The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD.org) is a community of innovators who bring people together across divides to discuss, decide, and collaborate on today’s toughest issues. NCDD serves as a gathering place, a resource clearinghouse, a news source and a facilitative leader for this vital community of practice.
If you’re interested in dialogue, deliberation and public engagement, hopefully you’re familiar with NCDD and our amazing network, Resource Center and Community News blog. Here are ten things you SHOULD know about that may have slipped your notice…
1. NCDD’s Beginner’s Guide
Our Resource Center can be a bit overwhelming, with over 2,600 resources on dialogue & deliberation now indexed. Those new to the site or newer to this work should start at the Beginner’s Guide at www.ncdd.org/rc/beginners-guide.
2. The “Participatory Practices” Category
Here you’ll find detailed, useful descriptions of more than 150 tools and methods used for dialogue and deliberation.
3. The Discounts Page
See all of the discounts we’ve negotiated for supporting NCDD members on the best training programs, workshops and courses in our field, at www.ncdd.org/discounts.
4. Our Quick Reference Glossary
At www.ncdd.org/rc/glossary, you’ll find concise definitions of more than 150 terms used in our field: discourse, e-democracy, convenor, framing, public engagement, social capital, civic infrastructure, civility, systems thinking…
5. The Main NCDD Discussion List
NCDD’s main listserv is a popular resource for more than 1,200 practitioners, scholars, activists and students of dialogue and deliberation. It is a valued source for advice, inspiration, support, and food-for-thought to many in the field. Just like dialogue and deliberation, it’s one of those things you have to experience before you understand just how amazing it is!
6. Listserv Archives
Archives of the NCDD Discussion list are available online, going back as far as March 2006.
7. How-to-Post Page
There are a whole slew of ways to share relevant news, resources and thought pieces with the dialogue & deliberation community through NCDD. This page provides a valuable how-to guide — though we strongly encourage you to become a member (even better, a supporting member) if you’re going to use NCDD’s resources to spread the word about your projects.
8. The “Gems” Tags
We recently added new tags for gems to both the NCDD Community blog and the Resource Center — so you can quickly find the absolute best stories, opportunities, and resources by simply selecting a tag. See the blog gems here, and the Resource Center gems here.
9. The Making-A-Living Listserv
If you are looking for work in dialogue & deliberation, we recommend you subscribe to this list. We now use this list to primarily share job openings we hear about in the field. Subscribe by sending a blank message to this email address.
10. NCDD’s Social Media Page
Here’s your guide to what NCDD is up to on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Flicker, and more — and how you can get involved. See, for instance, how we’ve taken the time to create public playlists in YouTube to help you find videos about dialogue and deliberation, demonstrating graphic facilitation, covering online D&D techniques, and so on.
GovLoop members should also know that the absolute lowest cost to register for the (always innovative) NCDD 2012 conference this October 12-14 in Seattle ends July 1 !!!
Quoting: At NCDD 2012 in Seattle, we want to focus participants’ attention on the importance of building a more robust civic infrastructure — in our practice, our communities and our country. By “civic infrastructure,” we’re talking about the foundational building blocks needed to strengthen our vibrant democracy: institutions and public agencies that utilize participatory processes for decision-making, great places and online spaces where citizens can gather, a cadre of trained moderators, and strong networks that can mobilize to solve problems.
Please visit this link to learn more and to register. See you in Seattle!