From: Chaitovitz, Chuck [SMTP:chuck@getf.org]
To: Allan Baer
Cc: 'CARRIER@fourhcouncil.edu'; Claggett, Stuart; Herrmann, Susan

Subject: FW: the national town meeting for a sustainable america
Sent: 4/20/99 6:56 PM
Importance: Normal
Please find below the info I forwarded to Marcella Harris. Her home
number is 313-272-0950. I have already left a message with her mother
regarding her status and invitation to become a reporter and workshop
participant. Thanks.

-----Original Message-----
From: Chaitovitz, Chuck
To: 'poo3747@aol.com'
Sent: 4/19/99 4:02 PM
Subject: the national town meeting for a sustainable america

Marcella:

As I mentioned to your Mother, unfortunately, you were not selected to
serve on the NTM's Youth Roundtable.

This aside, we were very impressed with your journalism background and
your writing ability. We would like you to, therefore, attend the NTM
in two capacities.

1.Our NTM sponsor SolarQuest has created the SolarQuest I-NetNews Team
activity, which will provide news stories on the people and events of
the NTM. We would like you to serve as an I-NetNews Reporter. These
news stories will be published on the Internet and web cast to schools
throughout the U.S.

To prepare for this task, you should write and publish on the SolarQuest
web site at least two stories prior to arriving at the NTM.
(www.solarquest.com) The stories may be about events in your community
relating to sustainable development or other experiences associated with
sustainability. With some help from your teacher, this will get you
familiar with writing news stories and publishing your stories on the
SolarQuest web site. It will also allow us to become familiar with your
writing. We will forward additional information about publishing these
stories on the SolarQuest web site and highlight select stories on the
NTM site.

While at the NTM, you will have several assigned articles and several
"personal interest" stories. You are free to select your own personal
interest news stories. One I-NetNews editorial staff person will be a
member of the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) and
will assign you to cover news stories at the request of PCSD members.

2. Sunday, May 2, 1999 from 1 - 5 PM

We would like you to invite you to participate in the Shallow Footprints
Workshop.

Coordinator: Susan Herrmann, GETF
Location : Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan
Room number: (To Be Announced)
Time: Sunday, May 2, 1999 from 1 - 5 PM

Participants : Thirty youth (ages 13 - 17) will participate in the
learning session: twenty-one students selected from around the country
to act as representatives at the Youth Roundtable and nine students from
the Detroit area to make up the balance.

Objective: To prepare the participants to consider and discuss what
the term sustainable development means to them and how it can be applied
to the current state of the world in order to improve their future. The
idea is to illustrate to them the policies, strategies, and technologies
used to promote proactive approaches to environmental, economic and
social problems we face in society.

Deliverable: Two-page report outlining their findings from the
learning session and recommendations to both the Youth and CEO
Roundtables on commitments to take to improve the way in which we
develop as a society.

Schedule: The learning session will consist of four, 45 minute
learning segments. The following schedule is subject to change; however
this first draft provides an overview of the mix of opportunities
identified for the participants.

Hour 1: Susan Herrmann (GETF) and Mathis Wackernagel (co-author of Our
Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth) will give a 15
minute presentation on the concepts of sustainable development,
environmental stewardship and ecological footprints. The students will
then receive a tour of Cobo Center to show them the methodology of the
NTM's Shallow Footprint Work Group (SFWG) Shallow Footprint assessment.
This tour will be interactive. The youth will be allowed to ask as many
questions as they like and to share their ideas with the team captains
from the SFWG do.

Hours 2 and 3: The students will end their tour from Hour 1 at the
Shallow Footprint exhibit space in the Exhibits Hall. Mattis
Wackernagel, Marilyn and Lamont Hemple will help the youth define their
own individual footprint. This will take about 5 - 10 minutes per
student, so we will divide them up into five groups: 1/5 will calculate
their footprint, 1/5 will go to the Box City exhibit, 1/5 will go to the
automotive displays, 1/5 will go through the USPS recycling truck and
the remaining 1/5 will go to the interactive education exhibit. For any
youth waiting their turn, a Shallow Footprint "chat room" has been
created as a place that welcomes people to "philosophize" about
sustainability. There will be an area in the center of the Shallow
Footprint exhibit space that will be set up with tables and chairs.
Each table will display a list of topics relating to the Shallow
Footprint concepts. Volunteers will act as a very personable
facilitator -- like a
friendly philosopher that stops by the tables and asks/answers questions
to get people talking to each other. In addition to the "chat room"
there will be an area that holds PCs connected to the web. Volunteers
will be stationed there to act as Webmasters, helping participants get
on-line and connected to sites that have footprint-related information
on them. We will gather the students back together at the Shallow
Footprint space and escort them to the Environmental Education Exhibit
(need more information on this/research other possibilities for
exhibits).

Hour 4: The students will return to the original classroom to talk about
their individual footprint and what they learned (i.e., challenges,
things of interest). A facilitator will help the students write up a
first draft of a short report that they will present at the Roundtables.
The objective of this report is to highlight the youth's findings during
their tour and learning sessions, the challenges they see as potential
barriers, and their recommendations.

Susan Herrmann of GETF would like you to start thinking about the
following to prepare for the workshop.

Assignment:
In preparation for the workshop, we ask that you answer the questions
listed below in fifty words or less (i.e., about 3 short sentences).
You can answer them on your own or collaboratively with your family,
friends and teachers. If you can, please save your short responses on a
disk (Word or WordPerfect) and bring one hard copy with you. Please
keep in mind that the objective of the session is to explore global
ecology and sustainable living.

1. Who is the youth leader that you admire the most and why do you
admire him/her?
2. Who is the adult leader, from past or present that you most admire?
3. What kind of obstacles do you face in bettering the world around you?

4. Why is it important to build partnerships with others?
5. What kind of ideas do you have to better the world around you?
6. What kind of contributions have you made to better your community?

Sustainable Development - meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
(United Nation's World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987).

Please contact me via email or at 703-495-0058 so I can put you in touch
with our reporter and workshop coordinators.

Thanks. We look forward to seeing you.

Chuck