member benefits

Members of the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) have let us know about a number of workshops and trainings they are offering in the coming months.  Most of them are discounted considerably for dues-paying NCDD members.  They are…

• What Methods to Use When?
• Advanced Public Engagement Training
• CogNexus Institute’s Issue Mapping Webinar Series
• Masterful Facilitation Institute’s Spring Programs in Vancouver, BC
• Dynamic Facilitation Trainings for Individuals, Groups, and Large Systems
• “Hidden in Plain Sight”: a Center for Strategic Facilitation workshop
• Two Trainings for Dutch-Speaking Members

What Methods to Use When?

Analyzing Whole Situations (course ICAE 290) is a March 23-25 open enrollment online course offered by Antioch University McGregor that offers you practice in thinking through situations to decide (a) whether a participatory public process is needed, (b) for what purpose, and (c) of what kind. We’ll use cases brought by participants and an integrated systems framework to figure out just what it is about different kinds of participatory methods that suit them for different kinds of situations.

Participants may apply this workshop towards completion of Antioch’s new Graduate or Professional Certificate in Civic Development & Systemic Transformation, or as part of its Master’s Degree in Conflict Analysis & Engagement. The certificate program begins April 9, 2010 on-line. It includes three, 3-day workshops and can be completed in 6-9 months. For more details, email Sara Ross at or Nancy Glock-Grueneich at . You can read about all ICAE courses here.

Advanced Public Engagement Training

The Canadian Trainers Collective is partnering with Dialogue Partners Inc. and gWhiz Consulting Ltd. to include three additional courses in their schedule that provide additional learning opportunities in public engagement techniques:

• Group Facilitation Skills for Public Involvement
• Analyze This! Making Sense of Conflict in Public Engagement
• Standing in the Fire: Transforming Conflict Through Collaboration

Offered in Calgary in April, Ottawa in June, Washington DC in September, and Halifax in October, these courses build advanced skills in engaging participants.  The courses are presented by some of the most experienced trainings in Canada, and dues-paying NCDD members receive 15% discounts on all Dialogue Partners trainings.

For a brochure and registration info for all courses, visit www.dialoguepartners.ca/forms/index.asp?tid=131.

CogNexus Institute’s Issue Mapping Webinar Series

CogNexus Institute is excited to announce their next Issue Mapping Webinar Series, which starts on April 14, 2010. Every time we have offered this course participants have said that they are able to work more effectively with highly complex (or “wicked”) problems. The course teaches a new disciplined approach to listening, thinking through issues, and making decisions in groups and as individuals. Discounts: early bird discount ($100 off) ends April 5; Colleagues (people from the same organization) get an extra $25 off, and NCDD Members are being offered an extra $50 discount.

Register at www.cognexus.org/april_imws_registration.htm.

Masterful Facilitation Institute’s Spring Programs in Vancouver, BC

Enhance your facilitation competencies and mastery to enable groups of any size in any setting to tap their creativity and wisdom, and produce extraordinary results. Register now for significant Early Bird savings! (NCDD members earn extra 10% savings!)

• The Virtual Facilitator: Leading Interactive TeleCalls and Webinars – March 4, 11, & 18, 2010
• The Confident Facilitator: Essential Skills for Guiding Groups – March 24-26, 2010
• The Engaging Facilitator: Conversation Methods for Collaboration and Wise Action – April 13-15, 2010
• The Inspired Facilitator: Achieving Mastery in Engaging Organizations and Communalities – May 19-21, 2010
• The Artful Visual Facilitator: Bringing Meeting Results to Life with Graphics – May 26-27, 2010

For more information on any of these programs, visit www.masterfulfacilitation.ca.

Dynamic Facilitation: Emergent Leadership & Self-Organizing Change Skills for Individuals, Groups, and Large Systems

Dynamic Facilitation is a unique form of facilitation that feels like dialogue in that people share deeply from the heart about has meaning to them and generates group decisions and unanimous outcomes similar to deliberation. Its large-scale applications, known as the Creative Insight Council and the Wisdom Council, are being used to transform democracy in the public and private sphere, helping diverse groups address systemic and complex issues creatively and collaboratively and reached shared outcomes. In this introductory seminar, you’ll learn how to use these skills to help groups and large systems think together creatively and collaboratively to achieve self-organizing, win/win outcomes at home and in workplaces, schools, government agencies, and community settings.

