The 2007 International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Skills Symposium will be held November 12-16, 2007 Chaparral Suites, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. This training extravaganza offers workshops for all experience levels. Courses vary in length, focus, and cost. You choose the courses that meet your budget and training needs. Highlights of the event include:

* Peter Sandman - Risk Communication and Outrage Management
* Larry Susskind - Consensus Building in the Public Arena
* Bill Lennertz- National Charrette Institute’s Charrette Planner Certificate Program
* Michael Quinn Patton - Evaluating Public Participation Processes

Evenings activities offer social networking, the IAP2 General Meeting, and the Core Values awards celebration. Visit IAP2 online at www.iap2.org for more information about this event.

Imagine BC invites focused dialogue among thoughtful and inspired individuals to explore and to generate imaginative thinking about current and complex challenges facing the future of British Columbia. This year, they are exploring the economics of poverty, environmental systems, power and institutional dynamics to address the topic of Health and Community. Using dialogue as a mechanism, Imagine BC hopes to inspire policy makers, academics, business leaders and educators in 8-10 regions around the province. Read about their work here: http://www.thataway.org/6d2b4e.

The Interfaith Fast to End the War in Iraq is just around the corner. Organizers are seeking people in local communities around the United States and in other parts of the world to engage in this fast to seek an end to the war in Iraq. Participants join with other religious communities in their local neighborhoods to organize events such as candlelight vigils, teach-ins and public demonstrations for Oct 7th night and the 8th. Organizers should invite public officials to those events to impress upon them the need to end the war in Iraq.

At the end of the day on the 8th, participants will come together as an interfaith community for a joint celebration for breaking the fast (iftar). You can post your events on the campaign website: http://interfaithfast.org/, and search for events by zip code. On the website at this time are two downloadable resources that you may print and distribute in your congregation: Fasting – a Spiritual Discipline for Christians and Strategies for Coming Together in Interfaith Settings.

Barbara Raye of the Victim Offender Mediation (VOMA — www.voma.org) sent us a moving discussion of the recent “Jena 6″ case, in which 6 black students have been charged with attempted murder for the beating of a white student. I’ve included the full text of her comments, including a discussion of how dialogue could have prevented the racial tensions at the boys’ school from escalating to this level.

Last year black students asked for the “right” to sit under a tree on campus that had historically been reserved for white students. The tree, instead of becoming a symbol of harmony and progress, no longer lives on campus. But before it was cut down, nooses were strung from it by white students. Those students knew the symbolism of the act and they knew the threat and history it provoked. But, they might not have known the harm it caused. How could they? They probably didn’t intend to hang black students from the tree–they merely wanted to be “one-up” in the power dynamics of a situation that seemed to be threatening the separation of the races on school grounds and the superiority of white students. It was determined that a “crime” had not been committed and school suspensions were meted out to those involved. (more…)

The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution of the Morris K. Udall Foundation invites you to share your knowledge at the fifth national conference, ECR2008, May 20-22, 2008 at the Doubletree Hotel at Reid Park in Tucson, Arizona. Proposals from session organizers are currently being accepted for concurrent panel sessions and roundtable discussions. Note that the deadline for proposals is October 26th!

ECR2008 will provide a forum for exchange of ideas and mutual learning about the field of environmental conflict resolution among government representatives, non-governmental organizations, tribal nations and members, community based groups, environmental advocates, corporate entities, resource managers and users, private individuals, and professionals in the conflict resolution, mediation and consensus building fields. ECR2008 conference sessions will examine various ways to enhance the success of ECR processes, through better understanding of emerging and innovative uses of new technology and communication tools; what we are learning from the latest research and evaluation of ECR and other collaborative processes; and how to navigate process choices to make informed decisions that will lead to improved outcomes of all stakeholders.

The program committee is interested in dynamic, interactive sessions. Training workshops, panels, and roundtables that include members of non-governmental organizations, representatives from the corporate sector, tribes, local, state, and federal agencies and private citizens are strongly encouraged. Download the full Call for Proposals at www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/ECR2008Call.pdf.

Members of the D&D community are invited to an extraordinary international conference to address the roots of negative stereotypes, prejudice, and artificial barriers of misunderstanding and distrust that separate us. Join more than 60 leading presenters to cultivate our capacity for reconciliation, appreciation of diversity, and peace. This is an important, timely dialogue that concerns everyone.

Participants at this international, multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary conference will examine concepts of “The OTHER” from a universal, cross-cultural perspective to promote wider public dialogue about concepts of “Us and Them.” The conference, which is sponsored by the Common Bond Institute, will take place October 25-28, 2007 in Dearborn, Michigan

The outstanding, diverse pool of over 60 presenters includes:
Sam Keen, Danny Glover, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Maureen O’Hara, James O’Dea, Louise Diamond, Sen. John Vasconcellos, Gay Barfield, Aftab Omer, Imam Hassan Qazwini, Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Imam Mohamed Mardini, Lee Mun Wah, Sharif Abdullah, Ahmad Hijazi, Dizzy Warren, Libby and Len Traubman, Maggie Herzig, and many more.

Learn more or register at www.cbiworld.org/Pages/Conferences_ETO.htm.

Christine Sanchez just sent us word of a workshop she’s organizing this December in Arizona. Methods For Strategic Collaboration is a unique experiential learning workshop that provides foundational theory and practice to utilize Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space Technology, World Café and Polarity Management™. Participants will:

1. Gain a working knowledge of the principles, steps and practices of Appreciative Inquiry, World Café and Open Space Technology
2. Craft appreciative questions and provocative propositions in your own language and for your environment.
3. Design a large group project to take home.
4. Participate in two follow-up coaching sessions. (more…)

Watch a film… Make a friend… Make peace happen… 20,000 Dialogues is a nationwide initiative bringing interfaith dialogue into the hands of ordinary people who want to make a positive difference. NCDD is partnering with 20,000 Dialogues to encourage you to join a nationwide campaign to bring people of different faiths together using films about Muslims to stimulate discussion and promote understanding.

Host a dialogue in your living room, at your school, or with your congregation. Do it during lunch with your coworkers or with your book club. These dialogues can be as small as 5 people or as large as you want. Get involved now to get your free copy of Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain or Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet. Learn more about this opportunity.