The 4th Annual International Conference on “Engaging The Other:” The Power of Compassionis taking place November 12-15 in San Mateo, California (outside San Francisco), and we encourage all NCDDers interested in conflict resolution and intergroup relations to attend! NCDD is co-sponsoring this event with the Common Bond Institute and the International Humanistic Psychology Association, and registration will be discounted for NCDD members ($290 rather than $350 for the early rate). Engaging The Other (ETO) is an innovative interdisciplinary conference examining concepts of “The Other” from a ... (continue)

A few weeks ago, I created 7 public playlists on YouTube, featuring some great videos that show and/or introduce people to dialogue and deliberation. The playlists can be found at www.youtube.com/user/sheierbacher/videos?view=pl. I created the playlists after someone on the main NCDD discussion list asked for links to YouTube videos (read:  short and easily accessible) on dialogue and deliberation, and received a whole variety of replies. I wondered how NCDD could make these videos easy for people to find longer-term (searching for “dialogue” or “deliberation” on ... (continue)

I wanted to post a reminder that the 4-part webinar series, the “Transition from Crisis 2 Resilience Webinar” is holding its first one-hour webinar tonight at 7 pm Eastern.  Regular tuition is $110, which includes a Transition Crisis 2 Resilience Handbook, but fee-paying NCDD members can register for $88 at http://crisis2resilience.com/ncdd. A Crisis Doesn’t Have to Become A Disaster Position yourself, your clients, your community facing natural and human-generated crises, for immediate survival through building long-term resilience. For: Facilitators, Mediators, Consultants, Business & Community Leaders, ... (continue)

For the 2008 National Conference for Dialogue & Deliberation, our event planning team identified five challenge areas to examine throughout the conference. Below are links to each of the five posts in NCDD’s main section that feature the reports from the event participants who took the lead in seeing these challenges addressed. Framing Challenge Report Evaluation Challenge Report Action & Policy Challenge Report Inclusion Challenge Report Systems Challenge Report                     (continue)

1.  Use Randomly Selected Citizen Deliberative Councils to tap the collective wisdom of We the People (Tom Atlee) – http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/2971-4049 2.  Community Weaving America (Cheryl Honey) – http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/2893-4049 3.  American Idol format to vote on appropriate issues (John Anderson) – http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/2894-4049                     (continue)

Here are direct links to the NCDD contributions I know of (so far) to the White House’s Open Government Dialogue at http://opengov.ideascale.com. Let’s support each other’s ideas by taking care to “vote up” the posts you agree with that have been submitted by members of our community!  I’ll keep adding new links to NCDDers’ posts to the blog, so please email them to me. Ask Federal Agencies to Adopt the Core Principles for Public Engagement (Sandy Heierbacher) – http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/2510-4049 Utilize the NCDD network for facilitators, ... (continue)

I’ll post more tomorrow for those not on the NCDD listserv. For now, just wanted to share that I’ve added a post to the new Open Government Dialogue about the Public Engagement Principles NCDD, IAP2 and others worked so hard to create these past months. Please take a moment to go to http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/2510-4049 and give the post a thumbs up if you’re willing!                     (continue)

I hope to see many NCDDers at the Network for Peace through Dialogue conference this summer in New York City.  I’ll be there, speaking during the opening evening plenary (along with Geraldine Ferraro!) and giving a workshop the next day on moving from dialogue to action. The conference, which takes place June 12th and 13th at Marymount Manhattan College, is designed for community groups, peace workers, practitioners, researchers, teachers, students and anyone who struggles to bring people with different viewpoints together. Registration is now open, ... (continue)

Here is a special message for NCDD members from Peggy Holman about the extraordinary upcoming conference, Leadership in a Self-Organizing World… With so much upheaval happening today, there are many exciting experiments underway that shed light on new forms of organizing.  On May 14-17, we are bringing together people from a variety of sectors including corporations, nonprofits, education, government, communities, and the arts.  We have much to learn from each other.  And as practitioners with conversational forms, NCDD members are at the heart of this type ... (continue)

Here’s an important announcement Joe Goldman sent me last week.  Joe is Vice President of Citizen Engagement at AmericaSpeaks. Four leading organizations in our field very recently convened a two-day meeting with 34 Federal Managers from 23 different agencies and offices across the federal government.  The meeting, called the Champions of Participation conference, focused on what can be done to increase and improve the use of face-to-face participation and collaboration by federal agencies. Here is Joe’s introduction, followed by the official announcement.  It is hoped ... (continue)