"IPCR Outreach 2012"--Sample Cover Letter B

[Note: The following text is the cover letter currently being used for \"IPCR Outreach 2012\" postmailings (to individuals and organizations working in related fields of activity--and to newspaper editors. (The letterhead and the contact information formatting are modified by the formatting in this journal). Important: The enclosures referenced in this cover letter are being included with the cover letter in postmailings, are accessible at the webpage for \"IPCR Outreach 2012\" (at http://www.ipcri.net/IPCR-Outreach-2012.html )--and are attached as pdf files to this post.]

The IPCR Initiative
Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization

March 11, 2012

To: ______________

I am writing to you to share a summary report from the “IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012” project.

Since July 2011, I have been giving much attention to an “IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012” project. Due to accumulated evidence and unfolding events, one of the sections I was working on became a preview of what the final report for the whole “Assessment” project might look like. The title: “Calling ‘the better angels of our nature’: A Multi-Angle View of the Debt Crises” (January, 2012) (398 pages).

The 398 page “Multi-Angle” document is accessible from the IPCR webpage for the “IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012” project, at http://www.ipcri.net/Critical-Challenges-Assessment.html (where readers can find three other draft sections for this project)—and from the IPCR Initiative homepage, at www.ipcri.net . Readers looking for a quick overview of the document can refer to the detailed “Table of Contents” (at the beginning of the 398 page “Multi-Angle” document)—and an 8 page introduction (separate from the 398 page document). [Note: All IPCR Initiative documents and resources are accessible for free.]

I have included three items as enclosures with this letter:
1) a 3 page introduction to the “Multi-Angle” document, which is supplemented on p. 4 with “(9) Key Themes Brought Forward in Many Ways in this ‘Multi-Angle’ Document” (which serves as a preface)
2) The ten point list of critical challenges currently serving as the “Table of Contents” for the “IPCR Critical Challenges Assessment 2011-2012” project—and “The Potential of Community Visioning Initiatives (in 500 words)”
3) a 2 page commentary titled “Much Unrealized Potential for Community Service”

The evidence compiled in this “Multi-Angle” document includes statistics and observations excerpted from a wide range of Internet sources, books, articles, and reports. This evidence suggests that many of the issues which have resulted in the debt crises (and many other critical challenges) are problems which are at the very core of our difficulties with being human beings…and thus will require much more than the usual amount of problem solving, if we are to “change course”.

The IPCR Initiative advocates for a combination of Community Visioning Initiatives, “Community Teaching and Learning Centers”, and “sister community” relationships, as a way of generating an exponential increase in our collective capacity to overcome the challenges of our times. Since I believe in the critical challenges assessment I have done, I am moved by compassion for fellow human beings to share IPCR documents and resources, and make what contributions I can to solution-oriented activity.

(over)

Stefan Pasti, Founder and Outreach Coordinator
The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative (at www.ipcri.net )
P.O. Box 163 Leesburg, VA 20178 USA
(703) 209-2093 stefanpasti@ipcri.net

From Pasti to ________, 3/11/12, p. 2

One of the key points about the IPCR approach is that even if there no “danger signs flashing” and no critical challenges ahead, such a “constellation of initiatives” approach would be a relevant and effective innovation to community education and proactive peacebuilding. However—now—with “many danger signs flashing”, this kind of approach can provide significant support for the “problem solving on a scale most of us have never known before” which we need to do.

Another key point is that the IPCR Initiative continues to emphasize the need for an exponential increase in compassion for our fellow human beings. There may be ways to muddle through an unwinding of complex systems like the ones before us without deliberate efforts to cultivate an exponential increase in compassion, but it seems like such ways would only be chosen if we had no other choices.

Confidence will be dimmed by a lack of clarity until there is truthful public discourse on the full dimensions of critical challenges ahead. Confidence will be built up when people believe that the efforts of everyone working together is a greater force than the challenges they are facing.

I am doing outreach and sharing IPCR documents and resources because I believe we—collectively—will need the best efforts we can make at working together if a significant majority of us are going to make a successful transition to a more peaceful and sustainable world; and because I believe we must find ways to bring the best skills and resources each of us has to the forefront of local community and regional solution-oriented activity.

Here is an excerpt from “The IPCR Resource Sharing Policy” which may help you understand the kind of sharing I am doing with IPCR documents and resources, and the kind of sharing which we may need to see much more of:

“The challenges ahead are significant; if IPCR resources can help people build solution-oriented momentum, that would be the best kind of compensation.”

“Thus, once a pilot project [using IPCR resources of any kind (for examples, see The IPCR Initiative homepage, at www.ipcri.net )] is underway, the IPCR Initiative does not require that any such pilot projects use The IPCR Initiative name, or adhere to any common mission statement, or list of shared goals. In other words, any individuals or communities of people using IPCR ideas or resources will have no obligation to adhere to a “brand” message—or even reference or make attribution to IPCR resources which inspired their efforts. They can build, adopt, change, modify, and otherwise create their own way forward—with their own name for the initiative, their own website content, their own stated goals, etc. By encouraging innovation and creativity in this way many different experiments can be made, and there will be more chances that many communities of people will arrive at many different kinds of successful model projects.”

I hope that you find something in IPCR documents and resources which can assist you with providing valuable community service at this critical time. I welcome any comments, suggestions, questions, or recommendations you might have which would help me with my work.

For a Peaceful and Sustainable Future,

Stefan Pasti, Founder and Outreach Coordinator
The IPCR Initiative