Category Archives: NCDD2016

Pre-Conference Options for NCDD 2016

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The 2016 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation is just around the corner, and we wanted to bring your attention to some cool options that are happening the day before the conference — Thursday, October 13th.

bumper_sticker_600pxAs you know, NCDD 2016: Bridging Our Divides is taking place October 14-16 in the Boston Metro Area, at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel & Conference Center. All pre-conference activities are taking place at the Sheraton.

The first three events below do require pre-registration, and there is (very reasonable) fee for participating in Essential Partners’ day-long workshop.  See below for details.

8:30am – 4:30 pm  –  WORKSHOP ON FACILITATING PUBLIC MEETINGS

Essential Partners (formerly the Public Conversations Project) is known for its high-quality workshops. We’re proud to say that they’re offering their advanced workshop on “Facilitating Public Meetings” on October 13th at the Sheraton!

Leading effective public meetings has become increasingly difficult. Designing and facilitating effective public meetings requires coolness, clarity, courage and skill. This workshop will help participants address the challenges of engaging an impassioned and deeply involved public in constructive conversation.

Dave Joseph, MSW will facilitate the training. The regular rate for this one-day training is $150, but NCDD members pay only $125. Learn more and register today. (Middlesex East)

4:00 – 5:30 pm  –  RED-BLUE DICTIONARY WORKSHOP

Do you mean by pro-life what I mean by pro-life? What about socialism? Freedom? Compassion? Answering these questions is the goal of the Red-Blue Dictionary, a transpartisan collaboration to help all Americans explore the varied meanings of commonly used (and misused) words. We’re not building a reference handed down from some great authority on high; we’re exploring what words really mean to all of us down here on the ground.

This free interactive workshop, co-facilitated by Cynthia Kurtz and John Backman, is your chance to learn about the Red-Blue Dictionary, join us in improving it, and explore our diverse experiences with the words we love (and love to hate) most. Email Cynthia Kurtz at cfkurtz@cfkurtz.com to let her know you’d like to participate in this workshop. (Commons II)

5:00 – 7:00 pm  –  DELIBERATION BOOTCAMP

This free evening session will provide an overview of the deliberative perspective and an introduction to many of the key concepts, organizations, and challenges related to the field. Specifically designed for newcomers to the field, the boot camp will help acclimate participants to the conference.

The session will be led by Martín Carcasson, NCDD Board member and Director of Colorado State University’s Center for Public Deliberation. Dr. Carcasson’s presentation will focus on the question of “what kind of talk does democracy need?” and will make the case for building deliberative capacity in our communities.

Email Martín at mcarcas@colostate.edu to let him know you’ll be attending the Bootcamp. (Commons I)

6:00 – 7:00 pm  –  INFORMAL RECEPTION / COCKTAIL HOUR AT THE BAR

Though the conference doesn’t begin officially until Friday morning, many of you are arriving on Thursday.  Plan on coming down to the hotel bar/restaurant for some informal networking if you’re around (food and drink is on you, though).  Of course, you’re welcome to stick around after 7pm!  (Hotel bar)

8:00 – 9:15 pm  –  EMERGING LEADERS PRE-CONFERENCE EVENT

NCDD is hosting a pre-conference event for young people and students. This will be a time for attendees 35 and under connect with the other younger conference attendees. During the event, we will be officially unveiling NCDD’s new Emerging Leaders Initiative and all the great ways NCDD will be working to bring younger folks into the D&D field and support them in shaping its future. We will also be kicking off our NCDD 2016 Mentoring Program, which will intentionally connect a cadre of experienced D&D leaders with students and youth attendees during the conference.

Support Still Needed for NCDD2016 Youth Scholarship Fund!

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As we announced recently, NCDD is in the midst of an effort to raise $10,000 for our Youth Scholarship Fund to bring as many young people as possible to the NCDD 2016 conference, and we need your help! We have raised just over $1,000 so far in generous donations from our incredible NCDD network, but we still have a lot to raise before our October 7th deadline. Will you consider making a tax-deductible donation today to support the involvement of young people in the D&D field? 

