As of 2025, our crew of Plank Owners has been - they are - the special group of less than 200 people. The early adopted, stepped up and stepped on board before we had our bearings fully on track...Their lead marks gave us tons of directions to head in via feedback, critque, and enthusiastic word-of-mouth. Within just a few years, intense efforts had us join together on January 25, 2020. We broke the champagne bottle and 22 were presented with the first Conflict First Aid™ skill certificates. Three, by that time, received Advanced Practitioner Certificates too!
The beginning days weren't easy: together, we toyed with what to name - if to name - the various tenets and elements (often to help learners remember them). Through action research, practice, and paying attention, we together hammered out what makes it work.
Plank Owner Conflict First Aid practitioners did the programs (sometimes over and over) not knowing what to expect and before we could make promises that we'd gotten anything right.
That matters when they did it, and it matters now. They were 'there' earlier than anyone else. They'll always be special.
- Joan Feringa, Founder
How to know if you're a "Conflict First Aid™ PLANK OWNER"
What's a plank owner?
In dictionary terms, a plankowner (or 'plank owner') is generally a qualification applied to those crew members working aboard when a ship is first commissioned:
- Historically, a plank was used to board a ship (hence the terms "to board" or, "come aboard"; and,
- Planking is also done when older ships could be broken apart to be given to her last crew: this is not longer a practice given ships aren't often made of wood.
The Conflict First Aid™ Community has "Plank Owners"
Plankowners were made part of the 'commissioning' when the first pilots launched during the research and evaluation phases (before January, 2020 - a period of just over 2 years).
We include as plankowners newer members who've more recently joined us as part of 'recommissioning crews' as research and development of the Conflict First Aid™ ecosystem continues.
For each and every one of the in-person and online research and program during relaunching and soft-launches and recommissioning as development unfolds, the list of qualified plankowners activities have included:
Pilot programs of various kinds, lengths, and on various platforms; and,
Initial certification programs.
The Plank Owner Program
All Plank Owner Conflict First Aiders were invited for the launch of the first certificate program in 2020. Further, in 2021, they were onboarded to the Conflict First Aid™ Community Training Portal. As a group they were granted specific privileges.
Those still apply.
"The Practice and Learning Portal" was decommissioned at the beginning of 2024, nothing has changed: we wait for the new era for the training to begin.
Please be patient with us getting back on board.
Never be afraid to ask questions!
Wish you could ask the founder a question?
Joan, Conflict First Aid™'s founder, is still part of everything "Conflict First Aid" and personally serves the Plank Owner Community.
If you have question, she'll answer! Email her, here.
In Progress - Not Perfection...
We'd love perfection, but now that we've found - and have - the missing piece in conflict prevention, management, and de-escalation, and we've found it both simple and quick: we've adopted "in progress, not perfection" as our core principle as we work to 'start up' again. A new platform is a priority: the Conflict First Aid™ approach is intact: 5 SAFE Step waypoints, the sequence of tenets that have proven to be possible by anyone whose taken the training.
Yes, is and will be delivered as voluntary. In any moment, in virtually any place, and with anyone ready to help.
Questions?
Email [email protected]
Get equipped with Conflict First Aid™. It's a SAFE, universal, and an evidence-based model that can help everyone have access to Conflict First Aid™ to stay calm, confident, and easily out of the middle of that harms that make difficulty and differences so hard.
Conflict First Aid can help...reach out, here.
Spread the word!
