Author Archives: Andy Fluke

NCDD 2014 All-Star Sponsor: Public Conversations Project

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NCDD is proud to announce that the Public Conversations Project is stepping up as an All-Star Sponsor of the 6th National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation…

Public Conversations ProjectSince 1989, the Public Conversation Project has worked in the U.S. and around the world facilitating dialogues on a wide range of contentious issues including abortion, forest management, homosexuality and faith, biodiversity, the use of animals in research, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and many others. In a world bristling with tension, controversy, polarization, and war, PCP aims to reduce rancor in public squares and promote effective communication within organizations and communities. It also provides workshops and customized trainings that teach people how to use its dialogue methods.

PCP was founded by Corky Becker, Laura Chasin, Richard Chasin, Margaret Herzig, and Sallyann Roth. The founders plus recent additions Raye Rawls and Mary Jacksteit, along with program staff members Robert Stains, Jr., David Joseph, Meenakshi Chakraverti, and Alison Streit Baron make up PCP’s team of associates.

The Public Conversations Project brings disputants together for the kind of dialogue that shifts relationships from ones of mistrust, defense, withdrawal, or attack to those of curiosity, connection, and compassionate understanding of differences. PCP does not seek to shift people’s core beliefs and commitments around the issues that have divided them.
Many of PCP’s approaches have roots in family systems therapy methods and goals. Family therapist skills help relatives to stop seeing each other as bitter adversaries, even if they do continue to disagree on important matters.

Photos from the Public Conversations Project website.

Photos from the Public Conversations Project website.

They also provide free training guides and dialogue resources. The organization and its staff publish widely in academic journals, are quoted in the mainstream press, and offer a cadre of materials related to planning and facilitating a dialogue.  The Public Conversations Project’s widely used resources include three guides that teach how to plan and facilitate dialogue about a wide range of topics.

You can learn a lot more about The Public Conversations Project by visiting their website and when you meet the good folks from PCP at the conference this Fall, please thank them for helping make NCDD 2014 possible!

Interested in Sponsoring the Conference?

Over the next few months leading up to NCDD’s 2014 National Conference (held this year at the Hyatt Regency in Reston, VA just outside DC), we’ll be highlighting the work of our event sponsors on our news blog, on social media, and on our listservs.  Those interested in helping us create our best event ever can learn more about sponsorship opportunities by downloading our 2014 Sponsorship Info PDF.

We also recommend you check out Seattle’s sponsors to get a sense of the fantastic organizations that step up to support NCDD events — and check out the guidebook from NCDD 2012 to see how sponsors are featured.

NCDD 2014 All-Star Sponsor: The Interactivity Foundation

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NCDD is proud to announce that the Interactivity Foundation is stepping up as an All-Star Sponsor of the 6th National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation…

The Interactivity Foundation (or IF) works to engage citizens in the exploration and development of possibilities for public policy through small group discussions.  With projects impacting policy discussions as close to home as Madison, Wisconsin and as far afield as Hungary, Kazakhstan and the far east, the Interactivity Foundation works on several levels of public discussions within three main focal areas:

Their Project Discussions are longer-term projects with selected panelists that develop our Discussion Reports with different possibilities for future public policy.  IF sponsors—and their Fellows manage—these discussions on broad, complex topics of social and political concern.  They often refer to these Project Discussions as “Sanctuary” discussions because they are designed to foster a protected space for truly collegial discussion and open and collaborative exploration of difficult issues.

Their Public Discussions are shorter-term discussion series that use our Discussion Reports as a starting point for further discussion and exploration.  While these Public Discussions, which are sometimes refer to as “Citizen Discussions,” differ in certain respects from our Project Discussions, both types of discussion are interrelated. They share certain discussion techniques, they may overlap in time, and they are certainly interactive with each other.

Photos from The Interactivity Foundation website.

Photos from The Interactivity Foundation website.

Finally, their Classroom Discussions, where they work with educators to support student-centered discussions in a variety of educational settings, were initiated in late 2005, when they began thinking about education and college classrooms as another forum in which we might further develop our methods for facilitated, small-group discussions of broad public policy topics.

