The GAB Gazette

September - October 2026 Edition

You can find previous GAB Gazette editions on our website at: https://thebirrencenter.org/the-gab-gazette

The Gazette is continuously improving in content. Please share your feedback and ideas for future GAB Gazette editions with us at: info@thebirrencenter.org

In this Issue:

• Happenings in the World of GAB

• New Courses

• GAB Summit

• Theme: Sharing the Harvest

• Spotlight On: Angela Turner

• Q and A with Dr. James Birren

• Book Corner: Shelf Worthy Books/Podcast

• Call for Volunteers: YouTube

From the Interim Executive Director

We listened. Now we’re building.
One of the most important things an organization can do is listen to the people it serves—and then act on what it hears.

This spring, 176 certified instructors responded to our Instructor Survey, telling us how you are using Guided Autobiography, what gets in your way, and what would help you do more with this work. At our August GAB Chat, we shared the major findings and began a conversation about what they mean for the Birren Center.

We heard some clear messages. You want help finding students and filling classes. You value opportunities to connect with and learn from other instructors. You want resources that are easier to find and use. And our instructor community is wonderfully varied: some of you are just beginning to teach, while others have built GAB into long-established practices in writing, coaching, education, counseling, and community work.

The survey results have been posted in the Forum in the Community Hub. Explore them for yourself! More important, they are already helping shape our priorities.

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Building behind the scenes

Over the past few months, we have begun implementing a new customer relationship management system, launched a Marketing Committee, continued planning for the October GAB Summit, explored new pathways to instructor certification, expanded our financial and fundraising work, and continued recruiting new board and volunteer leadership.

A CRM database or a governance policy may not sound as exciting as a GAB Chat or a new workshop. But these are the systems that will allow the Birren Center to grow responsibly and serve our community better.

On that note, we're thrilled to share an update on our 2026 anthology, Becoming Ourselves: Moments that Shape Us. Essays have been selected, writers notified, editing is complete, and the book is now in production with cover design underway. Pre-launch marketing is still to come, be on the lookout for the announcement!

Our work continues to center on three priorities: supporting GAB instructors, building sustainable systems and revenue, and strengthening our communications and organizational leadership.

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Our first Annual Report

This month, I’m also pleased to share another milestone: the Birren Center’s first Annual Report.

It offers a broader look at who we are today—our programs, our instructor community, our accomplishments, our finances, and some of the opportunities and challenges ahead.

You can read the Annual Report on our website.

The Birren Center is still a young nonprofit. Much of what we are doing now is about building the foundation for what comes next. Thank you to everyone who has answered a survey, joined a GAB Chat, volunteered, taught a class, shared an idea, made a donation, or simply stayed engaged with this community.

You are helping us build it.

Sarah White
Interim Executive Director
The Birren Center for Autobiographical Studies

GAB Chats are the Birren Center's monthly community gathering, a free, casual space where Guided Autobiography instructors, students, and anyone curious about life story writing come together to connect, share ideas, and learn from one another.

This month’s meeting details:

• Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2026

• Time: 4:00 pm Pacific Time

• Subject: Leading GAB Sessions Through Cognitive Changes

• Hosts: Grace Holliman, Steve Hoover & Heather Knox

Join fellow Guided Autobiography instructors Grace Holliman, Steve Hoover and Heather Knox for an open conversation about one of the trickier parts of this work: leading GAB sessions with participants who are experiencing cognitive changes.

Each presenter will share what they've learned from their own classes (what's worked, what hasn't, and the small adjustments and approaches that make a real difference). They will share stories from their various experiences and talk about their own growth and learning along the way. 

The meeting will include time for Q&A followed by the networking breakout rooms that have become a popular feature of our GAB Chats.

We hope to see many of you there!

In case you missed it

In August, we hosted a special GAB Chat dedicated to the results of our spring Instructor Survey. Our Interim Executive Director, Sarah White, walked the community through what we heard from 176 certified instructors: the diversity of how and where GAB is being taught, the challenge of finding and filling classes, the hunger for more connection and peer support, and the many different stages instructors are at in their relationship with this work.

The session also introduced our new Instructor Ecosystem; five profiles that help us understand what different instructors need from the Birren Center at different points in their journey. The full survey results are posted in the Community Forum.

Watch the full recording below.

Upcoming Workshops & Courses

The GAB Summit is Almost Here!

The three-day GAB Summit will be happening October 14, 15, and 16 from 8 a.m. time to 3 p.m. Pacific Time daily! 

