A Harvard University professor finds it significant that Americans are attending fewer picnics than they used to -- half as many in 1999 as in 1975. We're also playing far fewer card games, thereby creating fewer opportunities for informal conversations about community issues. And every year since the mid-1960s, fewer Americans believe that "most people can be trusted."

So says Robert Putnam, a professor of public policy whose new book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, is destined to stimulate critical national dialogue for years to come. I hope it does, because he contends that nearly every form of social connectedness among Americans has been on the decline in the past three decades. But is he right? Some scholars say he's asking the wrong questions and looking in the wrong places for answers. The critics say forms of civic involvement may be changing but not declining.

Putnam's book follows his short, controversial scholarly article, "Bowling Alone," published in 1995. The catchy title alludes to his conclusion that more Americans are bowling, but fewer are joining bowling leagues.

About two years ago, I began asking whether Illinoisans' civic habits are the same as other Americans'. No one seems to know. So I'm delighted to announce that we intend to find out. We are collaborating with the United Way of Illinois and the Institute for Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Springfield to measure the level and forms of Illinoisans' civic engagement. Our emphasis will be on participation in local groups and activities, formal and informal.

More important, we intend to conduct far more than a research project. We also want to find out why some people are engaged and others are not. We will share our findings and bring people together to discuss strategies for sustaining and enhancing civic engagement in its many forms in Illinois. It's a long-term project.

Thanks to funding from two Illinois corporations and the Woods Fund of Chicago, we are starting our survey this summer. We hope to announce initial findings at the United Way's Governor's Breakfast this fall.

Putnam asks some compelling questions about social interaction, and he asks whether it matters.

We think it does, and we think our civic engagement project will help Illinoisans learn something important about themselves. Representatives of most groups seem to be asking, "How can we get more people involved?" While our project is not designed simply to answer that question, we believe it could provide valuable insights for leaders in the nonprofit, private and public sectors of Illinois. I'll keep you posted about our progress in the months to come.