member benefits

I’d like to get your ideas on topics for future NCDD Confabs: conference calls and webinars for NCDD members where we explore key issues in the dialogue & deliberation community and encourage new connections among members.

We held several great Confabs last year before we became neck-deep in planning the regional events.  We held a webinar with Beth Offenbacker to talk about an upcoming Public Decisions online conference, a conference call with John Engle to discuss the role our community members could play in disaster recovery in Haiti, a conference call with Martin Carcasson to discuss his work on the goals of dialogue & deliberation, and a Maestro call hosted by Amy Lenzo about online engagement strategies.

The Maestro call was our most popular yet, with about 80 people calling into that Confab!  (See the wonderful graphic recording that Teresa Bidlake created on the call.)

I’d like to get us back in the habit of holding regular NCDD Confabs, and I’d love your ideas. What topics, questions, challenges, etc. would you want to focus on?  What thought leaders would draw you?  And perhaps most importantly, who among you would be interested in organizing or leading a Confab call, and on what topics?  Please comment here and share your ideas!

Register now for a top-notch 4-day Appreciative Inquiry Summits Workshop held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina next month (November 8-11).  Dues-paying NCDD members get a 20% discount on registration! (Call 303.972.5155 for instructions on how to register with the discount – which saves you over $300).

Join Appreciative Inquiry pioneer Diana Whitney and master practitioners Barbara Lewis and Ralph Weickel as you learn to design and conduct an Appreciative Inquiry Summit. Summits accelerate organizational creativity and change by enabling groups of 50 to 3,000 people to discover their strengths and chart their collective future.

Trainers Barbara Lewis and Ralph Weickel showcase how to apply Appreciative Inquiry Summits to non-profits, communities, businesses and government initiatives. The lead for the internationally award-winning Focus on Longmont strategic planning process, Barbara Lewis will share her insights on exceptional community engagement through Appreciative Inquiry while innovative practitioner Ralph Weickel brings his entrepreneurial passion to forging exceptional organizational results. Appreciative Inquiry thought leader Diana Whitney, co-author of the best-seller The Power of Appreciative Inquiry (now in its second edition), and Appreciative Leadership will make a special presentation highlighting leading-edge Appreciative Inquiry practices. You are sure to be inspired by the many ways in which you can apply this innovative change process.

The Corporation for Positive Change (CPC) is the premier international consulting firm dedicated to the design and development of appreciative organizations and communities – those capable of sustaining innovation, financial well-being and leadership by inspiring the best in human beings. Learn more about CPC and upcoming workshops at www.positivechange.org.

If you’re based in Colorado, please plan to join us at the networking luncheon and dialogue we’re holding in Denver on Friday, October 22nd at The Wellshire Inn.  We will meet at 10:30am at the Wellshire, and enjoy lunch and group discussions until 3:30pm. After 3:30, you are welcome to stick around for additional networking and an early happy hour!

The planning team is putting together a great program, with impressive leaders in public engagement playing various roles:

• Peggy Kerns, Director of the Center for Ethics in Government of the National Conference of State Legislatures
• Peter Adler, President of the Keystone Center
• Martin Carcasson, Director of the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University
• Stan Deetz, Director of the CU Center for the Study of Conflict, Collaboration and Creative Governance
• Paul Alexander, Director of the Regis University Institute for the Common Good
• Amanda Roman, Executive Director of the Citizens in Charge Foundation
• Steve Konieczka, Doctoral Candidate in UC Boulder Communication Department
• Drew O’Connor, Co-Director of the Civic Canopy

Register now at http://ncdddenver.eventbrite.com.  Registration is just $30 for dues-paying NCDD members and students ($40 for others).

Our amazing All-Star Sponsors (for all 5 upcoming events) include the National Conference of State Legislatures, AmericaSpeaks, the Public Conversations Project, Everyday Democracy, the Citizens in Charge Foundation and the University of Mass. Boston Office of Public Collaboration.

We’re excited to say that the Conflict Resolution Institute at the University of Denver has stepped up as a sponsor of the Denver event, but they could use some company so let me know () if you’d like more info about sponsorship!

I know a bunch of you who are planning to attend NCDD’s fall regional events haven’t got around to registering yet.  I thought I’d encourage those of you who enjoy saving money to go ahead and register today!  I’ve set up a 10% off discount code that is only good until midnight tonight.  The codes work for all three registration types:  NCDD members, students, and regular.

Here are links to more info on all our member-run regional events…

• Denver, Colorado – The Wellshire Inn on Friday, October 22nd
• San Francisco Bay Area, California – De Anza College on Friday, October 29th
• Boston, Massachusetts – UMass Boston on Friday, October 29th
• Austin, Texas – St. Edward’s University on Friday, November 5th
• Portland, Oregon – Concordia University on Saturday, November 13th

To register at the discounted rate, follow the links to registration or go directly to this Eventbrite link and choose the event you plan to attend. You’ll see an orange link that says “Enter Discount Code” right under the registration types.  Click on that and enter 10TODAY into the box that appears and click on the “apply discount” button.  You’ll see the registration fees change once you do this. Then change the quantity to “1″ beside your registration type, click on “order now” and complete registration.

