Submit Nominations for Leadership in Democracy Award

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

In case you missed it, NCDD member org Everyday Democracy, recently announced they are accepting nominations for the third annual Paul and Joyce Aicher Leadership in Democracy award! The $10K award will be granted to those 16 and older who embody the values of Paul and Joyce Aicher. Nominations are due April 15th, so make sure you get yours in ASAP! We encourage you to learn more about the award criteria and how to submit a nomination in the announcement below and on the Everyday Democracy site here.

Nominations Open for the 2019 Paul and Joyce Aicher Leadership in Democracy Award Now

EvDem Logo Every year, Everyday Democracy recognizes a standout community change agent —a person or organization whose work in their community exemplifies the values on which we were founded – voice for all, connection across difference, racial equity, and community change.

The Paul and Joyce Aicher Leadership in Democracy Award provides recognition and a $10,000 award to an individual or organization in the U.S. whose achievements inspire us and can be lifted up for many others to aspire to.

Who comes to the top of your mind when you think about exceptional people or local organizations that create opportunities for people to talk to and listen to each other, work together for equitable communities, and help create vibrant communities that work for everyone? Show how much you understand and appreciate their contribution to society by nominating them for the 2019 Aicher Award!

For more than 25 years, Everyday Democracy has worked in communities across the country to foster a healthy and vibrant democracy – one that is characterized by strong relationships across divides, racial equity, and widespread leadership and voice.

Paul and Joyce Aicher’s generosity and creative genius have had a profound impact on individuals and organizations in every part of this country. Their passion and diligent effort inspired the dialogue guides, organizing and facilitating training, and community coaching that Everyday Democracy is so well known for delivering. In 2017, we launched the inaugural Paul and Joyce Aicher Leadership in Democracy Award to carry on their legacy after the passing of Joyce Aicher.

Our 2018 award winner was Beth A. Broadway, President of InterFaith Works of Central New York, who has worked for more than 40 years as a force for justice, raising voice to issues of oppression and advancing racial and social equity through the process of dialogue and action. Her racial equity work has directly impacted thousands of individuals and families and has markedly improved Syracuse and surrounding communities. Learn more about Beth’s extraordinary work here. Read more about past honorees.

Nominations are due April 15, 2019. See below for full details about eligibility and the nomination process.

We can’t wait to see your nominations!

Awards

The recipient of the Paul and Joyce Aicher Leadership in Democracy award will receive $10,000 at the award reception in December 2019. Finalists will receive one day of community assistance to help them implement Everyday Democracy’s principles into their community engagement work.

Who is eligible

Individuals 16 years of age and older, coalitions, and organizations conducting projects at the community level in the U.S. are eligible to be nominated. Organizations do not have to be a registered 501(c)3 and do not need to be affiliated with Everyday Democracy or its Dialogue to Change process to qualify. Current Everyday Democracy employees and board members are excluded from being nominated. People/organizations may not nominate themselves. If you wish to be considered for the award, please encourage a colleague or friend to nominate you.

Nomination process

Anyone may nominate any person or organization that meets the criteria for this award. You will need to provide contact information for yourself and your nominee, a short summary of their work, and a description of how they embody our values in a 500-1,000 word essay that provides examples of specifically what they have done. Send this completed nomination form to aichernomination@everyday-democracy.org and cc the nominee. The nomination form is due April 15, 2019.

Download the nomination form.

We will confirm the nominations when they are received. Nominees will be asked to supplement their nomination with evidence of the things they have done that demonstrate how they exhibit our core values. Supplemental information is due by May 15, 2019, at 11:59pm ET. Submissions will be evaluated by a panel put together by Everyday Democracy.

Once a final decision is made, the winner and others will be notified.

The 2019 Aicher Award winner will be expected to attend the award reception in December. (Transportation to the reception and lodging will be provided.)

A brief history of Paul and Joyce Aicher

Paul J. Aicher’s motto, “Don’t just stand there, do something,” marked all that he did. Before founding the Study Circles Resource Center (now called Everyday Democracy) in 1989, he was a model for civic engagement. Shortly after graduating from Penn State, he participated in a discussion course which helped him find his voice in civic life and sparked his lifelong interest in helping others find their own. He saw a direct connection between his early experiences as a participant and a facilitator and his later vision for embedding these kinds of opportunities into American political life and culture.

Throughout his life, he spent his free time volunteering. Early in their marriage, he and his wife Joyce got involved with a refugee resettlement project in Illinois; Paul then served as president of the North Shore Human Relations Council. Back in Pennsylvania in the mid-1960s, he started the World Affairs Council of Berks County and led his neighbors in discussions of the “Great Decisions” guides published by the Foreign Policy Association. Through his long-time work and friendship with Homer Jack, an American Unitarian Universalist clergyman and social activist, Paul developed a passion for racial justice and international peace, both of which would inspire his later social action.

In the 1970s, he devoted his energies to launching his company Technical Materials and raising four children with Joyce. But he always returned to activism. In the early 1980s, after moving to Pomfret, Connecticut, Paul joined the local anti-nuclear freeze movement. In 1982, he formed the Topsfield Foundation, which was renamed The Paul J. Aicher Foundation after Paul’s passing in 2002. It began with making grants to advance a number of causes: affordable housing; educating and engaging the public on international security issues; and networking grass-roots peace and justice groups across the U.S. As it became an operating foundation, it focused all of its efforts on its current mission – to strengthen deliberative democracy and improve the quality of life in the United States. In the past twenty-five years, it has been best known through the work of its primary project, Everyday Democracy, which supports communities across the U.S. in implementing Paul’s vision of public dialogue that enables everyone to have a voice and be heard.

Joyce shared Paul’s commitment to civic engagement, community activism, and social justice. With her quiet strength and humor, she often worked behind the scenes to make the work of the Foundation possible. She also strengthened the local community through her numerous volunteer efforts. She and Paul shared a love of nature, books, and the arts and were self-effacing advocates of democratic values. Joyce passed away in 2016.

You can find the original version of this Everyday Democracy announcement at www.everyday-democracy.org/aicher-award.

