Graphic facilitation experts Nancy Margulies and Mariah Howard will be leading a Graphic Recording Workshop April 14-15 in Half Moon Bay, CA. The workshop is designed for those who are new to using images and key phrases to record conversations, present ideas, brainstorm, capture essential aspects of dialogues, World Café and other group processes. Drawing skills are not required — they will teach you the basics along with techniques like Mind-Mapping, Mindscaping, and symbol drawing. The fees for one day are $295 corporate, $150 individuals; and for both days $560 corporate, $275 individuals. To reserve a space, or to inquire about lodging, contact Mariah Howard at .

The International Association of Facilitators is sponsoring The Facilitation Academy series of workshops April 23-25, 2007 in Atlanta. This series of workshops features three expert facilitators leading sessions on how to do great facilitation, facilitative conflict strategies and tools for facilitating decision-making. Participants can register for one day or all three. Costs are: 1 day only: $695; Any 2 days: $1095; All 3 days: $1495. For more information, visit www.leadstrat.com/facilitationacademy.shtml.

The Shambhala Institute for Authentic Leadership is now inviting applications for its 2007 Authentic Leadership Summer Program, June 24-30, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Over the past six years The Shambhala Institute has become a vibrant meeting-place of people, practices, and ideas engaged at the frontier of organizational and societal change. The Authentic Leadership Summer Program, brings together 250 – 300 forward-thinking leaders, managers and change agents of all levels from business, government, education, NGOs and civil society. Participants will experience five days of integrated personal and professional development, including one of ten skill-building modules, daily mindfulness meditation, creative process, and small- and large-group inquiry, reflection, and dialogue. Registration discounts available on or before March 2; team and non-profit discounts ongoing. Learn more at http://shambhalainstitute.org or call 902-425-0492.

IREX has just announced the 2007 Policy-Connect Collaborative Research Grants competition. IREX’s Policy-Connect program seeks to attract, select, and support advanced research by US experts in policy-relevant subject areas related to Southeast Europe and Eurasia, facilitate collaboration among and between US and international scholars, and disseminate knowledge about Europe and Eurasia to a wide network of constituents in the United States and abroad. Policy-Connect provides American scholars with the means and support necessary to conduct research, particularly on lesser-studied regions such as the Balkans, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, where issues central to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States must be studied. The knowledge and expertise gained by the grant recipients become a valuable resource for the policymaking community, as the scholars share the results of their research through research briefs, policy fora, and individual meetings. (more…)

The application deadline for the Greater Expectations campus leadership Institute is coming up March 16, 2007. The Greater Expectations Institute is a five-day, intensive program designed for campus leadership teams working on ways to increase student engagement, inclusion, and high achievement. The Institute will help teams align institutional purposes, structures, and practices as well as advance and assess the kinds of practical liberal education outcomes outlined in American Association of Colleges & Universities’ signature report, Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College, such as critical inquiry, intercultural competence, and integrative learning. Coming up June 20-24, 2007 in Burlington, Vermont. To learn more or apply online visit: www.aacu.org/meetings/gexinstitute/index.cfm. If you have questions or need technical assistance, please contact Nakia Bell at or 202.387.3760.

The Compassionate Listening Project (www.compassionatelistening.org) just sent us their spring/summer 2007 training and workshop line-up. Upcoming events feature several intensive trainings, compassionate journeys to Berlin, Germany and to Israel/Palestine, a conference for community groups and their annual summer gathering. Here’s the full list of dates, locations and costs: (more…)

Gary Rush just sent us word of a new Group Facilitation and Collaboration Forum, nosted by MGR Consulting. It covers facilitation, collaboration, leadership, and diversity and related subjects. All participants are welcome to join: www.mgrconsulting.com/forums/intro/Forum_Info.html

Learn The Sufi Way of Peace-Making March 16-18 in Boston, MA. Led by Nura Laird, M.Ed., workshop participants will learn a spiritual tool that helps diffuse strong emotions and establish reconciliation and connection as well as learn heart communication that will bring people to a higher level. Applicable to every situation in life that necessitates communication whether with family, friends, colleagues, co-workers, clients or others. Participants learn to hear what is really being said by the other person and not by the surface words and learn the difference between heart and mind communication and when each is valuable. Open to all adults and young people of all backgrounds, beliefs and faiths, the workshop will be held at Copper Beech Montessori School, 79 Amory St, Boston/Jamaica Plain, MA. Workshop fee: $200 Fri evening intro only-$25 Discounts-Find 2 people, you come for free or 3 people come as a group and share the savings at $135@. Students-$100. For registration & questions contact Carol Lee at 617-721-5215 or .

