If Not Now
Encouraging Optimism Applauding Community Action Developing our Legacy
A Community of Service and Support
In the face of competing ideas for solving complex problems, where’s the community that will help me to sort through the sheer amount of information I should absorb?
What social policies will improve life for the next generation and still allow me to afford my own old age?”
“How do I make an impact against a backdrop of Gates, Ford, and Celebrity Apprentice?
The IF NOT NOW community
If Not Now is intended to become a centrally supported loose federation of users, and to encourage each other to face the problems of the world our grandchildren will inherit together, with a habit of creativity, compassion, optimism, and resolve.
You can use If Not Now to
- Discuss issues.
- Find other people who share your interests.
- Locate intergenerational events.
- Match needs with services.
- Seek iformation about services and groups that already exist.
- Create of bridges between groups to accomplish a shared goal.
- Develop a dialogue with younger generations about how to share a limited resource pool.
Our goal is to form strong personal relationships with each-other as well as our children’s children, and to create an energetic intergenerational partnership of action that taps the special bond between grandparents and grandchildren.
We want to use IF NOT NOW to resonate with our sense of joy in life, and continuously re-invent our selves; to enable us to be part of a positive change each time we log on; to recognize individual contributions; and to connect with others and to compound and extend the impact of our efforts.
We want to feel encouraged to take on large and long-term projects.
“We’ve gained a lot over the course of our lives, so now we have a lot to lose. We often choose to take risks, but they’re calculated risks. What motivates us to risk adopting untried behaviors? It takes an odd combination of fear and optimism: we need to believe that we, or someone we love, will be in trouble if we don’t change our behavior, but we also need to believe that there’s a likelihood that our risk will lead to success.”
Profile:
Many of us are:
- Edging toward a time in our lives when our identities will cease to be primarily defined by our work-place, or by our now often distant families.
- Pondering our own legacy as our parents age or die.
- Seeking satisfying measures of non-material success.
- Eager to be involved with large issues.
- hinking about our children and grandchildren — we wonder what world we’ll give them to inherit.
- Troubled by the problems we face as a country, and as a world.
- Intent on realizing our dreams for ourselves, and being proud of our bequest to future generations.
- Informed enough to know that our world faces complex problems, and that these problems will not be fully resolved in our life-times: we want to know that someone will carry on the work.
- Experiencing a sense of futility because, what ever social or technical issues we choose to address as individuals, we feel that we are ignoring other crucial issues. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of problems we see, we are almost paralyzed by the sheer weight of the work to be done.
- Unable to use our considerable skills to promote solutions: organized causes reach out to us individually, and primarily for our money. Unless we seek a staff job in a non-profit most of us feel marginalized by the realms of letter writing, event panning and financial donation.
- Seeking reasons for the optimism that creates the will to act on systemic problems at the risk of personal loss or inconvenience.
Why Bother?
My brilliant mother — may she rest in peace — once joked that our family needed an emblem and a slogan. Since she was lying on the beach at the time (an unusual occurrence) she suggested that our emblem should be a slug, and our slogan could be “Why bother?” Well…. Here’s why:
Because there’s a much better chance that we’ll be able to do enough if we each do something. And there’s a better chance that we will each do something if we are encouraged, thanked, and respected.
Demographics and Opportunity
“It’s rainin’ Boomers!!!!”
Some BABY BOOMER numbers
There are 450 million boomers world wide.
Every 7.5 seconds someone turns 50.
In the United States there are 78 million of us. That’s more than the number of Americans between 18 and 35.
We own 79% of America’s financial assets.
We already represent almost 27% of the US population.
“There’s nothing more engaging than a good project; I love working with people who care about issues that matter to me, and I love to be challenged by my work. I don’t want to be challenged by the technology I use: it should be intuitive, simple, and supportive. I don’t want to be on a web-site that is a popularity contest, and I also don’t want to be inundated with extraneous information: if a web site has “something for everyone” it’s likely to have a whole lot of “noise” that irritates me.”
If Not Now: A Charmed Circle
IF NOT NOW is a user enriched stew of human connection and intellectual nourishment. It is an information hub, a place to meet, to learn, and to take action. It is a place to find reason to believe that solving complex local as well as global problems is within our individual reach because our efforts will be expanded and carried forward by others.
IF NOT NOW honors the fact that our generation has the ability, resources and experience to support and advance the social, technical and environmental initiatives that will shape the world of future generations: the world our children and grandchildren will inherit.
IF NOT NOW acknowledges our efforts and provides us with a daily infusion of information, optimism, and resolve.
Use IF NOT NOW to remind yourself that if we each do something we can all accomplish a huge amount. As in a Roman Arch, it doesn't matter which brick you contribute - all are necessary, and something beautiful, strong and enduring is created from the seemingly inconsequential pieces
Rebecca Chase, founder, started working in a shop at twelve years old. Since then she’s worked as an actress, costume designer, arts administrator, teacher, residential designer, project manager, and small company director. She has often listened to the news and wondered if the only “smart” reaction wouldn’t be to find a cave in the wilderness and move in.
Jo Stringer, research and outreach, has run a restaurant, worked as a police dispatcher, is a formidable Public Defender and a woman of amazing determination and energy.
Mark Bernstein, Web design and management, is a constant source of humor and knowledge. He is founder and owner of Eastgate, inventor of amazing hypertext writing tools and publisher of superb hypertext literature.
Linda Thorsen, communications, is a marketing writer and historian. She helps companies focus their priorities and message.