As you may know, the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI), in association with the American Commonwealth Partnership, is launching their latest year-long national dialogue, Shaping Our Future,  with an event at the National Press Club in DC tomorrow morning (Sept 4th).  This initiative encourages students, faculty, administrators, employers, and members of the general public to reflect on how colleges and universities might help the country tackle some of its most vexing problems. Tomorrow’s kick-off event, which will be streamed live online, will include info about forums now being […] (continue)

We wanted to share with the NCDD community an exciting project being led by the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution — one of our Co-Sponsors for this October’s 2012 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation (“NCDD Seattle“). The Cosmopolis 2045 Project is a multi-year website project envisioned by the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution and supported in part by grants from the CMM Institute, the Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society at Villanova University, and Syracuse University’s College […] (continue)

Still on the fence about whether or not you’ll be joining us in Seattle this Oct 12-14 for the 2012 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation? I think you’ll decide to join us when you check out the following… 1.  See who’s registered so far — it’s an amazing group of leaders and innovators in our field!  I’ve activated the “show registrants” function on Eventbrite, so you can see the list of who’s registered at this point at http://ncddseattle.eventbrite.com/ 2.  Look over the list of workshops […] (continue)

The process and mandate of panelists in citizen deliberative councils tend to make randomly selected people act much more responsibly as citizens while on the council. A recent article in the New York Times Magazine notes that randomly selected panelists in Oregon’s Citizens’ Initiative Review — organized by NCDD members Ty Reitman and Elliot Shuford and studied by NCDD member John Gastil — knew they were “expected to base their opinions on hard evidence” and “felt obligated to consider the measure more carefully than they otherwise […] (continue)

We launched our scholarship fund drive for the 2012 NCDD conference on Monday, and proud to say that our community has contributed $2,075 so far! We greatly appreciate the support of our earliest donors. Our goal is to raise $15,000 from our community to help people from diverse backgrounds make it to NCDD Seattle who may not otherwise be able to join us. Please help out at whatever level you’re able to, at www.ncdd.org/funddrive. Here is a run-down of our generous donors so far… and […] (continue)

This post was submitted for NCDD members’ consideration today by supporting member Karen Hirsch, in response to the Colorado theatre shooting on Thursday night… Tragedy/Crisis/Opportunity:  I’m hoping very much that some in the NCDD community are seriously considering mobilizing to offer dialogue opportunities to the people of our beloved country — including members of Congress. I vividly recall a friend who works closely with many Congressional members saying that the immediate period following the shooting of then Congresswoman Gabby Gifford and others in her Phoenix office […] (continue)

On Thursday at 3pm Eastern (noon Pacific), we’ll be digging into the concept of civic infrastructure further together. NCDD members Ben Roberts and Amy Lenzo will be facilitating the call. Sign up today if you haven’t already registered. The term “civic infrastructure” certainly is buzzing in our field these days. The Orton Family Foundation launched the exciting CommunityMatters partnership (with NCDD and 6 other organizations) with the primary goal of building civic infrastructure in communities. Harold McDougall (who may be the first to use the term) […] (continue)

Joan Blades emailed me a few days ago with a link to a new website we weren’t sure made us want to laugh or to cry — www.politicalscreamingmatch.com.  I’ve been working with Joan lately (and Amanda Roman, Mary Jacksteit, and Barbara Simonetti) to explore how we might promote and support the launch of Living Room Conversations within the dialogue and deliberation community. Living Room Conversations are intimate dialogues among friends, neighbors, and friends-of-friends from both sides of the political divide. They’re designed to revitalize the art of […] (continue)

A bunch of folks have asked for more time to work on their session proposals for the 2012 NCDD conference in Seattle.  We decided to extend the deadline for proposals until July 10th (today was the original deadline) to give everybody a bit more time. If you’re working on a proposal and you can get it to us before the July 4th holiday, I’d greatly appreciate it!!  But do please get your proposals in by the end of the day on July 10th at the […] (continue)

The Public Conversations Project — a founding member of NCDD — has produced a must-see 6-minute video overviewing their work over the past 20 years, with a particular emphasis on their groundbreaking pro-life / pro-choice dialogue in Boston. Also be sure to check out NCDD’s video playlists on YouTube, where we’ve been keeping track of some of the very best videos out there on dialogue, deliberation, graphic recording, and online engagement — like this one. (continue)