 NCDD is excited to announce our next webinar featuring NCDD Member Org EnCiv! Join us on Tuesday, December 13th from 1-2pm Eastern/10-11am Pacific for this FREE webinar sharing more about the development of EnCiv's "Undebates" tool. EnCiv is a nonpartisan organization looking to challenge sensationalism and polarization in civic discourse by offering social technologies that power widespread, cross-partisan discussion and better decision making. In this webinar, we'll be joined by David Fridley and Adolf Gundersen who will provide us with an overview of their latest tool, Undebates, and talk with us about other discussion processes where a platform of this sort could be helpful. He'll also discuss one such effort, called the Unroundtable. Register today to join us! EnCiv - Undebates for Organizations For organizations that are run democratically, getting members to participate - meaning vote, is a challenge. They are forced to compete for people's attention from all the usual sources - social media, mass media, even streaming media. EnCiv will demo a new tool that allows organizations to create "Undebates" for their elections. It automates the process recording video Q&A with candidates and assembling it into an interactive viewer for voters to review on their own schedule and quickly decide, and it can be shared on social media, and embedded on a website. The same process can also be used to present differing views on ballot measures. For now, you are able to create an account and try it out for free. In this webinar we are also looking to brainstorm other forms of discussion processes to adapt this to, including what we call an "Unroundtable." The challenge is to create connection between people at large scale when they can't all be in the same place at the same time. Learn more about EnCiv and the Undebates tool at www.enciv.org/undebates.
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Those who joined NCDD for our 20th Anniversary Celebration last week were the first to hear our big announcement - the National Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation is back! After a hiatus due to COVID, we are so thrilled to reconvene our signature event in 2023. And, we shared another important opportunity that you'll want to read on to learn more about.  About the Conference NCDD 2023 will be held October 13-15, 2023 at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter. A beautiful location perfect for the highly interactive conference, we are so thrilled to bring our event to the Southeast US for the first time! This will be a wonderful opportunity to connect with practitioners in the region, as well as showcase some of the wonderful work being done in the Atlanta area. If you haven't attended an NCDD conference before but want to learn more, check out this link. Opportunity - Join or renew in 2022 to get the very best rate! At our anniversary event we made another big announcement. We will be offering the lowest rate on conference registration to NCDD members whose dues are in good standing in 2022. That means if you have been thinking about joining or are behind on renewing your membership, now is the time to do it! NCDD members all received discounted registration for our conference, but this is a special opportunity we're offering for an even deeper discount if you join or renew by December 31st. This helps support NCDD as we start what will be a very busy year, and gives you the very best deal on the conference!
Stay updated on the conference at our new event page: NCDD 2023 We can't wait to gather together with you all in 2023!  This Thursday, November 17th at 4pm Eastern/1pm Pacific, NCDD is hosting a 20th Anniversary Celebration. Don't miss it - register to receive the webinar information! Please join us to Reflect, Recommit, Renew, and Reconnect to our community of practice and the vital work we do in communities and organizations to promote empowering opportunities for engagement.
This event will feature speakers from different areas of the network and look back at 20 years of community. We'll also be making a special announcement that you won't want to miss! We are inviting you to gather with us to celebrate our 20 years of collaborative impact and to recommit to being a vital member of the NCDD community of practice, both gaining from and giving to this community. And we are asking you to renew your support of NCDD and the possibilities we create together. Register to join us today: bit.ly/NCDD20th  Join MetroQuest on Wednesday, October 19th for a webinar titled Optimizing Online Surveys for Diverse and Equitable Public Engagement. The webinar will be hosted by Dave Biggs, Emily Margitan, and Gerard Penalosa, all three from our very own MetroQuest. This webinar brings together experts on virtual public engagement to discuss the most effective strategies for designing surveys that support diverse and equitable participation. They will unpack how planners can utilize online surveys as part of a deliberate effort to build diversity, equity and inclusion.
