An awful lot of people belong to associations - and have an awful lot of power to influence the future! The ASAE says:
"You and your fellow association and business leaders represent all industries, professions, causes and walks of life. Imagine the power of 287 million people represented by ASAE & The Center member organizations. What other sector has more potential - or a greater responsibility - to change the world?"
So then it's not just a few odd people who want to improve things? No, it's not, it's just about all of us. What is happening is that instead of seeing improvement as a personal matter, we can start to see our personal improvement as a global matter. A motto of David Cooperrider (who is facilitating the conference) and the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) movement is "Doing good and doing well".
We mentioned "Leveraging the power of Associations (The Global Summit on Social Responsibility)" on 20 March, now it's really happening, centered in Washington, DC and linking in people all over the world. Australians have made their submission, it reads well. It has such statements in it as:
"Margaret Wheatley defined leadership in terms of leaving the world in a better place than we found it. 'A leader,' she said, 'is anyone who wants to make a difference at this time'. By this definition all of us in this room are leaders.”
"I am forever inspired by the “Clean Up Australia” campaign. One individual started this (Clean up Sydney) with a passion and belief in the goodness of people. His passion, the integrity of what he wants to do, his ability to speak up and be heard, and something about him that inspires following and belief in him – an egoless, selfless thing. He captures the hearts and souls of people because he believes in what he is doing. This had lead to recognition through awards, and spreading of the initiative throughout other countries. "
"... Swedish Cancer researcher Karl Henrik Robert (and academic colleagues). This paper set out the basic principles of sustainability which included a whole system approach and the use of scientific principles. This individual had the dedication to present this to the King of Sweden and in turn it was turned into a publicly accessible pamphlet distributed throughout Sweden. It also served to inspire an author by the name of Paul Hawkins who wrote a book entitled the Ecology of Commerce -- which was sent to Anderson, the CEO of Interface Carpets -- which in turn inspired this organisation to take the bold steps that it has in the direction of sustainability."
"Ernesto Sirolli inspires me deeply. I can’t imagine anything like this happening without his insights and passion. He works with unemployed/other groups and individuals, finds out where their passions are and then facilitates them in taking up opportunities or courses to pursue that passion. He must be one of the most effective “invisible” leaders around. His website is http://www.sirolli.com/
"Helena Norberg-Hodge. Her book Ancient Futures: Lessons From Ladakh describes an intact healthy social system. She is a brilliant systems thinker who we can all learn from. "
The Future:
"All organizations have a green policy document and carry it out."
"... a clear and easily remembered vision."
"Organisations to be encouraged/ required to have affirmation or commitment statements (about that organisations approach to sustainability) that are formulated after an extensive documented consultation process within the organisation (a sort of Appreciative Inquiry style process)."
"MegaPlanning [for sustainability] is entirely scaleable from the personal to the multi-national, from private to government, perhaps one day to the World. It has been proved by Roger Kaufman to be applicable on five continents with differing cultures, religions and politics."
and that's just a very small selection from what was submitted.
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