Van Jones meets NTL Event, Friday, July 13, Oakland
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Friday, July 13th, Oakland, California. NTL Institute will host a pubic 2007 Member Meeting at the Waterfront Plaza Hotel. The meeting will be held on Friday, July 13. Come on out! Charlie Seashore and I are swimming over to flip our fins. Hope you can make it.
Here's the kicker. The world of community and organization development meets the world of green social activism. The rockin' cross-pollinating catalyst, Van Jones, will speak. And then, we'll breakout into small groups for discussion.
Van Jones is founder and president of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. A 1993 graduate of Yale Law School he has received many honors including the 1998 Reebok International Human Rights Award, the international Ashoka Fellowship, selection as a World Economic Forum “Young Global Leader,” and the Rockefeller Foundation “Next Generation Leadership” Fellowship. If you haven't seen Van before in action, I can testify that he mobilizes the courageous heart to action.
In a recent interview for CityFlight.com, Van said “I don't believe that the changes that we are now seeking in society can be realized by any one small subgroup struggling alone. You're talking about major ecological crises, from climate chaos to the end of cheap oil to species extinction on a massive scale, and also radical social inequality, with a widening gap between rich and poor and racial antagonisms just below the surface. And we're facing a generalized deepening sense of despair in many sectors of society, both rich and poor. Clear-thinking, big-hearted people from all groups need to start working together to address this triple crisis.”
Now, the part about this meeting being PUBLIC really tickles me, because NTL(national training laboratories) has been an invitation-only member organization founded in 1947. NTL, founded in the work of Kurt Lewin, social psychologist, is known for outstanding public workshops on diversity and birthing interpersonal dynamic laboratories, particuarly T-groups. NTL is the mother ship for the field of applied behavioral sciences, and the ancestral origin point for generations of facilitators, including me. Admittedly, as an open door interactivist, I prickle at closed door policies, when it comes to fields that are about collaboration, participation, sharing. So, I applaud the choice of OPENness. And, I will be excited to be there to applaud NTL meets Van Jones!!…
Thank you Kathleen Brown for organizing and sending this heads up.