A message reflecting on progress, achievements and goals in 2019 and their vision for 2020 from the founders of the Visioneers International Network, Dr. Geraldine Schwartz and Dr. Desmond Berghofer.

The book, The Visioneers: A Courage Story about Belief in the Future, on which the Visioneers International Network is based was published in 1992 on the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. Twenty-five years later, in October 2017, the Visioneers International Network was launched in Vancouver, Canada. Just as Columbus discovered a new world that European civilization did not know existed, so the Visioneers International Network is launching the discovery of new ideas and good work and connecting them to each other and thereby showing a path forward for all humanity into a global future of cooperation and harmony.

We began in 2017 with the creation of a Virtual Exposition of a Web of Good Work.

We began by issuing 23 inaugural Visioneers Awards, covering 9 categories of human activity from taking care of the environment to promoting peace and human well-being. In 2019 we added two new categories to recognize the achievements of truly outstanding human beings, both living and dead, whose work has greatly advanced the human project on Earth, and laid the foundation on which all of us can work together to build a peaceful, sustainable global civilization.

The two categories are:

1. Heroes and Heroines of Humanity

2. Visionary Leaders

HEROES AND HEROINES OF HUMANITY

There are a very few truly extraordinary people who are born to devote their lives to the service of humanity. Across the world, they face the challenge and opportunities of their time to uplift everyone whose lives they touch. These are the Heroes and Heroines of Humanity whose contributions to advancing the human project on Earth we wish to acknowledge, celebrate, and preserve as inspiration and guidance for the best that we can be. 

In this category two posthumous awards were issued to:

1. Dr. Robert Muller, in recognition of his outstanding life of service to the United Nations for more than 40 years, much of it served as Assistant Secretary General, and included the founding of 11 of the United Nations Specialized Agencies. www.thevisioneers.ca/heroes-and-heroines-of-humanity/heroes/robert-muller

2. Tony Buzan, whose work on the promotion of human excellence and the development of intelligence resulted in a global network of human achievement that will continue far into the future. www.thevisioneers.ca/heroes-and-heroines-of-humanity/heroes/tony-buzan

VISIONARY LEADERS

The human project on Earth is a continuous work in progress.  Great strides forward are made under the inspiration of Visionary Leaders who see the big picture relationships between and among human cultures and their relationships with the natural world.  Their work moves us to be creative and thoughtful about what we do and how to strive for best possible outcomes grounded in human nobility, integrity and cooperation as a human family.  We are proud to celebrate and promote their contributions to the Web of Good Work.

In this category two outstanding leaders have been recognized to date:

1. Ray Keene, OBE for his leadership in continuing the legacy of Tony Buzan through the Buzan group of companies, which include Mind Sports World Championships in several fields, and for his vision to create The Crustacean Carbon Exchange to provide DHA brain rich nutrition and reduce global carbon dioxide emissions. www.thevisioneers.ca/visionary-leaders/leaders/ray-keene-obe

2. Elisabet Sahtouris, PhD for her leadership as an evolution biologist and futurist including the writing of several widely-acclaimed books such as Earth Dance: Living Systems in Evolution and Gaia’s Dance: The Story of Earth and Us. www.thevisioneers.ca/visionary-leaders/leaders/elisabet-sahtouris

OTHER 2019 INITIATIVES

1. Website Development

One of the major achievements of the Visioneers International Network in 2019 was the development of a world-class website though the cooperative efforts of our Visioneers team: Gerri Schwartz, Desmond Berghofer, Jamie Magrill, Mia Cosco, Tatiana Speed, and Bonnie Anderson.

The complex functioning of the website to provide a platform for connecting Visioneers around the world, and for showcasing the Virtual Exposition of a Web of Good Work was designed and implemented by web-engineer, Paul Adamson through his firm Orange-Cubed Software.
The graphic design for our Home page and Connect page was designed by the talented Sasha Cooke.

We are proud to announce the Visioneers website to the world.

www.thevisioneers.ca

2. Council of Wisdom


One of our Visioneers Award winners from Santa Barbara, California, Barbara Gaughen-Muller, was instrumental in convening a Visioneers Council of Wisdom in Santa Barbara in January 2019. The event was co-hosted by the International Foundation of Learning.

Barbara is a quintessential global citizen and activist, communications specialist, and peace advocate.

https://www.thevisioneers.ca/connect/barbara-gaughen-muller

The Council of Wisdom provided excellent advice on how the Visioneers International Network can reach out to many other related organizations and projects such as the Shift Network and the Alliance for Peace Building. The unique contribution of the Visioneers International Network is that it can connect and facilitate other good work projects in the world to build momentum to improve prospects for future generations.