Upcoming seminars are scheduled in:

• Atlanta, GA – Feb. 22-24
• Santa Fe, NM – Feb. 27 – Mar. 1
• Port Townsend, WA – Sept. 20-22

Dues-paying NCDD members receive a 20% discount on DF trainings. Visit www.tobe.net/df/page24/learn_df/seminars.html for more information and to register.

“Hidden in Plain Sight”: a Center for Strategic Facilitation workshop

The Center for Strategic Facilitation’s Technology of Participation (ToP) Learning Community is offering an interesting workshop called Hidden in Plain Sight: A Workshop on Unpacking Multiple Dimensions of Privilege and Facilitation. The workshop will take place in Oakland, California from 5:00 to 8:00 pm on February 17, 2010. Dues-paying NCDD members receive a 20% discount on all CSF trainings.

One of the ways institutional privilege operates is that when we have it, we’re often the last ones to see it. We have inherited a system of inequity that hurts us all. Some of us have more access to structural privilege than others, depending our age, body size, class background, physical/mental/emotional abilities, gender and gender-identity, race, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, citizenship status, native language… These forms of privilege shape our experiences and perspectives and therefore influence our facilitation. Join us for an opportunity to reflect on:

• What are some of the ways privilege impacts my facilitation, including in ways I may not be aware?
• How could increasing my awareness help me be in better service of the groups with whom I work?

Kathleen Rice will be sharing from the research she has conducted on white privilege and facilitation as a spring-board for reflection and small and large group discussion. Planning team members Steven Bucholtz, Sarah Calhoun and Marti Roach will also guide our work.

RSVP and Information: contact Marti Roach, Senior Partner, CSF at 925-376-3853 or .

Two Trainings for Dutch-Speaking Members

NCDD member Kees Voorberg of Centrum Dialoog en Samenleving announced two upcoming trainings:

Two-day workshop : The Power of Dialogue
The workshop is mainly experiential, partly theoretical. We’ll work in the dialogue circle and in small groups and with other dialogical methods. You will experience the effect of dialogue on yourself and on the quality of communication, the connectedness and the creativity in the group. You’ll learn about backgrounds and methods of Dialogue and you’ll discover what the long term effects of dialogue can be. The workshop is open to all and participation in it is also a pre-requisite for those who want to register for the Professional Training Program for Dialogue Process Facilitators. Language: Dutch. Venue: Conference Centre De Voorde, Laag Zuthem, The Netherlands. Dates: 22/23 march or 24/25 june. Info: www.keesvoorberg.nl/cm/index.php?page=introductieworkshop

Professional Training Program for Dialogue Process Facilitators
In september 2010 the next Training Program in Dialogue Process Facilitation will get started. Participants get acquainted with the dialogical principles and with a wide variety of dialogical methods. You’ll learn how to build a sustainable dialogical culture, that can function as a solid base for all kinds of change projects. The Training Program is focused on Facilitating Dialogue Work both within and without the context of organisations. Language: Dutch. Venue: Conference Centre De Voorde, Laag Zuthem, The Netherlands. Start: 22 september 2010. Participation in the two-day workshop ‘The Power of Dialogue’ is a prerequisite for participation in the Professional Training Program. Information: www.dialoogopleiding.nl

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See the entire list of trainings that are discounted for NCDD members at www.thataway.org/discounts.  And email if you would like to offer NCDD members a discount in exchange for publicity on the NCDD website, facebook group, linkedin group, listservs, and email updates.

Are you interested in increasing your Leadership Currency? Are you motivated to access the connective power within yourself, your organization and your networks? Led by four experts in personal transformation, group dynamics and organizational development, the Leadership Currency experience is designed for leaders and high-level managers. If you want to boost your collaborative performance, this is for you!

The group will meet four times over the course of 2010. The process includes monthly interaction by phone and online with facilitators from the Institute on the Common Good at Regis University and your peers. Our quarterly gatherings for 2010 are January 26th-29th, May 11th-14th, September 21st-24th, and December 7th-10th. The January experience is set to take place at The Nature Place, located on 6,000 acres of private land deep in the heart of Colorado’s mountain ecosystem.

