Reversing the Decline in Community. Greetings and welcome to all of you who are interested in what's happening to our communities and what we might do about it. While most of us seem to appreciate the need for a greater sense of community, much of what we have included in our lives, from TVs to cars, has managed to reduce our sense of community. We are very fortunate to have author Ralph Keyes as the leader of this conference. Ralph is an accomplished author with a long time interest in community, having written the groundbreaking "We, the Lonely People", and a number of other books that deal with contemporary culture as well.

Interview with Michael Kahn
Dr. Kahn entered Harvard at the beginning of World War II, but dropped out soon to join the Air Force, becoming a B-24 bomber pilot flying missions over Germany. He returned to Harvard for his bachelors degree then became an actor. After a number of years in that profession, he returned to Harvard to get a PhD in psychology. He taught there, then at Yale, then at the University of Texas, then at the University of California Santa Cruz, where he is Professor Emeritus of Psychology. After an early retirement he moved to San Francisco and taught at Antioch University and then at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is an adored teacher, an expert on Freud, on psychotherapy, on small group behavior, and practically every subject his broad ranging intellect touches. The Christopher Reynolds Foundation he heads is working to end the war in Iraq and straighten out our relations with Cuba.

Commentary—Have You Ever Wondered By ILF Fellow John Vasconcellos, a lawyer, lifelong California legislator, former California State Senator, where he headed the powerful Ways and Means Committee, and a major political influence. Now retired because of term limits he heads a movement called the Politics of Trust. http://www.politicsoftrust.net/.

From the Editor
Community is one of those words that strikes a chord in all of us and all of us have some opinion about the current state of community in which we live. Our sense of community may be may be local, national, or even international. Ralph Keyes begins the conference with "Scholars such as Amitai Etzioni, Michael Sandel, and Francis Fukuyama have sounded the alarm for years about the decline of civil society." And, as Ralph points out, it hardly matters if it is objectively the case because so many feel it to be true.

Preview Next Issue
Our leader for the next conference is Susan de la Vergne. The hot new topic, Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace, is best addressed by someone who has extensive experience in management coupled with an education in the humanities and a particular interest in the human relations aspect of organizational life. Susan brings all of that. After twenty-five years of management experience in the information technology industry, Susan shifted her interests to the development of innovative education and training methods. She now teaches such courses for major companies, gives lectures, and has recently published her new book, "You Can't Manage Time." We are fortunate to have someone with her credentials to lead us through this emotional maze.

Special Announcement

The International Leadership Forum is pleased to announce its debut into the blogosphere with the launch of the ILF Post. In 1981, long before the advent of the Internet, WBSI used computer-based conferencing technology to create policy discussions among leaders from all parts of the world, launching the field of online distance education. This experience led to the founding of the International Leadership Forum, where for the past five years its eighty distinguished Fellows have deliberated together on a wide range of pressing policy issues. With this new outreach effort, we are pleased to present the personal thoughts of several of our ILF Fellows on a wide range of public concerns.

The ILF Post features regular commentaries by a core group of Fellows of the International Leadership Forum and will also include commentaries from selected guests. The blog format being employed is an experiment in including a spectrum of voices. This format enables readers to write their own comments in response to any article that has been posted. We hope you will find the articles stimulating and that you will be moved to add your own reactions to the ideas of the authors.

To date, the ILF Post includes articles from former US Ambassador to NATO Harlan Cleveland, author/filmmaker Michael Crichton, anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, psychoanalyst Douglass Carmichael, Biospherian Jane Poynter, survey researcher Daniel Yankelovich, former president of Planned Parenthood Gloria Feldt, actress and former Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts Jane Alexander, Yale economist and political scientist Charles Lindblom, author Ralph Keyes, former FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson, and other ILF Fellows and guest experts, plus highlights and policy reports from the ILF conferences

These authors are regularly contributing articles on economics, education, politics, the environment and other contemporary issues. In keeping with the blog format, each article is short enough to read quickly but they are all packed tight with thought provoking insight and information.

Archives of Previous Issues
If you missed a past issue or simply want to review something of interest, please visit our archives where you will find links to all of our past Conference Digests, Interviews and Commentaries.