STEDTRAIN History
STEDTRAIN was formed during the summer of 1988 by a small group of members of the North Alabama Chapter of the World Future Society. The group saw as a big problem the fact that no community organization or mechanism existed for bringing together teachers, parents, volunteers, educational administrators, business people, technical professionals, i.e., the general community, to discuss science and technology K-12 educational policies and needs in order to generate community consensus and coordinated, volunteer implementations when and where appropriate.A series of annual conferences was initiated in 1995. After the second conference, it became apparent that STEDTRAIN was developing beyond the resources of the small World Future Society group. Fortunately, STEDTRAIN mission and goals fitted nicely with the The Huntsville Association of Technical Societies (HATS) Education Directorate mission and goals, so STEDTRAIN became incorporated into the HATS organization as a committee of the HATS Education Directorate in the Spring of 1997.
When STEDTRAIN became incorporated into the HATS organization, the administration of the STEDTRAIN Seed Grant Program remained within the STEDTRAIN Committee with HATS Executive Board oversight. The program was proving so successful that the STEDTRAIN Committee decided to make it the focus of its efforts. HATS has made the program its major flagship program.