Glen Retief paints vivid pictures and addresses vital questions of identity & social justice in The Jack Bank: A Memoir of a South African Childhood. His stories deal with race, apartheid, homosexuality and homophobia, physical violence, sexual abuse - and much more - and he leads us on a journey of discovery and insight. And I learned that Post-Apartheid South Africa was the first country to protect the right of same-sex marriage.

The topic is the Transition Town movement and the experience of Steve Chase, Director of Advocacy for Social Justice and Sustainability at Antioch University New England and involved with the Keene, NH, transition, and Ruah Swennerfelt, former long-time long-time General Secretary of Quaker Earthcare Witness and is currently involved with the Transition Town implementation in Charlotte, VT.

Ralph Jacobson founded Innovative Power Systems in 1991, giving him 20 years on the learning curve. His outlook & views have been significantly changed by the experience of "doing business". He is also president of the Minnesota Solar Industries and lives in St Paul, Minnesota.

Parker J. Palmer is author of 9 books including his latest Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit. In his writing and in his work with the Center for Courage & Renewal, he transforms minds & lives.

Stasa Morgan-Appel is a Pagan Quaker with the gift of leading & sharing music and her feminist-pagan identity puts her at a particular spot on the wide Pagan spectrum. She co-authored A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual book & CD. She led a workshop on "Singing the Goddess" at the 2011 FGC gathering and is accompanied by 3 members of the workshop - Sandy Moon, Peggy Bright and Denise Madland - for this program.

Carrie Newcomer is a musical beacon of light & soul from Indiana. She is consciously reaching inward, gently sharing what she finds, delighting in people and flashes of the Divine everywhere. She's got 12 recordings of her own material and regularly collaborates with other musicians, poets, and writers. She is a member of Bloomington, Indiana, Friends Meeting.