Hint of the Month and News Update - March, 2007
Past Hints
 
Take your time...
 
There are occasions when we become aware that Administrators are not able to allow sufficient time between the couple receiving and working with their feedback and the date of their marriage.  What if they think that it is not a good idea to get married after all?  They probably would go ahead because it is simply too late to change the practical arrangements and it would upset too many people.

Of course, the Administrator can’t always control the timing, but where you can it is good to allow for plenty of time.  How much is hard to say, but we certainly need to try to avoid the situation where the wedding follows the feedback sessions by less than a month.  We recommend that you have your first session with your couple as early as possible when they come to you enquiring about marriage.  This allows both yourself and the couple time to work on the issues that may be highlighted in the PREPARE printout.

We appreciate that there are times when you need to meet with couples quickly.  We can post your printout back to you Express Post (if available in your area).  Please advise us of this and add an amount of $5.20 to your processing fee.

Administrators also need to be sure to allow plenty of time to get a comprehensive and accurate picture of the couple based on the very detailed information contained in the Report.  These comments from a Hint in 2003 are worthy of repetition:

PLEASE DON'T... just put the Report aside when it is sent back to you from our office. 

It is all too easy to neglect to review the Report well before the couple meet with you for feedback. You will then lose the benefit of being aware of the main themes, trends and patterns that apply to the couple and being able to reflect on the best ways of working with the couple in a relaxed and thoughtful fashion. 

PLEASE DON'T... allow yourself to get into the situation where you have a couple sitting with you and you are seeing the report for the first time, or even discovering that you can't find or don't have the Report. Imagine what the couple will think about your professionalism. 

PLEASE DO...  make sure that you review the Report well before the couple come for their first feedback session. Having the knowledge on the "backburner" means that you have the time to process that knowledge carefully, almost unconsciously, without it being a rushed, stressful and potentially incomplete exercise. 

  Past Hints  Last Month : Avoidant Men and Assertive Women 
 
News Update:  

    The December 2006 issue of the Newsletter, the Prepare Diary, is available on this web site: To read, click on: December 2006 Diary    The next newsletter will be posted in mid-June. 

    PROCESSING FEE NOW $44.00  
    This is the first increase in the base cost of processing since 1999.  Our aim is to maintain the new processing charge for a lengthy period of time (as we have done before). We always aimed to make the processing cost comparable to that of a modest meal for a couple – we feel sure that $44 (for a couple) is still well and truly within those limits.