Involving young people and students in our conferences is a huge benefit to our field, the gathering itself, and of course, the young people! Youth and student attendees help bring new ideas and perspectives to our conversations, energize other participants, and having them with us also contributes to bridging the generational divide that so often impacts our country. But most of all, we need to involve the next generation of D&D leaders today to help us foster resilience and longevity for our field as many of leading pioneers of the field begin to exit the work. Won’t you help us develop the D&D leaders and practitioners of tomorrow?

Your donation will be tax-deductible, and it goes directly to helping us provide travel support, cover hotel rooms, and pay registration fees for young people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend. Plus, anyone who donates $50 or more will have their contribution acknowledged in the printed conference guidebook!

We want to say a special “Thank You!” to some of champions of young people who have already donated! Thank you very much to:

  • The Network for Peace through Dialogue
  • Hawaii State Senator Les Ihara, Jr.
  • Chris Bui of The American Focus
  • Cynthia Kurtz
  • Bluebonnet Hills Christian Church, Austin, TX
  • Larry Schooler
  • and Bill Potapchuk of the Community Building Institute
  • Carolyn Penny, Director, UC Davis Campus Dialogue & Deliberation

These leaders have contributed to making it possible for more of our field’s young people to have the life-changing experience of attending an NCDD conference, and we encourage you to join them in investing in our emerging leaders to insure the bright future of our work! Learn more about other ways you can support young people coming to the conference in our earlier post here.

We need everyone to chip in to help us reach our goal of raising $10,000 for the NCDD 2016 Scholarship Fund before October 7th, so we urge you to make a contribution now!

NCDD 2016 Schedule & Workshop List Announced!

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We at NCDD are thrilled to announce that we recently published the official schedule and list of conference sessions and workshops for the 2016 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation this Oct. 14-16 in Boston!ncdd2016-postcard

NCDD 2016 promises to be the most exciting NCDD conference to date! As always, we’ve planned the conference weekend to be full of activity, learning, and connecting. It includes rich pre-conference offerings, our famously engaging plenary sessions, experiential field trips, the D&D Showcase, and a new Open Space – there is going to be something for everyone! Be sure to have a look at the full NCDD 2016 conference schedule at www.ncdd.org/ncdd2016/schedule.

And of course, it wouldn’t be an NCDD conference without a smorgasbord of incredible workshops and sessions hosted by the brightest leaders and innovators in our field. NCDD 2016 will feature six concurrent workshop block with over 50 super diverse sessions that span the breadth and depth of the work being done by those in our field who are Bridging Our Divides, while also featuring some of the most exciting new initiatives and successful case studies in D&D. We encourage you to check out the full list of sessions and workshops at www.ncdd.org/ncdd2016/workshops.

If you’ve been waiting to register for NCDD 2016, wait no longer! This schedule and list of conference sessions is just more proof that this year’s gathering will be one of the most engaging, catalytic NCDD events yet, and you won’t want to miss out!

The conference is less than a month away now, and we can’t wait to be with 400 of the most engaged and innovative leaders in this work! We look forward to seeing you in October!

Looking for a Roommate at NCDD 2016? Find One Here!

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Registration numbers are climbing, with nearly 200 attendees signed up so far for the 2016 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation! The conference is only a month away now, and we know many folks will want to cut down on lodging costs as they plan for the trip. If that’s you, we encourage you to use the comments section of this blog post to find people interested in splitting a room at the conference hotel.

The NCDD 2016 is taking place at the lovely Sheraton Framingham Hotel & Conference Center just outside of Boston, MA, and we encourage everyone coming in from out of town to stay there for your own comfort and convenience! We’ve negotiated a fantastic rate of $165/night (plus tax) for our conference attendees, but you need to take advantage soon – the deadline for securing our reduced rate is September 26th!