Members of the Council of Wisdom who are part of the Visioneers International Network include:

Philip Hellmich

www.thevisioneers.ca/connect/philip-hellmich

Marilyn King

www.thevisioneers.ca/connect/marilyn-king

Emmanuel Itier

www.thevisioneers.ca/connect/emmanuel-itier

Elisabet Sahtouris

www.thevisioneers.ca/connect/elisabet-sahtouris

Kit Thomas

www.thevisioneers.ca/connect/kit-thomas

3. The International Foundation of Learning

Recognizing that the Visioneers International Network will require significant development funds before it can become financially self-supporting, we have worked with the Board of Directors of the International Foundation of Learning (IFL) to establish through a memorandum of understanding a partnership through which the IFL can support the development of the Visioneers International Network as its charitable project.

To reach this objective required substantial legal work to re-constitute the IFL to this partnership position. The IFL was founded in 1983 under the stimulus of Gerri Schwartz who became its first President (a role she continues to play to this day). Its mission has always been to support the learning of leaders who can make a positive difference to the world. So the Visioneers International Network is a natural fit for the support of the IFL.

In 2010 the IFL created a Legacy Fund administered by the Vancouver Foundation for the purpose of supporting future IFL initiatives. Proceeds from this fund are now available to support the Visioneers International Network, but they will need to be augmented by specific fund raising. To prepare the IFL for this new initiative required a reworking of its constitution and bylaws and the development of a website.

Both these tasks were accomplished in 2019 and the IFL now stands ready to become a full supporting partner of the Visioneers International Network in the decade ahead.

www.internationalfoundationoflearning.com

4. Visioneers Awards

Beyond the original 23 Visioneers Awards of 2017, a number of additional awards were created in 2018 and 2019. This is facilitated through a nomination process in which Visioneers can nominate others for awards.

Most active in making nominations in 2019 was Dame Julia Morton-Maar, who received an inaugural award in 2017 for her lifetime of work in peace-building through environmental action, and in particular for creating School Peace Gardens around the world.

www.thevisioneers.ca/connect/dame-julia-morton-maar

Many of Julia’s nominations are still in the process of being set up on the website. Two notable nominees completed in 2019 are:

Dr. Adele Buckley

www.thevisioneers.ca/connect/dr-adele-buckley

Adele has spent a lifetime of work in the peace movement in Canada, including Chair of Canadian Pugwash and member of Canadians Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Her current interest is carbon capture utilization and sequestration.

Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng

www.thevisioneers.ca/connect/maya-soetoro-ng-phd

Maya is a consultant to the Obama Foundation to develop programming in East Asia and she formerly served at the University of Hawaii in roles involving social change, peace education, and multilateral education. She is the co-founder of the Institute for Climate and Peace.

Other nominations from Julia include the following:

Dr. Douglas Roche (Hero of Humanity for his contributions to Peace and the work of the United Nations)

Louis John D’Amore (A Culture of Peace through Tourism)

Miki Tomita (Environment, Peace, Sustainability, Global Education, Indigenous)

Nainoa Thompson (Founder of the Polynesian Voyaging Society) Eric Foster (Co-founder of the International School Peace Gardens)

Rose Dyson (Peace, Education, Environment)

Janis Alton (Canadian Voice of Women for Peace)

Joan Broughton (United Nations Association in Canada)

Teresa Prieto (School Peace Gardens) Denyse Morrissey (School Peace Gardens)

Helmut Burkhardt (World Peace through Global Government, Environment)

John Horton (Environmental Education, Literacy)

Derek Paul (Science for Peace, Global Issues Project, Ecological Economics)

 

More Nominees:

Another set of nominations came from Barbara Gaughen-Muller through nominees for the Peace Prize awarded by the United Nations Association of the USA in Santa Barbara.

https://www.thevisioneers.ca/connect/barbara-gaughen-muller

The winner of the Peace Prize was Dr. Joe White, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Santa Barbara City College for his work in leading the initiative to create a United Nations Truce for a Year Without War beginning with the 2024 Olympics.

Dr. Joe White

www.thevisioneers.ca/connect/dr-joe-white

The synergy of the Visioneers International Network is already at work in connecting Joe White’s project of A Year Without War to Marilyn King’s work with the Olympic Peace Team of Olympians promoting peace in all its forms. We look forward to facilitating other connections in the years ahead that will result in the accomplishment of Joe White’s vision of A Year Without War.

Other nominations from Barbara include the following:

Sue DiCicco (Peace Crane Project)

Evie Treen (Friends of Woni, Kenya)

Dr. Lori Leyden (Create Global Healing)

Victoria Riskin (Human Rights Watch)

Linda Eckerbom Cole (African Women Rising)

Leslie Clark (Nomad Foundation)

GOALS FOR 2020 AND BEYOND

The years from 2017 to 2019 have seen the foundational activities of the Visioneers International Network in creating a world-class website for facilitating connection and showcasing a web of good work; in instituting Visioneers Awards across 11 categories of human enterprise; and in establishing a base of more than 100 active members.

