JPART 21:i1–i6 ARTICLES MINNOWBROOK III: A SPECIAL ISSUE Minnowbrook: Tradition, Idea, Spirit, Event, Challenge Rosemary O’Leary Syracuse University ABSTRACT This article sets the stage for the special issue by explaining the tradition, idea, spirit, event, and challenge of Minnowbrook. As the coordinator of the Minnowbrook III conference on ‘‘The Future of Public Admin- istration, Around the World,’’ it is my pleasure to write a Prelude to this important special issue of JPART. For those who might have missed the dozens of public announcements and the international call for articles, in the Fall of 2008, the Department of Public Adminis- tration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University celebrated the 40th anniversary of Dwight Waldo’s famous Minnowbrook conference in two parts: a preconference workshop with 56 new scholars at the original Minnowbrook conference site at Blue Mountain Lake, New York (Phase One); and a larger, more tra- ditional conference open to the world at Lake Placid, New York (Phase Two). The gather- ings, and this special issue of JPART, were generously funded by Maxwell alumnus Howard Phanstiel and his wife Louise, as well as then Maxwell Dean Mitchel Wallerstein. We thank them for their generosity and support. Throughout the years, I have learned that Minnowbrook is many things to many people. It is a place, a tradition, an idea, a spirit, an event, and a challenge. MINNOWBROOK—THE PLACE Minnowbrook is a very small conference center owned by Syracuse University in the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York. There actually is a brook called ‘‘Minnow Brook’’ that runs through the property. The conference center has a capacity to house 56 people in 28 rooms. It is a lovely retreat center in one of the most beautiful parts of the United States. When Dwight Waldo chose the Minnowbrook conference center for his historic gath- ering, it was because it is a world apart from the hectic pace of one’s daily life. It was, and still is, peaceful and serene. Today, for example, there still is no cell phone coverage at Minnowbrook, making it the perfect place to think great thoughts. Address correspondence to the author at roleary@maxwell.syr.edu. doi:10.1093/jopart/muq066 ª The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jpart/article/21/suppl_1/i1/913462 by guest on 10 June 2022