We spotted an interesting report over in the news section of the National Issues Forums website shared by Kara Lindaman, an associate professor at Winona State University, featuring a civic summit run at Winona State University in April exploring one of the National Issue Forums upcoming issue books… On April 19, 2012, Winona State University hosted the inaugural civic summit on the National Issues Forum and American Commonwealth Project Deliberative Dialogue Initiative on Shaping Our Future: How Should Higher Education Help Us Create The Society We […] (continue)

Kathleen Kenet from Network for Peace through Dialogue asked us to let NCDDers know about their new video… “Dialogue – A conversation with a center, not sides.” The Network for Peace through Dialogue has released a video on the concept of dialogue and the ability of dialogue to create true understanding, positive change and stronger communities. You can watch it below or view the video on their website at www.networkforpeace.com. Based on the principles of democracy and social justice, Network for Peace through Dialogue seeks […] (continue)

In light of our collective work creating the Core Principles for Public Engagement a couple of years ago, we thought this news from Wales would be of interest… Originally endorsed by the Welsh government last year, the National Principles for Public Engagement in Wales were developed under the guidance of Participation Cymru’s Advisory Panel and are aimed at Public Service organisations across all sectors, with the goal to offer a consistent approach and good standard for public engagement across Wales (a list of Welsh agencies utilizing these […] (continue)

Check out NPR’s fantastic new piece on Participatory Budgeting in Chicago’s 49th Ward, and hear the story of Robin McPherson’s water park. Joe Moore, the alderman in Chicago’s 49th Ward, became the first elected official in the country to hand over the purse strings to his constituents in 2009. Three years later, the “participatory budgeting” experiment is still attracting in new residents to planning meetings. Listen to “Chicago Ward Gives Budgetary Power To The People” or read the story at this link. Also — please […] (continue)

On Tuesday (May 15th), NCDD hosted a call open to dues-paying NCDD members who live or work in California. My colleague Alissa Black, who recently left Code for America to head up the New America Foundation‘s new project, the California Civic Innovation Project (CCIP), was interested in discussing the project with NCDD members.  Alissa was also very interested in learning about the public engagement work NCDDers are doing in California — especially in the realm of local governance. We had a great call, with close to 30 participants […] (continue)

Harry Boyte, Director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College, asked me to share with the NCDD community an article he co-wrote with Blase Scarnati for the Huffington Post (published 5/3/12), titled “Building Democracy Colleges: A Different Kind of Politics.” The article begins… A fit with the season of tornadoes across the nation this year, the Citizens United Versus the Federal Elections Commission court decision has unleashed a venomous tsunami of attack ads by Super PACs. The political weather threatens to get worse […] (continue)

I saw this on the Participatory Budgeting Project website and thought I’d mention it here as well. Looks like Vallejo, California just approved the first city-wide participatory budgeting process in the US! Residents will decide how to spend around $3 million from new sales tax revenue. The April 20, 2012 article about this in the Times Herald seems to no longer be available, but here is a segment from the article… The City Council of Vallejo, California, approved the first city-wide Participatory Budgeting process in the […] (continue)

The National Issues Forums has announced an extension to the deadline for reporting on local dialogue & deliberative forums on their current, featured issue, the National Debt.  Interested groups can participate in the conversation, adding their voices to the eventual report, by contacting an NIF regional coordinator.  From their announcement… The Congressional Super Committee did not resolve the debt issue, and we believe it will not be resolved any time soon. The national debt is going to be with us for a long time and is […] (continue)

The National Issues Forums has released a new issue guide focused on the National Debt entitled A Nation in Debt: How Can We Pay the Bills?  This 12-page issue guide presents an overview of the problem and offers three options for deliberation: “agree to make sacrifices now”, “strengthen checks and balances” and “invest in growth first”.  From the guide’s introduction… How Can We Pay the Bills? It’s become apparent to many Americans that if we do not act decisively on the nation’s debt soon, our […] (continue)

The following post was written by Dale Ironson for the 2006 NCDD Conference. Also see Loretta Donovan’s reflections on this opening plenary, and download the full record of what attendees wrote on the timelines posted on the walls. Kenoli Oliari and Marc Tognotti did a phenomenal job facilitating this unique dialogue activity among the nearly 400 participants. Discovering the Collective Story that Brought Us Here Today In this plenary session, we explored our personal stories and the evolution of the field of D&D, amidst the background […] (continue)