Category Archives: From the Community

Launch of Voice of the People and its Campaign for a Citizen Cabinet

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Here’s an important announcement from one of our supporting members, Steven Kull. Steven is Research Scholar and Director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. I’ve been watching Steven’s work with great interest over the last few years especially, and I’m exciting about Voice of the People.

Dear NCDD Community,

I would like to announce that our new organization Voice of the People (VOP) and its Campaign for a Citizen Cabinet had its rollout last month. The website is now up at www.vop.org.

VOP seeks to give the American people a greater voice in government by:

  • Working with Congress to establish a national Citizen Cabinet, a large standing panel comprised of a representative sample of the American public, to be consulted on current issues, using new online interactive tools to give voice to the people on an unprecedented scale; and
  • Making these same online resources available to all Americans, so they can get better informed and more effectively communicate their views to their representatives.

In the short term we will be developing interim Citizen Cabinets in a number of states and Congressional districts as well as consulting the public on a national level on issues currently in front of Congress.

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We have also been having many meetings on the Hill with Congressional staffers and some Members and have been getting a very positive response to the idea of establishing a new Congressionally-chartered National Academy for Public Consultation that would run a Citizen Cabinet as well as doing other forms of public consultation.

We hope you will go to the website, find out more, sign the petition and stay in touch.

At the rollout event at the National Press Club members of our advisory board spoke, including former Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), former House Members Bill Frenzel (R-MN) and Martin Frost (R-TX), former House Member and Governor Mike Castle (R-DE), and Wendy Willis of the Policy Consensus Initiative. You can see the video of the event on the site.

The event led to press coverage in Politico, US News and World Report, Roll Call, the Christian Science Monitor and other places, as well as some television coverage.

The plan for the Citizen Cabinet goes like this… It will be comprised of 275 citizens in every congressional district—120,000 nationwide—scientifically selected to accurately reflect the American people, and connected through an online interface. Each Citizen Cabinet member will serve for 9-12 months, and Internet access will be provided to those who do not already have it, to make sure everyone is represented.

On a regular basis, members of the Citizen Cabinet will go through an online public consultation on a pressing issue facing the federal government. For each issue, Citizen Cabinet members will:

  1. Get Briefed: Get unbiased background information reviewed by experts and congressional staff from both parties;
  2. Weigh the Arguments: Learn about the policy options that are actually on the table and evaluate the pros and cons; and.
  3. Make Choices: Choose from a menu of policy options, or go through a more in-depth process that requires making trade-offs (e.g. creating a budget).

Finally, the Citizen Cabinet’s recommendations will be broken down by state and congressional district, and reported to each Member of Congress, the President, the news media and the public.

The Citizen Cabinet will be managed, with bi-partisan oversight, by a new National Academy for Public Consultation. All of the materials presented to the Citizen Cabinet—the briefing, competing arguments, and policy options—will be vetted by a bipartisan group of experts and available online for anyone to see.

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While members of the Citizen Cabinet would be scientifically selected to be a representative sample of the public, VOP seeks to give all Americans the opportunity to use these same online interactive tools–getting briefed, weighing competing arguments and coming to conclusions on key policy options. We will also make these tools available to schools, community groups and other organizations.

Citizens will be able to better engage and make more effective recommendations to their representatives, as their input will be more informed and focused on the actual policy choices and tradeoffs Congress is facing.

We would be interested in hearing from people who have been doing related work. There may be ways we can work together. Please let us know.

Again, please do visit the website www.vop.org and sign up so we can keep you posted on how things develop.

Best,
Steven Kull

Job Announcement from the Jefferson Center

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NCDD is a network filled with impressive and capable people, and we are sometimes asked to share job announcements by organizations looking for just our kinds of folks. We have been impressed by the democracy work being done by the good people at the Jefferson Center for New Democratic Processes in Minnesota (an NCDD organizational member), so we are pleased to be able to share their newest job opening with you. We encourage anyone from NCDD to consider the position, and wish all applicants the best of luck! 

Jefferson Center – Program Associate

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The mission of the Jefferson Center for New Democratic Processes is to strengthen democracy by improving civic discourse and advancing informed, citizen-led solutions to public policy issues. The Jefferson Center envisions a democracy where citizens interact genuinely with public institutions and officials, and where public input becomes an essential component of decision-making dynamics through the implementation and support of deliberative processes and initiatives.

