History of the OFC

Oceanside Futurological Congress --> here

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History of the Oceanside Futurological Congress

This group was originally formed of, by and for the participants in Jess Brewer's Elder College course "Possible Futures]", held in the VIU classrom in the Parksville Community Center (above the Library). That course was just for fun (speculating about what the future might be like in several decades) but we opened more doors than we could explore, so we decided to continue on our own.

For two years we met from 2-4 PM on (unless otherwise specified) the second Tuesday of each month, starting on 13 Feb 2018, in the meeting room upstairs at the Qualicum Foods grocery store in (you guessed it) Qualicum Beach. (The first session on 16 Jan was at Serious Coffee located in south Parksville where Northwest Bay Road intersects the East Island Highway; but it was too noisy for a thoughtful discussion.)

We then were offered the Board Room at Qualicum Foods in (you guessed it) Qualicum Beach. It has no A/V facilities, but it has a nice big table with comfortable chairs, ideal for plain talk -- which turns out to be a pretty productive medium! See OFC Venue Options.

On 08 Aug 2018 I disabled self-registration, following a flurry of new users with suspicious-looking email addresses (from which none of them have replied in response to gradually less welcoming greetings). If you want an account, ask me for one, sending me all your information by email. -- Jess

Then in March of 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic forced us into physical isolation, along with most of the world. But we were not to be diverted so easily from our discussions! Since then we have been meeting weekly using Zoom. The meetings have no longer been rigorously adhering to the format below, but we all have pretty good habits by now:

Standard Agenda for Meetings

• 2:00 Logistics
• 2:05 Presentation by Convener/Moderator (projector provided; BYO computer)
• 2:20 Free Discussion (No "monopolizing", please!)
• 2:50 Coffee (etc.) Break
• 3:00 Free Discussion (No "monopolizing", please!)
• 3:30 Summary & Conclusions (if any)
• 3:40 Selection of next month's Topic & Convener/Moderator
• 4:00 Adjourn (private discussions may continue)

OFC Meeting 1 (16 Jan 2018 at Serious Coffee): FUTURE DEMOGRAPHICS - Jess H. Brewer

OFC Meeting 2 (13 Feb 2018 at Qualicum Foods): PHILOSOPHY AND OUR FUTURE - Hendrik Witmans

OFC Meeting 3 (13 Mar 2018 at Qualicum Foods): STUFF - Roland Uphoff & Jane Juda

OFC Meeting 4 (10 Apr 2018 at Qualicum Foods): SENIORS - Keith Barnes

OFC Meeting 5 (08 May 2018 at Qualicum Foods): BACK TO THE FUTURE - Don Giberson

OFC Meeting 6 (12 June 2018 at Qualicum Foods): DEATH IN THE FUTURE - Philip Manders

OFC Meeting 7 (10 July 2018 at Qualicum Foods): The FUTURE of TRANSPORTATION - Jess H. Brewer

OFC Meeting 8 (14 Aug 2018 at Qualicum Foods): Informal Discussion (a.k.a. "free-for-all") about possible topics etc.

OFC Meeting 9 (11 Sep 2018 at Qualicum Foods): CHINA of the FUTURE - Keith Barnes

OFC Meeting 10 (09 Oct 2018 at Qualicum Foods): Toward a FUTURE MERITOCRACY - Roland Uphoff

OFC Meeting 11 (13 Nov 2018 at Qualicum Foods): Informal Discussion (a.k.a. "free-for-all") about possible topics etc.

OFC Meeting 12 (11 Dec 2018 at Qualicum Foods): POPULATION and IMMIGRATION - Jess H. Brewer

Meeting on 08 Jan 2019 cancelled due to possible icy roads.

Meeting on 12 Feb 2019 cancelled due to heavy snowfall.

OFC Meeting 13 (12 Mar 2019 at Qualicum Foods): Informal Discussion (a.k.a. "free-for-all") about possible topics etc.

OFC Meeting 14 (09 Apr 2019 at Qualicum Foods): Informal Discussion (a.k.a. "free-for-all") with an initial focus on Future Farming

Meeting on 14 May 2019 at Qualicum Foods: Informal Discussion between Hank & Keith on assorted topics (everyone else was away)

OFC Meeting 15 (11 Jun 2019 at Qualicum Foods): Informal Discussion (a.k.a. "free-for-all")

OFC Meeting 16 (09 Jul 2019 at Qualicum Foods): DEMOCRACY in the FUTURE - Philip Manders & free-for-all

OFC Meeting 17 (13 Aug 2019 at Qualicum Foods): ENERGY in the FUTURE - Another free-for-all!

OFC Meeting 18 (10 Sep 2019 at Qualicum Foods): Yet another free-for-all!

OFC Meeting 19 (08 Oct 2019 at Qualicum Foods): Yet another free-for-all!

OFC Meeting 20 (12 Nov 2019 at Qualicum Foods): Still another free-for-all!

OFC Meeting 21 (10 Dec 2019 at Qualicum Foods): Starting a NEW free-for-all!

Meeting on 14 Jan 2020 cancelled due to heavy snowfall.

OFC Meeting 22 (11 Feb 2020 at Qualicum Foods): Starting another new free-for-all!

OFC Meeting 23 (10 Mar 2020 at Qualicum Foods): Another new free-for-all!

OFC Meeting 24 (14 Apr 2020) was held by videoconference (Zoom) and on this wiki.

Subsequent meetings were held via Zoom every Tuesday at 2 PM for some time, until people decided that was too often. Then we tried every other Tuesday for a while; and eventually we went back to once a month. When the pandemic was declared "nearly over" in 2022 there was a movement to return to F2F meetings, the first few of which were at Keith's house in Qualicum; after a while we alternated between F2F and Zoom, and then the F2F contingent dwindled, leaving monthly Zoom meetings... which tended toward more informal discussions of past, present and future topics.

Obviously this "History" is incomplete and needs updating.

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OFC EXTRAS: Spin-Offs, Notices, Polemics etc.