One goal for 2020 is to increase membership fivefold. This will be accomplished by existing members inviting others to join. We have facilitated this by preparing invitational messages which can be seen at www.thevisioneers.ca/invite-others.

Another goal is to move forward with a number of action projects now getting underway:

1. Visioneers for Climate Action. This will capitalize on the initiatives of young people in the Vancouver region who are working to promote climate action.

2. Cooperating with Buzan World Initiatives for human excellence. In late 2019, Desmond Berghofer and Gerri Schwartz visited London and met with Ray Keene and his team to discuss possibilities. Next steps in promoting this cooperation will begin in early 2020.

3. Peace through Literacy by collaborating with one of the inaugural Visioneers Awards, The Walking School Bus, which has already extended its reach to 35,000 young people, including those in refugee camps, in Uganda and India. The potential here is to integrate the science of teaching reading developed by the Vancouver Learning Centre with the Simbi technology for teaching reading developed by the Walking School Bus project.

www.thevisioneers.ca/good-work222/education/the-walking-school-bus

www.vancouverlearningcentre.com

4. Inspiring Purpose. This is an initiative of David Lorimer, Executive Director of the Scientific and Medical Network in the UK, to encourage children to develop their thinking about global citizenship and taking care of the environment.  We are facilitating the participation in this project of one of our inaugural Visioneers Award winners, the Gulf Islands Centre for Ecological Learning.

www.thevisioneers.ca/good-work222/environment/gulf-islands-centre-for-ecological-learning-gicel

IN CONCLUSION

After three years of development work the Visioneers International Network is now poised to move rapidly in 2020 to realize the potential of its vision to connect Visioneers around the world on a global platform featuring a Virtual Exposition of a Web of Good Work. To facilitate this process and to move effectively into its global position, a fund-raising initiative and partnership initiatives are underway as of January 2020.

https://www.internationalfoundationoflearning.com/sponsorship

The International Foundation of Learning


Recognizing that the Visioneers International Network will require significant development funds before it can become financially self-supporting, we have worked with the Board of Directors of the International Foundation of Learning (IFL) to establish through a memorandum of understanding a partnership through which the IFL can support the development of the Visioneers International Network as its charitable project.


To reach this objective required substantial legal work to re-constitute the IFL to this partnership position. The IFL was founded in 1983 under the stimulus of Gerri Schwartz who became its first President (a role she continues to play to this day). Its mission has always been to support the learning of leaders who can make a positive difference to the world. So the Visioneers International Network is a natural fit for the support of the IFL.


In 2010 the IFL created a Legacy Fund administered by the Vancouver Foundation for the purpose of supporting future IFL initiatives. Proceeds from this fund are now available to support the Visioneers International Network, but they will need to be augmented by specific fund raising. To prepare the IFL for this new initiative required a reworking of its constitution and bylaws and the development of a website.


Both these tasks were accomplished in 2019 and the IFL now stands ready to become a full supporting partner of the Visioneers International Network in the decade ahead.

www.internationalfoundationoflearning.com

The Visioneers International Network Web of Good Work is a project poised to make the world a better, safer, more compassionate, flourishing place for our time and for the generations that follow.

BECOME A SUPPORTER


To assist the development of the Visioneers International Network Web of Good Work, we are seeking Supporters who would like to contribute $100 or more and receive full benefits of membership.  This will also enable us to provide complimentary membership to those who have something to contribute to the goals of the Network, but have limited resources.

BECOME A SPONSOR


 The opportunity to become a Sponsor of the Visioneers International Network Web of Good Work and Virtual Exposition is available by making a donation of $5000 to $25,000 to our partnership charitable organization, the International Foundation of Learning.

Registered Canadian Charity # 892185448 RR 0001

To discuss sponsorship or receive further information, please contact:

Dr. Geraldine Schwartz


E-mail: 
Telephone: 778-828-5007 (cell)
Further details about sponsorship can be seen at:
www.internationalfoundationoflearning.com/sponsorship

As the Network grows, so will its influence to create an alternative dialogue in human affairs that will shine a penetrating light into the gloom of negativity now pervading the global psyche. We invite all Visioneers everywhere to join with us on this life -affirming enterprise.

As the Network grows, so will its influence to create an alternative dialogue in human affairs that will shine a penetrating light into the gloom of negativity now pervading the global psyche. We invite all Visioneers everywhere to join with us on this life -affirming enterprise.

Blessings,

Gerri and Desmond