Conference Resources:

[+] Introduction

[+] Agenda
[+] Meeting Materials

[+] Participants
[+] Acknowledgements

". . . a movement moves"
- Rev. Dr. Gerald L. Durley

Every region is different, every community of interest is different. However, there will be overlap. The purpose of getting together is to learn from each other to accelerate the movement. That is why you are here—to accelerate it. To move it from talk to action, understanding there will be some frustration. Think what will or could happen . . . and I see new things growing out of the fire of the past few decades.
 - Richard Louv

When I think about five years from now, it is not going to be a question of the Children & Nature Network or "Leave No Child Inside", but that we have hundreds of programs and activities going on physically in dozens of communities, that ultimately make us a national movement with real and measurable successes to show for our efforts.
 - John Parr

We need to institutionalize the structure of unstructured play
 - Richard Louv



the Talk is on the Table, from awareness to action
C&NN’s National Gathering of Regional Leaders
August 8 – 10, 2007
Hosted at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

August 8
6:30pm – 8:30pm Opening Reception
Welcome by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Children & Nature Network Board and Co-Chair, President’s Academic Initiative on Children, Youth and Families, University of Minnesota
Reflections by Richard Louv
Chairman, Children & Nature Network and Author,
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
August 9
7:30am Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30am Opening Plenary Session
Welcome and Introductions
Review of the Agenda, Goals and Spirit
Cheryl Charles, Ph.D.
President and CEO, C&NN
9:00am Imagining a Movement
Richard Louv
Chairman, C&NN
With Dialogue
10:00am Holding the Dream
Successes and Synergies—Examples from the Emerging Movement
A Panel of Representative Voices—Seven Who Are Walking the Talk Moderated by Amy Pertschuk, C&NN Managing Director
11:00am A Vision of Success
Opening Comments from John Parr, Principal, Civic Results, and
Martin LeBlanc, National Youth Education Director, Sierra Club
Full Group Discussion of Where We Want to be in Five Years
Noon Working Lunch in Un-Regional Groups
Mixing and Matching to Share Stories and Meet Allies
12:45pm Children and Nature at the Landscape Arboretum—
Observations and Interactions
2:00pm Teeing Up the Challenges
Table Top Discussions (Governance and Funding, Urban Audiences, Turf and Silos, Changing Demographics, Infrastructure and Systemic Change) Prioritizing the Barriers and Finding the Leverage Points
3:00pm Communities of Interest
Five Discussions, Five Futures (Engaging the Medical Community, Beyond Green and the Schools, Proof Is in the Positive, Core Values and Key Messages, Healthy Communities and Action Plans)
4:30pm Coming Together: Community of the Whole
Synthesis of the Day
5:30pm – 7:00pm An Evening of Local Foods and New Beginnings
August 10
7:30am Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30am Opening Plenary Session
9:30am Committing to Action
Next Steps with Measures of Success
11:00am The Big and the Long Views
This Is What’s Next and More . . .
11:30am It’s a Wrap . . .We Are in This Together!
Noon Adjourn and Departures