Summary notes from Yoga forums, hosted by ExerciseNZ and Courage My Love.

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2 Summary notes from Yoga forums, hosted by ExerciseNZ and Courage My Love. These notes are a summary of all three forums, rather than specific records of each. The idea is we want to share the collective thoughts - especially those that were common between the forums, to start to develop a pathway for where to from here?. We have also reordered the notes, so for anyone reading them that wasn't at the forums, there is a logical flow, with background info 1st, then some of the topics that flowed on from that. The NZ yoga forums - July 2016 ExerciseNZ and Courage my Love, hosted three forums (Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch) and invited yoga studio owners and yoga teachers to attend. Attendance was free. The purpose of the forums was to explore ways that those in the yoga community could work collaboratively for the good of collective Yoga in NZ, as well as exploring support for development of a Yoga Teachers Council (working name). ExerciseNZ is supportive of this (due to its mission - see above), and was here to listen, gather info & concerns from the community, and then explore ways that it, and others may be able to help. Attendance at the forums was a mixture of Yoga Teachers, yoga therapists, healing centres, meditation and retreat centres, Ayerveda practitioners and from the soon to be qualified to decades of teaching experience. Yoga teaching experience in the room was everything from children, disabled, aged and mentally ill, as well as more traditional yoga classes in studios settings. Some background About ExerciseNZ - ExerciseNZ is a non profit body whose mission is to support exercise (in every form) in New Zealand. As a part of its mission, it wants to explore ways that it can support the yoga community more - everything from studios to teachers. ExerciseNZ recognises that movement (asana) is but one part of yoga (being one of the eight limbs), and already ExerciseNZ works with many providers of exercise that incorporate physical movement into a more holistic offering of some type (examples include everything from wellbeing coaches to stress management programmes). Richard Beddie, the CEO of ExerciseNZ, attended the forums, and has a background in ownership of exercise facilities (gyms) as well as practicing yoga for the last 3 years. Note: ExerciseNZ already has several yoga studios as a member, but wants to make sure that anything offered to yoga studios/teachers is relevant and valuable (see the end of the notes for an outcome around this).

3 About Persephone Singfield - Yoga practitioner of 20yrs, Yoga Teacher for last 5yrs, after the Christchurch Earthquakes lost her home and business she began teaching Yoga as part of a way to assist people with Trauma and to build a new life for herself. She's gone from teaching 10+ classes a week to one, but continues to practice daily and supports the Yoga community nationally with workshops and working with ExerciseNZ. Persephone founded and directs Courage My Love, a Christchurch manufacturer of fitness apparel. In 2015 she presented for Wanderlust and later in the year for FITEX, where she met Richard. Courage My Love is the sponsor for the Mind and Body Award within the Exercise Industry Awards. This award was created in 2015 and Persephone has been working closely with Richard and the team to define the criteria for the award going forward. At this stage, anyone can nominate someone they know is activating change / inspiring the community through teaching the integration of mind and body within their classes. Other organisations mentioned during the forums Skills Active - the Government recognised standard setter for the NZQA qualifications in all of sport, fitness and recreation. A non profit body. REPs (NZ Register of Exercise Professionals) - the registration body for exercise professionals in NZ (A non profit body). Currently has over 2,700 individuals registered, with just under 100 yoga instructors registered in various forms. NZQA - The New Zealand Qualifications Authority. (A government agency). It keeps both the record of quals in NZ, and also the NZQA Framework which is the qualifications framework for all NZQA quals in NZ - from high school through to degrees. Also see below for reference to Yoga Australia, Yoga NZ, Yoga Alliance, and IYTA (international yoga Teachers Association). Topics tabled Richard (from ExerciseNZ) covered some of the topics we had prepared to speak about whilst welcoming attendees to raise ideas, questions or comments as they arose. This created quite an organic direction to the Forum, giving everyone opportunities to speak. Topics introduced: Health and Safety Tax deductibility (and the success ExerciseNZ already had in this area) Employment vs Contracting Mind Body Awards Instructor's Standards Yoga Teachers Council idea Outcome of the Forum - having a group of people interested in progressing with the support of ExerciseNZ where needed. This is about doing something "with" Yoga as opposed to doing something "to" Yoga. Those that wished to be part of the Yoga Teachers Council should contact ExerciseNZ directly (see below for more notes on this).

