(We’re at the Encore Careers Summit at Stanford University. I’ll try to keep a running commentary going — read from the bottom.)

12:04: Levine wanted to defend the notion of a movement as “giving critical mass.” Also that the movement needs a voice, a place, like a magazine.

Denis Hayes came back to say that whether it’s a movement or not, he’s “wildly enthusiastic” about encore careers. He was more talking about the distinction between the enlightenment and the reformation. The reformation was a movement — “what’s going on here is more about a change in the way of thinking.”

At which Peter Osnos said, “when the talk turns to the Reformation, that’s a good time for lunch.”

11:59: Carson: “If someone had said in 1963 that I’d be a professor of history at Stanford University, it would be like saying, you’re going to live on Mars. There were no African-American professors at Stanford.” Things beyond my imagining. One of the things that people at this age have is to have seen so many things that did change…

11:56: Hayes: I’ve had 18 different jobs and in every case, it was what was going to be the most valuable and what would be the most fun. It hasn’t done wonders for my retirement program, but I don’t plan to retire.

11:50: Levine: One of the challenges is how people are perceived, and one of the perceptions is that older people are poised to such all the oxygen out of the system. All of the movements we have been involved with is in reconfiguring the group or the issue…A lot of people are able to marginalize the women’s movement by saying, we got everything we wanted, so why are we out there making noise?”

Hayes: I don’t think we should be mired down in the term “movement.” They are people outraged over something, have specific goals, a mass mobilization of people. Some people in our stage of life have those kind of things…but it’s not so much their encore careers. It’s about things like getting health care. I’m not so keen on giving those people too much power. To take just one example: the amount of money spent on keeping someone alive their last 48 hours is enough to educate somebody up through their baccalaureate.

It’s not so much about is it a movement as it is about, how are we going to get it done?

11:43: Osnos is pressing the panel on what was achieved. The environmental movement has raised awareness, but it hasn’t “solved” the problems.

Hayes: There was a fairly massive legislative agenda, that was passed over tremendous opposition. The Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act….has caused roughly $1 trillion to be spent that would not have been spent. The biggest thing is that people think of themselves as having a “right,” to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment. You create a context where you are now running for president, is that on both sides, you run on a platform of creating green jobs….Considering where we were, and where we’ve come to, I think there’s been some real progress.”

Levine: “As long as the social justice movement is dynamic, the issues will continue to emerge. You have to name things…you take a life experience and you give it a name, you stick it and people can begin to make change…”

Clay Carson: One of the things I’ve tried to do is change the term “civil rights movement.” That implies that it was about changing legislation. It misses the broader goals — why we called it a “freedom struggle.” After the legislation, “if anything, the intensity of the struggle increased.” The first series of “Eyes on the Prize” ends with the 1965 Civil Rights Act. But the second series goes on. We began a second struggle, of using those rights, and that goes to Obama today.

11:36: Denis Hayes: I grew up in a paper mill town in some of the most beautiful area in the world. Protested the sulphur from the plant, which pitted the paint on cars. But never thought it was doing something to their lungs.

As a 19-year-old, I was wondering, “what is the purpose of it all?” I was acutely aware of the war in Vietnam, and that our country was on the wrong side. I was acutely aware of the civil rights movement…about the growing stockpile of nuclear weapons. I kicked around the world for three years. One night in what is now at Namibia, some elements of the Old Testament, hot all day, cold all night, and “something popped,” — that ecology seminar. If those principles applied to chimpanzees, probably we could learn something if we applied it to ourselves. I got up in the morning, thinking I wanted to get some balance, between ourselves and our environment.”

He found Sen. Gaylord Nelson, who had mentioned he wanted to do a big environmental teach-in. Hayes was at Harvard and thought he could maybe organize Harvard. Went down to Washington to talk to Nelson and thought he could maybe get the charter to organize Boston. It turned out the Nelson had no plan or organization. Hayes came back with a charter to organize Massachusetts. Then he got a call to organize the United States.

However, it turned out the idea wouldn’t work. The college campuses were concerned about the war. Most of the 20 million people were not on campuses. “Probably the biggest contribution I made was changing the name from National Environmental Teach-in to Earth Day.”

11:25: Clay Carson: He was at Washington this week to help plan the King memorial. It brought back that day in 1963 on the mall. “I had no clue about that event — all I knew is that I wanted to be there.” He went without telling his parents, or getting their permission. He grew up in New Mexico, but every day when he read about Martin Luther King, and sit-ins and marches and I knew it had to be part of my life.

“My life has been one of unexpectedly trying to explain what I did in 1963 and spending a career doing it. Only gradually have I understood King’s speech. Only gradually did I begin to understand that something momentous was going on. In every decade, if I wrote down what was the significance of that (speech), it would be different every single decade. Here in 2008, it’s very different.

