  {"id":32813,"date":"2015-03-17T16:13:30","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T02:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=32813"},"modified":"2021-09-24T12:46:19","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T22:46:19","slug":"manoa-forum-celebrates-20th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/17\/manoa-forum-celebrates-20th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u0101noa Forum celebrates 20th anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p>For the past 20 years, an annual gathering called the M&#257;noa Forum has been building bridges between the community and the <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M&#257;noa<\/a>. Each forum consists of a retreat, where 10 invited members of the general public and 10 faculty and administrators from the campus delve deeply into a selected topic over several days. <\/p>\n<p>All participants use only their first names\u2013no last names, nor titles\u2013to facilitate discussion and the free flow of ideas. <\/p>\n<p>Topics for the M&#257;noa Forum have included wisdom, leadership, identity and creativity. <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> M&#257;noa Chancellor <strong>Robert Bley-Vroman<\/strong> says, &ldquo;I went to the M&#257;noa Forum and it changed my life. The theme was leadership and risk taking.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Poet Laureate <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kealohapoetry.com\/\">Kealoha<\/a>, a participant in M&#257;noa Forum XVI &ldquo;Creativity&rdquo; says, &ldquo;For me, the importance of the M&#257;noa Forum was getting a chance to tap into the brains of some of the greatest thinkers that <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> has to offer.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The M&#257;noa Forum is incredible,&rdquo; says journalist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.civilbeat.com\/author\/denby-fawcett\/\">Denby Fawcett<\/a>, a participant in M&#257;noa Forum XI &ldquo;Courage.&rdquo;  &ldquo;It allows you to sit back, albeit for a brief time and think about some of the big ideas, big philosophical ideas and you do it with interesting people.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_32812\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32812\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/char-v.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"326\" class=\"size-full wp-image-32812\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/char-v.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/char-v-260x212.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32812\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">M&#257;noa Forum Founder Vernon Char<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Recently, participants gathered at College Hill to celebrate the M&#257;noa Forum&#8217;s 20<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary and to honor founder Vernon Char. Char is a retired attorney and served as the first chair of the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> State Ethics Commission. A 1993 meeting he attended at The Aspen Institute inspired him to do something similar in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span>. Char shared his idea with <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> M&#257;noa&#8217;s <strong>Dick Dubanoski<\/strong> and <strong>Judy Hughes<\/strong>, and both helped him to launch the M&#257;noa Forum. <\/p>\n<p>Two <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> presidents and two U.S. senators, as well as a judge, CEOs and artists have been among the M&#257;noa Forum&#8217;s almost 400 participants. <\/p>\n<p>Author and historian <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tomcoffman.com\/\">Tom Coffman<\/a>, a participant in M&#257;noa Forum XVI &ldquo;Creativity&rdquo; says, &ldquo;Vernon Char has done a huge service out his devotion to building up the university and keeping the ties between the university and the community as healthy and vibrant as possible.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Former <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Regent and <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Foundation Trustee Momi Cazimero is herself a bridge between <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> and the community. The president of Graphic House and a participant in M&#257;noa Forum I &ldquo;Leadership&rdquo; says the community needs &ldquo;to know that the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> is basically the foundation of this state.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Bley-Vroman says <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> M&#257;noa is committed to grounding the interaction of the university and the community in the world of ideas. &ldquo;That&#8217;s what the legacy of the M&#257;noa Forum is and that&#8217;s what we will continue into the future.&rdquo; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the past 20 years, an annual gathering called the M&#257;noa Forum has been building bridges between the community and UH M&#257;noa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,12],"tags":[9,56],"class_list":["post-32813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-video","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32813"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148641,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32813\/revisions\/148641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}