Category Archives: current issues

Register for D&D Climate Action Call using QiqoChat, 3/15

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We want to remind our NCDD members to be sure to register for the next D&D Climate Action Network (D&D CAN) conference call this Tuesday, March 15th from 5-7pm Eastern / 2-4pm Pacific. D&D CAN is being led by NCDD supporting member Linda Ellinor of the Dialogue Group and is working to build a community of practice that fosters mutual learning, sharing, and inspires collaboration around the complexities of climate change, and their monthly conference calls are a great way to connect with others in the field working to use dialogue and deliberation to address climate issues.

This month’s D&D CAN call will feature special guest Rev. Dr. Russell Meyer, the Executive Director of the Florida Council of Churches, who will be discussing the call’s theme – Reuniting Science & Spirit. You can register to save your spot by clicking here.

Here’s how D&D CAN describes the call:

We have enough climate change science. What’s out of balance are ways to talk about it and choose wise actions. To create safe places for sharing. To listen for what we don’t know. To explore together.

Russell will help us consider:

  • Why can religious frameworks make certain conversations about climate change difficult?
  • What languaging can we use in faith-based groups that is inclusive?
  • How can values and personal experience keep us together on the journey?

We are also pleased to share that D&D CAN is hosting this call using the QiqoChat platform, which is run by NCDD member Lucas Cioffi and about which we hosted a recent Tech Tuesday call (you can hear the recording of the call here). We are excited to see the combination of important dialogue and powerful technology, and this call promises to be one of D&D CAN’s best yet!

If you are interested in climate issues or if you are working with communities of faith, this call is for you. Be sure to register today or learn more about D&D CAN at http://ddclimateactionnetwork.ning.com.

Pluribus Project Seeks Narrative Projects & Ideas to Fund

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We strongly encourage our NCDD members to take note that the Aspen Institute’s Pluribus Project is calling for projects and ideas aimed at changing the national narrative about citizen participation that it wants to fund with grants of up to $50,000, and we know many of our members could be eligible. All are encouraged to apply for this great opportunity, but the deadline is March 15th, so don’t delay! Read more in the Pluribus Project’s announcement below or find the original here.

Pluribus Project Narrative Collaboratory: Open Call For Fundable Projects

Our nation’s founders envisioned a republic in which the people would be the ultimate source of power. Today, however, a pervasive cultural narrative – across the right and the left – tells Americans it is pointless to participate in civic life because the game is rigged and their voices just don’t matter. At the Pluribus Project, we believe that it’s time to counter this dominant negative narrative and to displace it with a storyline of citizen empowerment so that Americans can begin to see that change is possible and how to become a part of it.

The reality is that many Americans in communities across the country are finding ways to come together and create real change. They may be a minority but they are not uncommon and they are still noticeably absent from the mainstream conversation. That’s why we created the Narrative Collaboratory, a platform for generating and propagating new narratives of citizen voice and efficacy, coupled with the tools of power and action that others can use. Think of it as a venture platform to seed experiments in media, storytelling, organizing, and experience design.

We are now announcing an Open Call for experiment and project ideas. We intend to select and support multiple proposals that creatively and effectively spread narratives of citizen power. Selected projects will be eligible for financial support, ranging from $5,000 to $50,000, from the Pluribus Project, and will be featured to additional donors and potential supporters through various media and events including the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Ultimately, we believe that with a sense of collective purpose, some trial and error, and the ingenuity of the many (that’s you), there is real opportunity right now to reinvent our civic reality, and to help create a more representative and responsive democracy.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Promise: All projects should show great promise to counter the pervasive, disheartening narrative that discourages citizens from engaging in their democracy. We are looking for platforms for experimentation that can generate or propagate new, durable, and contagious narratives of citizen power and efficacy.

A Diversified Portfolio: We are looking for projects that are diverse in type. Some may be media ventures, involving traditional journalism, digital media, or social media. Some might be organizing initiatives. Others might political ideation ventures. Some may even be hybrids. All projects must be non-partisan, and we prefer projects that are trans-partisan.

Scalable with a proof of concept: We are structure-agnostic – meaning that we will consider both for-profits and nonprofits. We generally prefer ventures with demonstrated proof of concept and a clear plan for reach and sustained impact. All funded ventures will be required to enter into a formal written agreement with the Pluribus Project, committing to use grant funds for specific purposes—including the charitable and educational ends—outlined in their proposal.

SELECTION PROCESS

Applications are due March 15, 2016. We will choose a set of projects to fund by April 15 and these projects will be implemented through the calendar year.

Applications will be reviewed and evaluated by a team of experts in civic engagement, innovation, and investment. The final portfolio will be financed at the discretion of the Pluribus Project Narrative Collaboratory team, who will receive advice and input of the experts engaged throughout the process.

TO APPLY

Please answer the following questions. Email your answers to narrative@pluribusproject.org. You may also include relevant attachments. The deadline for applications is March 15, 2016.

(1) Describe the narrative project or experiment. What exactly are you are doing, or do you plan to do, in order to generate or propagate new, durable, and contagious narratives of citizen power and efficacy? (500 words max.)