Let me know if you have any questions about this or experience any problems.  I can be reached at .

Sandy Heierbacher
Director, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (www.ncdd.org)

At the request of NCDD members, I’ve created a new moderated listserv for people who do dialogue & deliberation work in New England.  I am hoping the list will help you connect with one another, share announcements and opportunities, and collaborate within the region. You don’t have to be a member of NCDD to subscribe.

If you’re interested in subscribing, just send a blank email to . New England-based NCDD members have already been added (just email me at [email protected] if you’d like removed).

At this point, about 150 people are subscribed to the New England Network list.  I anticipate this will be a pretty lightly-used list (not much of a burden on your inbox!), but I hope it is a useful resource to people who do public engagement and conflict resolution work in New England.

We’ll be using the list to periodically update New Englanders on our progress on the upcoming NCDD regional event we’re holding in Boston on Friday, October 29th as well — so I especially hope you subscribe if you’re interested in joining us for the event!

If you’re not in New England, we may have a listserv for your region.  We have lists for D&D folks in Colorado, Northern California, Boston, Central Texas, the Cascadia region (WA, OR and BC), and the DC metro area.  Learn more here.

If you didn’t see this in your inbox yesterday, please subscribe to the monthly Updates list of the National Coalition for dialogue & Deliberation at www.thataway.org/?page_id=855.

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Hi, everyone! Did you know that NCDD members are organizing regional events in 5 cities across the U.S. this fall?

Join Us at NCDD’s Upcoming Regional Events

I hope you can join us at the event closest to you! Learn more about the events (and register) at ncdd.org/events. Most events are just $85 for the day ($70 for NCDD members and $42 for students).

• Denver, Colorado at the Wellshire Inn – Friday, October 22, 2010
• San Francisco, California at De Anza College – Friday, October 29, 2010
• Boston, Massachusetts at UMass Boston – Friday, October 29, 2010
• Austin, Texas at St. Edward’s University – Friday, November 5, 2010
• Portland, Oregon at Concordia University – Saturday, November 13, 2010
• A follow-up event is also in the works for spring 2011 in Washington, DC.

The events will focus on connecting practitioners, community leaders and public managers to help build knowledge and capacity in dialogue, deliberation and public engagement regionally.

Consider Sponsoring One or All of the Events!

A number of great organizations and leaders in our field are stepping up and supporting the fall events by becoming sponsors. We are especially grateful to our All-Star Sponsors, which at this point include AmericaSpeaks, the Citizens in Charge Foundation, and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Our Sponsors and Partners will help strengthen local capacity to bridge divides and solve complex community challenges in the regions we’re holding events. Please consider signing on for one of these three sponsorship levels:

• All-Star Sponsor: Sponsor all of NCDD’s regional events with your contribution of $1,500 or more
• Sponsor: Sponsor the event in your region for $500 (or sponsor more than one event at $400 each)
• Partner: Be a Partner for the event in your region for $250

Learn more about sponsorship levels and benefits at www.ncdd.org/events/sponsor.php.

Check out NCDD’s new Resource Center

After a painfully long hiatus, our resources are back online at http://ncdd.org/rc. Nearly 2,500 (yep – 2,500) dialogue and deliberation case studies, articles, methods, discussion guides, videos, evaluation tools and programs are listed! And our must-see Beginner’s Guide, Quick-Reference Glossary, and Best-of-the-Best Resources are the first links you’ll see in the sidebar… so please check it out.

Headlines from the News & Perspectives Blog

Though we’re focusing this Update on our upcoming events, the NCDD blog (at www.thataway.org) is still a great place to stay up-to-date on opportunities and news in our growing field. Here are the latest headlines:

• Kansas State Univ’s ICDD adopts “JPD”
• PBS films on mosque controversy now online
• Portland City Council adopts Public Involvement Principles
• Question on NCDD Forum about online engagement
• Civic Reflection Facilitation Training Workshops
• Featured NCDD Member: Healthy Democracy Oregon
• Alberta Climate Dialogue hiring a Project Manager

And in case you don’t know, you can stay on top of NCDD blog posts and new resources added to the NCDD Resource Center by joining the NCDD Group on LinkedIn.

Upcoming Changes to NCDD’s Website

The NCDD website has been online at www.thataway.org since 2002. Its predecessor, the Dialogue to Action Initiative website went online in 1998. In the past 12 years we’ve updated the site five times… and it’s time to do it again. We’ve been listening to the needs and interests of our members and have spent the summer rolling out a new design and a few new features at our “new url” NCDD.org (including the new NCDD Forum, check it out!) Over the next few months we’ll be moving our news blog and members listings, and we’re really excited to offer our community a new site in 2011!

