The Future Forum serves as a nexus for Austin's leaders. Our members are actively engaged in many organizations. We encourage you to find out more about these Doers and Builders Organizations on our Website.


Shoes for Austin is a nonprofit organization that gives new athletic shoes and socks to youth and adults who strive to improve their lives. We team up with over 40 local nonprofit organizations and partner with them to support their clients.
Each organization works with children and families in need who set self improvement goals such as improving school grades, getting a job, learning about nutrition and sports and improving reading skills. Once their clients complete their goals, they are rewarded with new, name brand athletic shoes and socks.
Shoes for Austin will provide 11,000 pairs of shoes in 2006 to over 40 nonprofit agencies. Since its inception in 2000, Shoes for Austin has partnered with more than 80 local nonprofits and donated more than 41,000 pairs of shoes valued at more than $3.5 million to deserving children and families across Austin.

To learn more about Shoes For Austin, about the Shoes For Austin 5k on May 6th, and about how you can get involved, check out their website.

Come find out more about our Four Future Forum Clusters: The Cultural Cluster, The Film Cluster, The Book Club, and the Public Policy Cluster.

The Film Cluster will meet on May 1st at 7:05 to watch "Thank You For Smoking." They will watch the Film at the Alamo South. To RSVP, email Taline Manassian at Taline@Austin.rr.com or RSVP on the Future Forum website.
If you would like to be added to the Film Cluster email list, or have a suggestion for a film, please email Taline Manassian at taline@austin.rr.com.
The Film Cluster meets on the first Monday of the month to watch and discuss a film. Next Meeting: May 1st.

The Book Club will meet on May 24th at 6PM at Mozart's on Lake Austin Blvd to discuss "Crunchy Cons" by Rod Dreher.
The Publisher's Weekly Review says: What do you call people who vote for Bush but shop at Whole Foods? Crunchy cons. And according to Dreher, an editor at the Dallas Morning News, they're forming a thriving counterculture within the contemporary conservative movement. United by a "cultural sensibility, not an ideology," crunchy conservatives, he says, have some habits and beliefs often identified with cultural liberals, like shopping at agriculture co-ops and rejecting suburban sprawl. Yet crunchy cons stand apart from both the Republican "Party of Greed" and the Democratic "Party of Lust," he says, by focusing on living according to conservative values, what the author calls "sacramental" living. Dreher makes no secret of his own faith in Christianity, and his book will resonate most with fellow Christians. His conversations with other crunchy conservatives? e.g., the policy director of Republicans for Environmental Protection, a Manhattan home- schooler, the author's wife?are illuminating, but the book fails to offer any empirical evidence to connect these individuals to a wider "movement." Instead, it works best as an indictment of consumerism and the spiritual havoc it can wreak. While his complaints about consumer culture are similar to those advanced by liberals, Dreher frames his criticism of corporate America in explicitly conservative terms, painting rampant consumerism as antithetical to true conservatism. /(Feb.)/
If you would like to be added to the Book Club list, please email Rob Crosnoe at crosnoe@mail.la.utexas.edu.
To RSVP for this event, please click here: www.lbjfutureforum.org/register.cfm

We are hoping to have a Spring event, so be on the lookout for an email about our next event.
We also plan to do another energy event - probably in the fall; we'll keep you posted on that and other opportunities.

The Film Cluster will meet next on May 1st to watch "Thank You For Smoking." The Film Cluster will meet at the Alamo South on South Lamar for a 7:05 showing of the film, followed by a discussion.

The Book Club meets next on May 24th at 6PM at Mozart's to discuss "Crunchy Cons."

The LBJ School Austin Alumni Association is hosting an event on May 2nd, 7:00 p.m. in the Bass Lecture Hall - LBJ School. The event will be entitled "Beyond the headlines... How Does Texas Education Reform Affect Me?"
This program will attempt to bring to the surface the hard core issues at stake and how they affect all of us. The Future Forum is a Supporter of this event and Future Forum Members are invited to attend. To learn more, go to www.LBJalumni.org

More about the Future Forum: The purpose of the Future Forum is to expand the involvement of young Texans with the LBJ Library and its programs by initiating dialogue about current issues and by providing educational and cultural information to its members. It is the ultimate goal of the Future Forum to foster greater civic involvement within our community. Future Forum Seeks to Inspire!

If you missed the alternate/renewable/clean energy event on March 30th, and are interested, you can check out a copy of the program.
There has been lots more about this topic in the news, both on a local, statewide, and national level.

And, don't forget, you can still check out a copy of our other recent past events.

In other news, Gilbert Tuhabonye, who gave us an inspiring talk on Genocide and healing last Spring has a book coming out in May entitled "This Voice in My Heart : A Genocide Survivor's Story of Escape, Faith, And Forgiveness"

Don't forget: You can always give the gift of a Future Forum Membership.

If you have any ideas about how we can improve the Future Forum, events you'd like to see, or other thoughts, please let us know.

Other LBJ Family sites - LBJ Library: www.lbjlib.utexas.edu, LBJ Now: www.lbjnow.org, LBJ School: www.utexas.edu/lbj/

Come check out the Permanent Exhibits at the LBJ Library and Museum. The Vietnam Exhibit is finishing up its stay soon.

Also, don't forget, the LBJ Library and Museum is open from 9-5 every day of the year except Christmas day. And, admission is free (we are the only Presidential Library that is free). By the way, another bonus of the LBJ Library and Museum - the view! The great picture of Texas Tower and the Fountain looking out from the LBJ Library and Museum is courtesy of Charles Bogel, who always takes the great pictures at our events.

There are lots of great events happening in and around Austin this month. Next on the KLRU Spark Series- May 15th at 7:30 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress Avenue: Suzan Lori Parks.
From the KLRU website: Her writing also raises historical questions about social and political issues and involves a continuity of subject: marginalized men and women struggling with racial and class prejudice. In her talks, with her unique sense of humor, she discusses the process of becoming a writer, following one's creative voice, and issues of the day, many times offering a performance with guitar and voice. Parks is the first African-American woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Theatre for her play Topdog/Underdog. For more information email spark@klru.org or call 512-475-9021.

The Shoes For Austin 5K Run and Walk is May 6th. Shoes For Austin is an incentive- based non-profit that rewards hard-working underprivileged kids and adults with a brand new pair of athletic shoes for achieving educational and other self- improvement goals. This program uses the motivation of the individual to demonstrate to him or her that progress is possible, and that with the right effort, he or she can be on the road to success.
Each entry fee buys a new pair of athletic shoes for a hard-working adult or child in need. To learn more about Shoes For Austin, or to sign up on-line, visit www.shoesforaustin.org.