You can learn a lot more about The Interactivity Foundation by visiting their website and when you meet the good folks from IF at the conference this Fall, please thank them for helping make NCDD 2014 possible!

Interested in Sponsoring the Conference?

Over the next few months leading up to NCDD’s 2014 National Conference (held this year at the Hyatt Regency in Reston, VA just outside DC), we’ll be highlighting the work of our event sponsors on our news blog, on social media, and on our listservs.  Those interested in helping us create our best event ever can learn more about sponsorship opportunities by downloading our 2014 Sponsorship Info PDF.

We also recommend you check out Seattle’s sponsors to get a sense of the fantastic organizations that step up to support NCDD events — and check out the guidebook from NCDD 2012 to see how sponsors are featured.

Be Registrant #100! And don’t miss the Early Bird rate!

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Hi everybody! Andy here with a fun little milestone for NCDD’s 2014 conference. We are now at 99 regular registrations for this fall’s event. Which means you, yes you, can be registrant number 100! Not only can you take advantage of the soon-to-expire early bird registration rate, but you also receive the bragging rights that only come with being #100. Please feel free to have a tshirt made and wear it to the conference. :-)

So register today and claim this auspicious moment as your own. But seriously, the Early Bird rate for the conference ends in a week and if you would like to take advantage of the discount you need to act fast. Use the form below to grab #100 for yourself and take advantage of the discount.

You can learn more about our upcoming national conference and all our programming here.

June 2014 Confab Call with Peter Levine

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Last Thursady, NCDD hosted its June 2014 Confab Call with featured guest Peter Levine, the Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship & Public Affairs in Tufts University’s Jonathan Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service and Director of CIRCLE, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

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Peter focused on his new book We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For, a primer for anyone motivated to help revive our fragile civic life and restore citizens’ public role.  If you missed the confab and are interested in learning more, you can now listen to the entire conversation — or look over the collaborative document participants created during the Confab Call — at the links below.

You can also learn more about NCDD’s Confab Calls and other events (including our upcoming National Conference in Reston, VA) in our Event Section.

June 2014 Confab Call with Peter Levine

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Last Thursady, NCDD hosted its June 2014 Confab Call with featured guest Peter Levine, the Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship & Public Affairs in Tufts University’s Jonathan Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service and Director of CIRCLE, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

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Peter focused on his new book We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For, a primer for anyone motivated to help revive our fragile civic life and restore citizens’ public role.  If you missed the confab and are interested in learning more, you can now listen to the entire conversation — or look over the collaborative document participants created during the Confab Call — at the links below.

You can also learn more about NCDD’s Confab Calls and other events (including our upcoming National Conference in Reston, VA) in our Event Section.

April 2014 Confab Call on “Text, Talk, Act”

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Last Wednesday, NCDD hosted its April 2014 Confab Call with featured guests Matt Leighninger and Mike Smith talking about the innovative project known as Text Talk Act.  If you missed the confab and are interested in learning more, you can now listen to the entire conversation — or look over the collaborative document participants created during the Confab Call — at the links below.

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As part of our role in the National Dialogue on Mental Health project Creating Community Solutions, NCDD and our partners have been experimenting with how the fun and convenience of text messaging can be leveraged to scale up face-to-face dialogue — especially among young people.

The first round of Text Talk Act took place on December 5, and round two is coming up on April 24 (and we hope you’re planning to participate!).  Here’s what you can do to learn more…

You can also learn more about NCDD’s Confab Calls and other events (including our upcoming National Conference in Reston, VA) in our Event Section.

Archive of March’s Confab on Everyday Democracy

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EvDem LogoLast month, as part of NCDD’s Confab Call series, we spent time with the staff of one of NCDD’s founding members, Everyday Democracy, exploring what Everyday Democracy has learned over the years, through their close work with community partners, about how to create dialogue and change.