Online D&D Event Weekly Roundup & NCDD Confab TODAY

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

We’re excited for our March Confab call TODAY from 3-4 pm Eastern, 12-1 pm Pacific, in collaboration with Net Impact, National Issues Forums Institute, and the National Conversation Project! This free 1-hour webinar will be an opportunity to learn more about Net Impact’s youth engagement work, the new national debt issue guide they created with NIFI, information on a paid opportunity to host forums, and more about the upcoming National Week of Conversation. Register ASAP to save your spot on this dynamic and informational call here.

Please also check out the webinars below from NCDD partner org National Civic League, NCDD member orgs Living Room Conversations, Bridge Alliance, and National Issues Forums Institute, and from Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), and the new webinar series #ThisIsGovtech by CivicMakers and GovTech Fund.

Do you have a webinar or other event coming up that you’d like to share with the NCDD network? Please let us know in the comments section below or by emailing me at keiva[at]ncdd[dot]org, because we’d love to add it to the list!

Online Roundup: NCDD March Confab, Living Room Conversations, Bridge Alliance, NIFI, PACE, Zehr, GPPAC, and #ThisIsGovtech

NCDD March Confab with Net Impact, NIFI, and National Conversation Project

Confab bubble image

Wednesday, March 13th
12 pm Pacific, 3 pm Eastern

This free one-hour webinar will be a great opportunity for anyone passionate about cultivating the next generation of leaders, those interested in learning how to apply for the microgrant to host forums, more about the new national debt issue guide, and/or hosting a conversation during the upcoming National Week of Conversation. You won’t want to miss out on this discussion – register today!

REGISTER: http://ncdd.org/29225

Living Room Conversations webinar – Tribalism 101: Next Door Strangers

Wednesday, March 13th
12:30 pm Pacific, 3:30 pm Eastern

Join us for a free online (using Zoom) Living Room Conversation on the topic of Tribalism. Please see the conversation guide for this topic. Some of the questions explored include: Name one or more groups you feel at home or strongly identify with (where you find a sense of belonging and/or feel stronger together)What generalizations do you make about other groups? How do you evaluate or check the validity of your generalizations, if at all? How important is it to you that your generalizations are accurate? Some groups come together based on sharing a common culture, vision, or enemy. What is the commonality for your group? What need does your group fulfill in your life?

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/online-living-room-conversation-tribalism-101-next-door-strangers-4/

Living Room Conversations Training (free): The Nuts & Bolts of Living Room Conversations

Thursday, March 14th
12 pm Pacific, 3 pm Eastern

Join us for 60 minutes online to learn about Living Room Conversations. We’ll cover what a Living Room Conversation is, why we have them, and everything you need to know to get started hosting and/or participating in Living Room Conversations. This training is not required for participating in our conversations – we simply offer it for people who want to learn more about the Living Room Conversations practice.

Space is limited to 12 people so that we can offer a more interactive experience. Please only RSVP if you are 100% certain that you can attend. This training will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. A link to join the conversation will be sent to participants by Wednesday 10am (PT) / 1pm (ET).

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/training-free-the-nuts-bolts-of-living-room-conversations-3/

Living Room Conversations webinar – American Culture: Melting pot or salad bowl or something else?

Saturday, March 16th
11:30 am Pacific, 2:30 pm Eastern

Join us for a free online (using Zoom) Living Room Conversation on the topic of American Culture: Melting pot or salad bowl or something else?. Please see the conversation guide for this topic. Some of the questions explored include: What is your cultural heritage? Have you experienced cultures other than your own? What did you appreciate? What made you uncomfortable? What value do you see in having a single, shared American culture? What would that culture look like?

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/online-living-room-conversation-american-culture-melting-pot-or-salad-bowl-or-something-else/

Bridge Alliance webinar – Peer Learning Session: Get to Know the 116th Congress with the Congressional Management Foundation *this webinar is for Bridge Alliance members only – learn more here

Monday, March 18th
10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern

A new Congress means new committee and subcommittee chairs, new alliances, and significant changes in the political terrain on Capitol Hill. With the shift in power, and term limits for committee chairs in the House and Senate, an advocate who may have been represented by an anonymous back-bencher last year might now be the conduit to the most important legislator for your cause. This webinar will offering a snapshot of the 116^th Congress, offering participants a window into how to build relationships with lawmakers. The presentation will be conducted by Bradford Fitch, President and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF).

RSVP: www.bridgealliancefund.us/cmf_peer_learning_session

National Civic League AAC Promising Practices Webinar – Community Collaborations to Improve Student Health

Tuesday, March 19th
11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern

Join the National Civic League to learn more about how two All-America Cities are bringing their communities together to address student health with in-school interventions. Susan Witkowski, CHCQM, CEO of Community Medical Clinic of Kershaw County will discuss the offerings of their school-based health center. Lisa Campbell, CEO of Create a Change in Las Vegas, NV will discuss their Healthy School, Healthy Life Program.

REGISTER: www.eventbrite.com/e/aac-promising-practices-webinar-community-collaborations-to-improve-student-health-tickets-54558819899

Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement Webinar – Health Equity & Community Safety: How Funders Can Embrace the Power of Youth Civic Engagement

Wednesday, March 20th
10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern

Foundations and funders committed to building healthier, safer, and more equitable communities may be overlooking or undervaluing a key strategy: youth civic engagement. In light of recent findings from PACE’s Health & Safety working group, this webinar will highlight why and how investments in youth civic engagement can be key to improving community health and safety. The event will illustrate specific ways funders can support youth civic engagement, share stories and case studies of successful health and safety initiatives involving youth, and explore how incorporating youth into health and safety strategies can have an impact on equity in community outcomes..

REGISTER: www.pacefunders.org/webinar-health-equity-community-safety-how-funders-can-embrace-the-power-of-youth-civic-engagement/

Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice – Restorative Circles for Health: RJ as an Approach to Health Justice

Wednesday, March 20th
1:30pm Pacific, 4:30pm Eastern
Guest: Ivelyse Andino and Jason Walsh
Host: Johonna Turner

Join Ivelyse Andino and Jason Walsh for a discussion on the use of restorative practices to achieve health justice for marginalized communities. Andino, the CEO of Radical Health, and Walsh, who facilitated “Circle of Knowledge,” are on the cutting edge of this burgeoning application of RJ.

REGISTER: http://zehr-institute.org/webinars/restorative-circles-for-health.html

Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) webinar – Peace Education: Culture of Good Neighbourhood and 15 years of Multicultural education in school; how can I be recognized in my school if I’m a minority?