If you need to cut lodging costs while still staying at the hotel, drop a comment in the comment section below about your interest in finding a roommate. Here are some things you may want to include in your comment:

  1. Your name, gender, and any special requirements or considerations your potential roommate should know about you (for example, if you’re a smoker, night owl, snorer, etc.)
  2. When you’re arriving and departing and which nights you want to share a room
  3. Email or phone contact info in case people would like to connect with you directly

To get the NCDD room rate, make sure you use this link when you reserve your room:

www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/NCDD2016

We think you’ll be very glad you’re staying at the conference hotel. Staying at the Sheraton means you can take a break or nap whenever you need one, spend more time networking, and you won’t have to worry about transportation to and from the conference every day. Plus you can partake in all the other hotel amenities like free wifi, the fitness center, the pool, the business center, and more!

We recommend that NCDD 2016 attendees arrive on Thursday, October 13th, since we start Friday morning and you’ll want to take advantage of the great pre-conference activities your D&D colleagues will be organizing! You should plan to depart on Monday, October 17th or later in the day on Sunday, October 16th, since we end at 3:30pm. Find out more about your transportation options on our NCDD 2016 travel & lodging page.

Again, our cut-off date for the reduced room rate is Monday, September 26th, so be sure to reserve your room ASAP! We recommend not waiting until the last minute, as our room block is filling up quickly this year.

If you have any questions that are not addressed here, check out our conference FAQ page. If you still have questions after that, feel free to send Sandy an email at sandy@ncdd.org.

Contribute to the Youth Scholarship Fund for NCDD 2016!

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The 2016 NCDD national conference on Bridging Our Divides is getting closer and closer, and we couldn’t be more excited! But there’s still a lot of work to do in the lead-up to this amazing event, and1398790_744145238968706_3393677302500008784_o we need to ask for our NCDD community’s help with one important task!

As we recently announced, NCDD is offering scholarships to help make sure that young people, students, and others who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend the NCDD 2016 conference can join us. Before our 2014 conference, we received an incredible $10,000 anonymous donation to help ensure we had plenty of resources to offer scholarships to young people and low-income folks – but we can’t count on that kind of support this year.

That’s why we are calling on our amazing NCDD community to donate to our NCDD 2016 Scholarship Fund to make sure that this year’s conference is brimming with the next generation of emerging D&D leaders. We are hoping to raise at least $10,000 for scholarships, if not more, by October 7th and we can’t do it without you! Whether you can give $5 or $500, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Scholarship Fund today.

Your tax-deductible donation will go directly to helping us provide travel reimbursements, shared hotel rooms, and registration for scholarship hopefuls. Plus, anyone who donates $50 or more will have their contribution acknowledged in the printed conference guidebook!

The Importance of Young People Attending NCDD 2016

YoungPeopleAtNCDD2014Our last NCDD conference in Reston, VA had more young people than any before it — a dynamic that was universally seen by the attendees as making the conference experience much more engaging and exciting. Ensuring that young people are involved in our conferences adds a great deal of fresh energy and perspectives to our field’s work, and it helps us diversify our field, spark new partnerships, bring in new volunteers and researchers, and foster mentoring relationships between emerging leaders and seasoned practitioners.

Additionally, NCDD recognizes that one of the important divides in our society that needs to be bridged is the divide between the younger generations and their elders whose are still in charge of the nation’s direction. That recognition is part of what animated our 2014 conference theme, Democracy for the Next Generation, and we continue to be committed to helping foster positive, collaborative relationships between older and younger people as a way to continue to strengthen our democracy. Being sure that younger folks are at the table for our conversation about about Bridging Our Divides is part of that ongoing commitment.

But maybe most importantly, engaging young people and students in our work helps us foster long-term resilience for the field of dialogue & deliberation. In coming years, we will continue to see many of the pillars and pioneers of the field exiting the work, and so it is critical for us to be making a conscious decision today to begin developing the D&D leaders and practitioners of tomorrow. Today’s younger generations will be charged with utilizing our methods to address some of society’s most pernicious issues and to bridge our most persistent divides, which is why it is so vital to ensure that we are intentionally investing in engaging and cultivating their leadership. They already have valuable insights and experiences that can help us forge new paths for our field, but we can’t tap into them if they aren’t with us!

That is why we feel it’s so important that we are successful in reaching our goal of $10,000 for the NCDD 2016 Scholarship Fund, and why we urge you to make a contribution now.