We’re happy to share a recording of the the webinar, now available on the Everyday Democracy website, presented by Malik Russell, Everyday Democracy’s Communications Director, Carolyne Abdullah, their Director of Community Assistance, and Rebecca Reyes, Communications Manager.

More about Everyday Democracy…

Everyday Democracy helps communities build their own capacity for inclusive dialogue and positive change. Everyday Democracy’s ultimate aim is to create a national civic infrastructure that supports and values everyone’s voice and participation.

Because structural racism and other structural inequities affect communities everywhere, Everyday Democracy helps community groups use an “equity lens” in every phase of dialogue and change – coalition building, messaging, recruitment, issue framing, facilitation, and linking the results of their dialogues to action and change. They provide advice, training and flexible how-to resources on a wide range of issues – including poverty, racial equity, education, building strong neighborhoods, community-police relations, violence, early childhood, and community planning.

Look over the resources in the EvDem/Study Circles tag in the NCDD Resource Center to get a sense of the breadth and depth of work these folks do!

Why are BAD Words %$&#@!?

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I recently stumbled across the following video and was fascinated with some of the statistics presented in the first few minutes (does your community swear more than others? Looking at you Ohio!).  But the entire video is equally fascinating.  I’ve never been bothered by what others consider offensive language.  They’re just words afterall… or are they?  When civility is key to a successful dialogue, understanding the language of incivility becomes a necessary skill in every facilitator’s toolkit.

Michael, in the video above, mentions a lecture given by experimental psychologist Steven Pinker, also available on YouTube. It’s headier stuff than the Vsauce video, but worth a watch for those interested in the pschology of language. Pinker defines swearing as a window to a person’s emotions, and examines language as a window into human nature.

I would love to hear about how our community deals with “bad words”? Are they discouraged (or even forbidden) in your engagement processess? Or have you learned to work with them in a way that avoids disruption? Or are they even encouraged? Leave a comment and let us know!

Lucas Cioffi Interview from NCDD Seattle

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At the 2012 NCDD national conference in Seattle, NCDD member and filmmaker Jeffrey Abelson sat down with over a dozen leaders in our community to ask them about their work and their hopes and concerns for our field and for democratic governance in our country.

Today we’re featuring the interview with Lucas Cioffi, founder of Athena Bridge and currently a member of the NCDD board of directors…

See the “NCDD 2012” tag for more videos from NCDD Seattle, which brought together 400 leaders and innovators in our field. You can also check out Jeffrey Abelson’s Song of a Citizen YouTube channel and our NCDD 2012 Seattle playlist on YouTube.

Bouncing Back with Style and Grace

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It isn’t often that we get to share wedding pictures on the NCDD blog, but this is a very special occasion.

I’m thrilled to share the news that two of our long-time members and supporters, Terry Amsler and Lisa Bingham, were wed on October 28th. Lisa sent me this photo to share with the community.

Lisa & Terry Amsler's Wedding Portrait

Many of you will remember that back in February, I shared the devastating news that Terry and Lisa were both struck by a bus during a trip to London they had been looking forward to taking together.  They were taken to separate hospitals in a city far from frienda and family, and though information was spotty, we did our best to keep the community updated via the comments thread at www.ncdd.org/10967 whenever we heard news of their progress or transport.

Support and encouragement poured in from our community, in the comments thread and elsewhere, and after the first alarming reports, news about Terry and Lisa’s recovery became more and more hopeful.  Their recovery has actually been quite amazing, and now they’ve surpassed all our hopes for them and gotten married!  Terry has moved to Bloomington, Indiana to live with Lisa.

Lisa is back to work at Indiana University (she’s Keller-Runden Professor of Public Service at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs), and as of October 1st, Terry is back on a part-time basis at the Institute for Local Government’s Public Engagement Program (check out the site at www.ca-ilg.org if you haven’t yet seen all the great resources Terry created for them!).

In an email to me the other day, Terry wrote “Nothing like a brush with mortality to help one focus on and consider what is most important in the lifetime we’re given or have left.”  Please join me in congratulating Terry and Lisa on their wedding and on their amazing recovery!