Wednesday, March 20th
5 am Pacific, 8 am Eastern

In this webinar, expert Dr. Iryna Brunova-Kalisetska will present an example of system work from kindergarten to university levels of education for the multicultural societies, both as a preventive tool and post-conflict peacebuilding measure. Main principles of the “Culture of Good Neighbourhood” inclusive approach for various levels of education and multicultural contexts will be presented and discussed at the webinar.

REGISTER: www.gppac.net/peace-education-webinar-series?fbclid=IwAR371vw1Gxi_tpRI3NZsCMRgbf7Rd_IlD1keNf2KuT30iUwHzMDCiw6t1541

#ThisIsGovtech Webinar – Access & Accessibility for All! *this webinar is free for gov’t employees and requires a gov’t email

Thursday, March 21st
11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern

What is govtech? It is new technologies that empower government employees, improve public services, and make a real difference in everything from the housing crisis to climate change. It is a growing market worth over $400 billion that is attracting a new generation of technologists, designers and mission-driven entrepreneurs who are collaborating with government partners to help drive a movement. As paper processes shift to digital workflows full of big data, governments are gaining new visibility and actionable insights into sticky problems and seeing their role evolve to become dedicated enablers of change. #ThisIsGovtech is a new webinar series exploring the govtech movement. If you work in government, join us to be inspired by the passion, creativity and impact of this growing field.

REGISTER: www.eventbrite.com/e/thisisgovtech-webinar-series-access-accessibility-for-all-registration-41804299786?mc_eid=6347eb7d50&mc_cid=71f141c3f8

National Issues Forums Institute – March CGA Forum Series: America’s Energy Future

Thursday, March 21st
9:30 am Pacific, 12:30 pm Eastern

Join us in March for a Common Ground for Action forum on “America’s Energy Future” We’ll be talking about how to fix our broken political system in three different options: (1) Produce the Energy We Need to Maintain Our Way of Life: We must produce more of the energy we need, while making sure that as much imported energy as possible comes from stable, friendly countries, such as Canada; (2) Put More Renewables and Clean Energy Sources into the Mix: We need to find and use more sources of renewable energy. And, because we will inevitably have to move to renewables at some point, we should start down that path now; and (3) Find Ways to Use Less Energy: Energy produced by fossil fuels will, eventually, run out and, in the meantime, we continue to do great damage to the air, water, and earth that sustain us. If you haven’t had a chance to review the issue guide, you can find a downloadable PDF here.

REGISTER: www.nifi.org/en/events/march-cga-forum-series-america%E2%80%99s-energy-future-0

National Week of Conversation Happening April 5th-13th

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

The next National Week of Conversation (NWOC) is April 5th – 13th! For the second year in a row, NWOC will be a week of intentional conversation, where folks around the country will be hosting or joining conversations, in hopes to better address the intense divisions in our society through dialogue, deepening understanding, and building relationships. We have a special Confab call happening this Weds where you can learn more about NWOC, how to join a conversation already going on and/or start your own. This free call will be on Wednesday, March 13th from 3-4 pm Eastern, 12-1 pm Pacific and we encourage you to register ASAP to save your spot on the call. (Spoiler: we will also be sharing about a paid opportunity to host discussions around the new national debt issue guide, so you won’t want to miss out!) You can read more about NWOC in the post below and on the NCP site here.

National Week of Conversation: April 5th – 13th

Today, seemingly more than ever before, it is important that we as American citizens of all stripes, take a step back followed by a step forward. Step back from our comfort zone and routine, step away from our smartphone screens and social media scrolling and step forward towards someone new, engaging and connecting with genuine curiosity. This is how we grow both as individuals and as a society. This is how we better understand the hurt we might actually be able to help heal. This is how we understand American struggles beyond simply those we experience within invisible border walls of our own communities or those we learn about in the echo chambers of our like-minded social media connections. This is the only way we understand our best way forward, together.

These uncommon steps are far from easy. So an entire movement has formed where we, hand-in-hand, walk each other into greater connection and understanding. Republicans and Democrats. Jews and Muslims. Majority and minority. In the middle of the chaos, we enter into difficult yet rewarding conversations where we #ListenFirst to understand each other. And somewhere within that, we see behind the angry social media posts and opposing votes and comments taken out of context and realize we are all human. We realize we all have stories worth open ears and struggles worth another helping hand.

This year, April 5th – 13th, this #ListenFirst movement is joining together during National Week of Conversation to rally Americans to take these steps together.

National Week of Conversation is a bold annual occasion when people with diverse perspectives #ListenFirst to understand. Through in-person and virtual conversations exploring any topic of interest, people of all stripes intentionally convene with the goal of mending our frayed social fabric and revitalizing America together. We are encouraging everyone and anyone to reach out to neighbors, family and friends, and form your own conversations.

To connect with this sweeping cross country movement, you can host or join a conversation during NWOC 2019, April 5-13. Use the #ListenFirst hashtag to invite others!

One week. One week to step back from routine work schedules and routine interactions. One week to step away from excuses and prioritize your concerns about our future. One week when we can step forward – towards each other, with each other and for each other. What is your excuse for standing back or standing still? Please join us for National Week of Conversation and practice what it means to #ListenFirst.

You can learn more about the National Week of Conversation at www.nationalconversationproject.org/.

ILG TIERS Learning Lab Training Early Bird Now Available

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

If you work in local government and are looking to gain some more skills when engaging the public, then we recommend folks check out this great training from NCDD member org, the Institute for Local Government (ILG). ILG is offering their two-day TIERS Learning Lab training on Thursday, April 25th and Friday, April 26th in Danville, CA. This is a great opportunity for staff and elected officials working in local government to better engage and sustain their public engagement efforts, and early bird registration ends in two weeks, on March 22nd. You can read the announcement from ILG below and find the original version here.

TIERS Public Engagement Learning Lab – April 25 & 26 in Danville, CA

Upcoming Learning Lab & Registration
Danville, April 25 & 26, 2019
REGISTER HERE

Early Bird Registration ends March 22nd
Registration deadline is April 5th

For more information or to register contact Hanna Stelmakhovych at publicengagement@ca-ilg.org or call (916) 658-8221.

