Cheshire Yoga Teachers Association (CYTA) -still going after 40 years!
Words by Sue Hargreaves (CYTA Secretary)
I joined in 1993 , having been co-ersted by Miranda Michaelides to attend a meeting at her house. She gave us a lovely lunch on her best china plates and we were very careful with the washing up! The idea of a yoga group was originally mooted by Di George.
Miranda offered her house for meetings, the first one being held on 1st August 1985.Aims of the group were to form an Association of teachers in Cheshire to share information and raise teaching standards within the group. 2 more informal meetings followed bringing people together & forming the basis of the association. The first minuted CYTA meeting was held at Margaret Houldsworth’s house on 25th August, with 8 members.
The association continued to grow and by February 1986 another 7 members had joined including Christine Royle, who became Chair in 1993 and is still our present Chair. The first seminar was held on May 3rd 1986 at Mottram Village Hall with Manny Patel from the LIFE Foundation. In July 1986 the Association had a written Constitution which is still that Constitution, with only minor additions.
Charles Brien joined & by 1990 he had started to keep a diary and report CYTA events, which were sent to yoga journals, including the BWY newsletters. In January Dorothy Charnley and Miranda started to teach a BWY Teacher Training Course at Poynton. In 5 years CYTA was well established and on it’s way. Sadly, both Miranda and Charles have passed away.
I became Secretary in 1995, and we have seen members come and go, but have always had a strong ‘core’ of support. Additions, deletions and changes have happened but we have continued to hold events and meet as a Committee along the same lines as first established. One change we made was to open the Association to non teachers, & Associate membership was launched in 2004.
We have 2 annual workshops, a bi-annual Summer Festival , and a Half Day Training Day followed by a shared lunch, all of which are open to all comers, though the Training Day is free to CYTA members. We hold our Spring Workshop in March, followed by our AGM, November is our Autumn Workshop and in Sept or Oct we hold our Training Day. Our present venues are Rixton with Glazebrook Community Hall, Dunham Massey Village Hall, Woodley Civic Centre and Wilmslow Methodist Church Hall and we have kept up to date with the present & popular tutors. We are currently looking for a suitable venue in Greater Manchester.
We have held larger Festivals of Yoga & Health- the first one was in June 1997 with 90 people attending and the last large one was 2003. Our current mini Summer Festivals have been held at Woodley and Dunham venues , with the first one held in Sept 2021 at Woodley Civic Centre following the lockdowns from COVID.
Previously we have held Summer Weekends away, open to all, and Summer BBQ’s for members.
St .Joseph’s at Malpas was a popular weekend venue for many years. The brothers there served plain food and plenty of it. We had no ensuite facilities and there was always a scrabble for the bathroom!
Further exploration was to venues in Brighouse, Grasmere, Ripon, Whalley Abbey, Snowdon Lodge, Whaley Hall until we discovered Trafford Hall, near Chester in 2011. We continued to hold summer weekends there until 2016, with some great tutors including Swami Krishnapremananda & Derek Osborn. There was a lovely central garden surrounded by the accommodation, and many of us bought plants from there.
Our Summer BBQ’s were held at mine and Diana’s houses as both of us had a large garden. Croquet was the game we always played on the lawns and there was lot of cheating going on as no one quite understood the rules.
Members previously received a News Sheet and then a Monthly Newsletter and now receive a monthly ‘Keeping in Touch’ email, which came about in COVID. Lockdown also brought changes and introduced us to technology – Zoom became popular and we ran free Zoom sessions for members with a variety of themes and tutors. We still continue with some events held on Zoom and our Committee meetings are mainly on Zoom.
Member teachers can have their classes / links on our website, which has seen many changes since it’s inception in 2002 and we now have a FaceBook presence.
Payment methods have changed from just cash or cheque, to Bank Transfer and online payments. All members have reduced costs to our Yoga events.
We have a Monthly Theme which is contributed by Committee Members and can be read by all via the website. These themes reflect the time of year and yoga suitable for practice at this time.
There is also a Resources page for teachers and students of yoga to access. These education resources include lesson plans & any associated handouts.There are useful tips for new teachers to help them prepare classes. Videos and audio recordings are available Members are also encouraged to submit reviews on any yoga and yoga related books .
The CYTA archive contains revues and articles that are more than 3 months old and provides a reference library of event reviews and old articles.
We are a friendly and dedicated group with a small membership (which we would like to extend) Our events are open to all, with lunchtime cake & drinks available – Diana’s homemade scones being the most popular snack.
Interested in joining us? Or coming along to our yoga events?
Check us out on our website www.cyta.yoga or contact myself on 01925 819904 / sue@cyta.org.uk
Come along and give us a try, you will be very welcome!
Report by Sue Hargreaves (CYTA Sec)