(2) How will you use the money and why will your project benefit from this investment? (250 words max.)

(3) What results have you achieved to date (if applicable), and what results do you anticipate for the next year? (250 words max.)

(4) Please provide brief bios for each core team member.

You can find the original version of this Pluribus Project announcement at www.pluribusproject.org/news/narrative-collaboratory-open-call.

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.

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.

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!

Join D&D Climate Action Call on COP21 Talks, Jan. 19

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We want to encourage NCDDers once again to plan to join the D&D Climate Action Network (D&D CAN) for their next teleconference on the intersection of D&D work and the issue of climate change on January 19th at 5pm Eastern.

Led by NCDD supporting member Linda Ellinor of the Dialogue Group, D&D CAN’s goal is to build a community of practice that fosters mutual learning, sharing, and inspires collaboration around the complexities of climate change. The monthly conference calls are one of the best ways to connect with this ambitious project, so we encourage you to learn more and register for the call at http://ddclimateactionnetwork.ning.com.

Here’s how Linda describes the upcoming call:

The D&D Climate Action Network will be holding its January Teleconference call this month on the topic of the Paris Climate Conference and Implications for our Work. It is scheduled for January 19th from 2pm, PST/5pm, EST.

Marti Roach will be facilitating using the Focused Conversation Method from the Institute of Cultural Affair’s Technology of Participation suite of facilitation tools. She has compiled a whole host of resources on what took place at the Paris talks that you can find on our D&D Climate Action Network Ning site: http://ddclimateactionnetwork.ning.com

Her questions for the discussion are also available there. We hope any of you who are focused on climate change work will join us on the call. All you need to do is to go onto our site, sign up with a password, etc., and then register on the top left hand side. We will then send you a link for the teleconference call using Zoom.

We look forward to your participation. Please contact any of our hosting team with your questions regarding our network.

Best,

Linda Ellinor
Co-Host: D&D Climate Action Network

Our Hosting Team: Marti Roach, Nancy Glock-Grueneich, Sharon Joy Kleitsch, Rosa Zubizarreta, Tim Bonneman, Ben Roberts, Linda Ellinor

We hope that many of our NCDD members will join this important and engaging call, and we can’t wait to hear more about what the D&D CAN project accomplishes!

Sign Up for Next D&D Climate Action Network Calls Today!

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As we shared last month here on the blog, NCDD is 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 to build a networked community of practice that connects members, fosters learning from each other, and stimulates collaboration. Ultimately, the goal is to build a community of practice that fosters mutual learning, sharing, and inspires collaboration around the complexities of climate change, and in light of last week’s historic Paris climate deal and all the work ahead that it entails, the D&D CAN initiative couldn’t come at a more relevant time.

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 to 20 as of now, so make sure you sign up ASAP!

This month’s call is topic is “Talking about Climate Change”, and will be taking place tomorrow, December 15th from 5-7pm Eastern / 2-4pm Pacific. Here are a few words the Linda used to describe the call:

Let’s discover how we can bring our dialogue and conversational skills to meet climate change. As many of us know, climate change is one of the hardest topics to bring up in everyday conversation for a variety of reasons. Please come prepared to offer experiences that have helped you be successful in facilitating conversations about climate change.

The only requirement for joining is a desire to use conversational leadership or participatory processes in climate-change related work.  Our main goal is to help all of us work more strategically in transforming our world to greater resiliency.

Space on the call is going fast, so make sure you register online today by clicking here.

D&D CAN has also announced the next two calls for January and February 2016, so save the dates:

  • January topic: “What are we learning about large-scale civic engagement from the Paris Climate Talks?”
    Date: January 19, 2016, 2-4pm Pacific Time / 5-7pm Eastern
  • February topic: “What are we learning about working with faith-based communities?”
    Date: February 16, 2016, 2-4pm Pacific Time / 5-7pm Eastern

In case you need help signing up, here are the directions for registering for the calls:

Once you create your own password, please fill out the profile. If you have already joined, you can find the profile questions by going to “my page” and clicking on “options” at the top right of the page and then clicking on “edit my profile”.

If you have already joined our Ning group, please register for Tuesday’s call by going to the Ning site and clicking on the “Register here” link at the top left of the home page.

We can only take the first 20 people who sign up, so please do so ASAP, if you are interested in participating. If you have to cancel for any reason, please contact Linda Ellinor at lellinor25@gmail.com.

We encourage you to learn more about the D&D Climate Action Network by visiting http://ddclimateactionnetwork.ning.com. You can also learn more from our first announcement about the network at www.ncdd.org/19299.

Featured D&D Story: Affording Johnson County

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Today we’re pleased to be featuring another example of dialogue and deliberation in action. This mini case study was submitted by NCDD member David Supp-Montgomerie of the University of Iowa’s Program for Public Life via NCDD’s new Dialogue Storytelling Tool. Do you have a dialogue story that our network could learn from? Add your dialogue story today!