“I can explain that in three phrases: The Jim Crow system, colonialism and apartheid. If you think about what King symbolized in a broad sense — in 2008, I would look back and say, those things are in the history books now. If you want to learn about the Jim Crow system, you go to the history books. At that time, I didn’t understand that what we were calling the civil rights movement was part of a much broader set of movements going on around the world that were part of the greatest freedom movement the world has ever seen.

11:15: Suzanne Braun Levine: “I can’t tell you how thrilling it is to be at the birth of a new movement. the women’s movement framed my whole life…

She describes herself as a “purveyor” rather than a “visionary.” But she came into the movement in the way many people do. Arrived at Ms. in the spring of 1972 in a pink silk blouse. “I’m going to have to get with the program.” The first issue of Ms. was published inside New York magazine — nobody thought it would sell and it sold out. One headline: “We have had an abortion,” with the names of well-known people who admitted they had had an abortion. And there was a coupon for people to send in their names. “I had never told anybody that I had had an abortion.” There was something about the community, the inclusion that made me fill it out.” Later, when she got to the magazine, she opened the envelope with that coupon.

Osnos asks whether Suzanne understood feminism at that time. “Absolutely not” she said. She was a professional, working among “movement” people. “As I started to work with the issues, I became more and more committed and angry and fierce…”

“A movement needs a vision,” she says. Gloria Steinem had that vision (and a great line: “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”) “It created a mindset in which I felt I was not alone and I wasn’t crazy. A movement needs to give people a sense of community and reassurance.”

11:03: This panel is an attempt to take lessons from earlier social movements and apply them to the encore opportunity.

Osnos himself is a journalist and publisher … He is launching an “encore journalism” fellowship program with the Columbia Journalism Review and Columbia Journalism school.

10:55: And we’re back….PRESENT AT THE CREATION PANEL with moderator Peter Osnos, founder and editor-at-large of PublicAffairs; Claybourne Carson, founding Director, Martin Luther King., Jr., Research and Education Institute, Stanford University; Denis Hayes of the Bullitt Foundation and Suzanne Braun Levine, the founding editor of Ms. magazine.

10:06: Wilson says: “We are unfair to elected officials. We expect them to tell us what to do. And frankly, I don’t need any administration to tell me what to do. … Rather than expect them to say something to us that all of us will say something to them. We can help them.”

10:05: Conchy says: “I want them to create a high level bureau of social innovation within the White House where we can get some notice and some help and maybe even some funding.”

10:05: Marci (moderator) says: “What are you waiting to hear from the new administration?”

10:03: Conchy says: “We are living proof that taking the jump and making the jump to what you always wanted to do, you end up better.”

10:02: Wilson says: “I had to shift my heart and mind and although people wanted to honor me. … People say, ‘I don’t know quite what to call you.’ I say, ‘Your Highness will be fine.’ (Laughter.) “Just call me Wilson. After 10 years people have got the message that I am very happy and very content. In fact, I’m at the highest point of joy in my life.”

10:00: Tony says: “I used to have headaches. I used to have high blood pressure. I don’t have headaches and high blood pressure anymore.”

9:55: Beverly says: What I found is that once the phone stops ringing and once, all of a sudden, you’re not being invited to all the things you were invited before, you’re giving up something. … Don’t wait for that to happen.”

9:43: Tony says: “As a volunteer, I can say, ‘I’m looking for a job now.’ It has impacted us tremendously.”

The stipends for Experience Corps volunteers receive (through Americorps) have been cut, putting a real burden on the mothers and grandmothers, he says. “The economic downturn has probably chased a few more people away, and in the inner-city schools and all schools, there are volunteers that need to be found. The incentives have to be there for people to go out and do it.”

9:37: The first question is about the effect of the economic downturn on encore careers. “What do you say to people who are interested in an encore career but face longer working lives because of the economy?” (Editor’s note: The question sets up something of a false dichotomy, in that encore careers are a form of longer working lives, but one that places purpose ahead of pay — without forgetting about pay!)

“I never felt so free as when I was fired from my five jobs,” Conchy says. “Infused with the bad economic situation, we have an opportunity, because the ground is moving. It’s only when the ground is moving do you have the ability to create something new.”

“I have never felt that what I do is based on my economic well-being,” Wilson said. “There’s a deeper type of purpose…I can take those incredible gifts that God has given to me in terms of experience and help those that are in need of help. It seems to me that those who are doing what they based upon purpose and caring for others, this is an opportunity to use all of those skills to help people navigate through this difficult time. This too will pass, and for those of us as faith, we have to believe that it’s going to pass, it’s going to be over. Those of us who have been through difficulties need to say, this is not the way it will always be….there will be a better day.

9:29: Tony Radocaj of the Experience Corps project in Philadelphia. “I don’t know what I want to be when I grew up.”

