Needs Assessment for NCDD 2004
As of 5/12/04, 119 people completed the needs assessment.
1. How many years have you been involved in dialogue and/or deliberation?
Average of 10 years’ experience.
2. Did you attend the 2002 NCDD Conference?
42% attended NCDD 2002.
3. Are you or is your organization a member of NCDD?
49% are NCDD members, 33% are not; the rest aren’t sure.
4. If you were to attend the 2004 conference, how important would the following activities be to you? (Rate the following items from 1 to 5, 5 being very important, 1 being not important at all.) – These are now listed in order of rank.
Sessions focused on best practices - 4.04
Experiential dialogue or deliberation sessions (trying out a model). - 4.01
Focused networking opportunities (meeting others whose work/interests are similar to yours, or who are located in your region) - 4
Sessions focused on innovations that are new to most D&D practitioners (online dialogue & deliberation, integrating D&D with the arts, dialogue mapping, etc.) - 3.84
Sessions focused on key issues in the field (funding issues, moving from talk to action, assessing our work, etc.) - 3.81
Skill-building workshops - 3.78
Open networking opportunities (meeting your colleagues throughout the dialogue & deliberation community) - 3.75
Sessions focused on the latest research - 3.63
Movement-building sessions (where do we go from here as a community?) - 3.52
Opportunities to share my own work/learnings/techniques with other dialogue & deliberation leaders - 3.48
Speeches or presentations by key leaders in the field - 3.29
Open Space (unplanned time at the conference during which anyone can propose new topics and sessions, and participants can attend whatever interests them) - 3.24
5. To help us understand your priorities, please indicate which of the following is more important to you:
39 - Learning about numerous dialogic and deliberative processes. OR
69 - Directly and intensely experiencing a few key dialogic and deliberative processes.
43 - Increasing my skills and confidence in facilitating/organizing D&D processes. OR
69 - Increasing my knowledge about D&D methodologies, research and innovations.
62 - Leaving the conference with a sense of being part of a growing, supportive community. OR
46 - Leaving the conference knowing that shared knowledge and intention was created about where the dialogue & deliberation community is and should be heading.
6. In your opinion, how could the 2004 NCDD conference best support the growing dialogue & deliberation community?
Responses below.
7. Would you be interested in attending an intensive pre- or post-conference training session (for an additional charge) that would help you to increase your skills facilitating or organizing D&D?
54 said maybe. 35 said yes. 29 said no.
8. If you answered “yes” or “maybe” to the previous question, what particular models/organizations/techniques you would be most interested in receiving training from/in?
Responses below.
9. In order to keep the registration fees as low as possible and to be able to cover costs and provide scholarships for those who otherwise would not be able to attend, we plan to be creative with fundraising. Which of the following do you think you or your organization might be interested in?
34 - Purchasing products (T-shirts, tote bags, etc.) that feature dialogue & deliberation sayings.
30 - Designing and facilitating a pre-conference training at reduced cost (NCDD would collect participants’ fees).
28 - Participating (bidding) in a silent auction of such items as books, trainings, videos, T-shirts, etc.
26 - Paying a small fee for exhibit space.
22 - Making an in-kind donation of needed materials or services.
18 - Making a smaller donation to the conference.
17 - Selling items (books, videos, etc.) at the conference and giving a percentage of sales to NCDD.
15 - Donating items for a silent auction.
13 - Purchasing an ad in the conference handbook.
5 - Becoming an official Partner of the conference (donating $1000 or more).
2 - Co-sponsoring the conference (contributing $5,000 or more).
Responses to the Two Open-Ended Questions:
6. In your opinion, how could the 2004 NCDD conference best support the growing dialogue & deliberation community?
By expanding upon the progress made at the 2002 conference.
By encouraging thinking and working at both a regional and national level. By helping us think as a community about funding issues. By mapping the streams of work so that we each are able to see our own place in the community.
Identify a sense of shared purpose, if there is one, understanding that all us make our own unique contributions.
A nice blend of several strands--practices and models, research, etc.
Increasing experiential workshops and focused networking sections.
Follow up coordinated actions, short projects throughout the year, perhaps a newsletter to report the progress on focus groups who have continued working on things, posing successes as well as lingering obstacles or questions, just a suggestion.
By doing what the previous 6 statements said.
Supporting research on dialogue and deliberation. Helping groups and individuals know about what other groups and individuals are doing. Finding ways for levering knowledge and energy. Defining crucial issues for the movement.
Creating forums through which to explore the edges of this work--innovative approaches, new dilemmas, etc., recognizing that this work changes with the times. Also, support, rejuvenation, and wisdom shared among practitioners.
interested in praxis…how practice and theory come together, where people are looking both ways as it were.
Teaching skills, building relationships for collaborative work
"Do what you did last time. Have a great pre-event preparation.
Perhaps do some "
The conference can do so by trying to bring to the knowledge of the participants and the society at large that actual deliberation and dialogue is the one that delivers
Through rotational activities where people from other parts of the world can have easier assess to participation.
with case studies that are prepared by participants themselves
Announce a public call for papers for the conference. Last year's conference seemed to be communicated via a network of relationships. Perhaps now it is more appropriate to implement a broadly reaching marketing communications effort.
All of the above topics. In addition I would also like to see a listing of every member with address and phone # so that we can all keep in touch with each other.
By sharing other dialogue models through live discussion and examples. Also, by offering specific workshops for education personnel.