ShareYourStory-sidebarimageTitle of Project

Affording Johnson County

Description

Johnson County has the highest portion of residents paying over 50% of their income on housing costs in the entire state of Iowa – and the number for its renters is far higher than the national average. In partnership with several community organizations, this year-long public conversation project began with local discussions in several communities and culminates this April in a County Wide Deliberative Summit.

We have held our first meeting so far and it drew business owners, faith leaders (local churches, the synagogue, and the mosque), elected officials at the state and local level, community organizers, and ordinary folks passionate about the topic. City council members were sitting across from refugees and graduate students – this is what democracy looks like.

Which dialogue and deliberation approaches did you use or borrow heavily from?

  • National Issues Forums
  • Open Space / Unconference
  • World Cafe

What was your role in the project?

Co-Organizer, Primary Facilitator, and Sponsoring Organization

Who were your partners for the project (if any)?

Johnson County Affordable Homes Coalition, PATV Channel 18 (local public access station)

What issues did the project primarily address?

Economic issues

Lessons Learned

Some of the small communities had few traditional aspects of civic infrastructure used to organize an event, but we had success when we recruited several faith leaders to help plan and recruit members to participate.

Where to learn more about the project:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1623032817948781.1073741828.1608100846108645&type=3

NIFI to Host 3 Online Health Care Deliberations in Nov.

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Our friends at the National Issues Forums Institute – an NCDD member organization – recently launched a great online deliberation tool call Common Ground for Action, and you’re invited to check it out for yourself in 3 forums this month about health care issues. The forums are part of NIFI’s larger project that will yield a report to federal policymakers, so we encourage you to join in! Read more below or find the original NIFI post on the forums here.

NIF logoHave you tried a Common Ground for Action forum yet? We’ve got 3 exciting opportunities coming up in November for you to try National Issues Forums’ (NIF) new platform for online deliberation – and to be part of a national report that the Kettering Foundation will be making to policymakers about the results!

The three November CGA forums will all be using the NIF issue guide Health Care: How Can We Reduce Costs and Still Get the Care We Need?, which will become part of the forum data that Kettering will report to federal policymakers on in 2016.

If you’d like to participate in any of these forums, all you have to do is click the link below to register (so we’ll know how many moderators we need). Then, the day before the forum you sign up for, you’ll receive an email with a unique URL for your forum – all you do to join the forum is click that link no more than 10 minutes before the forum start time. That’s it!

Of course, in the meantime, you can check out the issue guide – which is FREE to download! Go for it now, and we’ll see you online!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email cga@nifi.org.

You can find the original version of this NIFI post at www.nifi.org/en/groups/do-you-want-try-online-forum-three-chances-november-deliberate-about-health-care-costs.

Join D&D Climate Action Network Launch Call Nov. 17

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NCDD is proud to be supporting an important new project being led by NCDD supporting member Linda Ellinor of the Dialogue Group aimed at connecting D&D professionals who are concerned about climate change. The network will launch with a conference call on Nov. 17 from 2-4pm PST for folks interested in being part of the core group, and its work could be quite impactful with the right supporters. Learn more about the network and how to get involved in Linda’s announcement below.

Announcing the D&D Climate Action Network (D&D CAN)

First Teleconference Call: November 17th, 2015

Are you a D&D practitioner or facilitator concerned about climate change? Are you looking to connect with like-minded peers who wish to use participatory processes or conversational leadership in helping to meet this challenge?

We invite you to join this NCDD-supported D&D Climate Action Network. Our goal is to help each other work more strategically within groups we are already involved in and to explore synergies between us for new actions and groups we might work with. We aim to build a community of practice that fosters mutual learning, sharing, and inspires collaboration around the complexities of climate change.

Initially, we will hold monthly 90-minute to 2-hour teleconference calls* using Zoom technology (a more advanced form of Skype) and communicating in between these times via Ning to share resources and advance our connections.

In these early meetings, we expect to focus primarily on building relationships with each other and exploring our respective work and aspirations. As we develop, we may dive more deeply into specific subjects and opportunities for action, some of us thinking, studying and strategizing together, inviting speakers, etc.. We will basically allow ourselves to self-organize around our unfolding interests.

If you are interested in joining this new network, we ask that you contact either Linda Ellinor at lellinor25[at]gmail[dot]com (707 217-6675) or Marti Roach at martiroach[at]gmail[dot]com (925 963-9631).

Our first teleconference call is scheduled for November 17th from 2 – 4pm PST.* We are limiting the initial calls to the first 16 people who sign up to help establish a core network, so please contact us soon to express your interest.

*Please note that while we will keep the formal teleconference calls to 90 minutes, you might want to plan for a total of 2 hours to allow for some follow-up networking after the formal call is over.

Co-hosting team: Linda Ellinor, co-founder of The Dialogue Group/Senior Associate with Applied Concepts Group; Marti Roach, Marti Roach Consulting, Rosa Zubizaretta, DiaPraxis, Nancy Glock-Grueneich, V.P. Research Intellitics and CII Fellow; Sharon Joy Kleitsch, The Connections Partners; Tim Bonneman, CEO and President of Intellitics.

Learn more by visiting http://ddclimateactionnetwork.ning.com.