The FutureMakers project, a joint effort between Aurora Now and Syntony Quest, addresses principles of "systems thinking"--synergy, wholeness, interconnection, diversity, etc., including more general aspects of both personal awareness and social/global awareness. If your work or research includes any of these topics, we request and invite your participation with this "call for stories" whether or not you are "officially" involved in the systems research communities because we know you have something valuable to contribute to this effort. Please look at the 8 dimensions listed in the call for stories below and consider contributing your own wisdom and expertise to this meaningful project.

Dear Systems Scholars and Friends,

There is an initiative afoot to bring systems thinking into the lives of young people in a specially relevant way -- and we need your help to fulfill its potential.

The program that captures this initiative is called

F U T U R E M A K E R S

and it takes the form of a joint collaboration between two systems based social-profit organizations: Syntony Quest and The Aurora Now Foundation. In part, FutureMakers seeks to translate ideas on systems science and design into meaningful language for youth and their communities. - For a more on what it's about, click here.

Here's where you come in:

We have begun to build a special web site for FutureMakers -- a dedicated web-based KBSS (Knowledge Base Support System). Since there is little systems-based knowledge currently available for younger readers, we are asking for your help. The knowledge space will be set up as a sort of "street map" of a "community" where the reader isn't told to go from one place to the next, but rather is invited simply to explore the community by taking whichever roads seem interesting. There are eight key buildings/community spaces in this little town, each one representing one of the eight dimensions of the Evolutionary Guidance System (EGS). These are:

Syntony Quest's descriptive template for an active EGS (*):
1. Life-long learning and human development
2. Scientific research and technological development
3. Value exchange and creation of wealth
4. Spiritual harmony and higher meaning (including ethics & morality)
5. Integral health and wellbeing
6. Life-enhancing creative expression (aesthetic expression)
7. Participative coordination and guidance of social processes (polity & governance)
8. Stewardship of the natural and socio-cultural environment

* The Syntony Quest version of an Evolutionary Guidance System (EGS) is based on dimensions proposed independently by Bela H. Banathy and Pathways to Peace, a comparison is shown in the FutureMakers project outline.

We realize that the systems research communities are comprised almost entirely of researchers, practitioners, and academic professionals, but that only fuels our conviction that you could make a valuable contribution to this effort.

What we are inviting/requesting is this:

Contribute a letter or story about your own work in systems research written to a young person (we suggest you make it personal, as if you were writing to your own child, grandchild, niece or nephew) and we will add your contribution in the 'dimension(s)' in which your own systems thinking is applied. The letter or story should be between 500 and 2000 words. Feel free to write about those aspects of your involvement with systems thinking and action that you would like to communicate to young people; that you feel they should know about.

The format is open, but should you like further specification, you may wish to structure your contribution in terms of what you do, the understanding/assumptions from which you do it (briefly), and why it matters (why are you passionate about your work?). However, this is just a suggested format -- please don't consider it a requirement.

While no specific deadlines have been set for this Call, please try to send us something before the end of calendar year 2002 (and, of course, the sooner the better). Send your contribution by reply mail

Thanks you for joining us in dialogue with the FutureMakers!

Sincerely,
- Alexander and Kathia Laszlo of Syntony Quest (email us)
- Sherryl Stalinski of The Aurora Now Foundation (email us)
--

Alexander Laszlo, Ph.D. > Syntony Quest < Kathia C. Laszlo, Ph.D.
U.S.A.: 1761 Vallejo Street, Suite 302, San Francisco, CA 94123
Mexico: Santiago Roel 2757, Alta Vista Lomas, Monterrey, NL 64740
Phone/Fax: ++415/346.1547 (USA) Phone/Fax: ++818/400.3431 (Mex)
mailto:info@SyntonyQuest.org >< http://www.SyntonyQuest.org

--
Sherryl Stalinski, M.A.
Executive Director
Aurora Now Foundation
http://www.auroranow.org || page me online at AOL-IM: AuroraS2
"I became convinced we are here for each other."
-- R. Buckminster Fuller

We invite you support the project by contacting us, or by calling (520) 578-2801