I’m at the University of New Hampshire for a conference entitled “No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative Democracy for Educators and Practitioners.” By my unofficial count, more than 200 people [actually, 270] have convened here: college educators, grassroots community organizers, and scholars. The sponsors are the Deliberative Democracy Consortium and The Democracy Imperative, two organizations whose boards I serve on. We’re just starting but I am very excited by the group gathered here–its sheer size (considering that people had to pay their own way to get here) and its strength. Ten years ago, an open meeting with this framework would have drawn a much smaller and less experienced crowd.