Reynold Feldman informs:

And now, Brothers and Sisters, it's time for what American primetime TV likes to call "the all-new" 3rd International Vittachi Conference on "Rethinking Educational Change."  It will be held in a new American-style university in Ifrane, Morocco, near the historic city of Fez this July 2-5 with most likely an extra day for post-conference workshops on July 6.  The plan is to have 200 conferees, half from Morocco--the rest from around the world.  If you haven't experienced a Vittachi conference, where Subud and the world meet on the all-important issues of education, transformation, and the possibility of a human future, where usually 60% are young people and 10 to 20 percent are Subud members, maybe this is your year to do so...

For more information on the conference program and costs and for online registration, please go to www.transformedu.org 

Dear Fellow Subud Educators,

Prior to his death in 1993, I pledged to Varindra Vittachi that I would initiate some project in the world, in the spirit of Subud, that would make him proud from over there of me and American Subud members in general.  (He had just been letting me have it, in his terms, from his sick bed about how, compared with the Colombians and Amanacer, "you Americans" haven't done a thing!")  At this point, that project has turned out to be a series of conferences on Education for a Human Future.  The first, held in Jakarta as part of JakArt 2001 and Bapak's 100th-Birthday Celebration, attracted 200 conferees--mainly youth--from 22 countries.  The Guerrand-Hermes Foundation generously helped fund the planning and subsidized us when our conference expenses exceeded income by $800.  Approximately 30 participants were Subud members.  The young people asked their Subud peers about Subud.  As a result two Indonesian youth were opened and one Jordanian girl spontaneously later on at Vittachi II.

Most remarkable, as mentioned by such Subud veterans as Tuti, Sharif, Varindra's widow Sarojini, Illene Pevec, and Lienhard Berger from Germany, was that this mainly non-Subud gathering had the feel of a full-bore Subud event.  I should mention in this context that the entire staff were Subud members from a diversity of countries, including Indonesia, and that we did latihan every morning during the five-day period.  Sarojini Vittachi was wonderful as one of the keynoters.

This formula--what I call "Subud homeopathy" (a few drops of latihaning folk in a glass full of non-Subud people)--had worked in the same way in prior Wisdom Conferences, including a Wisdom Weekend on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, I put on, where former IH and United Church of Canada minister, Rohana Laing, was pastoring a church.

Vittachi II was a different kind of event.  First, it was held (in early-August, 2003) on Atalanta, the Subud community -in-development in southern Colorado.  About 50 people from seven countries, inclduing alumni from VTVI, attended.  Illene Pevec was the main planner and conference director.  The week-long event had an ecological and Native American thrust.  We all spent each morning building a natture-friendly gazebo/outdoor amphitheater.  The staff was still all-Subud.  Again we did latihan every morning.  Two young women, the Jordanian student mentioned before and a recent Oberlin music graduate, were opened as a result.  This time our staff included the ingenious Thoms, two individuals I know who have really put Subud into practice in their careers as healers and teachers.

VTV III was supposed to take place last summer in Nova Scotia.  However, for a number of reasons, including the difficulty post-9/11 of getting international youth participants into Canada, it had to be postponed.  This time other organizations besides my Bue Sky Associates--Catalysts for Educational Change were co-sponsors, and the Guerrand-Hermes Foundation for Peace took the lead.  (As a matter of fact, the first Vittachi Conference got its push for the 1999 Tlaxcala, Mexico Guerrand-Hermes meeting of persons running/teaching at Subud schools around the world.  At that time, Ibu Rahayu thought the term "Subud school" might be counter-productive and scare good people off.  She preferred the term "human education."  The idea was, as Bapak had earlier said, that schools in this vein would help students (and older participants--teachers and staff) find and build up their true talents.

Anyway, prior to the Innsbruck WC, the Foundation sponsored another conference, replete with mainly British (non-Subud) educational experts but also several of our own like Sarojini Vittachi, to share their wisdom on human education.

And now, Brothers and Sisters, it's time for what American primetime TV likes to call "the all-new" 3rd International Vittachi Conference on "Rethinking Educational Change."  It will be held in a new American-style university in Ifrane, Morocco, near the historic city of Fez this July 2-5 with most likely an extra day for post-conference workshops on July 6.  The plan is to have 200 conferees, half from Morocco--the rest from around the world.  If you haven't experienced a Vittachi conference, where Subud and the world meet on the all-important issues of education, transformation, and the possibility of a human future, where usually 60% are young people and 10 to 20 percent are Subud members, maybe this is your year to do so.

So far, Dr. Laurie Lathrop, coordinator of the Tlaxcala educators' meeting, plans to attend as do I.  Some Subud youth are thinking about it, and I've copied this memo to Hamilton Manley so he can get the word out to Subud youth around the world.  There is also a Mevlevi Sufi industrial psychologist from Honolulu and his 18-year-old daughter, Sheena, who have registered.

If you have any questions about what promises to be another off-the-map Subud event with mainly non-Subud participants and the topic is OUR topic, education, please contact Dr. Scherto Gill, the Foundation's executive secretary and among our first Subud sisters from the People's Republic of China, at scherto@ghfp.org. Love and blessings to all my fellow Subud educators.  I hope some of you fi Maghrib, Arabic for "in Morocco," one of the most beautiful places in God's Creation.

Reynold Feldman, Ph.D.     Executive Director    WISDOM FACTORS INTERNATIONAL