If you are looking to:

• Integrate your passion in to your everyday work.
• Learn ways to inspire a new level of teamwork, focus and energy in your team and your networks.
• Recognize the emerging future and create strategies that move you forward with intention rather than in reaction.
• Bring a new found inspiration to your career and your business that results in a significantly higher level of prosperity and success.
• Develop a highly functioning team that works together as a self-correcting system.

Join this group experience. The cost of the experience is $3,150 for NCDD members (this reflects a 10 percent discount), payable in various installment plans. Don’t hesitate to call 303-458-4967 and we will connect you with one of our four coach/facilitators so you can talk one to one and have your questions answered. Call 303-458-4967 to sign up. More information is at www.leadershipcurrency.com.

Dues-paying NCDD members are eligible for 20% discounts for the upcoming courses offered by our friends at the Center for Strategic Facilitation. CSF is a partnership of consultants in the San Francisco Bay Area experienced in training, facilitation and organizational development. The CSF Senior Partners are Marti Roach and Jane Stallman.  CSF is affiliated with the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA), a leader over the past four decades in promoting lasting change in communities, nonprofits and businesses, which utilizes a distinct and proven approach called the Technology of Participation.

These are just a few of the many great discounts we’ve negotiated for dues-paying NCDD members. (more…)

NCDD member Jim Fishkin (creator of Deliberative Polling and director of Stanford’s Center for Deliberative Democracy) wanted to extend a 20% discount to all of you on his new book, When the People Speak: Deliberative Democracy and Public Consultation. The book includes the impressive Europe in One Room DVD, which some of you viewed at the 2008 NCDD conference.

Go to www.us.oup.com and enter 28333 into the promo code box at the top right to purchase the book at the discounted rate.

(more…)

In our continuing efforts to reach new audiences and provide greater benefits to our members, NCDD has been strengthening its relationship to the longstanding National MultiCultural Institute. NMCI is welcoming NCDD members with open arms to its 2009 annual conference/training event, offering a 10% discount to dues-paying NCDD members on its Diversity Leadership Institute and Emerging Issues Forum. Depending on what you are interested in attending, that’s a savings of up to $97 for nonprofits and individuals, or $145 for corporate attendees.

NMCI’s 2009 conference, “Forging New Pathways for Diversity and Inclusion: Building Skills for Collaboration and Dialogue,” takes place November 18-21 at the Marriott Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia. If you are interested in professional development and dialogue on cutting-edge diversity and inclusion issues, the NMCI conference is for you. NCDD is an official sponsor of the conference.

Sandy Heierbacher, NCDD’s Director, helped design and organize the innovative Emerging Issues Forum on November 18th, a day-long event designed to convene engage leaders from different sectors and disciplines in thoughtful dialogue on controversial diversity and equity issues they face in their organizations, communities, and greater society. NCDD members David Campt and Leilani Henry will help this session succeed, using electronic keypads and Playback Theatre techniques (respectively) to enable top thought leaders in diversity and inclusion to identify and explore the major challenges they face, now and in the future, in achieving their goals of a truly equitable and inclusive society.

Learn more about NMCI and this year’s training program at www.nmci.org or download the PDF program at www.nmci.org/documents/NMCIProgramFinalWebVersion.pdf.

On September 25th, a symposium is being held at Pepperdine School of Law’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution in Malibu, California, called Taking It Upstream: Collaboration, Consensus Building & Sustainable Development A Green Leadership (Un)Conference. NCDD members are being offered a special affiliate rate of $125.  This rate includes breakfast, lunch and an afternoon reception.

This groundbreaking symposium will provide a highly participatory forum to explore opportunities for using collaboration, consensus building, and other engagement techniques to create more sustainable communities and manage potential land use and environmental disputes.

Who Should Attend?
Green-minded elected officials, agencies, community leaders, planners, architects, developers, engineers, attorneys, mediators, facilitators and other  dialogue & deliberation professionals.

Highlights

• A Mayors’ Panel
• Morning Framing Sessions: “The Big Picture,” “Local Perspective,” and “Cutting-Edge Collaborative Techniques”
• Interactive “Sustainability Roundtables” focusing on: Communities, Transportation, Zoning and Development Controls, Construction & Design, Infrastructure, and Resources
• Networking Lunch and Afternoon Reception

Learn more at http://law.pepperdine.edu/news-events/events/upstream/

NCDD member PublicDecisions is offering a 3-part live, online course this October on “Effective Techniques for Engagement.” Dues-paying NCDD members save 20% on PublicDecisions trainings. Email Paul Coelus at for details on registering at the discounted rate. (More members discounts.)