To attend the live sessions of the Summit, sign up early here.

For a deeper experience, there are two additional options:

1. Purchase a replay pass: 

   Allows the purchaser to watch the recordings at your convenience at any time in the future. 

   
   For even more engagement with the material presented during the Summit and with other GAB instructors,

2. Purchase a Support GAB Pass:
   Gives access to all the Summit recordings as above, and provides two additional benefits:

• Participation in the Post-Summit Reflection Series 

Hosted by Sarah White, Executive Director and
Ansley Dauenhauer, Vice President

A series of three discussion opportunities, these sessions will allow attendees to engage more deeply with the Summit material and connect with other Birren Center supporters.

• Participation in the Founder’s Series 

Hosted by Cheryl Svensson, Founding Director

Participants will view videos of Dr. James Birren, founder of the GAB methodology, and then discuss his ideas together with Cheryl Svensson who worked with Dr. Birren in the GAB program for many years. 

Look for pricing and purchase information in your email inbox soon!

Spotlight On

With gratitude for Dr. Birren’s long and productive life … here are some of his thoughts on GAB and aging.

Question: If someone in her eighties sat down beside you and said, "I don't know if my life is interesting enough to write about," what would you tell him/her?

Dr. Birren: I would smile because I've heard people say that so many times. People often believe memoirs, life stories, only belong to presidents, movie stars, etc. But history is really the accumulation of ordinary lives. Every family, every neighborhood, every generation has been shaped by people who quietly lived, loved, struggled, worked, failed, succeeded, and kept going. To me, this is ‘bottom up’ history as opposed to ‘top down’ history of the rich and famous. Your grandchildren need your story. They want to know what the world looked like through your eyes. The majority of us live in the bottom-up world, and that is what our memoirs reflect. The ordinary is often the most extraordinary part of history.

Question: Why is it so difficult for people to believe their own lives matter?

Dr. Birren:  Because we lived them. When you experience something every day, it starts to feel ordinary. You don't notice that you remember life before television, before computers, before cell phones — that you've lived through enormous social and technological change. You forget that your grandchildren can't even imagine many of the things you once accepted as normal.

There's also how many of us were raised. We were taught not to think of ourselves as "special" — taught to fit in. I remember my mother saying, "Who do you think you are?" whenever I asked for something out of the ordinary. That's part of the Puritan tradition many of us grew up with. But the truth is, you are special. There has never been another you, and your story is yours alone. It can never be duplicated.

Question: What would you hope grandchildren discover?

Dr. Birren: Not that I was perfect — I'd want them to know I made mistakes, that I'm human. 

That I changed my mind often, struggled in school, but kept going anyway. That's worth far more than appearing flawless.

Remembering James E. Birren

Help Us Grow the GAB Community Online!

Guided Autobiography has always grown through people, not platforms— one instructor, one group, one story at a time. As we head into this year's Summit (October 14–16), we need our community to help us translate that spirit to the online world.

Here's how you can help— pick one, or do all four!

1. Subscribe on YouTube
New instructors and participants often meet GAB for the first time through our video library on our YouTube channel. Subscribing helps more people find us right when they're searching for something like this. 

“Liking” a video also helps more people to find our videos more easily. (See below.) You don’t even have to comment! Just click the “thumbs-up” icon! 

2. Engage with our posts
A like, a comment, or a share on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram helps our stories reach further than we ever could alone. You don't need to post anything yourself— just interact with our post– click the “thumbs-up” or “heart” icon, make a comment, or share the post. 

3. Join the Social Media Committee
We're forming a small volunteer team to help create and share content in the lead-up to the Summit— no experience required, just some time and interest. Roles range from writing and video (Content Creators) to scheduling and posting (Technical Leads) to sharing and engaging within our community (Social Media Mavens).

4. Join the Author Community
Have a story, a lesson from your practice, or a reflection worth sharing? We're looking for instructors and participants willing to contribute writing for our blog and social channels.

Interested in #3 or #4? Reply to this email or reach out to info@thebirrencenter.org to get connected!

Every life story matters, and so does yours in helping others find theirs.

The GAB Gazette is a bi-monthly publication from the Birren Center.
GAB Gazette Team
Contributors: Duke Coats, Ansley Dauenhauer, Alice Gaddi-Roselo, Roselyn O’Connell, Barbara Smith, Cheryl Svensson, Angela Turner, and Makayla Denbo

"Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons." — Jim Bishop