Job Title: Program Associate – Exempt Position

Location: Twin Cities – Full Time

Opening Date for Applications: November 6, 2013

Closing Date for Applications: November 28, 2013

Summary

The Program Associate position supports the Co-Director functions by assisting in policy research and outreach efforts, researching funding opportunities, drafting grant proposals, preparing printed and electronic materials for fundraising and programs, assisting with project implementation tasks, and completing other duties as assigned.

Responsibilities & Duties Breakdown

  1. Research and policy analysis (25%),
  2. Program Assistance (25%),
  3. Fund Development (20%)
  4. Communications (20%),
  5. Other (10%)

Qualifications

  1. Bachelor’s degree in political science or related field; Master’s degree in public policy desirable.
  2. Minimum 2-4 years work experience, preferably in nonprofits.
  3. Outstanding interpersonal skills, including the ability to successfully interact with a wide range of individuals.
  4. Excellent oral and written communication skills.
  5. Strong computer skills, including standard MS Office and Salesforce/cloud-based software formats, strong internet research and data management skills required. Previous experience with Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, and Dreamweaver), WordPress, and basic HTML/CSS coding ability preferred, but not required.
  6. Strong organizational and presentation skills, including the ability to maintain and synthesize large volumes of information into comprehensible summaries and reports.
  7. Exceptional curiosity and intellectual capacity.
  8. Strong interest in governmental reform.
  9. Willingness to travel to various locations across Minnesota and other states.

Certificates, Licenses, Registrations

Valid driver’s license required for travel to community sites (some out of state).

Please send cover letter and resume to: annettescotti@hrtechies.com. Questions, please call: 612-414-4537 

Hot off the presses: The latest issue of the Journal of Public Deliberation (JPD)

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JPD issue 9:2 is now available at www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/.  The issue is our largest to date, with 18 manuscripts that include:

Articles on topics such as: stakeholder and citizen roles in deliberation; participation in the New York Public Schools; a new study agenda for deliberative research; the effects of non-neutral moderators; and “communities of fate” and the challenges of international public participation.

Essays on: the politics of decentralization; illiteracy and deliberative democracy; and connecting deliberation, community engagement, and democratic education.

A symposium of articles presenting “New Ideas on Deliberation from Young Scholars.”

A review of Peter Levine’s new book, We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For.

In addition to being the last issue produced by editors Tim Steffensmeier and David Procter, this is also the last issue featuring the contributions of Essay Editors Lyn Carson and Ron Lubensky. Based at the University of Western Sydney, Carson and Lubensky have worked tirelessly to ensure that each issue in the last three years includes a wealth of interesting and provocative essays. Please join us in thanking Carson and Ron!

JPD is supported not only by IAP2 and DDC, but by a range of other institutions, including:

  • Center for Democratic Deliberation, Penn State University
  • Kettering Foundation
  • New England Center for Civic Life, Franklin Pierce University
  • Public Agenda
  • The Democracy Imperative
  • Ohio University
  • Wagner College
  • Tufts University
  • University of Western Sydney

Will Decreasing the Voting Age Increase Engagement?

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takoma voteIn honor of Election Day, I thought it would be appropriate to share a recent development I heard about from a Washington Post article that might interest some in the NCDD community: today, the country’s first 16- and 17-year old voters will legally cast their ballots.

It might be that is a bit hard for many to believe, but the city of Takoma Park, Maryland’s election information page confirms the fact, saying,

In 2013, the Takoma Park City Council amended the City Charter to update Takoma Park’s voting and election laws. The amendment expanded the right to vote in City elections to 16 and 17 year old residents…

Earlier this year, the City of Takoma Park, Maryland began considering lowering the voting age to 16 years old instead of 18, and in May, officially made the change to the city’s charter. The change was made by Takoma Park’s city council — and contentiously for some, not by its voters — with a very specific logic.

The reasoning for the decision, which is listed in the amendment to the city’s charter, states that

…allowing 16 and 17 year olds to register and vote will enable them to fully participate in City elections while in high school and before leaving home, thereby encouraging the establishment of a life-long habit of voting.