ILG’s TIERS Can Help Your Agency Take Your Public Engagement to the Next Level

Not getting the results you want from your public engagement efforts? Enroll in the Institute for Local Government’s (ILG) TIERS Public Engagement Learning Lab and receive customized coaching and learn a step-by-step framework to successfully plan and implement your next public engagement effort. This comprehensive training and coaching program is available to any city, county, special district and can apply to a variety of efforts ranging from housing and climate change to budgeting and public safety.

ILG will be hosting a TIERS℠Public Engagement Learning Lab on April 25-26, 2019 in Danville. Learn more about the TIERS Public Engagement Learning Lab, pricing and future training opportunities here: www.ca-ilg.org/tierslearninglab.

Learning Lab Overview
The TIERS Learning Lab is a comprehensive training and coaching program from ILG that provides local government teams of 2-5 individuals with hands-on instruction and coaching on the TIERS Framework. By participating in the TIERS Learning Lab, staff and electeds will learn how to utilize, customize and implement the TIERS tools and processes. The TIERS Learning Lab will help you build and manage successful public engagement in order to support local government work, stakeholder input and project success.

TIERS Learning Lab Components
The TIERS Learning Lab consists of training and support over a six month period for an agency team of up to five people. This six-month hands-on coaching opportunity includes:

A pretraining consultation with ILG to discuss your goals, plans and challenges; and to select your Learning Lab public engagement case
Immersive two-day Learning Lab: hands-on, participatory in-person training with expert coaches and peer learning
Post-training customized implementation coaching (up to 6 hours)
Monthly ’Open Lab’ for problem solving during the three months post training
Training workshop materials and meals
Scheduling and coordination of consulting calls for pre and post training

Register Now for April 2019 TIERS Public Engagement Learning Lab!

“The TIERS training was incredibly motivating for our team and we were able to immediately put what we learned about the TIERS process to work on our current projects. We left with best practices and a clear process we can follow”
– Mayor Gurrola, City of Arvin

You can find the original information of this training on ILG’s site at: www.ca-ilg.org/TIERSLearningLab.

Engaging Everyday Individuals for Better Public Policy

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

A driving force behind much work in the D&D field is centered around the belief that individuals are the expert of their own experiences and should be the key consultants in shaping the policies that shape their own lives. The Jefferson Center – a NCDD sponsor org, shared an article on their blog this week, How can everyday citizens create better public policy? by Annie Pottorff, which offers tips on bringing in “everyday” individuals during policymaking. The article gives several key insights on why this is important and talks more about how the process of Citizen Juries can increase civic participation and more direct democratic practices. You can read the article below and find the original version on the Jefferson Center blog here.

How can everyday citizens create better public policy?

Each election, the United States Congress looks a little bit more like the country it represents. In 2018, we celebrated a record number of congressional firsts, including the youngest woman elected, first Muslim congresswomen, first Native American congresswomen, and many other ‘firsts’.

While representation is improving, there are still clear differences according to Pew: the share of women, people of color, and immigrants in the House and Senate lags behind the overall US population. Congress members are also typically highly educated and wealthier than the general public. These distinctions show a clear mismatch, and lead us to wonder: how can we better include diverse experiences, perspectives, and aspirations in decision-making?
Direct democracy approaches, including Citizens Juries, invite “everyday” people (like you, your neighbor, and your grandma) to participate. By using our incredibly different life experiences and personal expertise to shape public policy, we can create a more representative, transparent, and trusted democracy.

Turning to “Everyday” Experts

Average citizens have an incredible resource too often overlooked: their unique expertise. In the current Congress, 96% of House members and all senators have a bachelor’s degree or higher. But in 2017, only about a third (34%) of American adults 25 and older said they had completed a bachelor’s degree or more, according to Pew.

But education and degrees shouldn’t determine your contribution to democracy. Most of us have been shaped by our work, travel, volunteering, relationships, and more, in addition to traditional schooling. Within a Citizens Jury, you’ll find people of all education levels working together to create recommendations to a given challenge.

Participants have the rare opportunity to listen to one another, hear different perspectives, build off one another’s ideas, empathize, and establish common ground. This helps Jurors create recommendations that utilize one another’s expertise and experiences, and are more representative of the population as a whole.

Listening to the People Most Impacted

Last summer, we conducted a Citizens Jury in the Forest of Dean, United Kingdom. Two local hospitals, which were closely intertwined with the community, were set to close. The National Health Service wanted to hear from residents on where a new, centrally located hospital should be built.

Citizen input isn’t always clearly invited (or even welcomed) by representatives in similar situations. People may not be able to travel to their representative’s office, and if they do get there, their representatives might be booked or have other issues on the agenda. In the Forest of Dean, while the closure of the hospital was a sensitive topic for many, a Citizens Jury helped create a recommendation for the location new hospital that was actually trusted by the wider community.

As one participant put it, “People trust the outcome a lot more, they think there’s a fairer representation of views and that the people who are actually going to be using the hospital have a chance to give some insight into their needs which should be valuable feedback for the decision makers.”

Making Participation More Accessible

Getting informed on local, state, national, and global issues can take a lot of time that many people simply don’t have. Citizens Juries, meanwhile, pay people to participate and cover things such as childcare expenses, so participants can more easily take time to participate.

Juries also make participation easier for young people. In the United States, Senators have to be at least 30, and House Representatives must be over 25. And even though people younger than 25 will obviously be impacted by many of today’s issues, barriers such as moving often, work, and difficulty registering to vote all present big obstacles to civic participation. Citizens Juries typically invite participants 18 and older, providing much needed insight into these missing perspectives.

Free from Outside Influence

Instead of the policy issue at hand, politicians might be focused on winning the next election, gaining favorable public opinion, or keeping campaign funders happy.

But your average person isn’t usually worried about these issues. And if there’s ever extra pressure felt by Jury members from their peers, participants can remain anonymous. The experts that inform Jurors about the topic don’t advocate for a specific stance, but provide neutral background information for participants to reference. This sets the stage for more trusted policy, as Jurors made their decision based on high quality information and a transparent process.

Combining Direct & Representative Democracy

Wider citizen participation can complement representative democracies around the world: we’d more fully capture the range of citizen ideas and hear from underrepresented groups. Officials would have a much clearer picture of what the public thinks on complex issues, instead of just hearing from the loudest voices in the room.

