Author Archives: Roshan Bliss

Join D&D CAN Call on Faith-based Climate Dialogue, 2/16

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Since last year, NCDD has been supporting an important new initiative called the D&D Climate Action Network (D&D CAN) that is being led by NCDD supporting member Linda Ellinor of the Dialogue Group. The Network’s purpose is build a community of practice that fosters mutual learning, sharing, and inspires collaboration around the complexities of climate change, and it has been doing great work since it’s launch.

We highly encourage our NCDD members to get involved in D&D CAN, and one of the best ways to to do that is to join their monthly networking and discussion conference calls. The calls are focused on a different climate-and-dialogue topic every month, but spots are limited, so make sure you sign up ASAP!

The Network is hosting its fourth conference call tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 16th from 5-7pm Eastern / 2-4pm Pacific. The call will focus on the theme of “Working with Faith Communities on Climate,” and it features the reflections of NCDD supporting member Mike Huggins on his work within a multi-faith Eco-Spirituality Working Group. The call will explore what D&D practitioners who have been having climate conversations in faith communities have observed and experienced, what we can learn or hope to learn from those conversations, and what values and challenges this form of climate work holds.

It promises to be a great conversation, so don’t miss out – register today!

You can learn more about the D&D Climate Action Network and tomorrow’s call by visiting http://ddclimateactionnetwork.ning.com. You can also learn more from our first announcement about the network at www.ncdd.org/19299.

Can Average Citizens Can Make Politics More Civil?

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Just before the Iowa caucuses last month, long-time NCDD member Carolyn Lukensmeyer of the National Institute for Civil Discourse penned an op-ed in the Huffington Post that we thought was worth sharing here. In it, she discusses the crisis of civility in our politics, and calls on citizens – and especially those of us who work in D&D – to hold politicians and ourselves to higher standards for political conversations. We encourage you to read her piece below or find the original on Huff Post here.

We Need a Civility Revolution

As we draw closer to February 1 and the Iowa Caucuses, the noise level from the presidential campaigns grows louder. The Caucuses are the first step in a lengthy process, and because the stakes in Iowa are so high – a good finish means you keep following the trail to the White House while a bad one can mean it’s all over but the post mortem – both republican and democratic candidates have been raising the volume on the race. On the republican side the attacks are getting more personal, louder and nastier, while on the democratic side, ads on everything from health care to gun control are digging deep lines in the sand between rivals.

America is a great democracy, but it is hard to remember that sometimes these days as we listen to the candidates and their surrogates degrade not only their rivals, but everyone who questions their positions. Throw in the media hype on the latest “he said, she said” and it makes you wonder how we came to this low point. Because it is a low point. Our people are better than our politics – the actual caucuses in Iowa as they have been in years past, will be far more civil than any debate or discussion among the candidates has been.

We need to hold our politicians – whether they are running for president or city council – to the highest of standards. Discussion and disagreement are all part and parcel of our democracy but name calling, race baiting and personal attacks are not. If candidates want our votes, we need to demand they start acting like the leaders they claim to be instead of rewarding them for acting like bullies and braggarts.

And we have to stop agreeing with them when they tell us compromise is for sissies. We are a large, diverse nation and our views – whether we are talking with a neighbor across the street or a relative on the other side of the country – will often differ. No one person nor one party has all the “right” answers so discussion of values and facts, the how and the why, are important. But those discussions can’t move forward in any type of useful manner unless we listen to each other – really listen. It doesn’t mean we have to agree – and it doesn’t mean we won’t state our own case – but we need to act like adults and find the road we can take together to allow America – and all Americans – to move forward.

This past Monday, we celebrated Martin Luther King Day. Dr. King did not believe that loud voices and harsh words would lead to consensus. As Marcy Curtis noted in a Roll Call column titled “Stop Shouting; Start Listening” “…it would also be welcome, revolutionary even, to reflect on and learn from King’s time, when the country was no less divided. Yet there were men, women and children… who made the country better by leading with dignity and unity.”

Revolutionary indeed.

You can find the original version of this Carolyn Lukensmeyer piece in the Huffington Post at www.huffingtonpost.com/carolyn-lukensmeyer/we-need-a-civility-revolu_b_9028646.html.

Missed the Tech Tuesday Balancing Act Call? Listen Now!

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Earlier this week, NCDD hosted another installment of our Tech Tuesday call series, this time in partnership with IAP2. The call focused on an introduction to Balancing Act, the powerful online budgeting tool that Engaged Public created to help average citizens understand the financial choices that government balancing-act-logoofficial have to make, and we had a great call with over 55 NCDD and IAP2 members participating!

Engaged Public’s president Chris Adams gave an informative presentation about the history, purpose, and current uses of the Balancing Act tool, and he took us on a virtual walk through of the tool in action both from the front end and the back end. It was a wonderful chance to learn more about involving everyday people in public budgeting.