John Stephens, another NCDD member, is the instructor for this course.  John is Associate Professor of Public Administration and Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The course will be taught in three 90-minute sessions on October 6th, 7th, and 8th. Each class is held from 1:00 to 2:30 pm Eastern. High-speed internet and long-distance telephone service is required to participate. (more…)

If you have been thinking about participating in Fielding Graduate Institute’s extraordinary Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement Certificate Program (DDPE), now’s the time to apply.  The early bird registration deadline has been extended to the 25th, so you can still save $250 in tuition.  Plus – dues-paying NCDD members are eligible for an additional 10% discount!

Tuition is $3,740 if you register before July 25, 2009. NCDD members’ tuition is $3,365 (a 10% discount of $375).

This year’s graduate certificate program runs from August 10, 2009 through January 20, 2010.  NCDD Board member Taylor Willingham, Director of Texas Forums at the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum, says this about the program:

“What an amazing faculty! I was interacting on a regular basis with people I had only known previously through their writing. Who would have ever thought that I would not only get to know them, but get to take advantage of their wisdom! It was an incredible experience.”

Learn more about the program at www.fielding.edu/programs/ce/ddpe.

As you may know, the International Association for Public Participation’s annual conference, IAP2 2009: Making Sustainable Decisions, is taking place in San Diego, California this September 21-23.  NCDD is an official “Partner” of the conference, and members of NCDD save $100 on the registration fee; just be sure to enter the code NCDD on the online registration form!  To register or learn more, go to www.iap2.org.  And please note that early bird registration ends on the 21st.

I am co-presenting the morning-long plenary session on the last day of the conference, with my friends Myriam Laberge and Brenda Chaddock of the Masterful Facilitation Institute.  This practitioner keynote and plenary session, titled “Dare to Dream! Exploring a New Era of Public Engagement,” will explore one of our field’s most pressing challenges: how do we make public engagement more integral to our systems?

We’re also holding an informal networking meeting for NCDD members before the Core Values Awards gala on the evening of Monday, September 21st.  Let me know if you’ll be there!  (Email me at .)

The 4th Annual International Conference on “Engaging The Other:” The Power of Compassion is taking place November 12-15 in San Mateo, California (outside San Francisco), and we encourage all NCDDers interested in conflict resolution and intergroup relations to attend! NCDD is co-sponsoring this event with the Common Bond Institute and the International Humanistic Psychology Association, and registration will be discounted for NCDD members ($290 rather than $350 for the early rate).

Engaging The Other (ETO) is an innovative interdisciplinary conference examining concepts of “The Other” from a universal, cross-cultural perspective to promote wider public dialogue about concepts of “Us and Them.”

Now is the time to submit your proposal for a concurrent session (workshop), and/or to sign up as a dialogue group facilitator. Participation in either role saves you 50% on the regular registration rate! (more…)

I wanted to post a reminder that the 4-part webinar series, the “Transition from Crisis 2 Resilience Webinar” is holding its first one-hour webinar tonight at 7 pm Eastern.  Regular tuition is $110, which includes a Transition Crisis 2 Resilience Handbook, but fee-paying NCDD members can register for $88 at http://crisis2resilience.com/ncdd.

A Crisis Doesn’t Have to Become A Disaster

Position yourself, your clients, your community facing natural and human-generated crises, for immediate survival through building long-term resilience.

For: Facilitators, Mediators, Consultants, Business & Community Leaders, Emergency Service Providers, Citizens

Upcoming weekly 4 one-hour webinars:  June 2, 9, 15, and 23, 4 – 5PM Pacific Time; 7 – 8PM Eastern Time 12PM GMT

Us Partners and the Global Facilitators Service Corps are teaming up to expand the corps of leaders knowledgeable in crisis management and building resilience. We educate people to be able to facilitate communities, organizations, business, and individuals to emerge from the trauma of crisis to becoming self-reliant, self-organizing, innovative and resilient.