How You Can Support This Effort

IMG_1562We at NCDD are putting our money where our mouth is with incentives for students and young people to attend NCDD 2016: we have reduced the registration rate to just $250 for students (a $200 discount!), and we are offering even lower group rates for teachers and other practitioners who are bringing groups of students from their youth-oriented programs! So we’re counting on our NCDD community to join us in helping make sure every young leader in our field is able to join us at the conference.

There are several other ways that you can support youth and student engagement during NCDD 2016:

  1. Invite your friends and colleagues to support our scholarship drive and share this call for donations on social media using the buttons at the bottom of this post. Help us spread the word far and wide!
  2. Become a sponsor of NCDD 2016! Donations from our field-leading sponsors help us make our great NCDD conferences possible, and you or your organization could become a champion of youth engagement by sponsoring the NCDD 2016 Scholarship Fund. Learn more about being a sponsor at www.ncdd.org/sponsor.
  3. Encourage the promising young people who you work with, bright students at your school, or other young people who might be interested in attending to register to join us at NCDD 2016! They can apply for a scholarship by clicking here.
  4. Bring a group of young people or students to the conference yourself! The group rate is applied on a case-by-case basis, but at past conferences, a group that came with eight students received two free student spots on top of the cheaper student rate. The more youth you bring, the bigger the discount! Email NCDD’s Director Sandy Heierbacher at sandy@ncdd.org or our Conference Manager Courtney Breese at courtney@ncdd.org for info about group discounts.
  5. Recommend students or young people that we should reach out to! Send an email with their names and contact info to our Youth Engagement Coordinator Roshan Bliss at roshan@ncdd.org so he can invite them to come.
  6. Encourage ALL the students you know to take advantage of NCDD’s Student Membership rate, which is only $30/year for full access to all of our great NCDD membership benefits.
  7. At the conference, you can help the young people who are with us feel welcomed, valued, and engaged.
  8. And of course, you can make a donation to the NCDD 2016 Scholarship Fund by visiting at www.ncdd.org/donate. Or just use the form below!

Your tax-deductible donation will help us continue to cultivate the next generation of D&D leaders, and ensure the long term sustainability of our field. Won’t you contribute today?

Thank you for supporting NCDD’s efforts to engage our emerging leaders!

Contribute to our NCDD 2016 Scholarship Fundbumper_sticker_600px

Please complete the short form below to send in your donation. Be sure to put “Scholarship Fund” in the box where we ask if your donation is earmarked for a particular program!

  • If you'd like to donate a different amount than what's listed above, select a baseline from the list and then use this field to specify an additional amount for your contribution.
  • $0.00

Call for D&D Showcase Presenters at NCDD 2016

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NCDD is excited to announce that we’ll once again be holding our popular “D&D Showcase” during the 2016 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation, and we are looking for presenters!

yardsign_300pxThe D&D Showcase is a lively cocktail networking event that provides an opportunity for select individuals and organizations in our field to share some of the leading ideas, tools, projects, and initiatives in dialogue & deliberation with conference participants all in one space. It’s a fun way for conference-goers to meet some of the movers-and-shakers in D&D and hear about the projects, programs, and tools that are making waves in our work.

How the Showcase will work

Showcase presenters display simple “posters” about their work, tools, or projects and bring handouts and business cards to share with participants who are interested in learning more or following up. Showcase presenters will be ready to succinctly express what’s important for conference participants to know about their resource, method, research, program, etc. and to elaborate and answer any questions people may have.

During the 90-minute Showcase event, conference participants will stroll around the ballroom, chatting with presenters, and checking out their displays and picking up Showcase2014-2handouts. We’ll also have finger foods and beverages available as well as a cash bar, adding to the social atmosphere of the session.

The Showcase is a great chance to strike up conversations with leaders in the field and other conference participants who are strolling around the room, perusing the “wares.”

You can get a good sense of what the Showcase is like by watching this slideshow from our 2012 conference in Seattle.

You can also see Janette Hartz-Karp and Brian Sullivan presenting at the 2008 Showcase event here (back when we called it the “D&D Marketplace”), and check out the video of Noam Shore, Lucas Cioffi, and Wayne Burke presenting their online tools here.

