At the start of the ‘What Would You Do If…?’ Master Class with Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, you can raise whatever questions you have about real issues when organizing or supervising meetings: What would you do if…? You will learn from yourself, from each other, and from Marvin and Sandra (co-creators of the Future Search method), while discovering new possibilities, alternative strategies and new ways to support groups effectively. A unique 1.5-day first-hand experience of the power of being able to put your trust ... (continue)

NCDD is the Core Collaborator of the highly regarded Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement Certificate Program (DDP&E for short).  The certificate program is now hosted by Kansas State University, and the first course launches next month! We wanted to alert the NCDD community to an opportunity to learn more about the program next Wednesday at 5pm Eastern on an conference call with program leaders.  You can sign up here to participate in the call. I have heard nothing but great things about this program, which ... (continue)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 13th Community Involvement Training Conference is planned for Boston, Massachusetts in Late Summer 2013. The theme of this year’s conference is “The Next Generation of Community Involvement” and the goal is to provide an exceptional conference that both informs and trains EPA staff as well as Agency stakeholders and partners in best practices to enhance community involvement. Learn more about the conference and the call for proposals at http://www.epa.gov/ciconference/cfp_instructions.htm (continue)

The National Issues Forums Institute invites you to join them on a webinar on Monday about their public forums on the national debt and recent briefings to policymakers in Washington, DC. The webinar, which will take place from 2:00 to 3:00 Eastern on Monday (Jan 28th), will bring you up to date on the results of forums nationwide, as reported in No Easy Way Out, and National Issues Forums (NIF) briefings on the forums on Capitol Hill. Register for the webinar here. Between Fall 2011 and ... (continue)

Here’s a training announcement from our friends at the League of Extraordinary Trainers (LET). Dues-paying NCDD members receive a 10% discount ($315 per training day) on all LET trainings (20% if you register by the early bird deadline. If you work in communications, public relations, public affairs, planning, public outreach and understanding, community development, advocacy, or lobbying, this training will help you to increase your skills and to be of even greater value to your employer. This is your chance to join the many thousands of ... (continue)

This post was submitted by Rosa Zubizarreta of DiaPraxis, an organizational member of NCDD. Contact Rosa at rosa@diapraxis.com if you have questions about this post. “From Conflict to Creative Community: A transformative Dynamic Facilitation learning journey” will be taking place in Ottawa on March 1-3, 2013. Discount available for NCDD members. For a fairly conventional read about this powerful groundbreaking approach, check out my article in the most recent edition of OD Practitioner. However, for a more unusual description, keep reading to discover how a participant from a ... (continue)

Here’s an announcement from Peter Levine, director of Director of CIRCLE (the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement) and Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Tufts University. Note the cost of tuition (it’s FREE!) — I hadn’t realized that before myself. The fifth annual Summer Institute of Civic Studies (http://activecitizen.tufts.edu/circle/summer-institute/) will be an intensive, two-week, interdisciplinary seminar bringing together advanced graduate students, faculty, and practitioners from diverse fields of study. Organized by Peter Levine, Tisch College, and Karol Sołtan, University of ... (continue)

NCDD is proud to join our friends at Kansas State University in announcing that KSU is the new home for the much-touted certificate program in Dialogue, Deliberation, and Public Engagement (DDPE). As we announced at the 2012 NCDD conference in Seattle, NCDD is the “Core Collaborator” for the DDPE program. Our supporting members receive a 10% discount on tuition, and NCDD resources will be featured in the curriculum. The Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at KSU is offering the award winning graduate level DDPE Collaborative ... (continue)

Melissa Sparlin of NCDD organization member and NCDD 2012 Seattle partner, The League of Extraordinary Trainers, reached out to us this week about their programs’ early 2013 training events.  They’ll be offering two, the multi-day IAP2 Certificate Program and John Godec’s two-day EOP2 – Moving from Rage to Reason training.  Also, dues-paying NCDD members can qualify for an additional discount!  More information from their announcement… If you work in communications, public relations, public affairs, planning, public outreach and understanding, community development, advocacy, or lobbying, this training will ... (continue)

If you work in communications, public relations, public affairs, planning, public outreach and understanding, community development, advocacy, or lobbying, the NEW IAP2 Certificate Training, presented by The League of Extraordinary Trainers (one of our Partners for the 2012 NCDD conference), will help you to increase your skills and to be of even greater value to your employer. This is your chance to join the many thousands of practitioners worldwide who have completed the International Association for Public Participation certificate training. Presented by respected trainer Lewis Michaelson, the ... (continue)