Dave Biggs, Chief Engagement Officer at MetroQuest, will share some of his research on how diversity and inclusion are distinct and necessary elements for developing equity in the public participation and planning process. Emily Margitan and Gerard Penalosa, Customer Success Managers at MetroQuest, will discuss the tactics and strategies behind several online public engagement surveys that have been effective at supporting diverse and equitable participation. They’ll use exceptional examples from agencies such as Minnesota Department of Transportation, Virginia Department of Transportation, Oregon Metro, Texas Department of Transportation, and firms including WSP and Michael Baker International. In this webinar, we will explore:
As practitioners of dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement, it is important that we continue to improve our facilitation practice by learning new skills, understandings, and considerations for designing and facilitating conversations. In the below sessions at this year's Summer Learning Springboard, participants will learn how to be self-reflective and intuitive. Register today to widen your skillset.  Silence in Dialogue: Capturing Possibilities in the Pause
Tuesday July 26 1:30-3:30 PM Eastern/10:30 AM-12:30 PM Pacific Hosts: Hoa Nguyen - Valdosta State University & Ashmi Desai - San Francisco State University In this session, we will focus on the role of silence, pause, solitude, and contemplation in dialogue. For instance, what purpose can silence serve in dialogue and what can silence communicate? What can we draw from silence? Participants are engaged in an interactive dialogue format that will encourage them to notice what is happening within the in-between spaces of pause and examine how Western-centric frames have defined and portrayed silence in conversations. Taming Trolls, Troublemakers, and Tyrants Wednesday July 27 12:00-2:00 PM Eastern/9:00-11:00 AM Pacific Host: Karin Tamerius - Smart Politics This session is about how to set boundaries in online and offline dialogue so you can keep a conversation going and make it productive even when others behave badly. Introduces a four-step, graded process that begins with humanization and ends with termination of dialogue only in cases of abusive behavior. Learn what motivates most bad behavior in dialogue and discover steps that will empower you to turn conversations around. Designed for non-facilitators, but will cover concepts useful to facilitators as well. Somatic Practices to Embody Facilitator Growth Wednesday July 27 3:00-4:30 PM Eastern/12:00-1:30 PM Pacific Hosts: Daniel Little - Co-founder, Round Sky Solutions & Rebecca Fisher-McGinty - Worker owner, Round Sky Solutions In facilitation, we tend to focus on structures and processes to guide us in collaboration and conversation. That is helpful! But, there’s an essential missing ingredient to facilitating and participating in these spaces: somatic practices. Our participatory spaces benefit from giving attention to what’s happening somatically (in your body) that builds the collective and the individual. In this session, participants will explore the facilitator’s personal development and capacities through somatic practices. Intro to Analyzing Power: Building Equitable Futures Together Thursday July 28 12:00-1:30 PM Eastern/9:00-10:30 AM Pacific Hosts: Nicole Hewitt-Cabral - Director of Public Engagement, Public Agenda & Dhara Shah - Senior Public Engagement Associate, Public Agenda This session will provide an overview on power analysis by asking people to interrogate their own power in the context of thinking about how we, as citizens and community members, can shift power towards historically dis-invested communities to build equitable futures together. Hearing, Seeing, and Understanding Tuesday July 26 3:00-5:00 PM Eastern/12:00-2:00 PM Pacific Host: Selena Kohel - Cottey College Indirect and direct. High context and low context. Affective and neutral. These are just some of the cultural norms that may hinder or facilitate dialogue where cultural diversity exists. Explore important cultural differences and similarities and how you might navigate these given different situations. Let’s think together about the work of dialogue and deliberation – how to we approach this work? How can we harness it for further good? Register for the NCDD Summer Learning Springboard & participate in the sessions below that feature discussions about the important implications of deliberative practices.  A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action?
