https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-facilitate-productive-conversations-on-public-issues-tickets-320385430447

https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ej5ay7cwd5a14e30&oseq=&c=&ch=

Graham Bodie, Listen First Project, Oxford, MS

Jamie, NCoC, New York City!

Bruce L Tow, self-employed (Boston)

Tom Hurst, Univ of MD, College Park MD

Hi all - Cheryl in Washington DC area with National Institute for Civil Discourse

John Aalto, Los Angeles- retired

Cameron, NCoC, Portland, OR!

Nancy Petitto with Civic Nebraska in Lincoln, NE

Hi all. Kent Lenci from Middle Ground School Solutions, based in Beverly, MA

Hi All! Joan Blades Living Room Conversations- Berkeley CA

Liz Joyner, The Village Square - Tallahassee FL

Morgan Lasher, Unify America — Hi from Akron, OH!

Emily Kavanagh, HS SPED Social Studies Teacher, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Annapolis, MD

Saxony Matousek, Grand Rapids MI

Hi, Grant Todd, the center for InnovativeThinking

Hi all, Kacey here from Healthy Democracy - Hello from Cusco, Peru.

Norlyn Dimmitt, Chicagoland, www.CompassionateCitizens.us

dee wernette, retired, chicago suburbs

Mizell Stewart III from USA TODAY, Aurora, Ohio

LoSprague with The Guibord Center - Religion Inside Out Los Angeles, CA

Ken White from Richmond, CA, still celebrating the 100th birthday of Ranger Betty Reid Sorkin.

Elaina Goldstein with The People in Providence, RI. Don't have links in chat can you resend? Thanks

Joe McGaunn, cancer researcher, Cambridge MA

Kaaryn McCall, iCivics (headquartered in MA, but I'm Zooming in from Baltimore, "the greatest city in America")

Roy Evritt

Bob Rees Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley

#ListenFirst Coalition website: https://www.listenfirstproject.org/listen-first-coalition

America Talks website: https://americatalks.us/

If you have any questions for our Q&A session, please drop them in the chat!

Katharine Kravetz, School of Education, American University, www.teachcommunity.org

How do you incentivize those historically disenfranchised or who otherwise might feel alienated from these kinds of political conversations to participate? Are there any accessibility measures in place to ensure inclusion of a diverse group of participants?

This year's intro video to America Talks conversations: https://youtu.be/V4pm7NU-4PA

Great presentation, Brandyn!

Thank you, @Michelle!

@Kacey, great question!

We are working hard on that

One of the ways in which we do that is through relationships

Another is structurally. We are working to provide a Spanish language option for next year.

Happy to discuss more and would be interested in your ideas and feedback

Very interesting @Brandyn, thanks for your work on that!

Bringing diverse people and organizations together in local communities to get things done: https://theharwoodinstitute.org/

Good point about the reaction of “What are they trying to sell us” vs “how can I strengthen our democracy” … People are ready to join in, have to show them we aren’t selling them anything …

The Recount was quite a thing to live through here in Tallahassee. We actually had a Florida Recount Reunion 10 years after the recount to show just how civil at least the hometown part of it was (included all the judicial players): https://tlh.villagesquare.us/event/recount/

How does America Talks approach and goals differ from the organization called AmericaSpeaks?

Who determines the discussion topics?

My favorite recollection of the recount was when journalists from all over the country had to be kicked out of their hotel rooms to make way for fans of Florida State University football coming into town for a game. Tallahassee residents welcomed the journalists into their homes at no charge to make sure they had a place to stay!

@William the discussion topics for the large annual America Talks are co-created by the people who participate in our Conversation Guide workstream. They are a diverse group including academics and practitioners. And they are broad questions which include values, issues, and this year, ideas for local projects related to the Building Civic Bridges Act. For our "spin off" events, they are determined by priority issues for coalition members.

Thank you all! Have to run!

I had forgotten about that Mizell!! It’s just such a Tallahassee story (including the football part).

Sharif - Thank you for your multilevel perspective

Thank you all so much for this presentation!

Solutions Journalism https://www.solutionsjournalism.org/

@Patricia, I'd say that AmericaSpeaks had a stronger emphasis on large-scale public deliberation as a part of policymaking and planning processes (like the New Orleans Plan after Katrina, maintaining Social Security, how to balance the federal budget, and how to redevelop Ground Zero), whereas America Talks is more focused on bridge-building in pairs (and now small groups) across political and partisan differences. Most of the AmericaSpeaks work was in-person, though they were pioneers in using online engagement (particularly for aggregating the results of simultaneous small-group sessions). But there are lots of commonalities across both approaches: good processes for bringing people together to share personal experiences, learn together, and listen with respect

Are we in a "democracy" when a Democrat is president, a "republic" when a Republican is president, and an "eco-society" when a Green is president?

It's the same thing in the US. The tribe that adopts you and gives you a name is is your tribe. Then, you live on Turtle Island, not just North America. I talk about my tribe only with indigenous people because I am not a tribal leader.

Thanks so much for elaborating! I’ll reach out to you @Brandyn

That's a great way to distinguish these two "America" projects, @matt … it is also useful to note that many public deliberations organizations (Voice of the People, Deliberations.US, the offshoot of America in One Room as two examples) are part of the #ListenFirst Coalition (which is growing every day). The #ListenFIrst Coalition is open to ANY organization with a mission focused on bridging, conversations across divides, and working toward participatory methods for "political" decision making. We invite those organizations to join, and we look to find ways to build collaborative opportunities (things that are impossible for a single organization to do on their own).

Looking forward to it @Kacey

Are you trying to sell a democracy when maybe we need an eco-society instead?

You can register for tomorrow's Circle here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-facilitate-productive-conversations-on-public-issues-tickets-320385430447

Sharif that was so well said and has been exactly our experience.

+1 @liz and @sharif - it is striking the similarity in the Twitter responses to our work from those on each of the far ends of our political spectrum

And you can register for our event on Thursday with the National Issues Forum here: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ej5ay7cwd5a14e30&oseq=&c=&ch=

Thanks NCoC team for creating this conversation and appreciation to all the speakers, Pearce, Brandyn, Sharif and Mizell

Thank you all!

Thank you for having us!

Thank you all!

Thank you!

You can register for tomorrow's Circle here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-facilitate-productive-conversations-on-public-issues-tickets-320385430447

Thank you to all the amazing partners and collaborators who made America Talks come to life!