PISLAP RETREAT

October 27-29, 2023

Minneapolis, Minnesota

On October 27-29 PISLAP held a retreat hosted by Bruce and Lissa

Peterson in Minneapolis Minnesota. It was attended by long time members

as well as some new folks. The 3-day event started with a Friday evening

dinner at Bruce and Lissa’s home that included a moving video (link) of our

co-founder and spiritual leader Peter Gabel who passed away a year ago.

On Saturday and Sunday morning, we had sessions on the personal

perspective, the societal perspective and the organizational perspective.

The personal perspective session featured small group discussions

regarding goals and challenges we each were facing, and was led by

Duncan Holloman. Then Doug Ammar, Liz Latimer and Maitreya Badami

made a presentation about how to spread the Georgia Justice Project

model (led by Doug) of holistic criminal defense to other states (Liz and

Maitreya are building a similar practice in Chico, California). After lunch we

explored the societal perspective, led by Dr. Bill Doherty, co-founder of

Braver Angels, who described his group’s efforts to facilitate cross-party

dialog in these times of extreme polarization. The final session focused on

PISLAP as an organization: where are we, and what do we want to

become? It was facilitated by Craig Neal (author of The Art of Convening)

and led to a lively and productive dialog on the future of PISLAP, and how

we can be better organized to achieve our goals. At the closing go-round,

it was clear that the attendees were very happy with the retreat, and

enthusiastic about the future of PISLAP.

PISLAP PRECONFERENCE

October 1, 2023

Virginia Holocaust Museum, Richmond

On October 1, 2023 PISLAP sponsored a pre-conference gathering, led by

Perry Saidman, held at the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond VA. It

was a nice prelude to the Unitive Justice Conference on October 2-4. The

gathering was attended by those who wanted to learn more about PISLAP,

as well as some long time members. It was followed by a guided tour of

the Museum.