NCDD Stuff

I received a message tonight from Vicki Robin, co-founder with Susan Partnow of Conversation Cafes.  Vicki and Susan are both NCDD members, and Conversation Cafe is a well-known dialogue model that is elegantly simple, if you aren’t familiar with it (learn more here).  Conversation Cafe is going through some big changes, and I wanted to share them with the NCDD community.

In her message, Vicki said…

You haven’t heard from us at Conversation Cafes in quite some time. We’ve been reorganizing and the whole project is moving to a new host: Community Action Dialogues CAD in Richmond Virginia. Jacqueline Pogue and her CAD group have been among the most active and creative CC hosts and they are super enthusiastic about a new CC website that will replace the current one this summer – and hosting annual Conversation Weeks.

Susan Partnow and I did our very best to spread the Conversation Café method with integrity and fidelity – and it is now used around the world in cafes, classrooms, conferences and more. We are thrilled that the CAD group with their new energy and vision are here to take the CCs to the next level. They will be glad to hear from you and serve you.

I spoke to Jacqueline Pogue about this switch-over recently (Jacqueline is also an NCDD member – click here for her contact info), and she is very enthusiastic and hopes to collaborate with NCDD on Conversation Weeks and other activities.  Further updates from Jacqueline are forthcoming.

There’s a great job opening at AmericaSpeaks for those looking…

The Director of Online Engagement and Participation will lead AmericaSpeaks’ initiatives to design, facilitate and organize online participatory processes that provide citizens and stakeholders with a greater voice in governance processes. The Director will be responsible for generating new projects through which AmericaSpeaks may engage the public online, representing AmericaSpeaks in discussions with federal agencies about how to use online methods to create a more open government, managing a group of online associates and partners to deliver online engagement programs, and forming and nurturing partnerships with other online innovators. The Director will also oversee the organization’s online and social media presence. Full job description below. (more…)

17 new members joined NCDD last month:  2 organizational members and 15 new individual members (6 dues-paying, 1 partial-dues paying and 8 non-dues-paying). And 8 of our dues-paying members renewed their memberships (6 organization and 2 individuals)!

We post these monthly summaries not only to welcome our new members and to thank those who re-upped, but also to help members connect with one another. Click on anyone’s name below to learn more about them and connect with them.

Our new organizational members:

1. University of Wisconsin Colleges and University of Wisconsin-Extension (Contact: Stephan Gilchrist). Stephan has been a member of NCDD since 2007 with another organization.
2. The Paulist Center’s Office of Outreach and Reconciliation (Contact: Robert Bowers)

Our new 15 individual members (some dues-paying and some non-dues) are:

1. Joseph McCormick, Co-Founder and Chairman at Reuniting America
2. Pat McKenney, President of the Synthesis Center of Saint Mary’s
3. Vicki Totten, Associate Professor of Counseling at St. Edward’s University
4. Walt Roberts, Generative Change Consultant at the Transformation Systems Intl
5. Peter Hwoschinsky, Owner of Hwosch Productions
6. Ron Lubensky of Australia
7. Joanna Kelly, Master’s student in the Conflict Analysis and Engagement Program at Antioch University
8. Alessandro Rossi, a Community Development Facilitator
9. Osaretin Imahiyereobo at the Independent National Electoral Commission
 (Nigeria)
10. Tyler Goulet at the Deliberative Democracy Consortium
11. Carina Costom at Carina Costom Contemplative Arts
12. Lindsey Mullen with the University of Alabama
13. Christopher Berendes at Netalyst, Inc.
14. David Beard with the University of Minnesota (Duluth)
15. Debra Lambo of New Jersey

In the month of April, 8 NCDDers renewed their memberships.

Our 6 renewed organizational members (with contacts in parentheses) are:

1. City of Portland, Office of Neighborhood Involvement (Brian Hoop, Judith Mowry, Afifa Ahmed-Shafi, Nickole Cheron, and Paul Leistner)
2. The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue (Hal Saunders, Chris Wagner, and Rhonda Fitzgerald)
3. Institute for Local Government (Terry Amsler and Greg Keidan)
4. Regis University’s Institute on the Common Good (Paul Alexander, TJ Bowen and Malia Crouse)
5. The Public Conversations Project (Cherry Muse, Dave Joseph, and Bob Stains)
6. Everyday Democracy (Martha McCoy and Amy Malick)

And 2 people renewed as dues-paying individual members:

1. Bettye Pruitt at the Generative Change Community
2. Tod Sloan with the Lewis and Clark College

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce Caitlin Kershner to the NCDD community. Cait will be serving as NCDD’s part-time summer intern, working on our fall events and other projects. We’re very excited to have her!

Cait is a senior at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. She was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (just a short drive from NCDD World Headquarters!), where she will spending her summer.  Cait, whose interests include knitting, painting, and serving others, will be turning 21 this month.