Showcase2014-1Becoming a Showcase Presenter

The conference planning team is hard at work planning NCDD 2016, and one of our upcoming steps includes selecting people and organizations who are passionate about sharing tools and programs we know will interest our attendees as presenters during the Showcase. If you are interested in having your tool, project, idea, or work being featured in the Showcase, please email our conference manager Courtney Breese at courtney@ncdd.org and include: what it is you would like to showcase, a brief description of it, any links to where more information can be found, and any questions you have.

Please note that these slots are very competitive, and we will be favoring Showcase presentations that relate to the conference theme, Bridging Our Divides. So if your work, project, or tool focuses on helping people work across persistent divisions in our society, we definitely want to hear from you!

If you are selected as a D&D Showcase presenter, you’ll be expected to:

  • Register for NCDD 2016 and attend the conference.
  • Prepare a quick spiel or “elevator speech” about your Showcase topic that will get people interested in learning more. Practice it until it comes out naturally. We suggest you prepare several introductions of different lengths (30 seconds, 1 minute, etc.) so you can adjust quickly to different circumstances during the Showcase.
  • Showcase2014-4Prepare a simple, visually interesting poster and bring it with you to the conference.
  • Bring handouts about your program, method, online tool, publication, etc. that include further details.
  • Have any laptop-dependent pieces of your Showcase presentation finished, functional, and ready to share (you’ll need to bring your own computer).
  • Show up for the Showcase session about 20 minutes early so we have time to make sure everyone is set up and has everything they need.

You can find more information and advice for Showcase presenters on our Conference FAQ page here.

We are looking forward to having another informative and inspirational D&D Showcase this year, so we hope you’ll consider applying to be a presenter or urging your colleagues who are doing ground-breaking and critical work in the field to do so. We can’t wait to see all of the cutting-edge projects showcased in October!

Become a Sponsor of NCDD 2016 Today!

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NCDD is working hard on putting together our 2016 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation this October 14-16 in the Boston metro area. It’s shaping up to be our best conference yet, and like all of our conferences, NCDD 2016 will be a great opportunity to gain recognition while supporting the field by becoming a conference sponsor!

Looking to heighten the profile of your organization and work in the field? Being a sponsor is a great way to do it! NCDD conferences regularly bring together over 400 of the most active, thoughtful, and influential people in public engagement and group process work across the U.S. and Canada (plus practitioners from around the world), and being a sponsor can help your organization can reach them all.

Being an All-Star Sponsor ($3000), Co-Sponsor ($2000) or Partner ($1000) will earn you name recognition with potential clients, provide months of PR, and build respect and good will for your organization every time we proudly acknowledge your support as we promote the conference. Plus you’ll be providing the crucial support that NCDD relies on to make our national conferences so spectacular, including making it possible for us to offer more scholarships to the amazing young people and other deserving folks in our field. You can learn more about the details in our sponsorship document.

The earlier you commit to being an NCDD 2016 sponsor, the more exposure you earn as we begin to roll out our sponsor logos on our website. But the benefits go way beyond that – just look at all the perks you get for being a sponsor!

By supporting an NCDD conference, our sponsors are demonstrating leadership in D&D, showing commitment to public engagement and innovative community problem solving, and making a name for themselves among the established leaders and emerging leaders in our rapidly growing field. We expect to have between 400 and 450 attendees at NCDD 2016, and all of them will hear about our sponsors’ work!

When you sign on as a sponsor or partner of NCDD 2016, you’ll be joining an amazing group of peers you can be proud to associate with. To give you an idea, check out our sponsors and partners for our 2014 national conference in Reston:

SponsorLogosAsOf9-7-14

Interested in joining their ranks and sponsoring the 2016 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation? We encourage you to consider investing in yourself, in NCDD, and in the field by becoming a sponsor today! We would deeply appreciate your support – plus you get so many benefits.

Learn more about sponsor benefits and requirements here, or send an email to sandy@ncdd.org to let us know you are interested in supporting this important convening through sponsorship. And thank you for considering supporting the conference in this critical way!

