Martha Lettenga
Email address: marsieuw@gmail.com
What languages do you speak? Frisian, Dutch, English, German, Italian (level B2), French (better in understanding than speaking) and some Spanish.
Nominee Questionnaire
Question 1 - Please share a brief introduction about yourself, your life, and your background, as well as your personal strengths that you would like to bring to the Board.
My father, at the age of 18, was required to become a cattle trader, caused by the sudden death of his father. I loved strolling with him in the meadows between the cows. My mom worked as a pharmacists assistant. She had to quit when she married. Until in the sixties, married women were not allowed to work in Holland! I have 2 brothers. I am in the middle, the mediator. I was born in the north of the Netherlands, in Friesland, where I grew up speaking Frisian. I learned Dutch at school.
I live in Amsterdam. Since last Sunday with two lovely kittens. One of the two is the cat of an Irani girl Yekta. She got it from me for her 10th birthday. I take care of her cat because it is forbidden to keep animals in the asylum where she lives.
I am an entrepreneur, self employed since 20 years and enjoy that! At the moment I work as an organizational advisor, psychologist, trainer for ministries, healthcare, the police and in education. Besides that I work as a volunteer for the Red Cross. I am a board member of the Alumni association of the University of Amsterdam.
In my free time I give yoga lessons, meet my family and talk with friends (watch my video plus dear ones in Morocco, Australia, Japan, Thailand, Swiss…), I enjoy nature deeply, dance, visit lectures and love survival trainings.
Question 2 - Please describe your experience with MI in any or all of the following roles: practitioner, supervisor, researcher, and/or administrator.
I am familiar with MI since 2007. At the moment I practice MI in my conversations focus on vitality of police officers. Before I practiced MI in coaching people on a wide range of topics, smoking, values, choices in life.
As a trainer I worked with personnel at all layers of the Dutch prison system, with nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, study advisors at a university, teachers, IT- leaders, youth workers, mediators within the law system, and more professionals.
Research experience; I contribute to a thesis on ‘Moral Case Deliberation with prison staff’ of Anne Schaap (2023). My role was to be the linking pin between the researchers, board and the trainers in a part of the project. I provided data, was leading intervision sessions with colleague-facilitators, helping the researchers to get to know the prison culture and the way data could be interpreted.
Question 3 – Please describe your participation in MINT in meaningful ways including, but not limited to, attendance at Forums and other MINT-related events as well as committee service that might support your candidacy and prepare you for serving on the MINT Board.
Since I am a member of MINT inc. (Sitges 2009). I visited the forums and ICMI’s in Europe. I was a support trainer in Berlin in 2017. And I presented a workshop at the same forum about ‘Affirmations, Learning to see gold’ with Corine Vernooij. I was part of the GRTF last year and was linking-pin with the board together with Chris Wagner. I gave yoga lessons during Forums, live and online. I was the Dutch Standardized Patient this year. I have been in the Dutch Board of MINTned for 7 years.
Question 4 - Please describe experience you have had in serving on other committees or boards, either in a professional or personal capacity.
I am a board member of the Alumni Association University of Amsterdam Psychology department. Like I mentioned above I was a board member in our Dutch MINT Association/Chapter. I was a member of an event committee at a university in Groningen. I organized at least 4 congresses, symposia, scientific and general about Motivational Interviewing, Integrity and Ethics in collaboration with other parties.
Question 5 – Please describe your vision for MINT moving forward and include your thoughts about the ways the Board can be representative and inclusive of the diversity of the membership.
In the GRTF report you can read many answers to the question above. Some of my personal ideas to increase the diversity are;
1) make it easier to become a chapter. With attention and focus on keeping a good balance between easy access and high quality trainers and practitioners
2) stimulate local activities and international MI-buddy systems
3) offering a MI-English course to give Minties the chance to improve their English. Related to this I would like to talk about which language we can choose best within the board to embrace diversity and at the same time be able to take steps within a reasonable timeframe)
4) reach out to areas where MI isn’t known yet (or not that we know)
5) stimulate virtual Forum/ Symposium for people who aren’t part of our MINT inc. (yet), I love that initiative!
I believe as an organization we need a strategic board with an operational staff.
My opinion is that our committees are our expertise centra. Their tasks and role needs to be clear. They are our advisors. Sharing of their knowledge and wisdom is very welcome. Chapters should have a bigger and prescribed role in decision-making.
Question 6 - MINT's strategic plan is consistent with the following three clusters: 1) Membership Engagement; 2) Global inclusion, outward-facing; 3) Provide guidance, standards and resources to the world. Please provide your specific interests and ideas across any of these three clusters and how you might contribute to achieving them as a Board member.
Membership Engagement and Global inclusion fascinate me! Creating ideas about how and see if it works, that is what I like to do. How?
A) Facilitate and stimulate engaging rituals (there are many… let me surprise you..)
B) Stimulate free webinars for Minties and non-Minties. To make us feel our connection, learn from each other and have dialogues. For non-Minties to give them the chance to feel the MI-spirit and get informed.
C) I would like to have a test for every Mintie every 5 years. To give the chance to reflect on your skills and how you teach.
D) Lower the frequency and the costs of live, global network of MINT activities. Organize them in smaller cities to lower costs. Choose places with local food and attractions. Look at venues for special social projects, and pay more attention to sustainability for the environment in what, where and how we organize events.
Question 7 - The Board work currently consists of both operational tasks (keeping the organization functioning day to day and financial management) and strategic tasks (vision and planning). Describe your capacities in both these areas.
You may direct them to my profile Martha Lettenga and curriculum on https://www.linkedin.com/in/martha-lettenga-8071397/details/skills/
Question 8 - The typical Board member spends up to 10-15 hours per week on MINT Board matters across varying days and time zones. Board meetings have typically been held twice per month, on Tuesdays from 19:00 – 21:00 UTC, with some variation by 1-2 hours earlier or later. The Board holds a 2-3 day retreat meeting twice per year, a midyear meeting and a meeting in parallel with the annual TNT/Forum. Board members are expected to participate in both of the retreat meetings and the regular Board meetings, and to be flexible in arranging to be present for these meetings despite their otherwise busy schedules and the time zones in which they live. They are also expected to respond to Board eForum discussions on a regular and ongoing basis. Please indicate how you will integrate this commitment with your ongoing professional and personal activities.
I will keep one day a week free for mainly this work at the board as a volunteer for our MINT inc organization. And … for playing with Yekta and the cats
Video Submission - Optional
View Martha's Video Submission Here