Special discount link for fee-paying NCDD members: http://crisis2resilience.com/ncdd

Questions?  Email Hina Pendle at

I hope to see many NCDDers at the Network for Peace through Dialogue conference this summer in New York City.  I’ll be there, speaking during the opening evening plenary (along with Geraldine Ferraro!) and giving a workshop the next day on moving from dialogue to action.

The conference, which takes place June 12th and 13th at Marymount Manhattan College, is designed for community groups, peace workers, practitioners, researchers, teachers, students and anyone who struggles to bring people with different viewpoints together. Registration is now open, and there is a special $150 registration rate for NCDD members (the regular rate is $200). Students with valid ID’s pay only $75.

Click here for more info on the conference or to register.  You can also call 212-426-5818 or email if you have questions.

This year’s conference theme is “Dialogue In/As Action,” and the event will focus on the rich intersections of the methods, processes, and actions of dialogue that lead to change. The 2009 conference will explore the ground rules for practicing good dialogue, as well as the parameters for putting constructive dialogue into action. The goals of the 2009 conference are to provide a forum for addressing and discussing the following issues:

• Change generated through dialogue
• The preconditions of dialogue and how they can be fostered
• Cases of dialogue IN ACTION, AS ACTION
• Cases of dialogue across ethnicities, nationalities, and religious beliefs
• Using technology to facilitate dialogue
• Voices of youth making change (presentations by youth)

Let me know if you plan to attend!  We’ll plan a little NCDD gathering if a good number of members plan to be there.

Here is a special message for NCDD members from Peggy Holman about the extraordinary upcoming conference, Leadership in a Self-Organizing World…

With so much upheaval happening today, there are many exciting experiments underway that shed light on new forms of organizing.  On May 14-17, we are bringing together people from a variety of sectors including corporations, nonprofits, education, government, communities, and the arts.  We have much to learn from each other.  And as practitioners with conversational forms, NCDD members are at the heart of this type of this work.

Harrison Owen, creator of Open Space Technology, will offer us a starting place based on his most recent book, Wave Riders: Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World.  Because the gathering is primarily in Open Space, it is a co-creative learning laboratory for sharing stories and learning from each other about leadership and self-organization.  We welcome NCDD members who have not already registered for the conference with a $150 discount off the corporate, non-profit and government rates or $100 off the individual rate. (more…)

Proposals for pre-conference trainings are due TOMORROW (Friday, February 27th) by noon GMT for the 17th Annual IAP2 conference in San Diego, California this September 21st through 23rd. Facilitators of pre-conference trainings set their own participant fees for their trainings.

The theme for this year’s International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) conference is Making Sustainable Decisions: The Price and Promise of Public Participation. As a Conference Partner, NCDD is playing a major role in the San Diego conference and we hope to have a large NCDD contingent there. NCDD members will pay a discounted registration fee for the conference, and we will hold at least one NCDD gathering and/or workshop at the event.

IAP2 wants to expand the definition of sustainability to encompass all the characteristics that make decision-making processes and the resulting decisions sustainable. Specifically, we are looking for presentations focused around the following themes:

1. Sustainable decision-making processes: what characteristics are necessary for a public participation process to be sustainable?
2. Sustainable decisions: In what ways does public participation lead to decisions that are more workable and enduring than those made without public participation?
3. Sustainable outcomes: How do public participation processes and better decisions specifically contribute to the sustainability of projects and programs?

We believe now is the time to embed in decision-making sustainable processes that will lead to sustainable outcomes. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego to explore and advance our understanding of how to make better, stronger, durable decisions that improve our quality of life and leave a better world in place for future generations.

Visit www.thataway.org/?page_id=1419 or iap2.org for more details about the event.

The 4th Annual International Conference on “Engaging The Other:” The Power of Compassion is taking place November 13-15 in San Mateo, California (outside San Francisco), and we encourage all NCDDers interested in conflict resolution and intergroup relations to attend! NCDD is co-sponsoring this event with the Common Bond Institute and the International Humanistic Psychology Association, and registration will be discounted for NCDD members ($290 rather than $350 for the early rate).

Engaging The Other (ETO) is an innovative interdisciplinary conference examining concepts of “The Other” from a universal, cross-cultural perspective to promote wider public dialogue about concepts of “Us and Them.”

Now is the time to submit your proposal for a concurrent session (workshop), and/or to sign up as a dialogue group facilitator. (more…)