If you missed out on the call, don’t worry, we recorded the presentation and discussion, which you can see and hear by clicking here.

Tech_Tuesday_BadgeThanks again to Chris and his team for presenting, and to IAP2 for co-hosting the call with us!

To learn more about NCDD’s Tech Tuesday series and hear recordings of past calls, please visit www.ncdd.org/events/tech-tuesdays.

Seeking Nominations for Inaugural Civilution Awards by 2/14

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We want to encourage NCDD members to consider submitting nominations for the inaugural Civilution Awards, hosted by the Bridge Alliance – an NCDD member organization. NCDD was one of the founding members of the Alliance because we respect their efforts to foster ” transpartisan” politics in the US, and the Civilution Awards are a way to recognize those leading the way. We’d love to see an NCDDer win this year, so be sure to submit your nominations before the deadline on Feb. 14th! Learn more about the Civilution Awards in the Bridge Alliance announcement below, or find the original here.

Civilution Awards

Get out your tux. Your designer gown. Start preparing your acceptance speech.

We’ll see you on the Red, White, and Blue carpet!

The inaugural Bridge Alliance Civilution Awards, presented by the “Academy of Civility and Bridge-Building Arts & Sciences,” will honor one individual and one organization for truly embodying the Civilution Declaration and exemplifying best bridge-building practices.

Civilution Declaration

  • Engage in respectful dialogue with others, even if we disagree.
  • Seek creative problem solving with others.
  • Support elected officials and leaders who work together to address and solve our nation’s challenges.

All nominees – both individuals and organizations – will be considered based on the following core principles and criteria:

  • Collaborative partnership: Excellence in collaboration with other individuals or organizations, finding creative ways to work together.
  • Innovative solutions putting country before party: Creatively addressing even the most challenging of problems across political divides or special interests.
  • Display of curiosity and inquisitiveness in political conversations: Demonstration of openness and curiosity, display of respect and civility.

Nominations for this prestigious award will be accepted February 1st  through February 14th with a culminating virtual awards ceremony to recognize excellence in our field on February 28, 2016.

Judges will review submission, media stories, blogs and websites.  Judges are volunteers and staff of the Bridge Alliance.

Please include contact information for your nominee. If you would like to make more than one nomination, email info@bridgealliance.us.

How Do We Show Dialogue’s Risks are Worth its Rewards?

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Last month, NCDD Board member John Backman sparked lots of thoughtful conversation on our NCDD Discussion Listserv with the article below, and we wanted to share it on the blog too. His piece examines the fear we feel sometimes have around engaging in dialogue that could shift our stance on strongly-felt issues. He points out that for many average people, the idea of dialogue with “the other side” presents a risk – maybe real, maybe imagined – that allowing our opinions to shift might hurt some of our important relationships.
John’s article prompts us dialogue workers to take seriously what it sometimes means for us to ask people to take a risk like that, and it asks us how we can demonstrate that the risk is worth the reward. We encourage you to read John’s article below (original here) and let us know what you think about his questions in the comments section.

Guns, Changes of Mind, and the Cost of Dialogue

My opinion on government gun policy is starting to shift. That shift fills me with dread – and the reason, I think, may say a lot about why dialogue is such a hard sell.

Let’s start with my own biases. Temperamentally, I am as close to pacifist as you can get without actually being pacifist. Guns hold no appeal for me whatever (beyond the curiosity I have about pretty much everything). I grew up on Bambi. For most of my life, then, my thoughts on gun control were pretty much a default on the pro side.

But recent events have nudged me into more reflection. My experiments with gun dialogue (last month and in 2012) put me in contact with gun owners and their stories about why they value their guns, the enjoyment of pursuits associated with guns, the security they feel in owning a gun and knowing how to use it. Moreover, after pondering the Second Amendment, I can see how the standard gun owner’s interpretation may have some merit.

Bottom line: I can still support commonsense measures like background checks and waiting periods. But now, whenever cries to reduce gun ownership permeate the public square, I can’t quite join in – as much as my Bambi instinct still wants me to.

But this post is not about guns. It’s about why the shift scares me.

There are several reasons, but one towers above them all: some of the most important people in my social network – dear friends, immediate relatives, colleagues who might influence the course of my career – are vociferously anti-gun. I can think of a family member whose wisdom and love I would not do without… a colleague whose family has suffered several murders due to gun violence… a Catholic writer who shares many of my sensibilities but whose wrath grows with each mass shooting.

Will they abandon me now that I’m expressing a different opinion, even if just slightly different?

You might argue that it’s unlikely, and you’d probably be right. But in our current culture, friends and colleagues do part ways over disagreements like this. Consider the “harmonious” traditional family that fractures when a daughter comes out as gay, or good neighbors who find themselves on opposing sides when a casino comes to town. The notion that “if they abandon you over this, they weren’t real friends (or colleagues, or loved ones) anyway” is far too simplistic.

