoga Community Toronto or other representative body organize, regulate, and elevate teacher training and yoga as a professional vocation?”

• The body would have to clearly decide who and what they represent.
• Any committee or body would have to be headed by a rotating, democratically elected board.
• The process of this goal would best progress along the arc of:

1. dialogue
2. public education
3. establishing an ombudsman to arbitrate grievances from practitioners or teachers
4. then, maybe, a discussion of shared standards

• Local committees are better.
• Standards must preserve uniqueness moving forward
• It is best to treat this project as a true experiment: not knowing the outcome, and open to the knowledge it brings.