4 Questions that came up to discuss: Should NZ have a Yoga registration body for teachers? There are systems in place in other parts of the world. We talked about the Yoga Alliance. Here in NZ we are several steps away from having our own registration, but REPs could be a support in helping us create one. Skills Active sets the NZQA standards for Sports and Recreation and they do have a Yoga Diploma. The general feeling was it wasn't appropriate for the Yoga community's needs, and that 200 hours (or similar) was a better starting point. If there was to be a Yoga standard what would it be? Lots of discussion about all the different styles of Yoga; Yoga therapy, 200hrs yoga training in the one of the several modalities offered around the world, Yoga as exercise, yoga as healing, spiritual yoga, pranayama, kirtan, choreographed yoga such as Bikram and Ashtanga - how does it all fit together. Clearly it's the Yoga community that needs to create something here, not a government body. Anything we did create in NZ would be voluntary as NZ Government hasn't regulated Yoga. The general feeling was that was a good thing and that we had a need for something to be created to support Yoga in New Zealand. Through ExerciseNZ, REPs and Skills Active we could shape what the qualifications would look like, and also open up the doors to things like tax deductibility (which REPs already has). There was general agreement, that whatever was done should not reinvent the wheel and that it should use existing structures and organisations to explore what was possible, and meet the needs of the NZ yoga community, including both teachers & studios. It was agreed this topic needed further research. ACC / Health & Safety etc There was conversation around ACC, and if that alone was enough as insurance especially given the increased health & safety laws. It was pointed out that ACC on covered a small portion of potential damages, and that things like public liability and professional indemnity insurance was still needed for both studios and teachers who were contractors (and not employees). Lots of discussion about the benefits (and challenges) of having ACC, and also general discussion around how Yoga teachers could take more responsibility with Health and Safety to create safer practices for the public. Richard shared some ACC statistics around the growth of yoga claims from The group agreed that the insurance climate in NZ is changing dramatically and that it could be good to look at other ways of supporting our community with insurance. It was noted that REPs already provided this in NZ, including to Yoga teachers. Should all Yoga teachers have current first aid certification? People are getting injured in Yoga. People don't always report it to the studio. People tend not to complain either.

5 Could Yoga therapy become a recognised and accredited tool towards injury rehabilitation? ACC would want Yoga standards to be in place if they were to get on board with supporting it. Other points raised: Educate the public more about yoga in NZ. The different styles, teachers trainings. More Yoga and better access to Yoga for people who can't afford studios. Yoga for communities, schools, businesses. There was much agreeing that we are living in fast paced stressful times and the holistic rewards Yoga offers could be better used in NZ. In more than one of the forums, there was a discussion of standards vs standardisation. Standards being a common set of things a person or organisation may meet whereas standardisation was the idea that everyone should be the same. It was agreed by everyone at the forums that standardisation was a BAD thing, but that having standards could be beneficial (and that standards did NOT mean standardisation). Tax deductibility of YOGA ExerciseNZ has worked behind the scenes for many years, and developed a programme / system that IRD have confirmed, subject to meeting certain criteria, that exercise programmes, when used for managing stress CAN be both tax deductible, and not subject to any Fringe Benefit Tax (which applies to most exercise programmes if an employer's pays of rit). The IRD have put it in writing now that businesses (and the self employed) can have a Stress Reduction Program tax deductible with following conditions: 1 - has to be a prescribed program for the individual 2 - it is for the purpose of stress management 3 - has to be a number of sessions per week, no more than 3 (ie it can't be an unlimited access type membership ) 4 - you need to be REPS registered to offer this 5 - has to be some report back to the employer on progress Already there are providers who use YOGA on this programme, including one Yoga retreat. Discussion was then held on how Yoga instructor could meet criteria 4 (REPs registered). NZ Register of Exercise Professionals At the moment Yoga teachers can register with REPs, but they fall under Group Exercise instructor category, which REPs recognises isn t appropriate for the vast majority of pure Yoga instructors (it only works well for the mind-body gym based classes that some gyms offer). There was a lot of talk about working with REPS and ExerciseNZ to create a better category for Yoga teachers within REPs. These organisations are asking us to help them with this task. Some ideas were that to be REPS registered you would need a 200hrs teacher training certification and a current first aid certificate. All forums had several yoga teachers that were already registered with REPs, and there was general agreement to work to make any yoga registration more fit for purpose for the authentic yoga teacher

