‘Future Search’ to focus on Windsor youth

Three-day conference brings together elected officials,
educators, parents, business leaders, religious leaders, and
students
by Nathan Wright, Staff Writer
Sixty-four members of the Windsor community will sequester
themselves inside a room this weekend to enhance the future of
Windsor’s youth.
Elected officials, educators, business and religious leaders,
parents, community activists and students are coming together Oct.
2-4 at the Sonoma County Office of Education to participate in
Future Search, a conference that will focus on the future of the
community’s youth.
“We will be looking at the kind of future that we want our
children to have in Windsor,” said Cheryl Scholar, a member of the
Windsor Unified School District Board of Trustees, and co-chair of
the weekend event. “These are times that, more than ever, we really
need to come together as a community to face the challenges of our
youth today.”
Joining Scholar in co-chairing the conference is Windsor Mayor
Pro Tem Debora Fudge. “I think it’s going to be a huge growing
experience,” Fudge said. “We’re going to be looking at improving
the life of the children of Windsor.”
The 64 participants will meet in small groups and as a whole,
brainstorming and discussing themes and projects to better the
lives of Windsor’s children. Participants include WUSD
Superintendent Robert Carter, City Councilmembers Fudge, Sam Salmon
and Lynn Morehouse, Windsor Police Chief Paul Day, Windsor Fire
Chief Ron Collier, WUSD School Board President Ted Seche, and
Windsor District Educators Association President Pete
Stefanisko.
The Future Search model is a conference structure that has been
used all over the world. It was Scholar’s idea to bring the
conference to Windsor after she was introduced to it at Sonoma
State University.
“Future Search is a unique planning conference that is used
world-wide by hundreds of communities and organizations,” writes
Future Search Authors Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff in a
pamphlet explaining the event. “It meets two goals at the same
time: one, helping large diverse groups discover values, purposes
and projects they hold in common; and two, enabling people to
create a desired future together, and to start working toward it
right away.”
Future Search is designed with four guiding principles. The
first involves “getting the whole system into the room.” The
designers of the conference explained that, to be effective, the
conference must involve a large, diverse group of people – people
who probably would not normally meet together. The resulting
process expands the information and viewpoints available to all
participants.
The second guiding principle requires participants to think
globally, and to act locally. This allows the participants to see
the larger perspective before focusing on specific topics.
Third, participants are asked to seek common ground, treating
conflicts and problems as information rather than items for
debate.
Finally, the conference asks its participants to walk away from
Future Search with concepts to take back to the larger community,
carrying the benefits of the forum beyond the three-day event.
Future Search is a public forum, and all are invited to observe
the proceedings. The list of conference participants is already
set.
The conference will run from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, 8:30
a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday.
For more information, phone Cheryl Scholar at 838-7874.