Although Citizens Juries don’t always create immediate policy adoption, the recommendations guide legislation and community initiatives. These recommendations aren’t influenced by money or power, but represent the aspirations, interests, and needs of everyday people, creating a stronger democracy we can all believe in.

You can find the original version of this article on the Jefferson Center blog at https://jefferson-center.org/2019/03/how-can-everyday-citizens-create-better-public-policy/

Weekly Online D&D Roundup – March Confab Announced!

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

As part of this week’s roundup of online D&D events, we’re excited to include the announcement we shared yesterday for the upcoming NCDD March Confab call on Wednesday, March 13th in collaboration with Net Impact, National Issues Forums Institute, and the National Conversation Project. This free 1-hour webinar will be from 3-4 pm Eastern, 12-1 pm Pacific, and will be an opportunity to learn more about Net Impact’s youth engagement work, the new national debt issue guide they created with NIFI, information on a paid opportunity to host forums, and more about the upcoming National Week of Conversation. Register ASAP to save your spot on this dynamic and informational call here. We encourage you to check out the webinars below from the following NCDD member orgs Living Room Conversations, Bridge Alliance, and IAP2.

Online Roundup: NCDD March Confab, Living Room Conversations, IAP2, Bridge Alliance

Living Room Conversations webinar – Police-community Relations

Thursday, March 7th
2 pm Pacific, 5 pm Eastern

Join us for a free online (using Zoom) Living Room Conversation on the topic of Police-community Relations. Please see the conversation guide for this topic. Some of the questions explored include: What has been your personal response to instances of police-citizen shootings, if any? What do you think is contributing to the police-citizen shootings right now? What role, if any, do you see racism playing in our current attention to law enforcement?

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/online-living-room-conversation-men-victims-perpetrators-and-allies/

Living Room Conversations webinar – Mental Health

Saturday, March 9th
11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern

Join us for a free online (using Zoom) Living Room Conversation on the topic of Mental Health. Please see the conversation guide for this topic. Some of the questions explored include: What experiences in your life, your work or your family inform your thinking about mental health? Is mental health an important issue in your community, and if so, why? In your experience, how are mental health issues affecting young people? (If you are a young person, how do mental health issues affect you and your peers?)

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/online-living-room-conversation-mental-health-3/

IAP2 Monthly Webinar – Visual Engagement

Tuesday, March 12th
11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern

Encouraging members of the public to take part in an engagement process is challenging. How do you provide them with the information they need to make an informed decision without bogging them down with data, policy and jargon? For that matter, how do you attract their attention in the first place?

The Visual Engagement Awards — a new Core Values Award presented by IAP2 Canada in conjunction with the Dazzling Notice Awards — rewards public entities which have made that extra effort to get people’s attention and make sure their many voices are heard. In 2018, the first awards went to the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, for its Biosolids Strategy, and the District of Squamish, BC, for its Official Community Plan Update. Watch the Waterloo video here. Watch the Squamish video here.

REGISTER: www.iap2canada.ca/event-3093147

NCDD March Confab with Net Impact, NIFI, and National Conversation Project

Confab bubble image

Wednesday, March 13th
12 pm Pacific, 3 pm Eastern

REGISTER: http://ncdd.org/29225

Living Room Conversations Training (free): The Nuts & Bolts of Living Room Conversations

Thursday, March 14th
12 pm Pacific, 3 pm Eastern

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/training-free-the-nuts-bolts-of-living-room-conversations-3/

Living Room Conversations webinar – American Culture: Melting pot or salad bowl or something else?

Saturday, March 16th
11:30 am Pacific, 2:30 pm Eastern

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/online-living-room-conversation-american-culture-melting-pot-or-salad-bowl-or-something-else/

Bridge Alliance webinar – Peer Learning Session: Get to Know the 116th Congress with the Congressional Management Foundation *this webinar is for Bridge Alliance members only – learn more here

Monday, March 18th
10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern

RSVP: www.bridgealliancefund.us/cmf_peer_learning_session

Who Will You Invite? An Exploration of Stakeholder Selection in Dialogue and Deliberation

Posted on March 4, 2019 by Annie Rappeport

A NCDD Listserv synopsis of the conversation entitled: How to pick stakeholders for a stakeholder dialogue

Listserv Contributors: Tom Altee, Adrian Segar, Peter Jones, Marjo Curgus, Peggy Holmes, Chris Santos-Lang, Betsy Morris, Eric Simley, and Sally Theilacker

Synopsis by: Annie Rappeport, NCDD Intern

“The approach to stakeholder selection is the most critical step in the design of fair and inclusive dialogues that reflect a community’s contributions and perspectives” ~ Peter Jones, NCDD Member

In your dialogue and deliberation work do you find yourself struggling as much about who to invite to a dialogue as how to set the agenda? Are you wanting to include many but worried about sacrificing the needed intimacy of the conversation? If so, you are not alone.

In September 2018, NCDD member Tom Altee began a conversation with an inquiry to the greater NCDD community about the different considerations for and ways to select community stakeholders gathering because they all care about a particular issue. Although Tom Altee’s questions were for a specific project related to community transit and the varying interests of bicyclists, walkers, and drivers, the responses quickly broadened this important conversation about dialogue. Tackling who will be included in a dialogue has valuable impacts on what will be discussed as will the overall size of the group and any present uneven power dynamics.

Our NCDD community responded with resources and ideas aplenty. Here are some contributions we believe may serve others well as they craft an approach for their specific local needs and contexts.

Peter Jones has dedicated much of his work and scholarship to the importance of stakeholder selection. He recommends a technique entitled “evolutionary stakeholder discovery” whereby there are multiple waves of invitation and a creation of optimal criteria that the participating stakeholders may represent. This is a time-consuming and worthwhile approach. Marjo Curgus also uses a specific technique that combines network analysis and stakeholder analysis to craft a preferred list of included stakeholders. Marjo notes the importance of conducting this process with a committee and to prioritize levels of influence.
Peggy Holmes mentions different models including the diversity promoting “faultlines” conceptual framework from The Maynard Institute. A handy guide to the faultlines approach is provided on the Society for Professional Journalists website (2019). She also mentions the work of Sandra Janoff and Marv Weisbord as providing useful criteria considerations.
Chris Santos-Lang illustrates impossibility of creating the perfect gathering of stakeholders and the significant issue in dialogue and deliberation work to include stakeholder representation when the needed stakeholder may be physically, mentally or technically (i.e. language barriers) unable to participate at the needed level themselves.
Adrian Segar recommends the 2013 John Forester book Planning in the Face of Conflict. This book features a dozen profiles of planning practitioners that serve as exemplary cases of stakeholder selection for practical problem solving in communities.