6 Other notes It was mentioned that Natural Health Practitioners (organisation) provides accreditation to Yoga therapists. It was mentioned that Yoga Australia has already created a set of standards and that they are currently working with some NZ teachers to hold workshops about how it can support Yoga New Zealand with developing standards for our country. There was a lot of discussion around collaborating with the different bodies that have already gathered information in the exercise and Yoga industry to streamline a result without having to recreate the wheel. There was support to utilise New Zealand organisations for NZ standards, certification and registration. Resources to support yoga businesses (including studios) ExerciseNZ has multiple resources available for the exercise industry that they would like to freely share with studio owners in return for feedback on the languaging and terminology suitable for the Yoga world. Usually these resources are available to members only. Resources include... Health & safety guide Employment guide (for NZ law) - including sample Guide for membership agreements in NZ to meet the new consumer law Those interested should contact ExercizeNZ directly. Many studio owners present said that health & safety (the new laws) was an area they were spending lots of time and money on, and any help would be greatly appreciated. Some resources attendees would like to see evolve for Yoga in NZ: National website / register that holds info about studios, teachers, trainings, festivals and events - there was discussion how Wanderlust, Kawaipurapura and Splore all had events around the same time and perception was things could be better planned if we were in communication nationally. Offering ongoing education and upskilling locally with local resources rather that people having to travel overseas. We have so much Yoga knowledge in NZ already. Let's celebrate and harness that. Colleague support within the group / network for the lone Yoga teacher outside of studios. Potentially a Facebook Group to continue the conversation and progress with Forum outcomes Help with employment contracts Lobbying on behalf of the Yoga industry collectively (to organisations such as ACC). Working together more: Lots of discussions around this topic. Notes (in no particular order) for various organsations that could / should be involved IYTA in New Zealand already has a comprehensive Yoga teacher training course which spans 18 months. Some question around why it isn't more recognised and supported. A representative attended two of the forums. It was founded in 1960, and has been providing both yoga teacher training, and membership support services for many years. Yoga Alliance - a US based yoga group, with members around the globe (including NZ).