Reframing Dialogue & Deliberation as Formational Practices Monday July 25 1:00-2:30 PM Eastern/10:00-11:30 AM Pacific Hosts: Brad Rourke - Program Officer, Kettering Foundation; Elizabeth Gish - Program Officer, Kettering Foundation Pastor, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Katya Lukianova - Program Officer, Kettering Foundation; Michael Nygren - President, Live Your Best Life, Inc. When we frame dialogue or deliberation as something other than action, we run the risk of missing the potential that D&D has to shape people, communities, and institutions. Taking part in deliberation and dialogue is an essential form of action that involves talking, listening, weighing, feeling, imagining, connecting, being seen and heard, and so on. When we take part in these practices, they shape who we are and have potential to shape the communities where we live. This 90 minute session engages participants in reframing the distinction between talk/action, suggests activities that can help explore this, and provides examples of the way that D&D has been a meaningful formational practice for individuals, communities, and institutions. Can Deliberation Contribute to New Democratic Revival Movement? Wednesday July 27 12:00-2:00 PM Eastern/9:00-11:00 AM Pacific Hosts: Daniel Kemmis - Citizens Uniting to Restore Our Democracy & Wendy Willis - Founder and Director, Oregon's Kitchen Table Executive Director, Deliberative Democracy Consortium Drawing on Daniel Kemmis' most recent book, Citizens Uniting to Restore Our Democracy, and Wendy Willis' recent thinking about how to bring grass-roots deliberation to constitutional reform, Kemmis and Willis will lead a highly interactive session on how practitioners and theorists of democratic deliberation might contribute to a 21st century movement of democratic renewal. Rather than thinking about deliberation as an end in itself, the session will examine how deliberative democrats might join forces with other democratic activists to address real barriers to reform and build a more just and functional democracy. Reframing Democracy Through the Wicked Problems Lens Tuesday July 26 1:00-2:30 PM Eastern/10:00-11:30 AM Pacific Host: Martin Carcasson - Director, Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University This workshop is focused on elevating our local conversations about shared problems by building local capacity to engage issues more collaboratively and productively through the use of deliberative engagement processes. Deliberative engagement involves interactive, often facilitated, small group discussions utilizing materials and processes designed to spark collaborative learning rather than merely the collection of individual opinions. An opening session will examine the concept of “wicked problems” as a framework to reframe difficult issues and review recent research on social psychology to help explain why traditional engagement processes are often counterproductive to sparking the high quality communication democracy requires. Learn a new method for dialogue and deliberation – the Summer Learning Springboard is an opportunity to learn new approaches you might not be familiar with! This year's program includes several sessions which highlight practices that may be new to you. Check them out below and be sure to register to join us.  Learning the Empathy Circle Practice
Monday July 25 and repeat session Saturday July 30 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern/10:00 AM-12:00 PM Pacific Host: Edwin Rutsch, Center for Building a Culture of Empathy Participants will learn about the process of an Empathy Circle by experiencing it. An Empathy Circle is a structured dialogue process that effectively supports meaningful and constructive dialogue. The practice increases mutual understanding and connection by ensuring that each person feels fully heard to their satisfaction. Helping Communities Share Nothing But "Good News" Tuesday July 26 1:00-2:00 PM Eastern/10:00-11:00 AM Pacific Host: Eric Pories, Focus Intent Facilitation Services Learn how volunteers in West Virginia are bringing "Good News" to their community. At a Good News community engagement event, up to twenty speakers take turns sharing positive community news. Each speaker has a maximum of two minutes to share their “Good News” within a well-orchestrated agenda. Creating a Sense of Belonging Friday July 29 12:00-2:00 PM Eastern/9:00-11:00 AM Pacific Hosts: Mavis Tsai, Ph.D., Awareness, Courage & Love Global Project; U. of Washington & Susan Partnow, MA, Sr. Certified Facilitator, Compassionate Listening Feeling that we belong to a larger group that shares common struggles and aspirations is fundamental to our sense of happiness and well-being. Conversely—isolation, loneliness and feeling excluded undermines well-being. In