Recording of today’s Tech Tuesday with Dave Biggs of MetroQuest

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

We had a great Tech Tuesday event today, with about 100 people participating in a stimulating webinar led by Dave Biggs, Co-Founder of MetroQuest. Thank you, Dave, for the great presentation — and thanks to everyone who participated!

MetroQuest public involvement software is recommended as a best practice by the APA, TRB, FWHA and other agencies. Dave shared with us some of what he’s learned about best practices for online engagement generally, and gave us a demonstration of the MetroQuest software, and walked us through several recent case studies.

You can watch the hour-long webinar now if you missed it. Plus, feel free to download Dave’s PowerPoint presentation here if you want to check out the slides without audio.

In a nutshell, MetroQuest software enables the public to learn about your project and provide meaningful feedback using a variety of fun and visual screens. It’s easy to mix and match screens to accomplish the engagement goals for each phase of the project from identifying and ranking priorities, to rating scenarios or strategies, to adding comments on maps and much more. To ensure the broadest participation, MetroQuest can be accessed on the web or mobile devices, at touchscreen kiosks and in engaging town-hall style workshops.

Via the comments below, Dave will be answering some additional questions that were submitted during the webinar that we couldn’t get to. Feel free to add more questions, and of course to interact with Dave and others here!

If you’d like to contact Dave directly, he can be reached at Dave.Biggs@MetroQuest.com or (604) 317-6200.

NCDD’s Tech Tuesday events are meant to help practitioners get a better sense of the online engagement landscape and how they can take advantage of the myriad opportunities available to them. Keep an eye on the Events section of the site (ncdd.org/events) for upcoming Tech Tuesdays, Confab Calls and other events.

Text, Talk, Act: Results and How to Continue

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

Last week, on Dec. 5, thousands of people across the country joined Creating Community Solutions in a “Text, Talk, and Act,” a nationwide discussion on mental health via text. Participants met in groups of 4-5 to talk about the importance of mental health, their personal experiences, and what they could do to make a difference.

The initiative was designed to engage high school and college students in particular, using technology that is ubiquitous in their lives. Over 600 phones (and approx. 2,400 people) joined in to “Text, Talk, and Act” last Thursday.

NCDD is one of the organizing groups for Creating Community Solutions, and we contributed to this innovative project in several ways — including designing the infographic used to publicize the event!

Here’s a photo collage that one of our participant groups (the team @JCFNmemphis) submitted to us…

JCFN-Memphis The discussion questions were designed to provide a safe space for candid dialogue on mental health, one of the most critical and misunderstood public issues we face. During the conversation, groups were asked to respond to polling questions related to mental health. Results from the live polling questions were tabulated almost instantly, so people could see how participants across the country responded.

Many of the participants reported that mental health is very important in their lives: 59% of respondents said that they thought about mental health every day and 69% said that it was extremely important to them.

During the conversation, participants discussed what schools and communities are doing well to support mental health. “Having understanding psychologists and social workers in the school systems really helps the students feel comfortable talking about their problems,” one participant answered. Other responses included support groups, open discussions, and early intervention. Some participants noted that we need more attention and programs to address mental health challenges: “In our community, no one is really trying anything. We think more legislators who are personally involved in actively caring for those with mental health issues need to be open advocates.”

The process also provided an opportunity for participants to discuss actions they can take to strengthen mental health on their campuses and in their communities. Some of the action ideas included starting nonprofits, raising awareness, and continuing the conversation on mental health in their school or community. Participants also noted that individual, everyday actions can make a difference as well: “Allow my actions to show I am someone who you can talk to when people need to.”

View more results from the polling questions and additional actions you can take at: www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org/texttalkact

We are also on Storify! Review the event here: http://bit.ly/TextTalkActStory

If you weren’t able to participate last week, you can now – we’ve left the texting platform open. Taking part is easy: just gather a few friends, colleagues, or fellow students, and text START to 89800 any time you like.

Help make this bigger and better by referring a friend, posting or tweeting about #texttalkact, and using the texting platform to suggest ways for us to improve the experience.

Thanks to everyone who participated last week, and keep texting, talking, and acting!

Look yourself up on NCDD’s new Google map and directory

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

NCDD’s new Google map and searchable online directory are both live and up-to-date with all our members deets! Now is a great time to search for yourself on the map and in the directory and make sure the info we have for you is updated and complete.

(Not on the map or in the directory? Sounds like it’s time to officially join NCDD!)

