NCDD Conference Coming to Austin

We’re counting down to The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation Conference here in Austin October 3-5, 2008 at the Renaissance Hotel (Arboretum) with half-day and full-day pre-conference sessions scheduled for October 2. This conference is packed full of opportunities to learn, listen, laugh and lunch. The conference will feature a free Conversation Cafe, a meeting of Geeks Who Dialogue, a Poetry Slam, a panel of leading Conservatives who have embraced dialogue, youth-led events, and an original musical composition created during the conference! Here are some of the featured speakers: David Campt, Race Relations & Diversity Consultant to Congressional Representatives Bill Isaacs, author of Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together Frances Moore Lappé, author of Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, & Courage in a World Gone Mad and Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Founder and President of AmericaSpeaks Here’s a sampling of the workshops being offered: How Can We Combat Climate Change with Dialogue and Participation? An International Perspective How Can WE Revitalize Democracy with D&D? What Moves You? Exploring the Spiritual and Moral Roots of Our Dialogue Practice Exploring How our Work in D&D Contributes to Social Change Embedding D&D into Government Systems Fireside Chat on Embedding Citizen’s Voices in Our Governing Systems Coming to the Table: Addressing Racial Reconciliation in America The Power of Poetry to Facilitate Change If you can’t make the full conference, here are a few options: Attend a pre-conference on Thursday, October 2 for only $95 (full day) or $50 (half day). See pre-conference schedule here. Attend the free Conversation Cafe also on Thursday October 2 in the evening. Come at 6:15 to learn how to facilitate a conversation or come at 7:30 to participate. Register for just one day for the rate of $150. Special offer for students!!!! If you are a student or know a student who should attend, don’t let the conference fee get in the way. Bluebonnet Hills is offering $300 scholarships for student registration rate to help you  attend. That means the student only pays $25! If you are a student and want to participate in this conference that will have workshops led by the Rockrose Institute’s Youth Dialogue Project, complete this application online. A very active local planning team led by Diane Miller has been working for almost a year to make sure that this is the best NCDD conference ever and put Austin on the D&D map. Still not sure if this conference is for you? Ask yourself these questions about who you are to find out… If you are an artist, an activist, a trainer, teacher, scholar, student, philosopher, community change agent, political leader, policy-maker, librarian, or just someone who believes that the world works best when we sit down and engage in meaningful dialogue, then you won’t want to miss this opportunity. If you are convinced that there are better ways for us to work on community problems than the traditional debate, vote, mandate, legislate then this conference is for you. If you envision a future in which all people-regardless of income, position, background or education-engage in lively, thoughtful, and challenging discussions about what matters to them, then you will find kindred spirits at this conference. If you would like to meet 350-400 people from around the world who are working on issues like racism, Jewish-Palestinian dialogues, political polarization, gentrification and climate change, they’ll be here in Austin in October. If any of those descriptions sound like you, then register here!

Health Care Forums at the LBJ Library

On October 7, Texas Forums will hold forums on Coping with the Cost of Health Care using the National Issues Forums discussion guide. The event will take place on the 10th floor of the LBJ Presidential Library, 2313 Red River St. Registration, refreshments, and resources will be available at 5:30 and the forum will take place from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. The LBJ Library is joining with all 12 Presidential Libraries of the National Archives and Records Administration to hold forums on health care and other topics between Labor Day and the November Election. We are pleased to be joined by some outstanding local partners in this venture who will be on hand to provide information about the state of health care in the state of Texas. Our partners include: the Center for Public Policy Priorities, Christian Life Commission, Texas Impact , and Texas Health Institute. Students in the Fielding Graduate University Certification in Dialogue, Deliberation and Community Engagement will serve as our moderators. “Hosting National Issues Forums at the Presidential Libraries is consistent with our emphasis on civic education,” Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, said.  “Presidential Libraries are public places and it is appropriate for citizens to engage in intense discussions of major public policy issues in the midst of a presidential campaign.  However, the goal should be hosting discussions which are balanced, civil in tone and fair-minded.” “Participants in a forum,” NIFI Chairman William Winter, said, “deliberate with one another, eye-to-eye, face to-face, exploring options, weighing others’ views, considering the costs and consequences of public policy decisions.  In a democracy, citizens have a responsibility to make choices about how to solve problems and forums help enrich participants’ thinking on public issues.  By offering citizens a framework for deliberative forums, NIFI helps the public take an active role in acting on public issues.”