this session, you will: 1) engage in a mindfulness exercise that explores how belonging starts with allowing in parts of yourself that are difficult for you to accept; 2) explore your experiences of inclusion and exclusion; 3) practice how to more deeply be with your own and another's heart. Convening and Facilitating Deliberative Discussions: How Can We Encourage and Safeguard Voting? Monday July 25 3:00-4:30 PM Eastern/12:00-1:30 PM Pacific Host: Betty Knighton, National Issues Forums & Kettering Foundation In this session, participants will explore the fundamental concepts and practices of deliberative dialogue within the context of convening and facilitating community and campus discussions on the critically important and timely issue of encouraging and safeguarding voting. Participants will receive a wide range of issue-specific and general materials to help them in their future efforts.  The Participatory Budgeting project is launching the latest version of PB for Orgs toolkit. This event will be held on June 23rd at 1pm PT/4pm ET. About the event:
If you’re already familiar with participatory budgeting, chances are that it’s in the context of a city or government initiative. But the beauty of PB is that it can bring democratic decision-making to any organization—yours included. This is why PBP launched PB for Orgs—an opportunity for organizations to practice participatory democracy and reap the benefits of implementing a PB process, including shared decision-making power and more equitable and effective spending. We recently wrapped up our first-ever PB for Orgs cohort, which brought together folks from a wide range of non-profit organizations to learn about implementing PB. With their feedback, we rethought, revisited, revised, and are extremely excited to share with you Change From Within: A Guide to Running Participatory Budgeting in Your Organization. This launch event is for anyone interested in learning more about what a PB process could do for and look like in their non-profit, collective, or network. After a brief teach-in on PB for Orgs, you’ll learn from PBP staff and partners about their experiences with implementing PB processes and have the opportunity to ask questions about what PB in your organization could look like.  The National Civic League, an NCDD member organization, is hosting an event called Promising Practices Webinar: The ABCs of Inclusive and Equitable Engagement.
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2:00 pm ET (1:00 pm CT, 12:00 pm MT, 11:00 am PT) Webinar Description: The process of civic engagement ensures that the many parts of a community— residents, government, business, nonprofit agencies, faith-based organizations and others—work together to address public needs and desires. Whether it’s economic development, safety, health, environmental quality or other matters, civic engagement can lead to lasting solutions that best represent the values and desires of communities. However, if inclusivity and equity are not prioritized as a part of engagement efforts from the very beginning, then resulting information, solutions, and decisions will fail to benefit from or serve the entire community. During this webinar we will discuss the myriad of considerations–convener, time, location, language, etc.–that need to be addressed to ensure engagement efforts are inclusive and equitable. Registrants will also learn about strategies and best practices for equitable and inclusive engagement, with a few examples from communities successfully doing this work. Join fellow Dialogue and Discussion champions from London to Lagos, for small group and Open Space conversations that matter. NCDD member, Ron Gross shared an event called Conversation Day hosted by Conversations New York. The event takes place Saturday, June 11, 2022 from 2-4pm Eastern. Let's share what we've learned -- and our hopes moving forward! Come share your experiences, concerns and wisdom. Join us for an afternoon of bracing comradeship, mutual support, and intellectual stimulation. Discussion Topics: 1. What’s one of the most significant experiences you have had this year, in coping with the multiple crises we have endured? 2. What have you learned about yourself? 3. What are some ways that you expect or hope that our your society will be different, as we resume our lives? 4. What will you do differently going forward – personally, socially, professionally, or politically?  |
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NCDD is a community and coalition of individuals and organizations who bring people together to discuss, decide and collaborate on today's toughest issues.
© The National Coalition For Dialogue And Deliberation, Inc. All rights reserved.
© The National Coalition For Dialogue And Deliberation, Inc. All rights reserved.