Lars Torres recently sent out an interesting report on the impact that citizen journalism is having on the future of journalism. The press release starts:

Most Americans say bloggers and citizen reporters will play a vital role in journalism’s future

Online survey finds general public, media conference attendees agree that traditional news outlets could do a better.

Zogby has released details of a new research project referenced at least week’s We Media Miami forum, with some fascinating findings and implications for the future of journalism. We see, clearly, a broad shift in how people access, create, share and apply information – and, besides that, a broad understanding, among Americans, of this shift.

Here‘s the full press release with details. Lars makes the point that this report goes “back to this central idea that the D&D community has a tremendous assets to offer journalists, and the “industry” is poised to enter an environment that can make the connexions real!”

at CitizenSovereignty.org writes of two deliberative polls held recently in Ireland and Italy:  In Omagh, Northern Ireland on January 27, the first Deliberative Poll in a deeply divided society found common ground for non-sectarian improvement of schools. And a Deliberative Poll in Rome on January 8 clarified budget priorities for the region –  for information on these deliberative polls, visit the Center for Deliberative Democracy Website  (http://cdd.stanford.edu/polls/index.html) and click on the link to each country.

NCDD friend Ruth Yellowhawk just sent us a story about her work putting together a film series as part of the Indigenous Issues Forum in Rapid City, South Dakota. In her story “Film Series an Agent for Change,” Kristin Donnan Standard, Journal columnist writes:

“Maybe everyone else in the area has known about the Community Cinema Series since last September, when the first film ran. Maybe everyone else has attended one of the documentaries on challenging subjects and participated in the discussion group. But for those of us who are new to the program – and are interested in fun, easy, grassroots ways to begin that seemingly insurmountable task of “making a difference” -these events are just the ticket.

Facilitated locally by the Indigenous Issues Forum (IIF), the series of documentaries currently on tap has been produced by ITVS, Independent Television Services. Each covers what IIF founding member Ruth Yellowhawk calls “marginalized, undertold stories.”

Click here for more on the story.

The program for the 2007 Initiatives of Change summer conferences in Caux is now available online. Initiatives of Change is a global network open to people of all nationalities, cultures, religions, and beliefs, who work towards change, locally and globally, starting with change in their own lives. The theme for this summer’s conference is “Trust across the world’s divides? Dignity for all?” In all, there will be six week-long conferences on “Values, Responsibility and Leadership,” “Building Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy,” “A Grassroots Dialogue of Civilizations,” “Openness and Trust across Generations,” “Tools for Change” and “Can Integrity, Respect and Trust lead to Dignity for all?” Check out the conference website for more information on opportunities to participate: www.caux.ch/en/program.php.

The College of DuPage Public Policy Institute near Chicago will hold National Issues Forums Moderator Training and Issue Framing Training on March 19-20 and March 21-23, respectively. National Issues Forums offer citizens the opportunity to join together to deliberate, to make choices with others about ways to approach difficult issues and to work toward creating reasoned public judgment, and moderators play a key role in the success of these discussions. (For more information on NIF, visit NCDD’s resources section). Register for the training now at www.cod.edu/ppi, as openings are limited. Contact Cynthia Johnson, PPI Director, at (630) 942-3872 for more information.

The documentary film Refusing To Be Enemies: The Zeitouna Story will premiere on Sunday March 18 at 7pm at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor. Those of you lucky enough to be near Ann Arbor can email  for advance tickets. The showing on the 18th is expected to be sold out (all 1600 seats!), so a second showing may be needed to meet the demand for tickets.

The movie profiles the twelve women of a local dialogue group called Zeitouna (“olive” in Arabic) and documents their developing relationship over a four-year period. Six of the Zeitouna women are of Arab descent and six are of Jewish descent. Some are native born and some are immigrants. What they all have in common is their humanity and their desire to bridge the gulf that has developed between their two communities. They chose the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the focus of the group and use the dialogue process as a means of personal transformation leading to socio-political transformation.

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Below you’ll find a 5-minute recap of our 2006 national conference…