Planning New Programs

The best idea we could come up with to boost revenues was to use the extra space to give educational courses for which we could charge tuition. So we collaborated with our emerging Washington chapter in sponsoring an evening course on the future and sharing the proceeds. Joseph F. Coates, who had been the interviewer on the Society’s radio program, conducted the course with the help of another chapter member, Gregg Edwards. Both worked for the National Science Foundation (NSF), so they had ready access to the best scientists in America.

One lecturer was the nuclear physicist John H. Gibbons, who was so impressed with Joe Coates that, when Joe left NSF a year or so later, Gibbons hired him to work for the new Office of Technology Assessment that the U.S. Congress had created. It was the second time that Joe had gotten a job through the World Future Society: He had secured his National Science Foundation job after interviewing an NSF official, Joel Snow, on the Society’s radio program.

The course proved highly popular, but the revenues were meager, so we looked for other ways to improve our financial situation. An obvious way was to seek donations or grants. Though I had failed to raise much money myself, we could try harder to find members willing to take on this difficult task.

One person willing to pick up the challenge was an elderly businessman named Lloyd Luther. He had done fund-raising for a Washington church, and he appreciated our problem. So Peter Zuckerman, the Society’s secretary-treasurer, and I gave him our blessings, and Lloyd succeeded in obtaining an appreciable amount of money, but he was in poor health and soon died.

Later, Zuckerman and I met with another Society member, a retired U.S. Army colonel, who was willing to try to raise money for us. In the Army, the colonel said, he had gotten used to receiving challenging assignments and showing he could handle them. Unfortunately, getting people to give money for the future seemed to be harder than storming a nest of machine-gunners. The brave colonel retreated in defeat, leaving Zuckerman and me pretty much where we started.

Meanwhile, I tried hard to improve THE FUTURIST so that we could attract more members and subscribers. Since members paid dues, we might eventually have enough members to finance our operation properly. Our revenues from member dues and the sale of books were bringing in more money, making it seem possible that we might eventually outgrow our money problems.

On the other hand, the workload on the Society’s staff kept increasing. I couldn’t seem to work any faster myself, and I was neglecting many highly important tasks. So it was a considerable relief to me when Peter Zuckerman began working full time as the Society’s business manager. Peter’s job as a systems analyst for the System Development Corporation had ended, and he was willing to work full time for the Society at a much lower salary than he had been receiving.

Zuckerman took over from me the task of dealing with printers, compositors, mailing list brokers, and other business aspects of the Society, allowing me to focus more on THE FUTURIST, the Society’s chapters, and other programs. Peter eased my anxiety greatly: Whenever I went to him with a worrisome problem, he always accepted it with complete equanimity. He undertook a number of initiatives to increase the Society’s revenues. Since we hadn’t had much success getting advertising for THE FUTURIST, he arranged for a Los Angeles firm to solicit advertising for us. He also negotiated a deal with an insurance company so members could get life insurance through the Society. Unfortunately, the insurance company abruptly canceled the program when one of our participants died.

Peter and I also tried to get money from government agencies. We thought we saw an opportunity when the U.S. Congress established the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission to coordinate a celebration of America’s 200th birthday on July 4, 1976. Possibly, we surmised, the Commission might support a report on the outlook for America’s next 200 years. We did succeed in getting an audience with two different Commission officials, but they seemed to have no interest whatsoever in our idea. One staffer wanted only to support projects for blacks or other minorities. The other official sought only projects involving women. A project designed to benefit everybody, regardless of their race or sex, was of no interest whatsoever.

A year or so later, we lost more time trying to get support from the government. This time the government sought us out, rather than the reverse. An official working for the President’s Committee on Mental Retardation who had been impressed with our ability to organize a good meeting wanted us to arrange a conference looking at the future prospects of mentally retarded people. After we spent much time preparing a proposal, the official learned that such a project would have to be subjected to competitive bidding — a complex, time-consuming procedure that we could not afford to undertake. So we bowed out despite the pleas of the official we had been negotiating with.

Discouraged by our efforts to get donations or government money, I fell back on trying to improve THE FUTURIST. I also spent more time trying to support our chapters.