The Takoma Park city council hopes that by allowing younger people to vote, it will not only increase voter turn out in its elections, but that the people who begin voting so young will develop civic habits that will stick with them.

To me, the reasoning seems sound. If young people are able to engage meaningfully in the political system during formative high school years while they still have the support and encouragement of teachers and parents, they will probably think more about voting and participating in other public forums in the future after they’ve left home.

What’s most exciting to me about this change is that it conceivably opens up space for young people to cut their teeth in civic engagement by participating in local school board elections. It’s not hard to imagine young people being engaged far beyond simply voting if they had a real say in a school board races. They would be the primary stakeholders, after all, because the decision would impact them more directly than maybe any other kind of political competition. Just think how different school board campaigns would look if many of the voters deciding the outcome were current students.

But does the reasoning of the Takoma Park city council hold up? Will letting younger people vote really increase voting and other forms of public engagement in the long run? Would you want to see this kind of change in your community? How do you think it would change the civic sphere where you live if 16- and 17-year olds could vote? Could this be potentially negative?

Interestingly, Takoma Park has been pushing the envelope on engaging its residents by expanding voting rights for some time now. Not only did 16- and 17-year olds gain the right to vote, but this year’s amendment also reestablished the right for convicted felons who had completed their sentences as a way to facilitate their re-engagement with their communities.

In addition, and much more controversially, the Takoma Park website also notes that

Residents of Takoma Park who are not United States citizens have been eligible to register and vote in City elections since 1993.

All of this raises questions about whether and how simply letting more people vote will change the way that the public participates in the broader civic sphere.

What do you think? Can expanding voter franchise increase public engagement? What do these sorts of changes mean for our field? Let us know what you think in the comment section, or share your ideas on NCDD’s Facebook discussion page!

Group Decision Tip: Discipline

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In principle, discipline is remembering what I want.

Step one of course is to figure out what I want. That’s hard all by itself. Yet without a clear definition of the goal, discipline is impossible. Chasing fleeting aspirations willy-nilly often results in a random undisciplined path that amounts to little progress.

Group Decision Tips IconStep two is to stay on the path, remember what I want, where I want to be. It is so easy to be distracted. Disciplined people have learned how to resist distraction.

Step three is do the work. And the work is surprisingly easy, even fun, when you truly believe in a well-defined goal and when you are free from distraction.

And it’s the same for groups. This is why it is so important for groups to define their goals and honor their processes that are designed to get them there.

Practical tip: Define what you want. Remember what you want. Do the work, joyfully, that will get you what you want.

Int’l Course on Participatory Methods in India, Spring 2014

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This post was submitted by NCDD member Varun Vidyarthi of the Manavodaya Institute of Participatory Development via our Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have field news you want to share with the rest of us? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

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You’re invited to participate in a two-week program titled “People Based Development – Concept and Practice” is a unique experience in participatory development in India. It combines inputs in classroom with field visits involving direct interaction with villagers. This will be the seventeenth international course at the Manavodaya Institute that is known for its pioneering contribution to the self help movement in India.

The program is based on the following lessons learned at Manavodaya:

  • Participatory development is a process that builds on people’s own capacity and resources and it can be initiated by outsiders through deep dialogue.
  • The process of participatory development is feasible even among the very poor and illiterate.
  • A successful participatory development process requires a clear vision, strategy, and suitable values among facilitators of the process.
  • Participants from earlier programs have used the method among refugees in Norway as well as people with learning disabilities in the UK.

For more info about Manavodaya’s work you can find their website at www.manavodaya.org.in, visit Manavodaya’s Facebook page, or check out their informative and inspiring video below:

New Round of Grants from the Taylor Willingham Legacy Fund

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We’d like to encourage all NCDD members to consider applying for a grant from — or donating to — the Taylor L. Willingham Legacy Fund. You can find out more about Taylor, her work in deliberation, and her legacy here. The original NIFI announcement can be found by clicking here.

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Applications are now being accepted for grants from the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) to enable individuals to develop an understanding of deliberative democracy and to launch one or more deliberative forums in their communities or organizations. Grants are expected to be in the range of $500-$1,000.

Applications should consist of:

  1. A completed application form — click on the download link above for a copy;
  2. A resume describing your experience and education;
  3. A cover letter that explains why you are interested in becoming involved in the deliberative democracy movement and what specific course of action you propose to become familiar with this work and how and where you would implement forums; and
  4. A budget indicating how the grant would be spent.

