Clinton, Others Begin 5-Day ‘Thinking Party’ : Retreat: Renaissance Weekend is casual in tone, intense in discussion from spiritual to political.

President-elect Bill Clinton and several hundred other guests arrived at this fog-shrouded sea island resort Tuesday for a five-day “intellectual house party” conceived as an alternative New Year’s celebration.

Surrounded by Spanish moss and sea grasses, the hand-picked participants in the 13th annual Renaissance Weekend will forsake more traditional festivities to devote long days to panel discussions on topics ranging from the political to the spiritual.

While Clinton will help lead a New Year’s Eve session on “The Changing of the Guard,” it was unclear just how many of the sessions he would attend. Among the luggage he brought with him were a new set of golf clubs and a pair of oversized cardboard boxes stuffed with files.

But it was plain that the elite gathering, whose participants include a Supreme Court justice and several governors, would reflect much of the spirit of a new Administration whose fascination with public policy is sometimes coupled with faith in introspection.

On the list of topics for this year’s sessions is an eclectic mix including “Agenda for a New Administration,” “Building an Inner Life” and “You’d Never Guess: What Only My Friends Know About Me.”

And as the new year begins early Friday morning, the more than 500 luminaries and their families participating in the session are scheduled to join hands and sing a version of “God Bless America.”

Clinton, his wife, Hillary, and his daughter, Chelsea, have joined in the family-oriented retreat for each of the last eight years. And while the gathering remains a strictly nonpartisan affair, longtime friends and associates described its earnest format as one that approached a Clintonian ideal.

“For the Clintons, rest is doing this,” said Phil Lader, a South Carolina businessman and educator who has hosted the annual retreats since he first conceived of them in 1981.

Most of the guests at this year’s gathering have participated in the sessions before, forming a group that Lader regards as an “extended family” whose members represent a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds. But the program is nevertheless intensive, with panel discussions beginning each morning at 8 a.m. and some lasting as late as midnight.

Among the regular participants returning to Hilton Head, S.C., this year are Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, former White House Communications Director David Gergen, Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh and Control Data Corp. Chairman Lawrence Perlman.

Other returning participants include former President Bush speech writer Peggy Noonan, Education Secretary-designate Richard W. Riley, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Wald, and retired Army Gen. Evelyn Foote. They will be joined by a number of new guests, including Atty. Gen.-designate Zoe Baird, Olympic gold medalist Edwin Moses and theologian Michael Novak.

But the assemblage is encouraged to maintain an egalitarian air, with name tags giving prominence to each guest’s first name. Even Justice Blackmun typically adorns himself with a label reading “Harry.” Clinton, allowed to choose between “Mr. President-elect” and “Bill,” is expected to select the latter.

Indeed, as the President-elect headed for a late-afternoon jog, he found it easy to hail a fellow participant, business consultant Tom Schneider, whose name was highly visible as he pedaled down the beach. “Hi, Tom!” Clinton yelled.

Lader, who with his wife, Linda, composes the guest list each year, stressed that his efforts are not part of “a celebrity hunt.” Participants are selected on the basis of achievement, broad-ranging interests and their willingness to engage in off-the-record, personal discussions, he said.

In inviting guests to this year’s session, Lader took pains to warn them that Clinton’s election should not transform the event into either a celebration or lobbying session. “Not all of us supported the Democratic ticket; not everyone wants to talk politics the entire weekend,” he said in a letter. “And if that diversity were discouraged, even by well-intentioned enthusiasm, Renaissance would not be the same.”

As guests began to stream into the lobby of a beach-front Hyatt resort, however, it was apparent that the character of a once low-profile gathering had abruptly changed.

Having moved the retreat to the resort to accommodate a post-election surge in participation, Lader, a one-time South Carolina gubernatorial candidate, submitted to interview after interview as television crews stood watch to document the notables’ arrival. Hundreds of ordinary vacationers lined the streets outside in hopes of catching a glimpse of Clinton as he passed through on his way to the private home in which he was to spend the next five nights.

Clinton’s arrival, already postponed by a day, was delayed yet again Tuesday as heavy fog over the island forced the small jet that carried him and his family to abort a landing on Hilton Head and fly instead to nearby Savannah, Ga.

As the presidential motorcade headed for the resort, Lader worried aloud that the extra attention might deprive Clinton of what has become an annual respite. “These are a very few days of family, rest and friends for this weary man who’s about to start the toughest job in the world and I would hope that will be respected,” he said.

But from the moment he crossed a causeway onto the island and its lime-green patchwork of golf and tennis courses, the attention-loving President-elect wasted no time in imposing that barrier himself. On the route to his huge two-story beach house, he even did something aides had rarely seen before.

To the throng of well-wishers that lined the tree-shrouded streets, Clinton merely waved. He did not stop; he did not mingle; he did not shake a single hand.