Counted out / In

Counted out / in Type in Bethesda and other views Well I used to be a burglar, An Interest Area Co-ordinator gets to write Rolled too many numbers a column in the Bulletin of Psychological Now I am a smuggler on the Amazon … Type, and to organise a symposium at whichever APTi conference occurs on Well, I’m living under cover their watch. For a voluntary position that So I won’t be discovered seems to be enough to focus on. I quickly Sailing hot cargo on the Amazon … discovered, though, that I was automatically Up in your cities a ‘Leader’, which made me a little uneasy You think my crop is pretty as I didn’t see myself that way. Taking care of business on the Amazon … Even before I got involved in organisational theory, and subsequently in type, I was Skip Battin uneasy about the use of the term ‘leader’. It seemed to be applied indiscriminately Don’t follow leaders, and watch your parking meter and with little rationale. The right questions Bob Dylan didn’t seem to be asked, and the people I Peter Geyer saw identified as ‘leaders’ I didn’t want to Out and in follow anyway. Through type I learned that my perspective Whatever your type profile, the reality is is consistent with my INTP preferences. that where you’re from, where you might Through experience I learned that I prefer be hiding out, is a significant component. not to put myself forward and am better off It can also be who you know and who knows (in health and other terms) to be hiding APTi Leadership you—and there are multiple dimensions somewhere, doing the best I can from that involved in that. vantage point, with public performance when necessary. Conference and So it was with a mixture of pleasure and consternation that I accepted an invitation It turned out that my appointment, as well subsequent experiences from the Association for Psychological as that of Gill Clack from Britain, is part of Type International—effectively the North an effort by APTi to become genuinely in- American APT, as Canada is a region of ternational in outlook. Ever since I joined, APTi—to become the co-ordinator of their the North American conferences have been Research and Theory interest area, and to described as ‘international’, but they are sit on the review board for APTi’s new essentially American in focus. research publication. Peter Geyer (INTP) researches and To kick-start this process, and for a host of writes on psychological types, and My membership of APTi began in 1990, other reasons which became evident later, coordinates the Theory & Research predating the foundation of what became APTi announced a Leadership Conference interest area for APT International. AusAPT. I’d been to all their conferences, at their new offices in Bethesda, Maryland, During his 16 years of membership except the most recent in Portland, and had just outside Washington DC. I was invited he has been an active participant in presented something fairly regularly since and funds were allocated to enable me to APTi conferences. Peter is also a 1993. So I was known in a particular way get there. Fortuitously, I’d also been con- life member of AusAPT. and made welcome. I still considered my- tacted by Katharine Myers, co-owner of self an outsider though, due to the complex the MBTI, on a related issue, so I arranged www.petergeyer.com.au interrelations APTi has had internationally, [email protected] to meet her at her home in Pennsylvania notably on the training and licensing side. just a few days after this meeting. Australian Psychological Type Review Vol 8 No. 2 2006 15 Peter Geyer: Counted out / in Leaving and Arriving known for the intellect and ability of its ministers, rather than its later failures. Such Travelling to the United States is not as is politics and history, I suppose. He was simple as it seems, particularly if you have quite amazed that I knew of Roper. We had a specific timeframe with some quirks in an interesting discussion about regional and it, and it involves the north-east USA, and international politics, particularly with re- so cross-continent flying. This meant that gard to guest workers, before he went off I travelled United, rather than Qantas as I’d to a vacant area to try to get some sleep. done for several years now. I was happy The plane flew indirectly to Washington to do that, as I’d always enjoyed flying DC, as there were several thunderstorms with United and thought their service and in the way, so a longer flight ensued which attention superior to the Australian carrier, was pleasant enough, particularly as the which I considered diffident at best. plane seemed to be almost drifting and Unfortunately, the flight from Melbourne floating. The ground couldn’t be seen at and Sydney was a little depressing, to say any stage, just dark grey-black cloud cover the least. The cabin crew seemed grey and below, until we finally burst out of the perfunctory, and perhaps were depressed clouds into the Washington night sky and themselves. Certainly, smiles were out of some fairly spectacular lightning strikes. the question and they seemed a little deaf. The plane itself looked fairly worn inside Pooks Hill / Hotel and although there was better legroom from fewer seats, you could see that the The place I was to stay was at Pooks Hill, lights and air above hadn’t been altered to just outside Bethesda, and the locale for fit the new configuration. Like a few other an old children’s story. Getting there was US airlines, United is just about bankrupt via the Washington Beltway, a ring road and job losses and related issues would be of sorts that surrounds the capital and is fairly much on employees’ minds. United the origin of ‘gridlock’, one of many terms is unusual in that the workers have a stake (‘-gate’ is another) appropriated inapprop- in the ownership of the company and that riately by a lazy Australian media, rather can be stressful as well. like the Post-It note style advertising that has recently appeared in some newspapers. So I was glad to leave at Los Angeles and grapple with US Customs and Immigration. Being late in the evening there weren’t too Take me to your leaders They were surprisingly genial, which was many difficulties, other than the turnoff good, as there are extra requirements such that the driver was after was blocked by a as fingerprinting and photo taking and it’s Highway Patrol car. No reason was given really best to be dutiful and forget the long for that, nor was one asked for. I suppose flight and tiredness. I think I helped by that’s not what you do: you just read be- producing written information on why I tween the lines, and, as an outsider, reflect was coming to the USA. But they were on the several levels of law enforcement certainly more approachable than my last in the United States. mainland experience at Toronto airport My arrival at the hotel was less smooth around two years ago. than I had expected, perhaps due to the The cross-continental United flight was complexity of my booking, which had a pleasantly different in almost every way, part paid for and part I was to pay. I didn’t with bright and helpful staff and a newer think that was all that difficult but, to be plane. The plane was also fairly empty fair, I experience that sort of thing fairly which was good as well. Unusually for me, regularly (most recently at the hotel for I struck up a conversation with a Filipino AusAPT’s Brisbane conference), so there man who was working on climate change must be something I’m missing with re- projects in Fiji. Interestingly, he was doing spect to the job description for hotel front that with Tom Roper, a minister in John desks. And this was an expensive hotel— Cain’s government in Victoria in the late I could not have afforded to stay there 1980s—which was initially quite well without assistance and discount. 16 Australian Psychological Type Review Vol 8 No. 2 2006 The hotel rate and length of stay was sorted instead the hotel is virtually standalone and out later, mainly through the intervention FASEB’s offices are a separate, quite large of Newma Hawkins, the organiser of the building in another location entirely. conference. She had to repeat her earlier FASEB is the new management services instructions to the hotel. provider for APTi, which ended its four I had further cause to wonder about the year association with AMC in Illinois. idea and reality of customer service when One of the reasons for this meeting was to I sought out a stamp to airmail a letter to introduce FASEB to the assembled group. Australia. The hotel shop sold stamps, and There were financial and other difficulties the person there was cheerfully inattentive with the previous providers, apparently, to my request. On attempting to send the as well as organisational issues for APTi. letter, a front-desk person indicated that A lunchtime start was useful for my sleep perhaps the stamp sold wasn’t sufficient, patterns. but offered no information or knowledge About 50 people attended the meeting— as to what might be the right amount. I APTi Board members, Regional Chairs, suggested to him that someone employed Faculty members (the people who teach the by the hotel should know the answer, and APTi MBTI Qualifying Program in the that it was unacceptable that no-one seemed USA), Interest Area Coordinators, the next to know.

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