The map and directory are both pretty standard and intuitive, but here are some step-by-step instructions for those not used to this technology or not sure what to look for…

On the map:

The Google map is at www.ncdd.org/map (we make things easy for you!). Use your scroll wheel or the map navigation tools to scroll in on your region in the U.S. — or if you’re based elsewhere on the planet, scroll out first to find your country.

We have 1900 members currently, so many icons are hidden by other icons until you scroll in closer.

Notice the nice legend Andy created that lives right below the map. As you can see from the legend, we recognize our supporting members with larger icons. Supporting members based in government get the golden building icons. Higher ed based members get the green school icons. And consultants and facilitators get the blue drop icons. Supporting members who aren’t marked in our database as being consultants/facilitators or based in government or higher ed are represented with the white drop icons. Non-dues members are represented by dots of similar colors.

Note that if you’ve asked us not to share your street address, Google has used your city, state and zip code to map you — so your icon may not be in the exact right location and you may need to click around to find it.

Click on the icons to view a pop-up with info about the member represented by the icon. Once you find yourself, check to see:

If your info is up to date
If you have empty fields that can be filled
If your dues are due or lapsed
If you have been assigned the correct icon
If your bio has been cut off awkwardly (only 500 characters are shown)

If it’s time for you to renew (or if you’re a non-dues Member who’d like to have a bigger icon), use the renew/upgrade form at www.ncdd.org/renew. If you have additions or corrections to make to your map entry, you can let us know on the form — or email them directly to Joy at joy@ncdd.org.

If you’ve noticed that your bio cuts off at an awkward place, feel free to submit a shorter bio of 500 characters or less to Joy so she can replace what’s displayed on the map.

In the directory:

The online members directory is up at www.ncdd.org/directory but you can also find it right under the map! It’s super easy to search — just use the drop-down menu to select the field you want to search in (name, organization, state, country, etc.), type in your text, and click the search box (or just hit return). If you see yourself in the results, click on your name to view your full listing.

The info here should be the same as in your map entry, but please check for these three things:

If your info is up to date
If you have empty fields that can be filled
If your dues are due or lapsed

Again, send any changes to our office manager, Joy Garman, at joy@ncdd.org. And please renew your membership if your dues have lapsed.

Why these tools?

For those interested, we’re using Google Maps and Fusion Tables for the map, and a WordPress plugin called Participants Database for the directory. These two tools are replacing our old Member Network, which was run on a Facebook-like social network called Social Engine that never worked very well for our purposes.

We wanted a way for our members to easily find each other when they knew each other’s name or organization. We also wanted an easy way for people to see who’s in their area — maybe because they’re looking for a facilitator or consultant to work with closeby, or perhaps because they want to find colleagues near them. We weren’t able to find an affordable tool that provided both a map and a robust search function, so for now we’re covering our bases with these two tools.

We hope you like them!

Save the Date! NCDD 2014 is set for Oct 17-19 in DC Area

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

It’s time to save the date for the 2014 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation! We’re excited to announce that our next national conference will take place in the DC area October 17-19, 2014.

Check out the little “save the date” video I created this morning…

Thank you to all 92 of you who provided input on our final venue contenders. You helped us decide on the Hyatt Regency in Reston, Virginia for next year’s conference location. Though Reston is a little ways from DC (20 miles), people are excited about the warm and spacious venue, the incredible room rates ($124/night plus tax!), the free shuttle from Dulles airport, the cool location, and the metro stop that’s opening soon in Reston.

We think the pluses far outweigh the minuses, and appreciate all of you helping us think through this important decision. Photos of the Reston Hyatt are up on the Facebook page here if you’d like to check them out.

We’ve also just created a Facebook “event” for the conference, which will be a great place for you to stay updated on the latest details on the conference as things develop. Visit www.tinyurl.com/ks4dr8g to indicate that you’re “going” or “maybe” going in order to stay updated.

Lessons Learned from a Statewide Gathering of NCDD Members in VA

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Lucas Cioffi

On November 19th, Nancy Gansneder at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia and I teamed up to host a 3-hour gathering and knowledge exchange for Virginians working in the fields of dialogue and deliberation. The event was held at UVA in Charlottesville, VA.

We’re posting the lessons we learned here for others who might be interested in hosting their own in-person gatherings in their state.

Outcomes

The results were good: 19 in-person attendees, 26 others who registered and indicated their availability for alternate days, sufficient interest to continue hosting statewide gatherings like this every six months, and one of the participants stepped up as the next organizer (success!!). There was consensus within the group that we should request a state-based email discussion list, hosted by NCDD; Sandy is setting this up for us.