What we can continue to take from this discussion overall is the importance of questioning how we invite and who we invite in community discussions. The tools and approaches vary, but many times our goals remain constant–to have high quality and effective dialogues that are so because they are diverse, inclusive, and a size that enables everyone to contribute.

We hope this discussion may continue! Please post your thoughts and ideas for stakeholder selection in your work.

Special Offer Available on “A House Divided” NIFI Guide

Posted on March 1, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

In case you missed it, National Issues Forums Institute in partnership with the Kettering Foundation – both NCDD member organizations, have a special offer available for their new Issue Guide, A House Divided: What Would We Have to Give Up to Get the Political System We Want. They are offering folks interested in convening forums around this issue guide with complimentary digital versions and hard copies of the guide, and request for coveners and moderators to provide NIFI with report back on the experience. You can read the announcement in the post below and you can find the original on NIFI’s site here.

Special Offer on Newly Released Issue Guide for 2019 – Join the Conversation about “A House Divided: What Would We Have to Give Up to Get the Political System We Want?”

In partnership with the Kettering Foundation, National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) is offering the following to forum conveners:

Digital Versions
The digital version of A House Divided Issue Guide and A House Divided Issue Advisory is available for complimentary download. The Issue Advisory is a shorter version of the Issue Guide and offers the same options and trade-offs for deliberation. Both the issue advisory and the issue guide versions are available here.

Hard Copies
Prefer hard copies for forum participants? NIFI is offering a set of 20 Issue Advisories and 2 Issue Guides for free.

Starter Video
The 5-minute companion video is a valuable tool since some participants may not have read the issue guide before the forum. The starter video is available for unlimited streaming and downloads.

You will need to create a Vimeo account to access the video.
Use promo code AHD2019 for free unlimited streaming and downloads.

What NIFI Requests From Conveners and Moderators:

Plan and convene a forum between January 2019 and November 2019
Return the completed post-forum questionnaires (hard copies or scanned) to:
- NIFI, 100 Commons Road, Dayton, OH 45459 or
- dminnich@nifi.org
Complete the online Moderator Report at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/moderatorsreport2017

How to Request Hard Copies
To request hard copies, please complete this form.
The advisories will be shipped to you from NIFI’s fulfillment house.

MODERATOR’S TOOLKIT
Deliberative Facilitator Cheat Sheet
-Editable cheat sheet for moderators to use during a forum
Questions that Can Support Deliberation
-A series of questions that can help spur deliberation in any forum, sourced from hundreds of pages of training materials from a variety of centers for public life
Fostering Deeper Deliberation
-A brief handout that discusses some of Kettering Foundation’s basic research findings on how to foster deeper deliberation
Nine Key Elements of Deliberative Forums
-A short course in NIF moderating

Download the entire kit in a single PDF here.

Download editable, individual elements of the kit here.

WEBINAR
Watch a Webinar about Moderating “A House Divided” presented by Kara Dillard. Kara discusses the three options in depth, outlines questions to ask in the personal stake section as well as in the options sections, and ways to help your participants reflect on this topic. Click here to watch the webinar.

NIFI Event Calendar
Please let us know about your forum and we’ll include it on the NIFI web site in the events section. Please log in at www.nifi.org to submit an event or send your forum details (contact name, email address, date, time, location, city, state, zip code) to info@nifi.org.

How will NIFI and the Kettering Foundation use the responses to the post-forum questionnaires and moderator reports?
The Kettering Foundation and their research partners will analyze insights from the forums held nationwide throughout 2019 and prepare a cumulative report. The report will be shared during briefings with elected officials and other policymakers in Washington DC and nationwide, along with highlighting the NIF network’s activities to promote deliberation and dialogue on a variety of issues. The report will be available on the NIFI and Kettering Foundation web site in early 2020.

Questions About the Special Offer?
Please contact Darla Minnich at dminnich@nifi.org or 937.439.9834 or info@nifi.org

You can find the original version of this announcement on the National Issues Forums Institute’s site at www.nifi.org/en/special-offer-newly-released-issue-guide-2019-join-conversation-about-house-divided-what-would-we.

Explore D&D Future in New Cosmopolis2045 Website

Posted on February 28, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

Imagine a world in which communication practices are centered in social interactions and the way society operates, where the whole community lives dialogue and deliberation practices every day?

This is the vision for the exciting new website that just officially launched – Cosmopolis2045, which offers a vision of a future communication-centric society in the year 2045. This project has been an on-going, multi-year collaborative effort between scholars, practitioners, and community members; you may remember we announced this endeavor several years back on the blog and it’s wonderful to see this come to fruition. Thanks to NCDD member Kim Pearce for sharing this update with us! We encourage you to read more in the post below and especially to explore the future vision of the Cosmopolis2045 website here.

Cosmopolis2045: Imagining a better social world in which communicating matters

What if a whole community treated relationships with other people as if they really mattered? What if a whole community took dialogue and deliberation seriously? And what if that community tried with all their hearts to bring about a better social world in all the myriad of ways we engage in communication with others in our world?

These were the questions asked by a group of scholars and practitioners sponsored by the CMM Institute, a NCDD member organization. The Cosmopolis2045 website is their answer, visit https://cosmopolis2045.com/

The Cosmopolis2045 website depicts an imagined community set in the future (circa 2045) in which residents and leaders of the community have adopted a communication-centric view of how their own and other social worlds function. This website offers an intriguing look at a possible near future in which dialogue and deliberation are an integral part of everyday community events and are at the heart of city functioning. The website is also an information-rich resource for teaching classes on communication, especially cosmopolitan communication and for exploring the implications of a communication-centric view for a range of educational, legal, governance, and associated community practices.

Behind the scenes

How might we, as scholars, practitioners, citizens and all those concerned with the quality of our social life, respond to such an invitation?

