IFILL/RAYNOLDS
Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions to Simulation Gaming
The Award:
At it's annual conference, NASAGA recognizes one of it's members who develops and/or uses simulation games with joy and serious purpose, in the spirit which our dear and longtime friends and colleagues Don Ifill and Gennie Raynolds brought to all their work, and specifically to their work with simulation gaming. Gennie and Don, who died within two months of each other in 1995, were our first active members to die.
Criteria:
The recipients work should respect and make use of the power and spiritual richness within practical settings. In an exemplary way, the work should:
- Foster a sense of community among those who interact with it.
- Deepen understanding of a cultural, organizational, and/or global common good as it provides for interaction with the situation(s) and/or system(s) being modeled.
- Enable active, positive listening by participants to themselves and/or those different from themselves, enhancing their understanding of themselves and others.
- Contribute to strengthening and/or changing an organization's or group's climate and spirit while building a deeper understanding of it's purpose.
IFILL/RAYNOLDS Recipients:
2001 Recipient: R. Garry Shirts
Tribute to R. Garry Shirts On the Occasion of receiving the Ifill-Raynolds Award
Victor Debono describes the lateral thinker not as one who digs the hole deeper, but as one who digs many holes. The gamer who best epitomizes this metaphor is R. Garry Shirts. If forced to use one word to describe Garry, it would have to be "creative." All simulation gamers are creative. Garry takes the concept several steps beyond most.
Garry was responsible for the social studies curriculum for eastern San Diego County. Working on the Indian reservations, he had many cross-cultural experiences. He also realized the need for and impact of experiential learning. When he created Simile II, his first concern was to develop games that could be used by students who were trying to make sense of their world. Garry's games have also been designed for adults who want to develop a better understanding of themselves, their culture, the dynamics of power, and how their organizations work.
Garry Shirts has been there from the beginning for many gamers. Active in NASAGA almost from its inception, he contributed to both the field and the association. Garry is always ready to give newcomers a hand-or better yet--an idea. To the seasoned gamers, he's a friend, a colleague, and a great resource.
One of Garry's first games was Starpower. Next he created BaFa BaFa for the U.S. Navy. Originally planned as a behavioral technique to select uniformed members for overseas assignments, BaFa quickly became popular for training sailors and officers for overseas duty. Its appeal spread beyond the Navy and has been conducted throughout the world. As Barbara Steinwachs said in 1987: "Everyone involved in cross-cultural training uses and respects the now classic BaFa BaFa, developed in the mid-1970's." Garry's most recent game is Pumping the Colors, which builds tremendous bonding for organizational teams.
Hasn't everyone heard of Garry's Inventory of Hunches? It is helpful to return to the inventory from time to time to refresh our enthusiasm for gaming and to remember why it is that we are doing this. Garry begins modestly by saying: "Following are some guesses about the educational value of simulations. None of them is proved but they are more than just idle hunches, since they were formulated by instructors and students with extensive experience in their use. These may help you to decide how you will use the techniques and what the outcomes might be." He goes on to list ten hunches that include: 1) maybe simulation games are motivators, 2) maybe a simulation experience leads to more relevant inquiry, 3) maybe simulations give participants a more integrated view of the ways of people, 4) maybe participants learn decision-making, resource allocation, communication, and other skills, 5) maybe simulations affect attitudes, 6) maybe simulations provide participants with explicit, experiential, gut-level reference about ideas, 7) maybe simulations act as an information retrieval device since people know more than they think they know, 8) maybe participants learn form and content of the model which lies behind the simulation, 9) maybe the main importance is the affect on the social setting in which the learning takes place, and 10) maybe simulations lead to personal growth.
The twinkle in Garry's eye belies his tough spirit that has carried him through good times and bad. We hope that from here on his times are all good. He has earned his place in the notable ranks of the Ifill-Raynolds winners.
Written by Sandy Fowler
Read by Charles Petranek at NASAGA Awards Banquet
Bloomington, IN
October 26, 20012000 Recipient: Barbara Steinwachs
1999 Recipient: Sivasailam Thiagarajan (Thiagi)
1998 Recipient: Sandy Fowler
1997 Recipient: Richard Powers
NASAGA is proud to present the award this year to Richard Powers. His beliefs and his work with peace and educational groups and institutions reflect the criteria with a quiet brilliance. Richard strives to gain a personal commitment from each individual within the groups with which he works, understanding, as did both Don and Gennie, that organizational strength demands a strong underlying group relationship. He researches the work of other outstanding group facilitators, and from their work and his own insightful imagination spins simple but elegant group methods to trust, honesty, and responsible, shared decision making. Likewise, he uses more complex simulation games for similar purposes. Among those he has designed are THE NEW COMMONS GAME, ZAN-TEC'S GAME, and VISIT TO AN ALIEN PLANET (about to be published by Intercultural Press). He generously makes his games available at a nominal cost; they have been used by many in several countries of the world.
1996 Recipient: Charles Petranek