Cait is currently studying Psychology but after she graduates hopes to be able to do some work in the nonprofit sector, specifically in human rights.

At Mansfield, Cait is part of the Alpha Sigma Tau sorority, which works with Adopt-a-Highway, Habitat for Humanity, and Pine Mountain Settlement School. She hopes to get involved in the Student Government Association next year, to be able to have a larger influence on campus. She is interested in getting an internship with Student Peace Alliance next summer.

Our friends at Fielding wanted us to make sure NCDD’ers saw the announcement for this year’s Dialogue, Deliberation & Public Engagement certificate program (NCDD members get a 10% discount) running from August 16, 2010 until January 18, 2011.

Fielding Graduate University has announced the seventh year of their award-winning graduate level certificate program in dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement.  2010’s DDPE Certificate Program will be held in partnership with the University of Western Sydney, Australia. This distinctive program strives for the development of mastery through building the skills, knowledge and intuitive sensibility that are needed to make wise choices about how to bring forms of dialogue, deliberation, and engagement into situations where they are most effective.

Designed and delivered in collaboration with The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, the Kettering Foundation, and the Public Dialogue Consortium, the DDPE program focuses on foundations and innovations in dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement. It features outstanding faculty (Hal Saunders, Barnett Pearce, Phil Stewart, Jan Elliott, Lyn Carson, Keith Melville, John Dedrick and Linda Blong) as well as widely recognized scholars and innovative practitioners who join us as guests in Phone Dialogues. Previous featured guests have included: Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Juanita Brown, Martha McCoy, Bob Stains, Shawn Spano, Rich Harwood, Janette Hartz-Karp, Matt Leighninger, Joseph Peters, and Adam Kahane.

Tuition & Registration:

Tuition is US$ 3,740 if you register by July 16, 2010.  NCDD and IAP2 members will receive a 10% discount. A late registration fee of $250 applies to all registrations after July 16th.  There are a limited number of sponsorships available for up to $1,300. Selected applicants must be based in the United States and working with a community or organization to build capacity for and through dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement. The application process for these sponsorships closes June 25, 2010. For more information, contact Dr. Katrina Rogers, Fielding Graduate University, (805) 898-2924 or email:  .

Information Calls:

You can get more information about the program by joining one of the DDPE’s Teleconferences.  The first is May 18 at 5 pm EDT.  To register for information calls, contact Amy Boutell at . For a program description and registration visit  http://www.fielding.edu/programs/ce/ddpe.

On June 26, 2010, thousands of Americans across the country will participate in the AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy National Town Meeting, an unprecedented national discussion on finding solutions for the budget and deficit. The National Town Meeting will take place in locations all across the country, connected live via satellite video, webcast and interactive technologies.

The purpose of this national discussion is to find common ground on tough choices about our budget. Throughout the day, Americans across the country will weigh-in on strategies to ensure a sustainable fiscal future and a strong economic recovery. The national discussion will be a chance to demonstrate that the American public can find common ground across demographic, geographic and political divides and that we as a nation can govern ourselves in a new way.

Skilled volunteer table facilitators are crucial to the success of the meeting and the work is varied, challenging, and fun. Facilitators are responsible for drawing out equal participation from their table of ten participants, focusing the group’s conversation, and holding respectful space for differences of opinion and communication styles.

AmericaSpeaks is currently recruiting table facilitators for the following Town Meeting locations: (more…)

I wanted to remind everyone that today is the last day to register for Friday’s 1pm EST joint PublicDecisions/NCDD webinar titled “Emerging Opportunities and Challenges in Dialogue & Deliberation: What Are the Implications for Practice?” with guests Caroline Lee and Francesca Polletta.  Over 80 people have registered so far, and it’s quite an amazing group of people.

Here is the registration link:  http://www.publicdecisions.com/publicforum_2010May14.html (don’t worry – the form is super-short!)

Note: you’ll receive an email from PublicDecisions that includes instructions for participating in the webinar.  I suggest looking that over and preparing (doing any downloading required, etc.) the day before the webinar if you can.  We’ll be using Microsoft Live Meeting.

Full details on the webinar can be found in the original blog post at www.thataway.org/?p=2535.

NCDD member Jim Fishkin was just featured in an article in The Economist print edition. If you aren’t familiar with Jim yet, he’s Director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford and creator of the Deliberative Poll.

The article, titled “Ancient Athens online: Democracy is about discussion, not just voting” can be viewed in full at this link. It begins with a bit of history about the use of random selection for public deliberation…

REFLECTION and representation are not an easy fit. For an individual voter, being well-informed about every twist of public policy is an irrational use of time. But leaving a self-selecting elite of wonks and careerists in charge of policy-making is unappealing. In ancient Athens, which invented both democracy and the dilemma, a machine called a kleroterion picked a random 500 people to make policy from the 50,000-odd polity. The jury excluded women and slaves and the decisions it reached were sometimes dodgy (condemning Socrates was probably a mistake). But the approach is returning in a modern guise, under the label of “deliberative democracy”.