Breakout Sessions Proposed during our Meeting

How to bring in reluctant stakeholders?
What is a good “hook” to interest participants in dialogues?
What has failed miserably?
How to go from dialogue & deliberation to advocacy and long term maintenance of solutions?
Collaborative learning in dialogue and deliberation
What affect do modern communications platforms have on D&D?
Engaging the under-engaged
How to work with 2 or more communities with different identities when resources are limited and a the problem/solution involves both of them
Getting diversity at the table
Creative diversity in the community
Hosting dialogues with open topics
Who does and who should pay for D&D?
What does success look like?
General logistics and planning tips
Forums on mental health
Making the case for investment in process from within a government organization

Here’s What’s Needed to Make this Happen in Your State

One self-starter to get the ball rolling
A co-organizer to bounce ideas off (you can find this person with the initial invitation email)
A venue that can hold the participants (20-30 people is a great turnout); universities are a great place to start looking.
The NCDD Member Map and Member Directory will help you know who is in your area.
Office supplies (name tags, sharpies, pens, scrap paper, large notepads to brainstorm breakout sessions topics, and anything else you might find useful)
Funds for lunch or snacks/coffee for an afternoon meeting (we coordinated with Sandy Heierbacher prior to the event to secure $250 from NCDD for lunch; alternatively, you could charge $10 or $20 or ask a local organization to sponsor)
Basic familiarity with Google Docs, Excel, and Eventbrite.

Pointers for Setting Up a Statewide Gathering, Step by Step

Two months prior to the event: Create the invitation (2 hours)
- Copy & paste email addresses from NCDD members in your state from the member map or directory into an email, or request a member chart from your state from Joy.
- Draft the body of the initial invitation email (use this previous example as a starting point). The purpose is to gauge interest, to find a co-organizer that has a venue, and to receive suggestions.
- Let NCDD know what you’re planning, and have Joy send you some NCDD postcards to hand out and perhaps other materials that are available.
Collect feedback from invitees when they respond via email. Decide whether or not to go forward. Choose 3-4 dates that work for both organizers (1 hour)
The organizer with the venue reserves the space (0.5 hours)
One month prior to the event:
- Set up the document for the meeting notes (see this template for meeting notes that you can copy) prior to sending out the invitation. (1 hour)
- Create the Eventbrite invitation; see this previous example (there are probably several online tools that you can use for invitations, but Eventbrite seems to be one of the best invitation tools for free events). Be sure to create a custom multiple-choice question for invitees to indicate which of the 3-4 possible dates you are offering is best for them (in Eventbrite after you create the event, this is under “Manage” and then “Order Form” and scroll down to “Add Question”. Example text for the question: “Which days can you attend from 11am-2pm? Please choose all that apply.”). (2 hours)
- Announce the event on the NCDD main discussion list and/or this blog (1 hour)
- Ask Sandy Heierbacher to forward the invitation by email to all NCDD contacts (members and others) in your state with a note of support. (0.5 hours)
One week prior to the event: Pre-order lunch (0.5 hours).
Day of the event:
- Print out the list of attendees so you can take attendance (from Eventbrite you can download attendees in an Excel file by going to “Manage” and then “Event Reports”).
- Show up 1-2 hours early to verify that the furniture is arranged how you want it (1.5 hours). It was important that the tables and chairs were mobile. During the opening plenary discussion, chairs were oriented toward the center of the room. We moved to small-group circles when the breakout sessions began.
After the Event: Write up a blog post detailing what went well and what could be improved (1.5 hours). Clean up the Excel file of attendee contact information and distribute it to the attendees (if they requested it) and send it to NCDD to help them get a sense of the energy for these regional events (1.5 hours).

