The Social Developers' Network (SDN) is a non-profit, free association of people with a commitment to personal and social development.
Social Developers meet at national and regional workshops, to contribute and share knowledge and experiences.
Our purpose is to be creative and action-oriented: we constantly seek explanations which emerge from action in the world. We are equally interested both in individual people and in the wider social and ecological systems on which our collective wellbeing depends.
We aim to assist each other to achieve personal fulfilment, while seeking ways to contribute to society's well-being through constantly revising our values and methods. We seek to build an inclusive, caring world within a healthy natural environment, and see this as a way to ensure a future for all humanity.
From diverse backgrounds, cultures, occupations, and beliefs, we meet at the annual national workshop (usually in January) or regional ones, to contribute and share our knowledge and experiences, where we each renew and refresh the energy and purpose of our own life journey.
Between workshops we keep in touch with each other through personal contact, surface mail, email, our website and an occasional newsletter. From our network of over 20 years of SDN workshop participants, we endeavour to provide a wide range of assistance, expertise and contacts to our members throughout Australia and the world.
SDN Membership
Network membership is open to all who are comfortable with our way of operating. There is no financial joining fee, and workshop are run on a non-profit basis with every effort made to keep costs to a minimum.
History of SDN
In 1975 two long-standing friends, John Russell from Melbourne and Ned Iceton from Armidale organized a first workshop with personal contacts who were interested in social change. From this, new people became involved, in more groups, and the concept of social development began to emerge. Ned began a newsletter to link people between workshops, began holding regional workshops and planned the first national one, held in 1980.