Applications are welcomed from any U.S. resident, with special consideration given to residents of Texas. The application should be received on or by November 15, 2013.  Applications may be either faxed to Bill Muse at 937-428-5353,  e-mailed to bmuse@nifi.org, or mailed to:

National Issues Forums Institute
100 Commons Road
Dayton, Ohio 45459

Grants will be made by January 15, 2014 and will be for use during 2014. A report on activities will be required on or before November 30, 2014. You can find the application here.

Click here for more information about Taylor L. Willingham and her work.

Donations to the fund are welcome and can be made securely online. All donated money will go toward grant awards.

Making Engagement More Fun with CommunityMatters

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CM_logo-200pxCivic engagement and public participation can often be dry, boring, and even down right tedious, and many of us have struggled to find ways to make civic engagement more fun. Some have found interesting ways to do it, but for many of us, it’s hard to think of new ways to jazz up our work.

But that’s why our partners at CommunityMatters have been thinking and talking over the past month about how we can make our work of building and engaging community more fun. They have already started by helping show that engagement can be fun with their list of 75 ways to make your town more playful and their “leaderboard” for playful engagement projects.

And CM is continuing to help stimulate and grow those fun ways to engage with the second installment of their “Let’s Play!” conference call series, “Creating Fun Places“.  If you missed the first installment in the call series, “Making Engagement Way More Fun“, don’t worry! You can find and listen to audio of the entire call by clicking here.

The “Creating Fun Places” call is coming up November 14th from 4 – 5pm Eastern and will feature two great fun instigators who will share insights on bringing play into normal public spaces:

Public spaces bring our cities and towns to life – they’re where we gather with friends, take breaks from the office and bask in the sunshine on a warm summer day. But much of the public realm is lifeless and overly utilitarian. Wouldn’t it be nice if parking lots could make you smile, or if transit stops were so fun that you sort of hope the bus will be late?

On the next free CommunityMatters conference call, we’ll hear from Mike Lanza of Playborhood and Brian Corrigan of Oh Heck Yeah. They’re working on creative placemaking strategies to turn ordinary places into fun-filled ones. Join us on Thursday, November 14th from 4-5pm for great ideas on making your city or town a more playful place.

We encourage everyone to register now for the conference call, which promises to be both informative and, of course, fun! We know it will be a great break from the work week, so we look forward to having you join us on the call!

New Leadership for the Journal of Public Deliberation

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Our friends at IAP2 and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium just announced a great new leadership team for the Journal of Public Deliberation (JPD). We’ve been talking to some members of the team about the potential of NCDD helping the JPD with outreach and dissemination to the dialogue and deliberation community. Stay tuned for updates, and check out the full announcement below.

Announcing changes in the leadership of the Journal of Public Deliberation 

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DDC logo

 

 

 

DDC and IAP2 Federation are pleased to announce exciting changes in the leadership of the Journal of Public Deliberation (JPD). After three highly successful years at the helm of the journal, Tim Steffensmeier and David Procter are stepping down, and a new editorial team is taking over:

  • Laura Black of the School of Communication Studies at Ohio University will serve as the new Editor.
  • Tim Shaffer, who directs the Center for Leadership and Engagement at Wagner College, will be an Associate Editor and the Book Review Editor.
  • Nancy Thomas of the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University, who also directs The Democracy Imperative (TDI), will be an Associate Editor.

Since its inception in 2004, JPD articles have been downloaded over 82,000 times. The journal occupies a preeminent role in a growing, global, cross-disciplinary field. Black, Shaffer, and Thomas plan to expand the types of articles published, create a new section for shorter articles that focus on innovative ideas and best practice examples, continue the journal’s success with special issues and symposia, incorporate book reviews, and explore new possibilities for interactivity and social media. The new team will soon be issuing their first call for proposals.

Under the leadership of Steffensmeier and Procter, who are based at the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at Kansas State University, JPD has made great progress. Article downloads have tripled and submissions have doubled over the past three years. The production schedule accelerated to two issues per year. Special issues on Participatory Budgeting and (De)liberation Technology garnered wide attention. Steffensmeier and Procter also husbanded the journal’s transition to a new platform at Berkeley Electronic Press, www.publicdeliberation.org, which provides the new editorial team an expanded range of online tools.