It also included some helpful stats about the impact of deliberative polls in participants’ opinions…

Discussions and briefing often lead to a shift away from populist viewpoints. In a recent poll in Britain support for making party manifesto promises legally binding plunged from 41% to 18%. In recession-hit Michigan a discussion raised support for bigger taxes (from 27% to 45% for income tax, for example). By contrast, support for cuts in corporate taxes rocketed 27 points to 67%: the more people thought about the issue, the more they wanted a better business environment and a lower deficit. But some results are discomfiting (at least for those with this newspaper’s views). A pan-European poll in October 2007 found that support for European Union membership for Turkey and Ukraine fell by a fifth as the discussion progressed. Deliberation counts for something, with a statistically significant shift in opinion on three out of four questions, and the biggest changes coming from those whose gains in knowledge are the greatest.

AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy is a national discussion to find common ground on tough choices about our federal budget.  Americans from across the country will come together to weigh in on strategies to ensure a sustainable fiscal future and a strong economic recovery.  As a part of this national discussion, on June 26, 2010, thousands of Americans across the country will participate simultaneously in an unprecedented National Town Meeting.  For those who do not live near the large conversations, the dialogue can occur in Community Conversations.

We encourage U.S.-based members of the NCDD community to consider hosting a Community Conversation in your city or town on June 26th.

What is an AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy Community Conversation?

Community Conversations are volunteer-led events, where participants use materials provided by AmericaSpeaks (an NCDD organizational member) to engage in a discussion about our federal budget. Conversations can take place in businesses, schools, libraries, places of worship, community centers, homes, or anywhere else a group chooses to meet. They may be as small as 8 people or as large as several hundred. AmericaSpeaks will provide you with all the materials and information you need to bring the national discussion on Our Budget, Our Economy to your community.

You can volunteer to host a Community Conversation at a public venue (like a library or office) near you or in your home.  We’ll provide you with all the materials and information you need to bring the national discussion on Our Budget, Our Economy to your neighborhood. You can create a Community Conversation by filling out the form here:

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5874/p/salsa/event/common/public/create.sjs?distributed_event_KEY=127

To find out more about the project, www.usabudgetdiscussion.org.

Here’s a timely message from NCDD member Steve Olweean, Director of the Common Bond Institute…

We’re holding the 2nd Annual International Conference on Religion, Conflict, and Peace this June 11-13 at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan, and offering opportunities for experienced individuals interested in facilitating daily dialogue break-out groups.

As with all of our conferences, this conference is designed to be highly dialogic and interactive in nature, and so the program is primarily made up of workshops, topical panels/roundtables, and facilitated dialogue groups. We schedule 3 dedicated time periods each day in which we run only concurrent dialogue group breakout sessions to provide regular opportunities for processing the material offered in prepared presentations, processing the conference experience in general, and networking to form collaborative relationships. (more…)

Join us for a free webinar titled “Emerging Opportunities and Challenges in Dialogue & Deliberation: What Are the Implications for Practice?” on Friday, May 14 from 1pm to 2:30 Eastern (10am Pacific) with NCDD members Caroline Lee and Francesca Polletta. The webinar is jointly sponsored by the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) and PublicDecisions.

The field of public dialogue and deliberation (D&D) is growing dramatically—so dramatically, in fact, that no one fully knows what the field looks like: who is doing public dialogue and deliberation work, what forms their work is taking, what common challenges they face. This webinar will use the results of a recent survey of dialogue and deliberation practitioners as a jumping off point for a wide-ranging discussion of current and future issues in the public engagement practitioner community.

We’ll discuss results that shed light on topics such as how people get started in D&D practice, the role of gender in deliberation, and how best to measure and market D&D outcomes. In this interactive program, webinar participants will be invited to identify the emerging challenges they see and to share steps they are taking to chart the course of 21st Century public engagement. Come prepared to engage and be engaged!

Caroline Lee and Francesca Polletta, the sociologists who conducted the survey, will join hosts Sandy Heierbacher of NCDD and Beth Offenbacker of PublicDecisions in a highly interactive, dynamic discussion that will delve into tough issues and exciting possibilities.

Register by the end of the day on Wednesday, May 12th at http://www.publicdecisions.com/publicforum_2010May14.html . This webinar uses Microsoft Live Meeting, an online meeting platform. You will click on a unique weblink we send you to view the slides, etc., and you can either plug in a computer headset or call a U.S. telephone line (long distance charges apply, but you can always use Skype) to hear/speak.

