Editing New World Alliance (section)

==== "Consultations with Elected Officials" ====
[[File:JohnVasconcellosJI1.jpg|thumb |upright=1.0 |right |alt=Head shot of middle-aged man with moustache |California legislator [[John Vasconcellos]] invited people to the Alliance's first "Consultation with Elected Officials" and was a featured speaker there.]]

These were national conferences of "transformation-oriented" politicians,<ref name=Olson /> Alliance GC members, and other interested parties.  Political science professor Belden Paulson, who helped coordinate the first one, in Milwaukee, says he recruited California state legislator [[John Vasconcellos]] and Colorado state legislator [[Miller Hudson]] to invite people to the weekend event and be speakers there.  Sixteen elected officials ended up attending.  There were also eight Alliance GC members, six academics, spiritual writer [[David Spangler]], and some residents of [[Intentional community|intentional communities]].<ref name=Paulson />  According to a letter Paulson quotes from one of the intentional-community residents, there was great tension at the consultation between pragmatists and visionaries – until the last day, when "it all came together, starting with the politicians who, one by one, spoke of how this opened whole new horizons for them."<ref>Paulson, ''Odyssey'', p.&nbsp;502 (quoting letter).</ref>