As background to the 1999 updated development plan, it would be useful to provide a chronology of events that brings the Homer Hoyt Institute to the beginning of the Weimer School and the Weimer School to where it is today.

The 1999 update extends the 1995 plan to get broader participation of the faculty in the leadership of the Advanced Studies Institute. In doing so, the long range development plan of ASI is presented as a case of plurality in action. Plurality in a philosophic sense is supportive of diverse perspectives and values. Substantial diversity is certainly present in the perspectives held by the academic leadership in real estate, much of which comes from the differences in disciplines from which real estate issues are approached. Disciplines represented, while concentrated in finance and economics, include architecture, planning, geography, public administration, and, of course, real estate administration. Paradigm shifts are most likely to occur when an expert in one discipline looks at issues in a different discipline and asks questions that result in a different perspective. Understanding systemic change in paradigms as well as "filling in the gaps" in the Kuhnian sense is an important part of the Weimer School mission.

The Hoyt Group, through Hoyt Advisory Services in the early operation of the Homer Hoyt Institute, was a de facto think tank and, in later years, was so identified by participants in its programs. While a think tank actually was going on, the Institute was supporting the development of the Weimer School, which has become the centerpiece for The Hoyt Group.

The Precedent of Including Education: The Competition for Dollars, Scholars, and Influence in the Public Policy Research Industry, by James G. McGann, examined the character of think tanks. One of the nation's leading think tanks, The Rand Corporation, was mentioned as offering degrees. The Rand Graduate School is a classic example of a think tank with an educational program. With this as a precedent, we at the Weimer School began to think of The Hoyt Group as a think tank. The "think for a fee" operation, now led by Ron Donohue in Hoyt Advisory Services, is moving along well. The issue is where does the leadership of the Weimer School see the opportunities for this educational development think tank function as part of the School's operation.

Think tanks work on themes and problems and brainstorm ways to organize and attack the problem. A chronology of May sessions, 1989-1999, reveals the themes that have been explored at the Weimer School, beginning with urban land markets and continuing through securitization and investment analyses. The analysis of urban land uses began in 1989 with office markets and then, in succession, housing (1990) and retail markets (1991). Each theme, after being introduced, was further developed in following sessions. In 1992, discussion of corporate asset management was begun and, in 1993, the analysis of real estate as an investment was launched with discussion of the role of real estate in a mixed asset portfolio, comparison of real estate performance measures, trends in real estate capital markets, and implications of securitization. In 1994, international real estate issues were presented; in 1995, the impact of economic development on real estate was explored. Capitalization rates, discount rates and indices, and real estate cycles were topics in 1996, with commercial mortgage securitization, risk and risk diversification being the focuses in 1997. The 1998 session was devoted to geographic information systems and, in 1999, international real estate issues were again analyzed.

In the presentation and discussions of these topics, the Weimer School benefits from the efforts of the leading national and international scholars and researchers from academia, private foundations, government agencies and industry. Many of these individuals are faculty and/or Fellows of the Weimer School; others are invited participants. In the best "think tank" tradition, the Weimer School brings to bear the thoughts of individuals who are the innovators in particular areas of analysis. This brings substantial progress toward development of the educational mission of the School. Progress on the educational mission of the Weimer School is also furthered through the research and publications of the participants, which, at times, are collaborations that began from interaction at the School or which benefitted from the discussion at the School.

The Weimer School will continue its educational program in the January and May sessions of the School. In addition, the School is introducing co-sponsorship of seminars and programs with selected University real estate centers.

The first of the joint programs undertaken under the 1999 updated plan was a Retail Roundtable, jointly sponsored by the University of Wisconsin Center for Urban Land Economics Research, the International Council for Shopping Centers (ICSC), and the Weimer School. The Retail Roundtable is reported elsewhere in this newsletter. The program was developed under the leadership of Kerry Vandell, an ASI board member, director of the Center for Urban Land Economics Research (CULER), and the holder of the Tiefenthaler Chair in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Indiana University Center for Real Estate Studies and the Weimer School will sponsor a joint program , being developed under the leadership of Jeff Fisher, an ASI board member. The exact topic of this symposium has not yet been determined.