Advice needed on NCDD goodie bag stuffing

For the upcoming NCDD Conference in Austin October 3-5, I’m doing two workshops – one on libraries and extension using dialogue, and one on the Missouri River Ecosystem Restoration Project. I am hosting a tech meeting, conducting a pre-conference with four colleagues, running a hospitality suite, sponsoring a poetry slam, videotaping events, blogging on site, and planning two tables for the marketplace. Like all of the dedicated volunteers on the Central Texas planning team, I have a crazy, crazy amount of work to do.

So how am I spending my time?

Contemplating goodie bag stuffing, of course! (Hey, it’s labor day weekend. This is about as much time off as I’ll get for the next three months.)

I’m stealing from the LBJ Library staff idea to have jelly beans at the LBJ 100 Celebration last Wednesday. (President Johnson’s gift to the Head Start kids he visited at Stonewall.)

So below are a couple of options. I need some advice. Which way to go??

Option 1

This option is very cute, but also time consuming – punching the cards and cutting and tying the raffia. It also has the added expense of the blue raffia.

Option 2

This option is in a resealable bag which is nice since people probably won’t eat 2 oz. of jelly beans at once. It’s also easier and lies flat in the bag.

I’m also looking for cheap options for jelly beans. I’ll need about 50 lbs. of jelly beans!

OK, now back to serious work – finishing uploading my photos from the LBJ 100 Celebration.

President Johnson and Hill-Burton Act

We are only nine days away from the 100th celebration of the birthday of President Johnson next Wednesday, August 27. During this countdown, I have been monitoring the important events of his life as documented by the LBJ 100th Centennial Celebration. On this day in 1964, President Johnson signed the Hill-Burton Act which provided resources to build hospitals, mental health facilities, medical and dental schools and to support the education of future doctors, nurses and dentists.

As I read his comments at the signing, I am struck by how the same issues he tried to address in 1964 are still with us in 2008.

On this day in August 1964, President Johnson signed a bill extending the Hill-Burton Act.

The President said,

We have many new hospitals today in cities that are large and small. But many of our most important hospitals are too old. The hospitals which serve more than two-thirds of our population in nearly 200 metropolitan areas are obsolete, are out of date, are desperately in need of modernization. This legislation that I am signing today will help us get started on that long overdue job. …

The Hill-Burton hospital construction program has been extended another 5 years, but Congress has also provided assistance for constructing mental health facilities, mental retardation facilities, the medical and dental schools that we need.

And Congress has helped to meet our health manpower needs by a program to overcome our critical shortage of nurses, a program to train more graduate public health personnel, and by providing assistance to students attending medical and dental and nursing schools.

We are supporting, as no nation on earth has ever supported, the strength of our medical profession. We are supporting them with modern facilities, with more and better trained manpower, and productive research in more and more fields. I believe that we are pursuing a sensible and yet a most responsible course.

Texas Forums will host forums on The Cost of Health Care on October 7, 2008 at the LBJ Library Atrium on the 10th floor from 6:00 – 8:30. We will be using the National Issues Forums discussion guide, Coping with the Cost of Health Care: How Do We Pay for What We Need? From 6:00 – 6:30 our partners will be on hand with information about health care in Texas. So far, we are partnering with the following organizations and our list is growing:

• Christian Life Commission,
• Texas Impact,
• the Center for Public Policy Priorities,
• Fielding Graduate University, and
• the Texas Health Institute

Our colleagues at the University of Houston Downtown Center for Public Deliberation will be holding forums on this same issue on September 18, 2008 giving us a glimpse into how Texans in two different communities are thinking about the cost of health care and possible remedies that they would be willing to support. This will provide talking points that our partners can use to inform the Texas Legislature about the concerns of Texans who come together to deliberate this critical issue.

On the national front, dozens of Public Policy Institutes in the National Issues Forums network and all twelve Presidential Libraries will also be hosting forums on Coping with the Cost of Health Care. The results of these forums will be reported in a national report commissioned by the Kettering Foundation and prepared by Public Agenda.

If you would like more information about these upcoming forums or about partnering with us to encourage public forums on this critical issue, contact Taylor L. Willingham at taylor [at] austin-pacific. [dot] com or leave a comment here.

President Johnson’s Favorite Cake

This is the first recipe ever posted on this site, but it’s appropriate given that it was President Johnson’s favorite cake and this is the Centennial of his birth. Cook it up on August 27th and let me know how it is. Or better yet, join me at the LBJ Library for free cake, ice cream and Bar-B-Q (probably in that order!) and the opening of the “To the Moon: The American Space Program in the 1960’s” exhibit.