General Suggestions and Lessons Learned

Greet each individual at the door to create a welcoming environment.
Set ground rules for the event when it begins. For example, “If you don’t want something in the notes, please state that it is off the record.”
11am-2pm was convenient for people who had to drive a long distance. Some drove 2.5 hours each way.
With a group size of 20, we had breakout groups ranging from 2-8 people in size. We had 4 separate small-group discussions during the breakouts on 3 different topics + 1 “open topic”.
During the plenary session we dove right into proposing breakout session topics. Often the group picked up the topic for a moment and people built on each other’s ideas and the framing of the problem. We didn’t interrupt when there was energy around any particular topic.
Keeping everything on time was important so that people could get back on the road for their long drives. Rather than coming up with a perfect solution for grouping the breakout topics or allowing for a full-blown open space process for selecting the breakouts (there were more than we had time to discuss), instead we told participants, “Given that you see all these topics on the board and that we want to do this as efficiently as possible, we’re going to choose topics in the following manner. If you are moved to host a topic, stand up, announce it and move to a corner of the room. You will be the facilitator; it’s a group discussion rather than a presentation. We’ll choose 4 breakout sessions in this manner right now and we’ll choose a few of the ones which will take place after lunch. If you want to propose combining two topics in a session, please make the suggestion to the person who stepped forward to facilitate that topic.” After all, the group only needs to choose 6-8 topics, so this doesn’t need to be much more complicated than this. In a three-hour workshop, time goes quickly, and if sessions are 30 or 45 minutes each, then it’s important to minimize this “process overhead” as much as possible without causing the participants to feel rushed. Have fun with it!!
Give “5 min” notice with a piece of paper so that you don’t have to verbally interrupt the groups.
Rather than herding everyone towards lunch at the same time, let people flow through the lunch area organically after their breakout session comes to a natural conclusion; if they keep talking and they see everyone else with lunch, they’ll get the idea that lunch is served and they’ll be able to make the call as to whether they should continue speaking or finish the conversation and eat. Some breakout sessions might reconvene informally through lunch.
Folks at our event took the stairs to get lunch and brought it back downstairs to continue the meeting; this enabled the participants to mingle. The second breakout session began while some folks were still eating/drinking; they brought their food with them, and there was no problem.
If the breakout sessions run longer than expected (we blocked off 30 minutes per breakout, but there was energy for 40 minutes), then be prepare to have a shorter closing plenary discussion. We chose to have a 20 minute closing and that worked for us. The group came to consensus quickly about the need for requesting that NCDD set up an email discussion so that we can continue to stay in touch, and everyone was happy to have the organizers release their contact information to the other participants.
During sessions, recommend but do not require folks to take notes during their session. If they don’t want to write them on the doc themselves, offer to transcribe the notes for them onto the meeting notes (in our template for meeting notes, we used a Google doc that anyone can edit).
Be sure to thank the host and any sponsors of the event at the closing plenary. It can’t happen without them!

Of course, these are just methods that worked for us in Virginia, and we welcome your suggestions for improvement in the comments below.

Invite others to join NCDD before Thanksgiving for 50% off

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

As part of our 2013 member drive, we want to encourage our existing members to invite others to join NCDD as a Supporting Member for just $25. Word-of-mouth from those of you who know NCDD is absolutely the best way to expand our reach and get more people involved — and hopefully this gives you some incentive to encourage others to become members of this great network of ours.

Table-group-600px-outlined Just send people to www.ncdd.org/drive-join50 to complete the membership application. The first question on the form is “Who invited you to join NCDD during the 2013 member drive,” so we can recognize those who bring in new members!

The form allows people to join at 50% off the regular (already very reasonable) membership rates. People can join as a Supporting Member for only $25 (instead of $50) or a Sustaining Member for $62.50 (instead of $125).

You may want to send out a few emails to people you think should be involved in NCDD, or maybe you’d want to post an invitation on Facebook or send an alert out to a listserv you’re active in. Here’s some suggested text you can use as you see fit…

I’d like to invite you to join a great network I’m involved in — the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation. You can join for just $25 (50% off the regular dues for Supporting Members) if you complete the membership app at www.ncdd.org/drive-join50 before Thanksgiving.

NCDD (the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation) is an active network of about 2,000 organizations and professionals in the public engagement and group process realms. We all work — in one way or another — to bring people together across divides to discuss, decide, and act together on today’s toughest challenges.

NCDD essentially serves as a gathering place, a resource center, a news source, and a facilitative leader for an active community of practice centered around the practices of dialogue and deliberation. Their online resource center is unmatched, with nearly 3,000 resources, and more than 32,000 people are subscribed to their monthly email updates. Their community is rich, responsive, and informed — their listservs, national conferences, and member “confab calls” demonstrate that.

NCDD is constantly creating opportunities for innovators in this growing field to connect with each other, learn from each other, and stay updated on what’s happening in the field. They also encourage collaboration through activities like their Catalyst Awards, and are always partnering with other leaders to help our field make a greater impact.

As a member, you’ll be among the first to hear about what’s happening in this important field. You’ll be featured on the NCDD member map and in the member directory, and you’ll be able to post to the NCDD blog, listservs and social media about your work. You’ll have access to all kinds of discounts on programs that boost your skills in engagement. And you’ll become part of a wonderfully rich, supportive, and dynamic network of people and organizations who are working to bring sanity and civility back to the way we solve public problems.