Now consider that I feel this dread strongly enough to hold my tongue around certain people – and I’m a dialogue person. How can I expect folks who are unfamiliar with dialogue to enter in when the risk is so high: when they might lose not only their basic convictions, but even their friends? How can those of us who care deeply about dialogue demonstrate that, in fact, the reward is worth the risk?

You can find the original version of this piece by John Backman on his blog at www.dialogueventure.com/2016/01/12/guns-changes-of-mind-and-the-cost-of-dialogue.

Don’t Forget to Register for Feb. 9 Tech Tuesday Call on Balancing Act

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As we recently mentioned on the blog, NCDD is hosting another one of our popular Tech Tuesday calls this Tech_Tuesday_BadgeTuesday, February 9th from 3 – 4pm Eastern / 12 – 1pm Pacific in conjunction with IAP2.

This time the call will offer an inside look at Balancing Act, an online tool aimed at helping average citizens learn about public budgets and the choices elected officials face in the budgeting process. It’s right around the corner, so make sure you register today!

This Tech Tuesday will feature a presentation from Chris Adams of Engaged Public, the civic engagement group that developed Balancing Act. Chris will explain the functions of Balancing Act and talk about how it’s already being used by various governments and communities. Plus, you won’t want to miss the info about a special offer for folks doing participatory budgeting! 

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about this useful new tool and connect with your NCDD colleagues! We look forward to have you on the call!

Join Us at Citizen University’s 2016 Conference, Mar. 18-19

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We want to encourage NCDD members to consider registering Citizen University’s annual conference this March 18th – 19th in Seattle, Washington. Citizen University was founded by former NCDD keynote speaker Eric Liu to build a stronger culture of citizenship, and their annual confernece is an incredibly unique civic gathering.

This year’s conference theme is “Who Is Us? Race, Citizenship, and America Now.” As many of us in the D&D field continue to ask ourselves about how to engage more diverse populations beyond the “usual suspects”, this conference on the intersection of race and citizenship – keynoted by one of the founders of the national Black Lives Matter network – couldn’t be more timely.

Here’s how Citizen University describes the gathering:

A new America is being born. All across the country, citizens are forcing institutions to move on racial justice and social inclusion. Now more than ever, it’s time to ask: Who is Us? Who gets to define the emerging America?

This is the focus of our annual national conference, a civic gathering unlike any other in America. Join hundreds of change-makers, activists, and catalysts tolearn about power, deepen your networks, and recharge your sense of purpose.

With luminary speakers, master teachers, and rapid-fire lessons on civic power, the conversation will be rich and provocative. This is a time when citizens are solving problems in new ways, bypassing broken institutions, stale ideologies, and polarized politics. We are part of a movement to rekindle citizenship and remake the narrative of America. Join us.

The conference is going to have a great line up of speakers and engaging sessions, which you can learn more about on the conference website at www.citizenuniversity.us/programs/conference. Plus, our own NCDD Director Sandy Heierbacher will be in attendance, so we hope lots of NCDD members will be there to connect with her!

Conference registration is only $200 right now, but the early bird registration ends March 1st, so don’t wait too long! Learn more and register for the conference by clicking here, and we hope to see some of you in Seattle!

Remembering Dick Spady

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Earlier this month, an important figure in the dialogue and deliberation field passed away at age 91. Many of you know Dick Spady’s son John Spady well, as John has attended every NCDD conference, been active on the listserv, and launched the National Dialogue Network after winning a Catalyst Award from NCDD in 2012. The Forum Foundation that Dick founded showed its support of the dialogue and deliberation community by consistently sponsoring the NCDD national conferences.

Photo credit: Seattle Times

When I checked in earlier this week about his father’s passing, John reminded me that he had told his father about the first NCDD conference in 2002, and was glad to be there with him as he set up his table about the work of his Forum Foundation, his new book The Leadership of Civilization Building, and his Opinionnaire® Survey tool to understand the “symbolic dialogue” among diverse groups of people. John recollected how, in fact, “symbolic dialogue” was included in the glossary of the first NCDD conference handbook (actually a 3-ring notebook!).

John is now actively curating his father’s civic legacy and has even released a first version of an Opinionnaire® plugin for WordPress (http://bit.ly/Opinionnaire) — developed by John’s (now nonprofit) National Dialogue Network. He also commissioned a small book about his father’s “Visions and Values” that can be read on Amazon.com here: http://amzn.com/0615953832.

Dick Spady will be deeply missed in our field, and our heart goes out to John and his other family members during this difficult time.

Please read the remembrance piece by Kathleen O’Connor below or find the original here.