In their work, Steffensmeier and Procter have benefited enormously from the work of Associate Editor William Richter, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Kansas State, and Chandra Ruthstrom of the university’s Center for Engagement and Community Development.

Laura Black is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Ohio University. She studies group deliberation and dialogue with a special focus on storytelling, conflict, and group facilitation. Some of her research has also investigated the use of online tools in deliberative forums. She has worked on several research projects with organizations such as the Kettering Foundation and the Interactivity Foundation and local civic organizations. Her research is published in JPD, Small Group Research, and several communication journals as well as edited books on deliberation and democracy.  She has served on the editorial board for JPD and also co-edited a special issue of the International Journal of Public Participation on the communication practices in public meetings.  Laura received her Ph.D. in communication from the University of Washington in 2006.

Tim Shaffer is Director of the Center for Leadership and Engagement at Wagner College. His research interests include historical and contemporary forms of civic engagement and the public philosophies that animate citizens. He has published on topics such as environmental leadership and deliberative democracy as well as higher education’s role in cultivating and supporting civic life. He earned a bachelor’s degree in theology from St. Bonaventure University, master’s degrees in public administration and theological studies, respectively, from the University of Dayton, and a PhD in education from Cornell University.

Nancy Thomas directs research on college student engagement in democracy at Tisch College and CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, at Tufts University. She also co-founded and directs the Democracy Imperative and serves as a senior associate for Everyday Democracy. Nancy has worked for more than 20 years in the national diversity, civic, and democracy reform efforts in higher education. In 2010, she published Educating for Deliberative Democracy and co-edited (with Martin Carcasson) a special issue of JPD on teaching democracy across the curriculum. She holds a BA in government from St. Lawrence University, a law degree from Case Western Reserve University, and a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

In addition to IAP2 and DDC, the Journal is also supported by a range of other institutions, including:

For further information kindly contact:

Iris Almeida-Côté, Executive Director, IAP2 Federation

iris@iap2.org or visit the website: www.iap2.org

Matt Leighninger, Executive Director, Deliberative Democracy Consortium

mattleighninger@earthlink.net or visit www.deliberative-democracy.net

 

Participate in “Real Dialogues” Hangout Today!

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We’re excited to invite you to participate in the most exciting phase yet of the Real Dialogues project, their very first Google+ Hangout discussion! You may remember that the Real Dialogues D&D reality show was one of the winners of NCDD’s Catalyst Awards, and we are proud to see the project entering its production phase! Now you can participate in the project yourself by joining the conversation.

This first dialogue starts Tuesday, October 29th, at 5pm Central so make sure to email realdialogues@gmail.com immediately to sign up! They are specifically seeking participants from Illinois, so please also tell your IL friends about this great opportunity by having them check out the announcement below or pointing them to the original post on Real Dialogues’ website here.

Real Dialogues Fall Update: Entering Production Phase

After months of design work and preparation, our Catalyst Award project is finally entering its production phase!

We will be using Google+ Hangouts to host three rounds of facilitated small-group dialogues online on the issue of employment and the minimum wage in the greater Chicago, IL area:

  • The first Hangout is for our participants to get to know each other and to explain and hear about their employment situations.
  • The second Hangout will feature interviews with Conservative, Liberal and Alternative experts, who will also drop in to answer questions.
  • The third Hangout aims to tie it all together: what have people learned, have they changed their perspectives, and will this affect their lives?

This first Hangout takes place Tuesday, October 29 at 5pm Central Time (that’s 3pm Pacific, 6pm Eastern).

We are very pleased to welcome Susanna Haas Lyons as our facilitator. Susanna will be facilitating a group of people from the Chicago area to discuss work and the minimum wage. They include employees, employers, minimum wage workers, unemployed job seekers and other people interested in the issue.

Participants wanted

We have a couple of spaces left for Illinois-based people to participate! If you live in Illinois and want to join, email realdialogues@gmail.com immediately, so we can get you set up.

Audience welcome

Anyone can watch this Hangout and use the new Google+ Q&A feature to ask the participants questions (to ask a question or comment, you will be instructed to join or sign in to Google+).