(Hyannis, MA for a staff retreat) Here are some bulletins from the National Coalition on Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium:

NCDD’s Beginner’s Guide
The NCDD’s Resource Center offers “2,600 resources on dialogue & deliberation.” As they note, that volume can be “a bit overwhelming.” Thus they offer a new Beginner’s Guide.

NCDD’s  “Participatory Practices” compendium
This site is a portal to “descriptions of more than 150 tools and methods used for dialogue and deliberation.”

DDC’s “Planning for Stronger Local Democracy” workshop, July 19
Sign up for this preconference session before the “Frontiers of Democracy” conference, which I’m co-organizing. The presentations, panels, small-group discussion, and a home movie will help participants think through: the strengths and weaknesses of how public participation happens in their community; the key questions they need to ask about the history and patterns of engagement; the building blocks they might consider in their planning for stronger local democracy; and what a number of national associations are doing to inspire, learn about, and support local democracy-strengthening work. Among the people who will be sharing their insights and updates at the workshop will be: Carolyne Abdullah, Everyday Democracy; Kristen Cambell, National Conference on Citizenship; Mike Huggins, National Civic League; Eric Gordon, Engagement Game Lab; Linda Nguyen, Alliance for Children and Families; and Wendy Willis, Policy Consensus Initiative.

John Gaventa, OBE
Our colleague John Gaventa, now at the Coady International Institute in Nova Scotia and a former Tisch Research Prize winner (among has many other awards) has been named by Queen Elizabeth to the Order of the British Empire. By the way, John will be speaking to the “Frontiers” conference by remote video.