Abstract for: Dear Society Members: Charting the Evolution of the System Dynamics Society Using Presidential Addresses

We study the historical development of the System Dynamics Society (SDS) by analyzing its annual presidents’ addresses since its founding in 1983. We use the Story Analyzer, an archival research tool that uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) developed at James Madison University, to process and visualize data. We explore the hopes and fears regarding quality and learning and how they have changed over the years. We seek to improve our understanding of these topics as they are thought to be enablers of the growth and impact of the field and achieving the SDS vision. This work in progress will benefit from the community's feedback.