A Most Sincere Invitation: Please Come to the 2024 Teacher Conference

Thank you to those who registered early to come to this year’s 2024 T’ai Chi Chih Teacher Conference. Your commitment has helped us tremendously to secure ideal movement space and greatly reduce financial stress around room commitments with the hotel. We are truly grateful.

To teachers still undecided about attending, your voice is needed. We urge you to come to share your perspectives. As T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) teachers, each of us was brought to TCC and stayed with our personal practice for many reasons. This year’s conference will bring our voices together and help deepen our relationship with TCC and our broader community.

In an effort to nudge any fence-sitters to register now, Jim Maple, our conference registrar has offered to allow payment for the conference to be deferred until the end of June. This allows you to share your intention and take a few extra weeks to keep your money in your bank account. Simply indicate you will be paying the conference fee by check when you complete the registration form at taichichihfoundation.org/regular-registration.

This will greatly help the planning committee not have to deal with a flurry of last-minute registrations. And you to mark your calendar for July 25-28 in Albuquerque. Come join the 110+ teachers already registered and help celebrate the 50th anniversary of TCC practice. Details, including a “Look Who’s Coming” list, are posted at taichichih.org/conference-2024.

As further encouragement, this year’s program has been designed to be an engaged and experiential unfolding of the theme “There is Only One Thing Going On.” We will weave and flow in Presence and Being through joyous TCC large group practices and learning; small group sharing with one another; and time for individual contemplation.

• TCC is very young. What vision do you have for the future of TCC? How do you feel our community needs to continue to develop and mature? This might include your vision for future TCC teacher conferences, the teacher accreditation process, how we nurture and support new teachers once accredited, how we engage with professional development in ourselves as teachers, how we deal with differences about the movements in our community, how we continue to develop an awareness of equity and inclusion, etc. What actions are you willing to take to implement your vision?

• What experiences have you had with TCC that are inspiring you to teach or grow your practice?

• How is TCC expressing in you right now as life? What words of encouragement would you have to share with your beginning TCC teacher self? What words of encouragement would you want to share with your beginning TCC practitioner self?

• Speak about a specific movement in TCC and how that movement has grown within you over the years, taught you about yourself/life/called you deeper from the perspective “TCC will teach you TCC.”

• Is there a specific experience you’ve had with TCC that initially was uncomfortable but has grown inside of you and developed into something to be treasured?

The opportunity to come together and join wordlessly in the Cosmic Rhythm while keeping the concentration in the soles of the feet can help us realize the deepest yearnings in our hearts. We need one another, perhaps more than we might realize. Even if you are not actively teaching TCC or if your personal practice has dropped off, please consider sharing your good and growing heart in person with all of us at the conference this year. Reignite connection with yourself, TCC, and our community. We sincerely hope to see you in July.