Introduction 

I’m happy to say, it's been a year since we began the Asana Academy and welcomed our first members into the program. I’ve had so much fun making training videos for you and I’ve enjoyed connecting with so many of you in our live Q&A sessions. I too have learned a lot in those sessions and it’s abundantly clear to me that we have many kind, skilled and devoted teachers from all over the world. I wish to connect us all more deeply and tap into the collective wisdom of this diverse group of teachers. 

It’s with great pleasure, I invite you to the Asana Academy’s first ever Member Summit!   

What is the Member Summit?

This Summit is a free virtual event for Asana Academy members only, in which we’ll come together as a passionate group of teachers to share our ideas, experiences and wisdom on a specific topic related to teaching yoga. The Member Summit is scheduled for August 1, 2021, 9:00am - 1:30pm Pacific Daylight Time.  

Who will speak at the Summit? 

Our members! While I will share my insight, instead of shining the spotlight on myself or other well-known yoga teachers, I want to honor your insight by giving you and other Asana Academy members a space to connect, share and learn from one another.

What topic will the Summit focus on?

During the Summit, we’ll focus on the topic of Beginners. More specifically, we'll share our best practices for teaching beginner students and tips for beginner yoga teachers. 

Why beginners? 

Whether you intentionally work with beginner students or not, if you teach group classes, inevitably beginners will be in your classes. That’s why we’ll dedicate the first segment of the Summit to sharing ideas on how to best: 

• Sequence classes for beginners
• Help beginners feel comfortable 
• Encourage them to return 
• And much more

In the Asana Academy, we have a wonderful mix of new and experienced teachers, and during the second segment of the Summit, our experienced teachers will share their best tips with our beginner yoga teachers, such as: 

• How to prepare for classes and overcome your fears of teaching  
• Finding your voice as a new yoga teacher
• How to gain experience without experience (tips for getting classes and starting your own classes or programs) 
  
  

How will the Summit work? 

In an organized manner, the Member Summit will meet virtually, utilizing the many amazing features of Zoom. We’ll start with a Welcome and introduction to the topic led by me. Next, we’ll  move into the first segment focused on Beginner Students. Three speakers will individually share their favorite tip for teaching beginner students to the entire group. Then we’ll divide up into breakout rooms of 4-5 members to discuss and share ideas in smaller groups. The second segment will be formatted just like the first, but with a focus on sharing tips with our members who are Beginner Teachers. We’ll then join together again in the main room for some closing words and a member-led meditation.

I’d like to be a speaker. How does that work? 

We’ll have 3 speakers share their wisdom in the first segment (about 5 minutes each), 3 speakers in the second segment and one speaker guiding the group in a 15-minute closing meditation. Thus, we have 7 opportunities for our members to participate as “speakers”, in addition to everyone sharing together in the breakout rooms. If you’d like to sign-up to be one of those speakers, please do so using this form. In the form we ask you to share your best/favorite tip in order to ensure we have diversity in the insights that are shared and avoid repetition.   

I’d love to attend the Summit! Do I need to register?

Yes, we’d appreciate it if you could register for the Member Summit in advance, so we can plan accordingly and can email you the Zoom link. This is a free event and a benefit of being an Asana Academy member.