We Have Lost a Remarkable Man

Dick Spady may not be a national icon, but he was a giant man of vision and values. He co-founded Seattle’s legendary  hamburger company – Dick’s Drive In. He believed in  people’s inherent quality and dignity. This was reflected in all his work from covering health care for all his employees to his passion for civic engagement.

In the fast foods industry notorious for providing low pay and poor to non-existent benefits, he paid for health care benefits for all his employees – full and part-time. But that’s not all.

If college students worked 20 hours per week, Dick’s covered their tuition costs. If some employees did not go to college, the company covered the costs of child care. Employees could take time for community activities and the company would cover that time. He not only invested in his company and his employees, he invested in the community as well through his employees’ service. This all in addition to his personal civic contributions. There is also a box on the counter at each Dick’s so customer can donate spare change for community organizations.

Dick’s passion was civic engagement – assuring people had a voice in community affairs at all levels.  He devoted his non-business life to consensus building and civic engagement. Passions we deeply shared.

When we founded CodeBlueNow! in 2003 to assure the public had a voice in shaping the health care system, Dick and his family donated a new survey tool they created called the Opinionnaire. Unlike most survey tools, among other things, it let people object to a question and abstain from answering a question. We called our Opinionnaire tool the Pulse. We used it to survey views on health care during the 2008 presidential election in both Iowa and Washington state – red and blue states. We verified those findings with professional market research and the findings were the same – that there is common ground on many issues.

We found this considerable common ground when we listened to what the people had to say and re-framed the discussion from the political to the personal.

Dick’s life is a shining example of what can be done, that believing in people matters, that employees are actually a good investment, and that if you want a successful business you must treat your employees with dignity and respect and provide for their well-being. These practices did not drive his business into the ground financially – it flourished.

It is with the deepest sorrow that I share the news of the death of this remarkable man who gave so much to so many. All he asked in return was that we let people have the voice they so amply deserve.

Dick died on January 10th at age 92:  www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/obituaries/dick-spady-co-founder-and-namesake-of-dicks-drive-in-dies-at-91.

Rest in Peace, Dick.  Job well done.

Kathleen

You can find the original version of this post from Kathleen O’Connor’s O’Connor Report at www.oconnorreport.com/2016/01/we-have-lost-a-remarkable-man.

Communications Job Opening at Everyday Democracy

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We encourage our NCDD members to take note that Everyday Democracy – a long-time NCDD member organization – EvDem Logois hiring for a Communications Fellow. We’re positive that there are many folks in our network who would be a great fit for the job, so we encourage you to consider applying!

Everyday Democracy is based in Boston, MA and this position is slated to be a year-long opportunity.

Here is how the EvDem team describes the position:

Everyday Democracy is seeking someone interested in helping to spread the word about people changing their communities and being part of an organization where we pay special attention to the connection between racial equity and the issues communities face.

Working in a flexible and creative environment, the fellow will have opportunities sharpen their communications skills during the one-year term. The Communications Fellow will report to the Communications Manager and will be a critical support person to the communications team.

During the fellowship, there will be opportunities to work with other internal teams on local and national initiatives. When possible, the fellow will have the opportunity to visit local communities to collect stories and see change happen on the ground. However, majority of the work will be done behind-the-scenes creating stories, evaluating our communication tools, and developing marketing plans with the communications team.

Applications are due by March 11, 2016, so make sure not to wait too long to apply. You can find out more about the position at how to apply by clicking here.

Good luck to all the applicants!

Join OpenGov & CivicTech Online Unconference, Jan. 28th

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We encourage NCDD members to consider attending the 2016 OpenGov & CivicTech Online Unconference this Thursday, January 28th from 11am-2pm Eastern. The event is hosted by former NCDD Board member Lucas Cioffi, and NCDD members get a 30% discount on registration, so make sure to sign up today! Read more below or find the full invitation by clicking here.

2016 OpenGov & CivicTech Online Unconference

What is the purpose? Why should I attend?

  1. Spread the word about your civic tech project.
  2. Network with other innovators.
  3. Bring the toughest questions and challenges you’re facing and gain insights from other participants.

Use promo code “ncdd” when you register here to bring the cost down to just $10.

Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-opengov-civictech-online-unconference-tickets-20428926469

What is an “unconference”?

Unlike standard conferences sessions where people give presentations, unconference sessions are far more conversational.  Professionals will discuss and work through the challenges at the cutting edge of the opengov & civic tech fields.

What is the agenda?

Participants (including you!) create the agenda during the opening session.  This ensures that everyone finds a session that interests them and sets a collaborative tone for the event right from the start. Add your session to the agenda after you register.

Who will be there?

Designers, developers, activists, practitioners, and entrepreneurs working at the intersection of civic engagement and technology.  The power of this event is that it will bring together people with different skills.

You can find more information on the OpenGov & CivicTech Online Unconference by visiting www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-opengov-civictech-online-unconference-tickets-20428926469?.