What might it take to act wisely, if only for the moment, in our response?

What resources, stories and other experiences do we have to draw on to respond?

What can we share with others that might enhance all our capacities to act wisely in the making of better social worlds?

Those are the questions we asked ourselves as we set about imagining a community where a new social fabric could emerge out of treating communicating seriously.

In this section, we give you behind-the-scenes information which addresses the above questions. Our starting vision and guiding theory are described in Inspiration for the Cosmopolis2045 project. Here we also outline the futurist research we drew upon; elaborate at greater length on our “non-utopian” attempts at being visionaries; and describe what we mean by cosmopolitan communication.

The Cosmopolis2045 project is a collaborative thought experiment that has involved an international group of scholars and sponsors. These people and organisations are described in Collaborators and sponsors.

If any particular topic or underlying theory attracts your attention please go to Want to know more? Here we offer introductory background material on the Coordinated Management of Meaning, our guiding theory. We also include references and websites to a range of supporting material from futurist research to pedagogy, to sustainable food practices and procedural justice, and more. You can also find links to like-minded websites, scholars and practitioners. All these references and links show the breadth and depth of social change going on now and how much our vision for the near future is possible and not far removed from reality.

Inspiration for Cosmopolis2045

The Cosmopolis2045 project has been a collaborative thought experiment involving many people and taking place over a number of years. It is, in fact, still on-going.

The website depicting our vision of Cosmopolis is one, but not all, manifestation of our response to the challenge of how do you envision better social worlds, knowing that there is no “best” goal outside of the very process of communicating itself.

Here we offer some of the behind-the-scenes material that, hopefully, explains how we responded to the challenge we set ourselves. We lay this out under three themes:

What we are trying to achieve

Our goal with this website is to create and maintain a virtual depiction of a community set in the future (circa 2045) in which residents and leaders of the community have adopted a communication-centric view of how their own and other social worlds function. It is our belief, and one that can be substantiated, that this communication-centric view is what we need for the evolution of better social worlds.

However, we have found, as scholars, practitioners and involved citizens, that this communication-centric view is not one commonly shared. Mainstream communication theories, both formal and implicit, narrowly focus on the content and quality of messages, along with an implicit assumption that successful communication is the receipt of an unsullied message or the creation of shared understanding.

Our primary challenge, then, in creating the imaginary world of Cosmopolis2045, has been to depict ways of living in communicating that many have not imagined and others only in part. On the other hand, we also know from our collective experiences that there are many social change initiatives happening around the world that point the ways to meet this challenge.

In our imagination we have drawn together many of the social change initiatives and woven them within a communication perspective“loom”. And in doing this, we have created new imaginings of what can happen if we treat communicating seriously.

The stories, the new social institutions and the dialogic practices of the citizens and leaders in our imagined community have been developed to point to new ways and new possibilities for personal and social evolution. Given the local and global challenges we all face in the 21^stcentury, we hope our new imaginings offer some hope and some new directions to explore.

Our guiding theory

The Theory of the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) is the primary impetus behind the Cosmopolis 2045 Project. Barnett Pearce and Vernon Cronen at the University of Massachusetts developed CMM theory in the late 1970s. The seminal expressions of the theory can be found in Pearce and Cronen’s Communication, Action and Meaning: The Creation of Social Realities (Praeger, 1980), Pearce’s Communication and the Human Condition (Southern Illinois University Press, 1989), Pearce and Littlejohn’s Moral Conflict: When Social Worlds Collide (Sage, 1997), and Pearce’s Making Social Worlds: A Communication Perspective (Blackwell, 2009).

A more comprehensive account and further references on CMM can be found in Want to know more?

CMM is premised on the belief that the social worlds we inhabit are constructed in the many diverse forms of everyday communication we engage in. Put simply, we live in communication. CMM, which can perhaps best be described as a “practical theory,” provides heuristic tools for understanding the ways in which we do this living-in-communication. The same tools and broader communication perspective can also guide mindful practice in communicating.

We believe that the communication perspective offered by CMM has greater potential to meet the challenges of the contemporary global environment than narrower, instrumental beliefs in which the process of communication is taken to be immaterial or insignificant. The latter views of communication are, in particular, unable to address the many challenges arising from distinct, if not colliding, cultural values and patterns of behavior that abound in our contemporary world. From our CMM perspective, these cultural challenges need to be coordinated and navigated rather than subjected to efforts at persuasion or clarity of meaning (i.e., as reflected in the dominant Western paradigm for theorizing about communication).

CMM proposes that creating and sustaining a cosmopolitan form of cultural communication is a better model for communicating with diverse others than extant models such as monocultural, ethnocentric, or modernistic forms of communication (see Want to know more?). The Cosmopolis 2045 website is designed to render one expression of what cosmopolitan cultural patterns might look like in the everyday life of a community.

By definition, cosmopolitan cultural patterns bring about an environment in which humans thrive, both in terms of personal and social evolution. This culture is characterized by one in which the members:

hold a communication-centric view of social worlds, recognizing that their social worlds (i.e., relationships, selves, groups, episodes, and culture itself) are “made” and “remade” in everyday communication patterns
value their own cultural traditions, beliefs and values yet recognize that, except for the accident of birth, they would likely hold some other set of beliefs and values (thus are profoundly open to the value of other traditions)
treat “others” (strangers, non-members of their community) with engaged curiosity, seeing them simultaneously as “different from us” (in that may they have different values or social practices), and yet “like us” (in that both of our beliefs and practices are socially made). In this way, each of our “ways of being” are treated as partial expressions of what it means to be human
understand that they live in multiple social worlds and are able to draw resources from several social worlds in constructing new ones
are able to make conscious choices about what forms of life they wish to enact in given situations
work collectively as citizens to make their social worlds better places to live—they see designing their public life together as an indication of “conscious evolution”
believe that patterns of life that are not productive or helpful can be altered through conscious collective effort.
have developed skills for “making better social worlds,” including: framing and reframing; identifying and choosing wisely how to act into (as well as out of) contexts; sensing the flow and rhythms of “logical forces” (deontic logic of should/ought); identifying/creating “bifurcation points” and acting wisely into them.

