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The Promise for Renewal

The day was sunny, the lecturers inspired, the audience was wonderful, and the Yale Student Environmental Coalition delighted everyone with a delicious locally-grown lunch: the Thirteenth Annual Schumacher Lectures were a resounding success! For those of you who could not attend, you can still share in the thoughts and work of Wes Jackson, Winona LaDuke, and George Davis. Four radio programs, including Alternative Radio and the Environment Show, plan to rebroadcast the Lectures. Meanwhile, Beckley is hard at work editing the transcripts of the speeches and they should be published sometime in January. The Center has enthusiastically decided to keep next year’s Lectures in New Haven, again with the help of YSEC- mark your calendars for October 22, 1994!

Many projects have moved forward over the year. With donated materials and volunteer help, Bob Swann has completed renovation of the outside of the Schumacher Education Center. David Jacki and David Rosenmiller of Native Harvest Design have prepared a permaculture landscape plan for the Center grounds. The interns have cataloged over 4,000 books and pamphlets, and the collection is now computer-indexed by subject, title, and author for easy access.

There is still much work ahead to bring the Center to its full potential as a resource for activists and scholars, but it has already been a fount of information and inspiration for many persons. For example, Irish economist Richard Douthwaile recently spent a week at the Center researching his next book. He donated a copy of his latest work, The Growth Illusion, with these kind words:

“I have never before come across a library so rich in material on new economics, decentralism and community self-reliance. Its pamphlet collection must be unique…. It is certainly the finest resource in the English-speaking world for researchers in this specialist area.”

A new publication list is available. You might find new books and pamphlets that you have not read or familiar literature that you would like to share with others during the holidays. A number of professors are assigning past Schumacher Lectures to their classes as a way of introducing them to new ideas and authors.

For the first ten years of its existence, the Schumacher Center had a $25,000 budget; with the Center this budget has grown to $100,000. Though the Center is seeking foundation support for the new responsibilities and opportunities that the Education Center offers, our primary source of funding continues to be membership support. Your generous year’s-end contribution will help the Society fulfill its vision for the Center and continue to be a pioneer in sustainable economics.

A warm thanks and hearty holiday greetings from us all!

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