Engaging D&D’s Young Leaders in NCDD 2016

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As many of you know, NCDD’s 2014 conference in Reston, VA had more students and young people in attendance than any conference before it, and it made a huge difference – the energy and fresh thinking that young people bring to our conferences and to our field was and is inspiring and indispensable. NCDD continues to be committed to cultivating the next generation of leaders in our field, and that’s why we are aiming to have even more youth and student attendees at NCDD 2016 this Oct. 14th-16th in Boston!yardsign_300px

As part of that commitment, we are pleased to announce that NCDD is offering a super-low student registration rate of $250 (that’s $200 off!), and we have opened up our application for NCDD 2016 scholarships. These scholarships are intended to help young people in D&D and other deserving applicants who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend by offsetting the costs of travel, housing, and registration as needed.

The scholarship application can be found at www.surveymonkey.com/r/NCDD2016-scholarship-app.

But we need our NCDD members’ help encouraging the promising and engaged young people and students in this field to attend the conference! Do you work with an outstanding young person who is passionate about the work of dialogue and deliberation? Are you connected to a student who is working to bridge divides in their community? Make sure to tell them about NCDD 2016 and encourage them to register today!

Also, please note that we are offering group discounts to incentivize teachers and other practitioners who are bringing groups of students or youth from their programs or organizations. The group rate will be worked out on a case-by-case basis, but the more Martins-Students-border-600pxpeople in your group, the bigger the discount! Contact our Conference Manager Courtney Breese at courtney@ncdd.org with questions about group rates.

We also encourage you to recommend young people you think NCDD should support to our Youth Engagement Coordinator Roshan Bliss at roshan@ncdd.org so we can reach out and invite them directly.

Lastly, don’t forget that NCDD offers a discounted Students & Young Professionals membership rate of just $30/year that is designed to make NCDD membership more affordable for students, recent graduates, and folks 35 and under still getting established in the field. We encourage you to learn more and sign up to become a member today at www.ncdd.org/join.

We are looking forward to another great intergenerational conference, and we’re counting on our members to help us make sure the best and brightest are there. We can’t wait to see you all in October!

NCDD2016 Early Bird Registration Extended to Monday!

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IMG_8080This post is just a friendly reminder for all of our members that we’ve decided to extend the Early Bird registration deadline for NCDD2016 until THIS Monday, July 18th!

This is the last time that you’ll be able to take advantage of the lower registration rate of $375 and lock in your spot with 400+ leaders, innovators, and practitioners in dialogue and deliberation as we work, vision, and learn together about Bridging Our Divides this October 14th-16th in the Boston metro area. After Monday, it will be the regular registration rate of $450, and the late registration rate will kick in on October 1st.

Don’t miss your chance to save $75 on registering for one of the premier learning and networking events for our field! You can learn much more about this year’s national conference at www.ncdd.org/ncdd2016, and register today at www.ncdd2016.eventbrite.com to take advantage of the Early Bird rate.

Want to get a better sense of what our conferences are like? Check out the Storify page the features great pictures and comments about our 2014 conference by clicking here.

NCDD2016 Session Proposal Deadline Extended!

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As we hope you’ve heard, we announced that we were opening the call for NCDD2016 conference session proposals earlier last month. We’ve had lots of great proposals come in so far, and we thank everyone who has submitted session ideas so far!

bumper_sticker_600pxWe’ve also received quite a few requests this week for extensions as folks firm up ideas and finalize plans with collaborators, so in honor of all the hard work our members are doing to make the conference an amazing experience, we are extending the deadline for session proposals! We are now accepting submissions until the end of the day on Wednesday, July 13th! 

If you’re rushing to finish up a proposal, you’ve got a few more days now, but don’t delay! There is going to be some stiff competition for session spots this year.

If you’re still looking for collaborators on your sessions, you can review the calls for session partners that some of our members have put out on our NCDD discussion listserv checking out the discussion topics from the last few weeks in our listserv archives – you could also join the listserv and ask for collaborators yourself!

We recommend that you read over the initial call for proposals one more time before submitting, but once you’re ready, visit the Application Form and submit your proposal!

We look forward to seeing all of your great ideas!