Discounts for Dues-Paying NCDD Members

In the sidebar of our monthly updates, we list the great discounts our dues-paying members are eligible for.  You can view them at www.thataway.org/discounts.

NCDD dues are just $50/year ($100 for organizations), and many of these discounts save you hundreds! Go to www.thataway.org/discounts for more details on these trainings. Or go to www.thataway.org/join to become a dues-paying NCDD member and benefit from these great discounts!

NCDD member Jason Diceman, a Senior Public Consultation Coordinator with the City of Toronto, has released a new version of his Dotmocracy Handbook: A simple tool to help large groups find agreement.

The Dotmocracy Handbook provides a unique set of easy-to-follow instructions for finding useful agreements among many people. At its core is the deceptively simple Dotmocracy sheet, which is a paper based facilitation tool designed to provide participants with equal opportunity to contribute to a reliable and transparent large group decision-making process.

C2D2′s Rob Janousek says this about the handbook:

An ingenious framework for participatory groups. Jason Diceman outlines the use of a very valuable tool for group based decision making in the Dotmocracy Handbook. This approach is a great way to ensure that amongst a large, heterogeneous group of stakeholders, everyone has an opportunity to express ideas and propose solutions on equal footing.

You can download a free PDF of the complete handbook at: www.dotmocracy.org/handbook

Jason has also offered members of NCDD a 25% discount on orders of printed versions of the book.

With its glossy cover, standard book binding and higher resolution photos, the print version of the handbook is ideal for educational institutions, professional learning and impressing clients.

To order print copies…

• Full colour version for $11.21 CDN, go to https://www.createspace.com/3437340 and click “Add to Cart” then apply discount code: MJP6K7AG
• Black & white version for $7.46 CDN, go to https://www.createspace.com/3442283 and click “Add to Cart” then apply discount code: YJAFNSHK
• Alternatively, you can get the print version at normal price from Amazon.com, at: http://amzn.com/145152708X

NCDD member Paul Weisman is sponsoring a one-day dialogue workshop followed by a two-day certification program in Jacksonville, Florida on July 26-28, and he invites NCDD members to participate at a discounted rate (10% off).

SMART Conversations® is a work that incorporates best practices of thought leaders like Stephen Covey, Daniel Goleman, David Bohm and William Isaacs. After the certification, you will be able to more confidently facilitate public engagement events, strategic planning sessions, business meetings and all types of conversations that would benefit from consensus building, relationship building, appreciating diversity and developing solutions.

SMART Conversations® provides a simple, memorable, heart-centered process rooted in four core conditions: Shared Meaning, Authenticity, Respect and Trust and Five Principles. For more information, please contact Paul Weisman at 617-413-4291 or Michele Simos Weisman at 781-844-4916. Or click here to learn more: http://bit.ly/9fAZoT.

Lots of people have signed up for tomorrow’s “NCDD Confab” (June 30th, 12 noon to 1:45pm EST), but it’s not too late to register! Our confabs provide members and potential members of the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) a chance to network with one another while delving into an important issue in our field.

Register at the following link (once you register, you’ll receive call-in details):

• http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/Z2KU79UCR6ZLSQ4

Tomorrow, we’ll be using Maestro conference call software to run a World Cafe on the topic of online engagement. World Cafe is an easy-to-use method for fostering collaborative dialogue, particularly in large groups.

Our host for this Confab is new NCDD member Amy Lenzo of the World Cafe Community. The call is co-sponsored by the World Cafe Community and Maestro Conference. NCDD member Ben Roberts will be co-facilitating, and members Greg Keidan and Lynn Adams helped us design the call.

I’m particularly excited about the Maestro conference call system, which is a new technology that provides hosts with some unique, exciting options that are really appropriate for our community — like breaking people up into small groups in separate virtual rooms (for small group dialogue) and setting up polls that people can participate in just by pressing numbers on their phone (like keypad polling).

Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the technology yet; aside from registering for the call, you just need to call in with the phone number and access code on the 30th like any other conference call (there’s nothing to download and no site to visit during the call). Though unlike typical conference calls and webinars, you can’t get away with much multitasking because you’ll be actively engaged and involved throughout the call.

Note: “NCDD Confabs” are conference calls and webinars for NCDD members where we explore key issues in the dialogue & deliberation community and encourage new connections among members. (Potential NCDD members and members of the World Cafe Community are welcome to join us for this call.)

Patricia Neal of Heartland, Inc. has asked us to let our community know about the special summer rate (for July-September 2010) of $495 (regularly $550-595) they are offering to NCDD members for their next “Art of Convening” teletraining.