7 Yoga NZ / Yoga Australia - Yoga Australia (a non profit based in Australia) is currently supporting the formation of Yoga NZ though instructors in NZ. Representatives attended two of the forums. Lots of questions / discussions around how we can come together nationally (Yoga means union), and further discussion on how Yoga can and should utilise the support of ExerciseNZ. What can give us a credible baseline? Any form of standard would need to address the grey areas. We need to define what the grey areas are. Example: some teachers in New Zealand who have been teaching pre 200hr training. Some have been teaching 30+yrs, where do they fit in? It was also mentioned that whatever we choose to do in NZ needs to be internationally recognised, so working with the right organisations to achieve this. One attendee shared that in India after you do your teacher training you have to teach to the community for free for 7 years before you can call yourself a yoga teacher. Attention brought to Yoga New Zealand - a small group of Yoga Teachers who have approached Yoga Australia for support in regards to addressing various issues of Yoga standards in New Zealand. We are yet to find out more about this. Yoga Australia is offering workshops around NZ in September. Most felt that ExerciseNZ should work with Yoga Australia to explore how common aims could bring on NZ yoga entity. Quite a lot of discussion about Yoga capitalisation. Yoga teachers have to be valued. Money and rates discussed. One attendee shared that in Ayerveda, one of the goals is to make enough money to live well. Communication across groups in NZ is a real issue. People want more Yoga Forums, lots of hands raised for that one. ExerciseNZ said it was there to support yoga teachers, and could set up a Yoga website as a part of its support for the yoga community. A place we could have member access and public access. We could list our services, set up mentorship for various topics, list events. The public could access teachers, teacher trainings, calendar of events. We could have a Facebook group as well. Talked about having a national group but then local groups. ExerciseNZ could facilitate groups in different areas annually. ExerciseNZ had floated the idea of a Yoga Teachers Council as a part of these forums, and that this could be used to guide the next steps in the development of collaboration with the NZ yoga community, and invited any / all interested in being part of this steering group to contact them. Academic study: There was also an attendee who is doing a Masters on Yoga in New Zealand, spirituality and consumerism. Another attendee is doing a PHD in Yoga at AUT. We also learned of another PHD based on Yoga for improved sports performance. Industry Awards & the new mind-body category Some discussion around the Mind Body Award. Criteria could include self discovery, community impact, yoga activism, raising awareness, holding space, leading by example. Attendees were various studio owners, teacher training 200hrs operator, IYTA, several yoga teachers with experience ranging from very new to 40yrs. It was shared by this person that there are as many as half a dozen formal studies being carried out in regards to yoga nationwide. It was agreed it would be great to be aware of the studies and the people conducting them. In one forum the Mind and Body award was a big point of conversation, some felt that an award for yoga should not even exist. Others felt it was a way of recognising those doing great work in the community, but that the criteria needed to recognises the holistic nature of yoga. This led into a conversation about the commercialisation of yoga in general,

8 internationally and nationally. It was suggested that the Mind Body Award, being in it's infancy, could evolve to better reflect the yoga community by not being a winner based award - but a recipient based award. The difference is that many can be a recipient of the award, acknowledging a community of Yoga teachers rather than just the one. It was suggested that recipients of the award would get the opportunity to connect as part of the process which in itself would benefit the community. The 2016 award has significantly changed from 2015, however, giving the timing, any significant change would need to take place next year. There's an open invitation to those who feel they would like to have input into the Mind Body Award going forward to make themselves known. At present, Courage My Love sponsors the award and Director, Persephone Singfield, has been assisting the award organisers in the judging criteria to suit both the yoga community and ExerciseNZ in for You can read more about nominated or applying for the Mind Body Award at The Feldenkrais representatives shared how they recently integrated standards into their group which included being assessed by your peers, continued education, teach / present so many classes, personal practice. Next Steps Thanks to everyone who took part at the forums, and those that contributed via but unable to attend. As agreed, these notes will be shared with everyone who attended, and also made available to anyone who did not who want to keep updated on what happened. Some other key outcomes: Those interested in being part of the Yoga Teachers Council should contact ExerciseNZ. ExerciseNZ would facilitate the development of the council, and various communication methods and admin for this. Anyone who was not already on the list from ExerciseNZ should contact ExerciseNZ if they wanted to be kept in the loop on development in Yoga (yoga@exercisenz.org.nz) and also spread the word to other teachers / studios they know of in NZ who may be interested Exercise would talk to Yoga Australia re working together Exercise would feedback to REPs on the forums, and the desires of the Yoga community (forum notes) and report back to the group ExerciseNZ would work with interested Yoga studios to share existing resources (health & safety, employment guide, membership agreements etc) in return for feedback on these for how appropriate they are for yoga studios Finally, there was almost universal support for more yoga gatherings such as the forums. ExerciseNZ will work with the Yoga Teacher Council to explore this on a regular basis, and how this may best happen. Namaste! Contacts: Richard Beddie, CE ExerciseNZ: richard@exercisenz.org.nz Persephone Singfield, info@couragemylove.co.nz Exercise Association of New Zealand yoga@exercisenz.org.nz