Plans are underway for NCDD’s 6th National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation, to be held October 17-19, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Reston in the DC Metro Area. NCDD conferences bring together 400+ of the most active, thoughtful, and influential people involved in public engagement and group process work across the U.S. and Canada (plusRead… Read more »
Whether we participate in them or not, online comments sections of news and opinion websites are a venue for great dialogue to take place, but too often, they are vitriolic and unproductive. That’s why we wanted to share a great article from the Illuminations blog run by Journalism That Matters featuring thoughts from a numberRead… Read more »
Our friends with the American Democracy Project have been busy recently, and we wanted to make sure to update our NCDD members on a few important things they have coming up – namely, two civic engagement award nomination processes and the 2014 ADP national meeting. First, we want to let our higher education-based members knowRead… Read more »
In principle, different ways of deciding should be applied to different types of decisions. Deciding how things should be — planning — is well-suited to a flat decision-making structure; that is, where several decision makers are equal and all fully participate. Some call this consensus decision making. As a rule, the longer and wider theRead… Read more »
We wanted to share this thought-provoking commentary on a recent study on health care opinions conducted by our friends and partners at Public Agenda and the Kettering Foundation. As our nation continues to grapple with reforming our health care system, we in the engagement community have a special role to play in helping our communitiesRead… Read more »
Are you looking for creative and effective ways to keep people engaged in your engagement projects? Then we have something you might want to look into. We have been following the development of something called Textizen – an ingenious, text-based platform designed to help facilitate public engagement that emerged from a collaboration between Code forRead… Read more »
As we reflected this week on the meaning of Martin Luther King’s example for our work, we took quite a bit of inspiration from one of the stories shared in the most recent newsletter from our partners at Everyday Democracy that we wanted to share with you. The story of this Virginia town’s struggle toRead… Read more »
AmericaSpeaks’ executive director, Steve Brigham, added a heartbreaking announcement to the organization’s website this afternoon. AMERICASPEAKS – IN HONOR OF OUR 19 YEAR LEGACY AmericaSpeaks has an unparalleled record of organizing more than 100 major citizen deliberations in all 50 states. Because of this remarkable history that we’ve had, it makes me very sad toRead… Read more »
We invite NCDD members to start the New Year off by taking the opportunity to contribute to the conversation on youth engagement. The good people at the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) are hosting a free 5-week online seminar that will invite young people, youth workers, the broader civicRead… Read more »
We recently read a fascinating piece from our friends at Public Agenda, an NCDD member organization, covering the highlights from their recent Policy Breakfast event. The reflections from former Sen. Bill Bradley have interesting and provocative insights for the state of dialogue in Washington, D.C., and we encourage you to give them a read. YouRead… Read more »