The Art of Convening - Authentic Engagement in Meetings, Gatherings & Conversations

In an age of reduced travel budgets and reliance on effective, virtual communication, the AoC adds crucial capacities to leaders who are conveners/facilitators of conversations and meetings that matter and work. Not just another meeting methodology, the Art of Convening Core TeleTraining (AoC Core) provides the practices, tools and skills that create the conditions for authentic engagement to transform your meetings, gatherings and conversations. As you meet with, convene, facilitate and gather people (virtually or in person), The Art of Convening will expand your capacity and thought leadership in depth and breadth.

You can learn more or register at the program’s website.  NCDD members should use the following discount code at checkout while registering:  DSC-HeartCom

The next 3-month AoC Core Series begins July 13. The series meets via teleconference for 2 hours every other Tuesday morning.

For more information about the teleconference or the discount contact Patricia Neal () or visit their website at http://heartlandcircle.com/.

People involved in dialogue and deliberation work in the following regions can take advantage of NCDD’s free (of course!) discussion lists:

• In and around Boston, Massachusetts
• Cascadia region (Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia)
• Washington, DC metro area
• Central Texas (Austin and beyond)
• Colorado
• Northern California (Bay Area and beyond)

Four of the listservs are brand new (the Colorado and Northern California lists have been around for a while), and we encourage you to subscribe and send a quick introductory message to the list. NCDD members are always telling us they want more opportunities for regional and local networking, so we’ve gone ahead and subscribed NCDD members in those regions (just to opt out).  If you’re not an NCDD member, follow the links below to subscribe.

These are the 6 areas we are planning one-day NCDD gatherings in October and November (Austin, Boston, Portland, DC, Denver and San Francisco), so we’ll definitely use the lists to keep people informed of our Fall events and to encourage regional networking before and after the events!

Note: I’m also looking for official “moderators” for all of the lists, so if you live in one of these regions and want to take on the challenge of initiating conversations on the lists once in a while, please let me know ().

(more…)

Our next “NCDD Confab” is scheduled for Wednesday, June 30th from 12:00 noon to 1:45 pm Eastern (9am Pacific), and I invite everyone interested in the topic (and connecting with NCDDers) to join us!  We’ll be using Maestro conference call software to run a World Cafe on the topic of online engagement.

Registration is open at this link, and I recommend you register today (once you register, you’ll receive call-in details):

• http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/Z2KU79UCR6ZLSQ4

Our host for this Confab is new NCDD member Amy Lenzo of the World Cafe Community.  The call is co-sponsored by the World Cafe Community and Maestro Conference.  NCDD member Ben Roberts will be co-facilitating, and members Greg Keidan and Lynn Adams helped us design the call.

I’m particularly excited about the Maestro conference call system, which is a new technology that provides hosts with some unique, exciting options that are really appropriate for our community — like breaking people up into small groups in separate virtual rooms (for small group dialogue) and setting up polls that people can participate in just by pressing numbers on their phone (like keypad polling).

Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the technology yet; aside from registering for the call, you just need to call in with the phone number and access code on the 30th like any other conference call (there’s nothing to download and no site to visit during the call).  Though unlike typical conference calls and webinars, you can’t get away with much multitasking because you’ll be actively engaged and involved throughout the call.

Note: “NCDD Confabs” are conference calls and webinars for NCDD members where we explore key issues in the dialogue & deliberation community and encourage new connections among members. (Potential NCDD members and members of the World Cafe Community are welcome to join us for this call.)

Our next “NCDD Confab” is scheduled for Wednesday, June 30th from noon to 1:30 pm Eastern (9am Pacific), and I wanted to encourage you to add it to your calendars now if you’re interested.  The Confab calls are free (you pay your regular long-distance phone charges) and open to all NCDD members.

Our host for this Confab is Amy Lenzo of the World Cafe Community (and a new NCDD member!), and we’ll be using Amy’s Maestro account to organize a virtual World Cafe to further examine a question we’ve been exploring on the NCDD listserv lately:  What constitutes quality online/virtual engagement?

We’ll be using the Maestro conference call system, which is a new technology that provides hosts with some unique, exciting options that are perfect for our community — like breaking people up into small groups in separate virtual rooms (for small group dialogue) and setting up polls that people can participate in just by clicking numbers on their phone (like keypad polling).  The good news:  all YOU need to do is call in to the conference call, like any of the conference calls we’ve done in the past!  Well, you’ll also need to register for the call, but we’ll include all the details you need in future announcements.

Please save the date in your calendars if this Confab interests you!

By the way, our last “Confab” of sorts was our May 14th webinar with PublicDecisions featuring Caroline Lee and Francesca Polletta.  A bunch of you participated, and it was a great webinar.  The presentation and audio recording are available for download at http://www.publicdecisions.com/publicforum_2010May14_recording.html.

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.

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.