You can learn more about membership at www.ncdd.org/join, or just complete the form today at www.ncdd.org/drive-join50 to join for the $25 rate I’m extending you.

Developing “Text, Talk, and Act”: A new strategy for combining ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ engagement

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Matt Leighninger

NCDD members may be interested in contributing to the development of a new public engagement process that will roll out in December as part of the National Dialogue on Mental Health. “Text, Talk, and Act” has been developed by Matt Leighninger of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC), the other members of the National Dialogue’s Creating Community Solutions partnership, and the directors of two civic technology nonprofits: Michelle Lee of Textizen and Michael Smith of United Americans. Sandy Heierbacher of NCDD, Raquel Goodrich of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, and Mary Jacksteit and Sue McCormack of CCS have been instrumental in making this happen.

We developed this process because we were looking for a way to involve more young people, with the technology they use most, in a way that captures national excitement and produces meaningful small-group dialogue.

Essentially, what we are doing is combining the strengths of ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ engagement. Thick engagement has been a key element of public participation for a long time, though it has proliferated dramatically in the last twenty years; it happens mainly in groups, either face-to-face, online, or both, and features various forms of dialogue, deliberation, action planning, and policy choicework. Thin engagement has developed more recently; it happens mainly online, and is easier, faster, and potentially more viral – it is done by individuals, who are often motivated by feeling a part of some larger movement or cause.

Both thin and thick engagement have their merits – and their limitations. We wanted to find better ways to weave together these two strands, thickening the thin forms and thinning out the thick. “Text, Talk, and Act” resulted directly from this conversation.

Like most kinds of thin engagement, “Text, Talk, and Act” is easy to organize. You don’t need moderators, discussion materials, computers, or screens: just participants with text-capable cellphones. (If not everyone has a cellphone, you need only ensure that there is one cellphone per small group.)

Participants form into groups of 4-6 people, then start the 60-minute process by texting ‘START’ to 89800.
They receive a welcome text, followed quickly by a few polling questions about mental health, such as “1 in 5 people experience mental illness each year. Take a guess: Half of all mental health problems begin at age: A) 14, B) 24, C) 30”
Each time the participant texts in a response, they receive a text with the next question.
Aggregated results of the polling can be viewed online in real time.
Participants are asked to accept some guidelines: “Let’s talk guidelines: 1. Listen w/ respect, 2. It’s OK to disagree but don’t make it personal, 3. What’s said here stays here. Is this OK?”
The participants then receive the first of several dialogue questions, including: “Without naming names, talk about how mental health issues have affected you or people you know (Take 15 mins to discuss in groups & reply NEXT to go on.)”
Responses to these dialogue questions are not recorded. (And phone numbers are not kept in the system after the process has ended.)
Next in the sequence are polling and dialogue questions on the best ways to “make a difference” on mental health issues.
One of the final questions asks participants to “commit to 1 action to help make a difference” – participants can text in their ideas, which can then be viewed online along with other ideas from their school, university, or community.

The process is designed to last one hour, but the technology allows people to start any time they like (on December 5th), and take as long as they like. Participants will also be able to organize a “Text, Talk, and Act” event after the 5th.

We used the Textizen platform for the high school pilot of “Text, Talk, and Act,” held at Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie, Oregon. “This exercise has created a more trusting environment in our class,” one student said. “We understand each other better now.” Our college pilot, at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, used the United Americans platform. Please contact either Textizen or United Americans if you are interested in using this process.

Meanwhile, please join us on December 5th in trying out this new process! There are three easy steps:

Bring some people together on the 5th
Have them form into groups of 4-5, with at least one cellphone per group
Ask them to text “START” to 89800

Learn more and sign up for updates at www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org/texttalkact, and see Sandy’s previous post about the project at www.ncdd.org/13369 (including the infographic NCDD’s Andy Fluke created for the project!).

Audio from November’s Confab Call on Rockefeller’s GATHER

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

Confab bubble image Yesterday’s confab call (Nov 20th) on the Rockefeller Foundation’s new publication on convening was a great one! About 80 people participated, and our speakers and facilitator did a fabulous job.

If you missed it, you can listen to the audio archive here, and be sure to check out the dynamic Hackpad doc where many participants were taking notes, asking and answering questions, and introducing themselves.

