Have you heard of the Net Generation?

They're the approximately 88 million people in the United States and Canada who are between the ages of 2 and 20.

According to Don Tapscott, author of Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation, "Net-Geners" are very curious and accepting of diversity. They are assertive, self-reliant and critical thinkers.

Tapscott says, in an article for Time Digital, "Their knowledge about technology, which is widely superior to that of their parents and teachers, has created not a generation gap but a generation lap."

"He thinks the collaborative way kids learn on computers will lead to workplaces that are less hierarchical and more team oriented."

Are you ready to employ or program for the next generation?

Dan Gibble, CLP, superintendent of recreation for the Urbana Park District and co-chair of the IAPD/IPRA Joint Publications Committee, thinks it's important to ponder the question. It was his vision to focus an issue of 1P&R magazine on the future.

Dan found an excellent article from The Futurist magazine that will help leaders prepare and share their visions for the future. It's reprinted on page 18.

He also envisioned, coordinated and edited the special section that begins on page 23, in which leaders in the field take us "sightseeing" into the future.

The next millennium is just a year or two away.

(While most will celebrate as the digits roll over from 1999 to 2000, the official first day of the third millennium is January 1, 2001. As explained in Chases Calendar of Events 1998, there was never a year 0 in the widely followed Christian calendar, which is divided in two: BC for "before Christ" and AD for "anno Domini" or "the year of the Lord." The monk who devised the calendar only had Roman numerals to work with, so AD 1 was the first year of the calendar.)

Whichever date you decide to recognize, Chase's lists two Web sites (www.billennium.com and www.everything2000.com) that can help your plans to ring in the new millennium.

ANN LONDRIGAN

Editor

CORRECTION: In the September/October 1937 issue, on page 42, it was President Franklin Roosevelt who created the WPA or Works Progress Administration. The editor apologizes for the error.

4 / Illinois Parks and Recreation