German Chocolate Pound cake

1 Pkg German Sweet Chocolate
2 Cups of sugar
1 Cup of shortening (1/2 olive; ½ Crisco)
4 Eggs
2 Teaspoons vanilla
2 Teaspoons butter flavoring
1 Cup butter milk
3 Cups of sifted flour
½ Teaspoon soda
1 Teaspoon salt (light on this)

Melt chocolate over hot water. Remove and stir until cool.
Cream sugar and shortening
Add eggs and flavoring
Then butter milk
Add chocolate
Next dry ingredients with milk
Cook in angel food cake 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Johnson Daughters to Preside Over August 27 Birthday Commemoration

Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park News Release

President Johnson at the ranch he loved

Stonewall, TX – Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park invites everyone to come out to the LBJ Ranch on Wednesday, August 27 in celebration of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s life and legacy. On that date, our 36th president would have been 100 years old. In his honor, the annual wreath laying ceremony will be presented in the Johnson family cemetery on the LBJ Ranch near Stonewall. The public is invited to drive from the State Park to the ranch for this program, which will commence at approximately 10:30 a.m. Gates to the LBJ Ranch will open at 9:30 a.m. Drivers must display a permit to drive onto the ranch. Permits will be available at Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site’s Visitor Center, one mile east of Stonewall or 14 miles west of Johnson City off U.S. Highway 290, where traditional old time games and refreshments will be served all day.

President and Mrs. Johnson’s daughters, Lynda Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson, will lay the wreath and share their personal reminiscences. Colonel Jacqueline D. Van Ovost of Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, representing the sitting president, will assist in laying the wreath and offer remarks suitable to the occasion.

Texas White House

Immediately following the ceremony, the public is invited to enter the famed Texas White House for the first time to view the newly restored presidential office and enjoy National Park Service tours of the room and the grounds. Tours will begin in the historic airplane hangar, a short walk from the house and grounds. Additional rooms in the house will be furnished and opened to the public on future dates.

Lynda Robb, the elder Johnson daughter, is a self-proclaimed “professional volunteer.” She is currently President of the National Home Library Foundation and Chair Emerita of Reading is Fundamental. She has previously served as co-vice chair of America’s Promise, a board member of Ford’s Theatre, Chair of the President’s Advisory Committee for Women, a member of the selection board of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, Chair of the Virginia Women’s Cultural History Project, Chair of the Virginia Task Force on Infant Mortality and Commissioner on the National Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality. She is a graduate of the University of Texas and recipient of numerous civic awards and honors. She and her husband, former Virginia Governor and U.S. Senator Charles Robb, have three daughters and two grandchildren.

Luci Baines Johnson is Chairman of the Board of LBJ Asset Management Partners, Inc. and Vice President of BusinessSuites, a nationwide office business service center. Her diverse community commitments include board member of the LBJ Family Foundation, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation. She is a co-founder of Children’s Hospital Grandparent’s Club, a board member of SafePlace, a Life Trustee of Children’s Hospital Foundation of Austin and the Seton Fund, a member of the advisory board of Trinity School, and a former member of the advisory boards of the University Of Texas School Of Nursing and the School of Communication. She has received numerous awards including the YWCA of Greater Austin–Women of the Year 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award, the SafePlace 2006 Community Hero Award, the 2005 Girls Scouts of America’s Women of Distinction Award, 1997 Top 25 Women Owned Businesses by the Austin Business Journal and the Distinguished Service Award from Georgetown University School of Nursing (1996). She is married to Ian Turpin and has four grown children, one stepson, and ten grandchildren.

Colonel Jacqueline D. Van Ovost is the Commander of the 12th Flying Training Wing (FTW), Randolph Air Force Base. The wing maintains approximately 150 aircraft and includes an infrastructure worth more than $3.1 billion for a work force of about 8,000 active duty, reservists and civilians. The 12th FTW hosts Headquarters Air Education and Training Command, 19th Air Force, Air Force Personnel Center, Air Force Recruiting Service and 30 other tenant units, while supporting an estimated 51,000 retirees. Colonel Van Ovost is the recipient of the Defense Superior Service Medal, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters, Aerial Achievement Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, and Air Force Commendation Medal.

President Johnson’s birth date has been celebrated with a wreath laying since August 27, 1973. He died on January 22, 1973, and the National Park Service has been conducting public tours using a bus fleet since then. In contrast to the park ranger-guide bus tours of the LBJ Ranch, this year the public will access the ranch in their own vehicles. The ranch will be open for touring by private vehicle beginning August 27 and continuing until September 30, when this vehicular access will be evaluated.

For further information or driving directions, and for additional upcoming events during 2008, Lyndon B. Johnson’s Centennial Year, please call (830) 868-7128, ext. 231 or 244, or log on to www.lbj100.org.