In a way, these joint ventures are a modest return to the earlier grant-giving program of HHI. Rather than grants directly for research product, these co-sponsorship grants will provide for research roundtables or similar venues where academicians and real estate professionals explore the issues and research needs of particular segments of the real estate industry.

These programs are envisioned to benefit both the center and/or real estate program at the co-sponsoring institution and the Weimer School. The programs will be held at a location advantageous to the center, which permits the School to expand its geographic reach and involve participants who may have found it inconvenient to travel to the Weimer School campus in south Florida. The host center can involve persons important to the center=s activities; these individuals also may expand the Weimer School's contacts and, in some instances, be prospective Hoyt Fellow candidates. The discussions can lead to academic research and funding opportunities and in this manner contribute to the mission of the Weimer School while benefitting researchers at the host institution, which by selecting the topic for the program, can integrate the session with their on-going research and development programs.

Long-standing activities and programs to be continued into the next decade include the ASI Newsletter, the AREUEA dissertation awards, and, or course, the program of the Weimer School. Other recent and proposed new programs include the Hoyt Fellows, ARES awards, distance learning, co-sponsored sessions at the annual ARES meeting, and development of an interactive site organizing the body of knowledge.

Hoyt Fellows: The Hoyt Fellows is a group of industry leaders honored for their leadership and accomplishments in the field of professional real estate. The group was formed from the former Advisory Board to HHI. It was decided that the Hoyt Fellows would connote a higher honor, and the group could be designed to work more closely with the programs and personnel of the Weimer School. With one of the major goals of the Hoyt Group being to bridge the gap between academia and industry, it was felt that the Hoyt Fellows could better facilitate that objective. At the May, 1998, session of the Weimer School, the initial group of Advisory Board members were inducted as Hoyt Fellows.

These industry leaders are asked to lend their expertise and knowledge of industry operations and trends to Weimer School candidates and Fellows. In keeping with this goal, a Hoyt Fellows research roundtable was conducted at the May 1999 meeting on the topic Flow of Funds into REITs. The Hoyt Fellows then participated in sessions of the Weimer School on REITs, National Data Resources, and Global Real Estate Markets.

ARES Awards: The Homer Hoyt Institute has a long history of providing organizational support. The latest support, and part of the 1999 development planning updating, are two awards administered by ARES. The first award is for the manuscript that makes a significant contribution towards a paradigm shift involving real estate decision making. The second award is for the best research paper balancing "rigor and relevance". These two awards are for topics that are very much in accord with the spirit and mission of the Weimer School and the Advanced Studies Institute.

Distance Learning: In an effort to utilize the latest technology in achieving the Hoyt Group mission, support was provided to HHI-Maryland, an Institute affiliate, to initiate a distance learning program. Ron Donohue, President of HHI-M, designated Norm Miller as the lead in the project development. In Norm's pursuit of the project he was a catalyst for an ARES sponsored program in the Spring of 1999, chaired by Susanne Cannon.

As an outgrowth of that program, and related to the ASI Newsletters latest series of inserts, there flowed a discussion of the Weimer School co-sponsoring a session or sessions at next year=s ARES meetings dealing with the pedagogy involved in the distance learning using the world wide web, and epistemological and cognitive science issues; the what we know and how we know it issues along with the understanding of how people learn and decide on issues.

Don Jud, an ASI board member and president of ARES, is well positioned to coordinate joint programs. In pursuit of these joint interests, Don is co-chairing, with Norm Miller (also on the ASI Board of Directors) the year 2000 May Session of the Weimer School. The session will focus on the direction of real estate research beyond the year 2000 - what we know, what we teach, and the direction of future trends. These same topics will be addressed in a series of sessions at the ARES 2000 meeting in Santa Barbara, California in March.

Interactive Site: Under exploration is the development of an interactive site that would be built upon a discussion outline of an organization of the body of knowledge. The intent is to assist in the filling in the gaps in knowledge and to provide cross disciplinary education. Cross- fertilization in the development of knowledge is the key. There is no attempt at a definitive body of knowledge although some exploration toward a unified field theory may be encouraged.

This 1999 development plan update is intended to encourage Weimer School faculty to consider how they and possibly their institutions could be involved in the emerging think tank program. Input is solicited on how the theme concept may be further developed as a cooperative effort involving Weimer School faculty, Weimer School Fellows and Hoyt Fellows.