Author Archives: Andy Fluke

Peggy Holman 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 Peggy Holman, co-founder of Journalism That Matters and author & co-editor of the Change Handbook.  Peggy convenes and hosts conversations that matter, inviting people and systems to gather around the issues most important to them.

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.

Amanda Kathryn Roman’s 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 an interview with Amanda Kathryn Roman, co-creator of Living Room Conversations.  Amanda embraced public engagement at the age of 12 when she began doing community organizing and has been involved in many forms of bridge-building or transpartisan work ever since.

Watch the blog over the next month or so 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 in our NCDD 2012 Seattle playlist on YouTube.

Steve Brigham 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 Steve Brigham, President of AmericaSpeaks. An organizational member of NCDD and one of our founding members back in 2002, AmericaSpeaks supported NCDD Seattle by co-sponsoring the conference.

AmericaSpeaks is a Washington, D.C.-based non-partisan, non-profit organization whose mission is to “engage citizens in the public decisions that impact their lives.” AmericaSpeaks’ work is focused on trying to create opportunities for citizens to impact decisions and to encourage public officials to make informed, lasting decisions. AmericaSpeaks has developed and facilitated deliberative methods such as the 21st Century Town Hall Meeting, which enables facilitated discussion for 500 to 5,000 participants. Its partners have included regional planning groups, local, state, and national government bodies, national and international organizations. Issues have ranged from Social Security reform, the redevelopment of ground zero in New York and rebuilding New Orleans.

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.

Meeting Tips Radio Podcast

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Meeting Tips RadioI just added a great interview to the NCDD resource center with past IAF chair Mirja Hanson and, while doing so, had a chance to learn about an excellent new audio podcast that features topics on all forms of meeting facilitation.

Meeting Tips Radio describes itself as a ”resource for anyone who runs meetings including: meeting facilitators, corporate executives, non-profit executives, managers, CIOs, business managers, IT managers, project managers, business analysts and strategic planners. Collaborative facilitation, face-to face facilitation, and virtual facilitation methods are discussed. Special guests include the best facilitators in the world from the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) and the International Association of Facilitators.”

Two recent podcasts caught my attention: the Mirja Hanson interview mentioned above and a recent talk with ToP Trainers Network’s Catherine Tornbom focused on conflict resolution and “virtual” facilitation.  Host Reine Kassulker engages in one-on-one interviews, gathering advice on best practices and encouraging stories from his guests’ facilitation work.

You can listen to or download the shows on the Meeting Tips Radio website.  If you have an iOS device, the shows are now available through iTunes.

The Martin Carcasson Crew at NCDD Seattle

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With Candace Karlin, Kacey Bull, Jack Becker, Carina Mullen, Dilan Sutliff, and Mar Parsaye

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 switching gears with an interview featuring a group of past and present Colorado State University students and their advisor Martín Carcasson, founder and director of the CSU Center for Public Deliberation (CPD).  The group ran a pre-conference “Deliberation Bootcamp” at NCDD Seattle, offering an introduction to the world of dialogue and deliberation.  In the video, the group discusses the work of CPD and the impact it has on both the programs’ participants and the community they engage with.

Watch the blog over the next month or so 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 in our NCDD 2012 Seattle playlist on YouTube.

Eric Lui’s Plenary Keynote from NCDD Seattle

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Looking Back on NCDD 2012At 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 something a little different — one of the live recordings Jeffrey made during the conference. This plenary talk was given by author, educator and civic entrepreneur Eric Lui during our “Framing & Welcoming” plenary. Eric is founder of the Guiding Lights Network, which promotes and teaches the art of creative citizenship. Eric served as a White House speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and later as the President’s deputy domestic policy advisor.

Jeffrey also caught up with Eric a little later and asked him about the impact of dialogue and deliberation on our civic infrastructure…

Watch the blog over the next month or so 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 in our NCDD 2012 Seattle playlist on YouTube.

Amy Lee 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 Amy Lee, Program Officer at the Kettering Foundation.  Amy handles media projects for the foundation, and is involved in foundation research in the areas of civic education and citizens and public choice.  Before working at Kettering, Amy worked as a reporter and news director at WYSO, the NPR station serving the Dayton area, and as an associate producer at ThinkTV, Dayton’s PBS station. She has also freelanced for the New York Times.

Watch the blog over the next month or so 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 in our NCDD 2012 Seattle playlist on YouTube.

Joan Blades 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 Joan Blades, who is well-known for her roles as co-founder of MoveOn.org and MomsRising.org. Joan is also the co-creator of Living Room Conversations.

Watch the blog over the next couple of months 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 in our NCDD 2012 Seattle playlist on YouTube.

Best Audio Clips from NCDD 2012 Seattle

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looking back badgeDuring the 2012 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation in Seattle, longtime NCDD member and supporter, John Spady (currently heading up the National Dialogue Network), spent a considerable amount of time capturing audio (and some video, as well). I reached out to him recently asking, of all the audio he captured at the event, what would he like to share with the community as we look back at the conference.

His first response was to insist that we share the short, personal audio from NCDD’s Director, Sandy Heierbacher, focusing on “Why We Do These Conferences”…

Along with this, his favorites include the audio of the plenary talks given by Carolyn Lukensmeyer and Eric Liu…

But he also wanted to make sure our community hadn’t missed the “bonus” audio (recorded the day before the NCDD conference and at the University of Washington) from Stuart Elway, regional public pollster in the Cascadia region…

…or the audio and video snippet (you can view the video here) from (then) King County Sheriff Steve Strachan who talks about the intersection of “Mental Health and Gun Control”. It’s a really a great piece, though if you watch the video you’ll need to be a little patient with the audio as it is a bit out of sync with the video.

All of this audio (and much more) is available on Soundcloud at www.soundcloud.com/natdialogue or from this blog post here on the NCDD website.

Will Friedman 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 Will Friedman, president of Public Agenda, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps diverse leaders and citizens navigate complex, divisive issues and work together to find solutions. A leading organization in our field, Public Agenda is a long-time organizational member and friend of NCDD. Public Agenda sponsored NCDD Seattle at the partner level last year.

Keep an eye on the blog over the next couple of months 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 in our NCDD 2012 Seattle playlist on YouTube.