“In school, he was always accused of daydreaming — I was looking to the future….In high school, we created the Community Service Corps in the archdiocese of Philadelphia….getting into college, I had to work to support a family.

“I retired early. The state gave me an opportunity. I thought this is the best thing in the world — I can retire at 50. I started with Experience Corps because my wife told me, You’ve got to do more. The thing I found with Experience Corps was the real satisfaction that comes from helping people. It was something I never found in the business world.”

“The children are what really makes it important. Being in a department store and having people walk up and say, ‘You’re Mr. Tony? You had my niece — she talks about you all the time.’

9:22: Beverly Ryder was a freshman at Stanford 40 years ago, and is talking about a homecoming, and of uncovering hidden aspirations.

Beverly, who is a subject of a profile in Encore as well as a member of Civic Ventures’ board, had a series of high-level corporate jobs, at Citigroup and Southern California Edison. “What I wanted to do in philanthropy was bigger than what a corporation could do.”

“I really believe that education is the next civil rights issue and we have to solve it. After fits and starts, I started to get educated about becoming a school superintendent.” Bev said that turned out not to be the right path for her. Then worked on an office with the LA Unified School District in the arda of parent engagement….

I’m looking for an exclamation point after the semicolon…I don’t know what the endpoint will be. If I look back on my journey, it’s a journey of wisdom. There are a lot of questions, there are some answers that are coming slowly.”

Marci comments: “It’s not tidy when you reinvent.”

9:15: Conchy Bretos, a 2006 Purpose Prize winner, is talking. She says she has been a repeated failure. “I have to blame myself for my failure. It was not only prejudice. It was my desire to change things….The only way I could confront government was on my own, without having a salary from them.

“It went from a moral imperative to being able to show that it saved money. We brought assisted living services to a public housing program in Miami. We showed we were saving money….once we did that, it is now in 40 states.

I love to travel, and I hate to get there… Once I get there, I realize not knowing is better than knowing.”

9:08: The first panel is about the Encore Journey, moderated by Marci Alboher, who pioneered the Shifting Careers column in the NYT.

The first speaker is former mayor of Philadelphia, Wilson Goode:

“I was born 70 years ago in the rural south. I spent the first 15 years there as a sharecropper. I moved in 1954, and in high school was told not to think about college, because farmers don’t go to college. Graduated with high honors from Morgan State College. In 1961, I went into the Army, and in 1966, ran for 12 years a housing agency in Philadelphia. I received a call from the governor, who appointed me as chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission. In 1983, I ran for the office of mayor.

“I did not see my 8 years as mayor as the end of my career. then went to the Dept. of Education. At 62, I made a decision that I did not want to engage myself in government affairs. I did not want to run…I did not want to become involved in business…I had resolved at 28 years never to work for an agency that used my talent without providing services to people.

“It wasn’t until he started Amachi: “it came to me that my father had been incarcerated. I had suppressed that. I resolved to spend the rest of my life to help children who have one or both parents in jail, to become all that they could become. Eight years later, I have become part of a movement in 48 different states, 25,000+ children have been served through that effort.

“It’s important to me that I was able to go from success to significance in my life.”

9:05: Video from NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg — “I have a confession to make — I only just learned the term encore career — and I love it….A few years ago, I left my career and launched my encore — the most satisfying work of my life.”

Bloomberg saluted New York Purpose Prize winners Herb Sturz (2006), Rick Cherry (2007), and Mark Goldsmith (2008).

“We’re living in very challenging times….to meet those challenges, we need everybody’s talents…I think that you — make that we — are onto something big.”

9:02: Ruth Wooden cites Tom Friedman’s column in the NYT today: Thinking about Tom Brokaw’s book about the Greatest Generation, What will be the book written about our generation?

8:59: Marc: Then ; Now becomes From Now — it’s a commitment to the future. We’re like those women breaking through barriers in the 60s and 70s. They were doing it for themselves, but also creating something for future generations.

Quotes John Gardner: “America today faces breathtaking opportunities disguised as unsolvable problems.”

8:57: “The central question: What kind of work are people going to do? How is the largest, healthiest, longest lived generation in American history going to spend the second half of their contributing lives?”

8:56 — Marc: “At Civic Ventures we talk about the rise of the oxymorons: the young old, the working retired — which always reminds me of the walking dead….”

8:53 — Marc Freedman talking now. Midlife, he says (quoting somebody) is when you get to the top of the ladder, and discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall.

8:50 — We just heard that Gen. Eric Shinseki, a Purpose Prize judge, will be nominated by President-elect Obama as Secretary for Veterans Affairs.

8:47— Ruth announces that Lester Strong has been named as the CEO of the new Experience Corps, which will spin off from Civic Ventures as a separate organization.

8:45 — Civic Ventures board chair Ruth Wooden says the Encore Summit is the next Woodstock.