I encourage you also to check out the survey results before the webinar at http://sites.lafayette.edu/ddps/. (more…)

Matt Leighninger, Executive Director of The Deliberative Democracy Consortium (an NCDD organizational member), recently announced the release of his report Creating Spaces for Change: Working Toward a “Story of Now” in Civic Engagement. Creating Spaces for Change draws heavily on the views and experiences of the people who participated in the Kellogg Foundation’s Civic Engagement Learning Year and the conference convened by DDC and The Democracy Imperative called “No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative Democracy for Educators and Practitioners.”

Matt encourages those who see opportunities to use the report in ways that will catalyze future discussions and action to improve civic engagement to contact him (click on his name above for contact details).  Here is Matt’s announcement… (more…)

13 fabulous new members joined NCDD last month (4 organizational members and 9 individual members), and 11 of our dues-paying members renewed their memberships (2 orgs and 9 individuals).

We post these monthly summaries not only to welcome our new members and to thank those who re-upped, but also to help members connect with one another. Click on anyone’s name below to learn more about them and connect with them.

Our 4 new organizational members are:

1. E-Democracy.org (Contact: Steven Clift)
2. Harrison Associates (Roger Harrison)
3. University of Wisconsin Colleges and University of Wisconsin-Extension (Stephan Gilchrist)
4. California State University at Chico (Michael Briand)

Our 6 new dues-paying individual members are:

1. Paul LeVasseur, Professor at the SIT Graduate Institute
2. Steven Kull, Director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland
3. Anne Dosher, Board Chair at The World Cafe Community Foundation
4. Bonnie Beard, Founder and Executive Trustee of BRAC
 (Building Relationships Across Cultures)
5. Amanda Roman, Executive Director of the Citizens in Charge Foundation
6. Vanessa Stevens of Massachusetts

Our 3 new individual NCDD members (non-dues) are:

1. John Cavanaugh at the Cross Cultural Communications, LLC
2. Ben Simon at the University of Maryland
3. Susan Schmidt of the Dallas Peace Center and The Global Peace Project

Last month, 9 NCDDers renewed their memberships – two organizations and 9 individuals.

The 2 organizational members who renewed are:

1. Amherst College Center for Community Engagement (Molly Mead)
2. Center for Voter Deliberation of Northern Virginia (Bill Corbett, Beth Offenbacker and Cindy Brookshire)

And 9 people renewed as dues-paying individual members:

1. Philip Thomas at the Generative Change Community
2. Noam Shore at Idealogue, Inc.
3. Gilda Povolo at Grand Valley State University
4. Julianna Padgett at Southern University’s New Orleans School of Social Work
5. Douglas Crocker of California
6. James Dubinsky at Virginia Tech
7. Wendy Foxmyn, Consultant
8. Linda Mather at Beacon Consulting Associates
9
9. Phil Neisser at the SUNY Potsdam’s Department of Politics

To learn about other NCDD members (there are over 1,240 of us now!), find members in your state or city, etc., visit the NCDD members network at www.thataway.org/ncddnet/.

And to see if your membership is in good standing, search for yourself in the members network and look at what’s in the Member Type field in your profile. If it says “lapsed” or “non-dues-paying,” please consider becoming a current dues-paying member (see payment details here). You can also email office manager Joy Garman at if you have questions about your status, need payment instructions, or want to change the info on your profile page.

As many of you know, since 2002 NCDD has been holding biennial national conferences on the even years. We wanted to formally announce that in 2010, rather than holding a single National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation, we are in the process of mobilizing our members to organize a number of smaller one-day NCDD events.

We are looking into holding events in fall 2010 in the locations we feel best equipped to mobilize our members: Austin, San Francisco, Washington DC and Denver, where we’ve held past NCDD conferences, as well as cities like Boston and Portland where dialogue and deliberation are thriving.

We feel that holding regional, largely self-organized events in 2010 has the potential to move NCDD and the field forward in vital ways.  We hope the events will position members of the D&D community to successfully navigate new opportunities that are emerging in open government and online engagement so they can make a greater impact in their communities. (Learn more about our concept for the 2010 events.)

At this point, we are looking for dedicated people to help move things forward in most of the locations mentioned above. Our first priorities are (1) to find and secure affordable venues so we can set the dates and (2) to start identifying partners and co-sponsors who share our goals.  Please contact me (Sandy Heierbacher, NCDD’s Director) at if you are interested in getting involved.

On Friday, I emailed NCDD’s main listserv to see who in the community has expertise in keypad technology.  Keypads are audience response devices that look like little calculators (learn more here), and once in a while I get requests from people looking for keypad facilitators or trainers.  David Campt and Chris Bui are two skilled keypad experts I know personally, but I wanted to have a longer list at the ready.

I received a variety of great responses and recommendations for experts in keypad technology – and in using cell phones as an alternative to keypads.  I thought I’d share the responses here so we all have access to this list for future reference. (more…)