We Want YOU to Upgrade OUR Democracy!

Join Mobilize.org, along with Declare Yourself, the National Constitution Center, Change.org, the National Conference on Citizenship, and Why Tuesday?,” for CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION: BUILDING DEMOCRACY 2.0, January 9-11, 2009 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

This event gives Millennials around the country the opportunity to network with other Millennials, engage in discussions about the election and American democracy with other Millennials, as well as renowned experts in the fields of history, politics, constitutional law, and political management.

Constitutional Convention: Building Democracy 2.0 gives YOU the opportunity to sustain the election momentum YOU created in the 2008 election to ensure that the civic and political dialogue around major issues affecting YOU continues and results in action that causes systemic and lasting positive change.

Get the opportunity to use interactive keypad voting technology and other technology-savvy methods to engage in interactive dialogue about the election, Democracy 2.0, and building your influence.

Compete for funding over the three-day summit, and receive up to $10,000 in grants.

Visit the Convention website at www.democracyupgrade.com for more details, or download the Participant Packet at http://tiny.cc/0ydwC. For further information, contact the Summit Team at .

Keep Mobilizin’ –

Maya and the Mobilize.org Team – Ian, Christina, Ana, Nick, Chris, Kenneth and Gloria

NCDD Board member Taylor Willingham just sent this to NCDD’s main discussion list…

New Social Inquiry is a brand new academic journal that will be publishing social research essays and relative works that are accessible to a wide audience, engaging and relevant for non-specialists, yet sophisticated and complex enough to push scholarship forward. Their first publication will focus on public dialogue. Here’s an excerpt from the guidelines for submission:

Is there such a thing as public dialogue, now or in the past? If so, who participates, who leads, and what forms does it take? If not, how can it realistically be realized? What are the main challenges to establishing/maintaining public dialogue? What are good examples of public dialogue working in the world today? What is/are the relationship(s) between public dialogue(s) and social inquiry(ies)? Shotgun essays should be no longer than 1000 words–we said “short”, and we mean it.

For more info, visit www.newsocialinquiry.org.

A new agenda to strengthen America’s democracy is being advanced to the incoming Administration. Everyone in the D&D community is invited to join this effort by endorsing the Agenda for Strengthening Our Nation’s Democracy. The Agenda, posted at www.americaspeaks.org/StrengtheningDemocracyAgenda, is comprised of an exciting set of recommendations, including a White House Office of Civic Engagement, a call for regular national discussions, and a unique set of policy reforms to increase participation in public life.

The Agenda was developed by a diverse group of 49 thinkers, advocates, and academics who came together from across the fields of electoral reform, deliberative democracy and community development. The three convening organizations were AmericaSpeaks, Everyday Democracy and Dēmos: A Network for Ideas.

The Agenda will build on the incredible participation we have seen during this election season by providing a real voice for every American in our governance process. Together these recommendations will transform the relationship between citizens and their government. NCDD has endorsed the Agenda and we encourage all of our members to add your names and organizations to the list of endorsers as well! (more…)

Deborah Goldblatt, director of the Youth Dialogue Project (YDP) submitted the following reflections on the YDP at NCDD Austin. Sponsored by the Rockrose Institute, the YDP’s goal is to ensure that the voices of young leaders are included in creative and innovative ways. To this end, the YDP hosted three inter-related sessions at the conference: one workshop for people under 30, one for people over 30, and a trans-generational sub-plenary session. The first session and the sub-plenary were co-designed and hosted by six young leaders from the On the Verge leadership training program in partnership with a team of mentors and elders currently active in the D&D community. The second session was co-designed and hosted by the YDP mentoring team.

NCDD is grateful for the extraordinary leadership of Deborah Goldblatt, the entire Youth Dialogue Project team (including the graphic recorders whose work is featured here), and the Rockrose Institute. It was a pleasure working with you, and we hope to work with you again soon!

What worked:

Young Adult Leadership session and sub-plenary were successful due to:

1. an intentional invitation from NCDD to include and provide space for younger members to become more visible in the NCDD community.
2. creating opportunities for younger D&D facilitators to model their skill and generate new ideas.
3. modelling inter-generational design collaboration for participants.
4. giving a voice to current concerns within young adult leadership and raising self-reflective questions about inter-generational collaboration.
5. addressing challenges of bias and inclusion in community, especially NCDD.
6. the sessions were highly experiential bringing in technology and the arts, which all ages appreciate, and offering young participants tools for engaging other participants.

What was learned:

How can we help young people succeed and thrive in the D&D field? It really comes down to creating opportunities and pushing for breakthroughs in schools and colleges through willing, trained faculty. I refuse to believe that time and money are the key obstacles to making that happen, but in my experience of creating the Youth Dialogue Project, it is apparent that those two things stand out as obstacles to progress.

As we (hopefully) are now entering an age of transparency, issues inter-generationally of trust and control may be opened up to where faculty are more willing to relinquish the reins and experiment. Steve Pyser’s post recently on your blog is a perfect example of what we need to model much, much more of to help young people succeed and thrive in this field. Most young people just aren’t aware that D&D is out there. (more…)

On October 30th, I received an email from , a consultant in restorative justice, victim issues and sentencing, asking if NCDD would like to be listed as a “potential ally” for activities related to restorative justice in a proposal being submitted to the Obama administration. The proposal includes the establishment of a National Commission on Restorative Justive.

Here are some more details from the email…

Many organizations have been involved in the preparation of proposals regarding justice issues to the new Administration. Ginny Sloan from the non-partisan Constitution Project has been heading up the effort. The “transition document” is virtually completed. (more…)