Certification in Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement

Fielding Graduate University’s fifth graduate level Certificate Program in Dialogue, Deliberation, and Public Engagement is being held this fall (August 15, 2008 through January 15, 2009). I completed this program the very first year it was held and was very impressed with the instructors, the reading materials and my fellow students. From what I hear, it has only gotten better and better!

This distinctive program focuses on recent innovations in dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement featuring outstanding faculty who have played key roles in developing these approaches. It strives for the development of mastery in our practice of dialogue and deliberation.

Designed and delivered in collaboration with The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, the Kettering Foundation, and the Public Dialogue Consortium, the program features an outstanding faculty of scholar-practitioners (Hal Saunders, Barnett Pearce, Phil Stewart, Keith Melville, Jan Elliott, John Dedrick, Linda Blong, Kath Fisher). It also features guests in phone dialogues who are widely recognized scholars and innovative practitioners. Previous featured guests have included Carolyn Lukensmeyer (AmericaSpeaks), Juanita Brown (World Cafe), Martha McCoy (Everyday Democracy), Bob Stains (Public Conversations Project), Shawn Spano, Frank Barrett, Joe Peters, Janette Hartz-Karp and Jim Fishkin (Center for Deliberative Democracy).

Come join us and learn with others from different backgrounds and countries who share your energy and enthusiasm for this work. Learn in two face-to-face workshops, online, and on the phone with world renowned practitioners. To help make it easy for those attending the NCDD conference, the first face-to-face workshop will take place in Austin, Texas immediately after the conference.

Here’s what a few previous participants had to say:

• “The DDPE certificate program is exceptional.”
• “Altogether an outstanding experience.”
• “The Program was extremely valuable.”
• “This program has had, and continues to have, a huge impact on my thinking and the way I do my work.”

For a course outline and to check out other testimonials, see www.fielding.edu/hod/ce/dialog/index.html. You can also check on the website to see when the next informational conference call is being held.

Tuition is US $3490 if you register by the early bird deadline of July 15, 2008. NCDD members’ tuition is only US $3,140 (10% discount). Registrants enrolling after July 15 will be charged US $3,740 ($3,390 for NCDD members). Register at https://www.fielding.edu/forms/ce/ce_registration.htm.

National Issues Forums and Presidential Libraries Launch Joint Project

On Sunday June 29, I will be traveling to Dayton, OH for a meeting with representatives of all 12 Presidential Libraries. We will be planning a series of National Issues Forums to take place in each of our libraries prior to the November election. Texas Forums will be hosting forums on Health Care at the LBJ Library on September 17 from 6-8 p.m.

Below is the press release for this upcoming meeting.

From: Bob Daley, Diane Eisenberg, Mary Kring

Some 30 Representatives of the nation’s Presidential Libraries and the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) will gather in Dayton, Ohio, June 30-July 1 for a workshop designed to prepare for a series of forums in all 12 Presidential Libraries between Labor Day and Election Day this fall.

The workshop will introduce representatives of the Presidential Libraries to the philosophy of public deliberation and plans developed by the libraries’ representatives and NIF coordinators for the fall forums will be shared.

During the run-up to the presidential election, each of the Presidential Libraries will host a series of three forums with some Libraries hosting additional forums. Forums will be on a range of topics including health care, immigration, federal debt, education and energy.

All forums are free and open to the public.

“Hosting National Issues Forums at the Presidential Libraries is consistent with our emphasis on civic education,” Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, said. “Presidential Libraries are public places and it is appropriate for citizens to engage in discussions about major public policy issues in the midst of a presidential campaign.”

“Participants in a forum,” NIFI chairman William Winter, said, “deliberate with one another eye-to-eye, face-to-face, exploring options, weighing others’ views, considering the costs and consequences of public policy decisions. In a democracy, citizens have a responsibility to make choices about how to solve problems and forums help enrich participants’ thinking on public issues. By offering citizens a framework for deliberative forums, NIFI helps the public take an active role in acting on public issues.”

The Presidential Libraries of the National Archives are not libraries in the usual sense. They are archives and museums, bringing together in one place the documents and artifacts of a President and his administration and presenting them to the public for study and discussion without regard for political considerations or affiliations. Presidential Libraries and Museums, like their holdings, belong to the American people. They promote understanding of the presidency and the American experience, preserving and providing access to historical materials, support research, and create interactive programs and exhibits that educate and inspire.

NIFI is a 25-year-old nonpartisan, nationwide network of locally sponsored forums for the consideration of public policy issues. Forums are rooted in the simple notion that citizens need to come together to reason and talk -to deliberate about common problems.

