On December 13, 2001, PRODN had its end-of-year party and regular monthly meeting all in one! The meeting was held at the Buttonwood and the room was decorated very festively. In an attempt to appreciate the diversity of PRODN and the ideals we stand for, such as tolerance and acceptance, many religions were represented through traditional symbols and decorations as well as various written material. We spent additional time networking, talking and just generally enjoying each other’s company.

At about 6:30 we began a recap and discussion of the recent ODN Conference in Vancouver by people who attended the conference. Generally, the feedback about the conference indicated that it was strongly influenced by the September 11 attacks in terms of attendance and how Americans view themselves in relation to the larger world. In terms of attendance, there was initial concern that a relatively small number of people would attend this year’s conference. In the end there was a particularly large surge of last minute attendees resulting in a very well attended conference.

As a result of the conference being held in another country and being attended by people from many different countries, a very interesting dynamic occurred. It became apparent to many conference attendees that some Americans have a very self-centered view of the world…a sort of "the world revolves around us" outlook. This came out in a number of ways. For example, the speakers at the opening plenary focused on many issues specific to the United States. This resulted in feedback about American’s apparent lack of sensitivity to others in the world (A Canadian women stated she was feeling "invisible"). Another example occurred when stationary printed for the conference contained an American flag and the words "God Bless America". This was an international conference the focus on America served to illustrate the tendency toward self-centeredness.

Most conference attendees indicated that the absolute best part of the conference were the pre-conference intensive one, two and three day workshops. Some of these sessions included Appreciative Inquiry, NTL’s Human Interaction for the OD Profession and Becoming a Better Intervener: A Gestalt, Organization and Systems Development Perspective. The consensus was that these sessions made attendance at the regular conference a much richer experience. Finally, a poem entitled "Mother Teresa’s Wisdom" was read during the opening plenary. It had a significant impact on many people who heard it and has been read and shared by many more people since then.