Discussion Groups

Discussion Group Activity

For the past seven years our World Affairs Council has sponsored several small discussion groups among our members. Numbering from about eight to sixteen individuals each, the groups have met in one another’s homes about once a month during the fall, winter and spring. These sessions have allowed the members to discuss contemporary questions of international significance in more depth than we can achieve in the necessarily short question/answer format of our regular luncheon programs. Last year we added an occasional seminar session with invited panelists to augment the in-home discussions. We shall continue these popular activities this year.

Up to fifty of our members have participated in these group meetings on a regular basis. Each group has been collectively responsible for setting a location and schedule of meetings, an agenda, and choosing readings to prepare for a focused conversation. WAC board member (Jim Allen for 2007-08) is on call to support and provide suggested questions and recommend readings, but so far as possible we want to keep initiative in the groups themselves.

Since WAC members are entitled to discounted subscriptions to a number of international journals, we have encouraged Foreign Affairs (currently $22/yr, 50% off the regular price: phone 1-800-829-5539 or go to www.foreignaffairs.org) as a common reference for accessible, short, timely articles. They usually avoid strident partisanship while providing enough information and opinions to provoke a lively exchange of views. Other publications are of course available on the internet; and group members, most of whom use their email and the web regularly, are always welcome to recommend and circulate pieces that seem to them to be particularly useful.

Over recent years it has been hard to get our topics very far away from security threats associated with international terrorist tactics, the wars in Afghanistan and, especially, Iraq. But just as the WAC program committee tries to turn our attention to a range of international issues each year, our discussion groups and seminars seek similar variety. Often our forthcoming or recent luncheon speakers’ topics provide a good platform for discussions.

If you are not already a confirmed continuing member of one of our active groups and would like to participate regularly, please e-mail Phil McDonald at philmcd@comcast.net. We will add you, or depending on response, set up an additional group for the coming year.

Additional activity

To supplement the regular discussion group activities in member's home, in 2008 we started organizing 1-2 panel discussion sessions led usually by selected Professors from Colorado College. These last for 1-½ hours and are held on the CC campus, usually in the late afternoon. These panel discussion sessions were open only to the discussion group members and Members of the Board of Directors and were well attended. It is our hope to continue one or more of these panel sessions during the up coming academic year.