Senators McCain and Obama Invited to Town Hall Meetings

For Immediate Release: June 12, 2008

* * * MEDIA ADVISORY * * *

SENATORS MCCAIN AND OBAMA
INVITED TO TOWN HALL MEETINGS
AT JOHNSON AND REAGAN
PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES

AUSTIN, TX and SIMI VALLEY, CA – Mrs. Ronald Reagan, Lynda Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson have extended invitations to Senators John McCain and Barack Obama to speak at Town Hall meetings in July. These non-partisan meetings, to be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California and at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin, will provide voters with an opportunity to hear the presumptive nominees discuss the issues together prior to the two National Conventions later this summer and the start of the traditional series of Presidential Debates in September and October of this year.

“The Reagan Library is honored to participate in this historic bi-partisan dialogue,” said former first lady Nancy Reagan. “Ronnie always believed in the importance of face-to-face discussion on key issues that affect the American people.”

“My father wanted the LBJ Library & Museum to always be a place where leaders of the day would come and deliberate the great issues of our time in order that we might better serve future generations,” said Luci Baines Johnson.

Lynda Johnson Robb stated, “In the bipartisan spirit of the presidential library system, my father would be proud of this opportunity for Americans to embrace a Scripture verse he quoted often, ‘Come, now, let us reason together.’”

These forums will be open to all media outlets. A respected, independent polling organization will be brought on to ensure that the audiences will represent a cross-section of the American people. Candidates will be given equal access to address key issues through audience questions.

More details will be announced at a later date.

About the Johnson Library:

The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum houses 45 million pages of historical documents, 650,000 photos, one million feet of motion picture film, and 5,000 hours of recording from the public career of Lyndon Baines Johnson and those of his associates. The museum provides year-round public viewing of its permanent historical and cultural exhibits. President Johnson insisted that the library bearing his name exist for the people to visit free of charge.

About the Reagan Library:

Located in Simi Valley, California, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library houses over 55 million pages of Gubernatorial, Presidential and personal papers, an extraordinary collection of photographs and film, and over 100,000 gifts and artifacts chronicling the lives of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Home to Air Force One 27000, it now also serves as the final resting place of America’s 40th President.

Media Contacts:

Melissa Giller
Ronald Reagan Foundation
(805) 390-6405
mgiller@reaganfoundation.org

Anne Wheeler
Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation
(512) 731-2351
awheeler@lbjlib.utexas.edu
afox1@austin.rr.com

Central Texans Address Key Challenges to the D&D Field

One of the objectives of the Central Texas D&D Summit held on April 19 at the LBJ Library was to:

a) Identify specific local D&D efforts that could be used as examples of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation’s (NCDD) ‘Seven Challenges Facing the D&D Community’;
b) Members of the NCDD_CenTX team (to be determined) will then document these examples (according to a format yet to be determined) for presentation at the conference.

While we made great headway toward our other objectives to build a Central Texas Network, we didn’t specifically tie our practices and learning back to the seven challenges. NCDD and Civic Evolution have been hosting an online dialogue about these seven challenges, but that doesn’t satisfy our objective to draw on the expertise of the Central Texas region.

If you are a Central Texas D&D practitioner or scholar and have struggled with these issues, please let us know what you are learning and how we can pool our resources to tackle these challenges.

Here are the challenges:

Bringing D&D skills and perspectives into mainstream society and institutions

Challenge A: Embedding D&D in Systems

Embedding D&D in systems (governance, schools, organizations, etc.) – as opposed to just putting our energy into isolated D&D events and programs.

Challenge B: Framing this Work in an Accessible Way

Articulating the importance of this work to those beyond our immediate community (making D&D compelling to people of all income levels, education levels, and political perspectives, etc.) – and helping equip members of the D&D community to talk about this work in an accessible, effective way.

Challenge C: Proving This Stuff Works

Proving to power-holders (public officials, funders, CEOs) that D&D really does work, and creating/propagating quality evaluation tools for practitioners to use that can feed into research. In the private sector, demonstrating how D&D contributes to the bottom line.

Challenge D: D&D to Action and Policy Change

Strengthening the link between D&D and community action and policy change.

Strengthening the D&D community

Challenge E: Walking Our Talk

Addressing issues of oppression and bias within the D&D community.

Challenge F: Regional D&D Networks

Fostering the development of regional D&D networks and gatherings.

Challenge G: International Connections

Finding ways to readily learn from what D&D innovators outside of the U.S. are doing.

So what have we learned about these important challenges?