Projecting futures and making better social worlds

Cosmopolis 2045 is a collaborative thought-experiment, a partnership in imagining a plausible version of a future social world(s), particularly if we act wisely in dealing with the trends and counter-trends already happening around us.

“Futurists” have been projecting worlds of tomorrow for ages. In developing Cosmopolis, we consulted many sources on future trends in technology, medicine, work and economics, politics, education, and many other aspects of social life. In our Research the Future topic in Want to know more? we share some of that research, identify books you can read, or connect you to websites that summarize future trends.

In using this research, we wanted to make sure that how we depict a fictional future in 2045 is plausible, according to the best research and projections. Among other things, that research suggested that dialogic communication—that found in cosmopolitan cultures—could be an important driver of change; where the change is to what one future scenario group called a “transformed world”. For a fascinating review of this research, see Barnett Pearce’s essay “Reflections on the role of dialogic communication in transforming the world”.

In this “transformed world” there is a vision of shared power in which grassroots organisations co-operate effectively and in which sustainable development, socially, economically and environmentally, is a collective goal. And while we have drawn on the ideas projected for such a transformed world we have also consciously tried to avoid making Cosmopolis an unrealistic or impossibly utopian vision.

You can find the original version of this information on the Cosmopolis2045 site at www.cosmopolis2045.com/.

Insights on Co-Creating Collaboration That Fosters Participation and Equity

Posted on February 27, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

NCDD member Beth Tener recently posted the article, Collaboration That Fosters Equity, Participation, and Co-Creation, on the New Directions Collaborative website. In the article, she shares several powerful insights from a co-hosted learning exchange, which offer important reminders on co-creating collaborative spaces that are equitable and liberating. We encourage folks to check out the upcoming workshop, Working in Collaborative Ways, happening next Wednesday March 6th, which will offer skills and methods for collaborating more equitably. You can read the article in the post below and find the original on the NDC’s site here.

Collaboration That Fosters Equity, Participation, and Co-Creation

In the last couple of years in the US, we have witnessed many examples of white supremacy – how the patterns of power, domination, oppression, and separation play out. These patterns are hundreds of years old. What does it take to work and live from patterns and behaviors that embody mutual respect, dignity, equity, belonging, and being more together? I gratefully had the experience of teaming with four other facilitators* to host a learning exchange with people working on collaboration and equity, primarily in New Hampshire. The invitation was to build our collective understanding of how to create collaborative spaces centering on equity and liberation. We offered a spacious series of conversations for these experienced practitioners to share knowledge and experiences.

Here are some key ideas that surfaced from the conversations and insights from the day:

Where Do You Come From?

At the start of a meeting or gathering, it is traditional to go around and introduce ourselves with our organization and role. This gathering began instead with an invitation to reflect on where you come from, from several dimensions, and then share where you now work. People’s sharing was poetic and moving. We heard of the ancestry, places, challenges, traumas, resilience, people, and ideas that shaped them. Some people in the room I primarily knew through a work context. When I heard their stories, it made me realize how limited the lenses I had seen them through were.

This reminded me something Melinda Weekes-Laidlow said in a class I took with her on racial equity. She spoke of the importance of “locating ourselves” within the history and systems around us, saying: “the past is present in people, things, and systems of oppression. Because our histories, upbringing and socialization create the lenses by which we see the world and make sense of it, as leaders, we must become aware of the lenses by which we understand the world and the biases those lenses bring with them.”

The metaphor of location in a system/community is helpful as that implies a vantage point, where I see and experience things in ways that differ from others in a different location.

Vision: What Does Equity Look, Feel, and Sound Like?

In these times, so much attention and focus is on what we don’t want, resisting, criticizing, and galvanizing action. In equity conversations, there is a great need to name and illuminate the patterns and statistics of inequity and the deliberately hidden histories of those oppressed. Yet, we also need to imagine a different future. adrienne marie brown, in her book Emergent Strategy, writes “How do we cultivate the muscle of radical imagination needed to dream together beyond fear? Showing Black and white people sitting at a lunch counter together was science fiction.” Using the process of 1-2-4-All, we explored the questions of What vision, or elements thereof, guide you in your work? What does equity and liberation look, feel, and sound like? What are we working toward? We can see that it is not only some distant goal, but we can glimpse what is possible in microcosms in the present. We recognized that this looks different to different people. Here are some of the themes that were shared:

The experience of being oneself without being judged. Being seen and respected as a person – not needing to act or play a role.
In all settings (family, work, school, etc.), people experience authentic relationships where others genuinely see them and care about their well-being and growth.
Education institutions are about helping individuals to thrive and become fully themselves.
Now the level of fear in relationships, community, and society is higher than the level of love and trust. When the level of love rises higher than fear, it changes everything.
There is an emphasis on truth telling and seeing the world as it is, feeling what is happening, and being empathetic. We excavate and acknowledge the problematic histories that shape the present situation.
When those who see power in an “either/or” way experience sharing it, they see that there are other kinds of power in collaborations that are not as hierarchical. It is possible to move beyond that one lens of power.
Those who have a dominant identity, e.g., whites, take leadership and active roles in dismantling the racist patterns and systems.
We relate across identities with solidarity in many forms: accomplices, mutual lines of support, thinking partners, networks of friendship and sharing resources.
“Hurt people hurt people. Healed people heal people. Healed people create systems for healing.” A vision of the future is a large and varied investment of time, energy, and ways to bring about healing and restoration individually and collectively, and with the earth.

Moving from Transactional to Relational

We shared stories of what we find most challenging and most promising in our work for equity and liberation. A common dynamic is that leaders and those in positions of power may say they value equity, yet, their urgency to get action on narrowly defined outcomes can override the raising of concerns or conflict, allowing the patterns of injustice to perpetuate. It takes time to fully understand the dynamics and history that underlie inequitable situations. It takes time to build authentic relationships that are trusting enough to support fundamental change. Truly valuing equity means prioritizing the relational aspects of the work, seeing the health of that as critical beyond the success of one transaction.

*Thanks to my co-facilitators Jennifer Near, Curtis Ogden, and Karen A. Spiller…and Michele Holt-Shannon for hosting. Great working with you to co-host this rich learning exchange.

On March 6^th, I will be offering an on-line workshop called Working in Collaborative Ways that will offer practical methods for designing meetings and collaborative work that foster equity and participation.

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