If you are unable to properly view this email, please click here.
Last month, the Steering Committee elected a new chair, vice chair, and treasure to lead the Network in 2010, in accordance with the Network Charter. The new officers are: Chair, John Stephens (UNC Chapel Hill, School of Government); Vice Chair, Susan Jeghelian (UMass Boston, MA Office of Dispute Resolution and Public Participation); and Treasurer, Rob McDaniel (Washington State Univ, William D. Ruckelshaus Center).
Officers’ duties are as follows:
UNCG would like to express its gratitude to the past Chair, Bob Jones (Florida State Univ, FCRC Consensus Center), who led the Network and Steering Committee in its first two years, and to John Stephens, who served as Vice Chair.
UNCG will host a get-together in conjunction with the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution's 2010 National Conference in Tucson, Arizona, on Wednesday, May 26, from 5:15 - 6:30pm at Loews Ventana Canyon, Bill's Grill. The gathering is open to current UNCG members in attendance as well as anyone interested in learning about UNCG and with some link to a college or university program that focuses on public service or community engagement. Light hors d'oeuvres will be served with a no-host bar.
Come here PCI Board member and Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker speak on collaborative governance in his community and hear updates on UNCG member projects and initiatives. In addition, several UNCG members are presenting on a variety of panels, including:
Visit the US Institute's website for more information about the conference and the full agenda.
Contact UNCG Chair John Stephens (UNC at Chapel Hill) or Sarah Giles at PCI for any questions.
The Deliberative Democracy Consortium and the Kellog Foundation have issued a new report summarizing the ways in which community organizing and deliberative democracy are converging, the remaining differences, and overarching priorities shared by both strands of active civic engagement. The report, "Creating Space for Change: Working Towards a Story of Now in Civic Engagement," is available for download via the DDC resources site. UNCG members who participated in either Kellog's Civic Engagement Learning Year or the conference convened by DDC and The Democracy Imperative called “No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative Democracy for Educators and Practitioners" will be interested in reading this report, which captures the spirit and substance of the discussions that occurred at those meetings.
In 2009, UNCG launched a Network-wide project to develop an on-line catalog of member training courses to assist federal, state, tribal and local government managers and non-governmental and corporate leaders identify where they can find training in various collaborative competencies. A committee of members, led by Steve Smutko (Ruckelshaus Institute, Univ of Wyoming) and Kirk Emerson (School of Government and Public Policy, Univ of Arizona), decided to classify the Network's training programs according to the competencies that they are designed to enhance. The draft competencies draw on a number of sources including the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Department of Interior, and the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution; professional associations, such as International City Managers Association; and university leadership development programs. The draft set divides the competencies up into five core areas:
The committee also surveyed member centers on what they currently offered for non-degree workshops, seminars, classes, webinars, and other training formats that are designed for citizens, managers, planners, practitioners, leaders, and elected officials in the public and private sectors.
Steve Smutko presented the draft competencies at the UNCG meeting in March, 2010, where members discussed the applicability of the competencies approach to developing and marketing training programs. Discussion centered on issues of consistency among university training programs (e.g., how an agency knows it can receive the same type of training from Portland State as it can from North Carolina State), and center specialization versus regional cooperation.
Most recently , several UNCG members have reached out to state, local and federal level public managers to survey their agency's training needs in collaborative problem solving, stakeholder engagement processes and conflict resolution. More than 50 organizations responded to the request, and the committee will analyze how the results of both surveys match and can inform classification of Network training offerings.
In addition, UNCG members, PCI and the Department of Interior's Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution have joined together to hold a panel on the project and to engage in discussion with attendees at the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution's 2010 National Conference later next month.
To learn more about the collaborative competencies and UNCG plans to develop an on-line training catalogue, contact Steve Smutko.
In mid April, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, and Eric Schwaab, Director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, convened a group of more than 150 members of the saltwater recreational fishing community, National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration leadership at the federal and regional levels, and state and national councils and associations at a national Saltwater Recreational Fishing Summit in Alexandria, Virginia, to begin to identify issues of concern and possible solutions.
NOAA turned to UNCG member the FCRC Consensus Center (located at Florida State University) based on their work on marine fishing issues in Florida and beyond to field a team that could work with the saltwater recreational fishing community and NOAA in designing and facilitating the national Summit process. The Summit was designed as a first step to achieving an improved relationship between the saltwater recreational fishing community and NOAA. Through assistance from FCRC Consensus Center’s team and NOAA staff roundtable moderators and recorders, the Summit participants articulated their vision of a successful future in 2020, identified and prioritized key challenges facing the saltwater recreational fishing community and NOAA in achieving that success, and generated a ranked list of prospective actions to meet the challenges. NOAA has committed to develop and implement an action plan and continue the exchange and dialogue beyond the Summit.
For more information about the Summit, visit the project website or contact FCRC Consensus Director Bob Jones or Associate Director Jeff Blair.