Our confab speakers yesterday were instrumental in the Rockefeller publication GATHER: The Art & Science of Effective Convening:

Rob Garris, Managing Director at Rockefeller Foundation. Rob oversees their Bellagio conference center, and oversaw the creation of GATHER
Noah Rimland Flower, Monitor Institute. Noah is one of GATHER’s two co-authors and led the content creation

GATHER is a free hands-on guidebook for all convening designers and social change leaders who want to tap into a group’s collective intelligence and make substantial progress on a shared challenge. (Download or purchase it at www.monitorinstitute.com/what-we-think/gather.)

The gorgeous publication provides simple frameworks for the questions that are often ignored: whether convening is the right tool to use to advance a strategic agenda, and how a convening can be used to achieve a specific purpose. It helps you understand how to customize the design to fit that purpose, laying out a clear series of steps for what is a naturally chaotic workflow. It then offers principles to use for each of the many tactical choices involved. GATHER and its accompanying workshop materials are designed for you to use in your own work, with a team, and with larger groups both inside and outside an organization.

On yesterday’s confab, we discussed:

How convening is increasingly being used as a strategic tool for foundations
Mis-steps many convening designers make, and how to avoid them
Examples of how convening can be used for societal problem-solving
How the presence of funders can influence a convening
How do you know when you’re addressing the right problem and involving the right people
How to determine the best size (number of participants) for your convening
And much more!

And here are links to some great resources that were brought up on yesterday’s call…

Monitor Institute’s new publication Harnessing Collaborative Technologies, on the emerging tech tools that can be used to help funders work together
In addition to the gorgeous 43-page report, a super-useful interactive tool has been developed by GrantCraft at http://collaboration.grantcraft.org to help people identify tools to facilitate collaboration.
From the Kids’ Table to the Adults’ Table: Taking Relationships Seriously in a World of Networks, by John Esterle (Whitman Institute), Malka Kopell and Palma Strand.
New report by Special D Events prepared for the Kellogg Foundation, Convenings 2.0: Connecting adult learning, communication strategies and event logistics to build stronger relationships

To stay updated on NCDD’s future confab calls and all of our activities, be sure to join NCDD! Note that all confab audio recordings (and archives of the collaborative docs created during them) can be found in the NCDD Confab Archives tag.

Reminder about tomorrow’s NCDD Confab on Rockefeller’s GATHER

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

Confab bubble image Don’t forget to register for tomorrow’s confab call! From 2:00 to 3:00 pm Eastern on November 20th, we’ll be talking with Rob Garris and Noah Rimland Flower about the Rockefeller Foundation’s new publication GATHER: The Art & Science of Effective Convening.

The Rockefeller Foundation and Monitor Institute released GATHER earlier this year as a free hands-on guidebook for all convening designers and social change leaders who want to tap into a group’s collective intelligence and make substantial progress on a shared challenge.

The call will provide a great opportunity to learn more about how foundations are thinking about their role as convenors, and think through your own role and strategies as a convenor. Our featured speakers tomorrow are Rob Garris, Managing Director at Rockefeller Foundation (Rob oversees their Bellagio conference center, and oversaw the creation of GATHER) and Noah Rimland Flower of the Monitor Institute (one of GATHER’s two co-authors). NCDD’s Board Chair, Marla Crockett, will be facilitating tomorrow’s call.

Join us for “Text, Talk, Act” on Mental Health

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

On December 5th, we encourage all NCDD members to participate in the first-ever, nationwide text-enabled dialogue on mental health. All you need is 1 hour, 4 people, and at least 1 phone.

This is a project of Creating Community Solutions – a collaborative effort led by the National Institute for Civil Discourse, the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, AmericaSpeaks, Everyday Democracy, National Issues Forums Institute, and the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (with many, many partner organizations signed on — including some of you!). We’re excited to be experimenting with the use of text messaging technology to help groups of young people and adults, all over the country, get together in small groups for one-hour discussions on mental health.

Sign up today at bit.ly/texttalkact, and think about whether you can get your university, your classroom, your community group, your neighbors, or others involved in Text Talk Act!

And please share this infographic widely to help us promote the event! The infographic was created by Andy Fluke — NCDD’s Creative Director.

Small groups of 4-5 people will gather together for the event. Each group will need a cell phone and will receive polling & discussion questions and process suggestions via text message.

Results from the live polling questions will be tabulated almost instantly, so that people will be able to see how participants across the country responded. The discussion questions will provide a safe space for candid dialogue on mental health, one of the most critical and misunderstood public issues we face. The process will also provide an opportunity for participants to discuss actions they can take to strengthen mental health on their campuses and in their communities.

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