Think about ways for practitioners to collaborate with researchers. We need to identify research projects that will have both practical value and research quality.
Assist people in being known and knowing others in a meaningful way. Building relationships and connections. Producing clarity about what this movement is and how it can link with other movements fostering learning, personal growth and civic/community action and service.
The most important: to make the conference affordable. A $400+ registration fee limits participation.
Helping to clarify the key messages for the national movement. Building networks for more effective work in the field. Forwarding the cause of research into what works, best practices.
by DOING it, not by spending too much time talking about it
Continue !
I'm sure I'll be delighted with whatever is worked out. In particular, though, I want to answer
Near the beginning of the conference (or before, or after) bring together people interested in
Commit to a visible, national or international project that raises awareness, unleashed passions, and changes behaviors around some issue, etc. For example, on President's day Jimmy Carter wrote an op-ed in USA Today stating that the single greatest moral issue of our time, one that is being unaddressed by candidates in this year's election, is the growing gap between rich and poor around the world.
Have plenty of time for structured networking and meeting people in the field. One of the many wonderful things about the 2002 event was feeling close to the beating heart of a movement towards engaged democracy. it felt like a constitutional congress! And seeing the faces and talking with people I've only read about was a big part of this. Creative ways to meet and talk with people would be helpful.
It could do so by connecting us to each other, renewing our commitments, teaching us about best practices, and providing the space for critique of different ways of trying to promote dialogue and deliberation
I want to see more around racial and sexual orientation issues which were significantly absent last time.
Craig Alimo here...not sure....I think from the last conference, I helped organize a group of researchers and that group lost energy. I am curious about sustaining energy around these kids of efforts, I don't know how the other working groups faired, but am curious about 'em!
If we were able to feel connected to one another and where we could better our respective dialogue and deliberation programs.
It would be great if the participation is diverse, and represents people who know issues first-hand, and not mainly consultants, who belong to dominant cultures
Forge international associations with other D&D-like organizations. Begin talks to form an expanded global D&D community. Plan to hold our third conference outside the United States.
Mostly what you've outlined above. Chances for tangible experience of different models -- ideally with tools to help us figure out which models work best in which situations - plus focused networking so we can keep helping each other.
Please, more diversity. The 2002 conference was like a Ralph Nader campaign reunion. I like those folks, but I want a bigger tent.
Organize opportunities to observe different dialogue methods in dialogue with each other, and then analyze the strengths of each.
foster an atmosphere of listening
By focusing on evaluation tools and strategies that would produce information that would appeal to potential funders.
by simply co-creating multiple and diverse forums for individuals to self-organize....giving some specific attention to the cross-cultural considerations in D & D concepts and practices -- especially as a forum for dominant culture to explore their impact on sub-cultures (often referred to as 'minorities')
By bringing the community an ever-deepening experience over time. Not a traditional conference experience; rather the unfolding through both a large-group process with open space for networking, and space for integration/processing.
through skill-building and practical applications of the use of dialogue.
I am unaware of a dialogue & deliberation group in my area, so, to my knowledge we are at the beginning of this.
Share through a motivational speaker how to integrate deliberative dialogue into public policy and maybe open some doors to do so.
By extending its remit more extensively in its outreach to alliances in Asia Europe and Africa
Address conflict WITHIN the D&D community. At the end of the first conference there were clear divisions in the community, particularly along racial lines regarding the issue of inclusion. As D&D professionals, we should embrace opportunities to use our methods to address real and meaningful conflicts within our community. To miss these opportunities is to engage intellectual curiosity and friendly networking lacking the substance and meaning of our everyday work.
I actually think there is a disturbing broad gap between the (high) enthusiasm for dialogue and the (too low) level of knowledge around research and best practices in dialogue work.
Leaving with an effective strategy for marketing and promoting dialogue and deliberation on a national and international level.
I may have already answered this questionnaire, I can't remember. I would like to leave the conference, feeling I am not alone, my work is and will be supported and contacts with people in my area.
Help communities using these processes connect with each other and get funding to continue.
At a conference of this nature, it is expected that much of the dialogue will have an esoteric flavor. The challenge will be to find ways to ensure there are grounded elements to it where people can take away a sense of (here I go again) real connectedness. Finding a way to practice it there so that we can be less afraid to do so in the communities we are trying to serve. By the way, the last either/or question was hard because, ideally, it would be great to come away with BOTH.
The NCDD conference 2004 will be very much helpful to the growth of dialogue & deliberation community. Through this conference the participants can be known about the systematic way of dialogue and deliberation. With the help of proper & effective dialogue and deliberation a backward community can be advanced.
Opportunities for people to create new and/or find existing active projects they can take part in.
have wide selection of practical workshops e.g. framing issues for deliberation
Focus on building the movement and improving the practice.
Best practices presentations, skill building, networking - community sharing
dissemination of key elements of getting the support/attention of politicians, media and others outside the D&D community
Considering our part of the world where conflicts and diabolic suspicious has be come so imbedded in the local folks, open dialogue and deliberation by the different parties would tend the bridge the gab and allow free flowing information and that the NCDD conference seeks to equip community leaders and people in policy making positions to deal reasonably with emerging situations.
Provide opportunities for participants to learn from one another - good experiences and not so good; and get re-energized, re-inspired to keep on keeping on
Conference participants being able to walk away with immediately applicable skills and tools.
Seek to be open to and integrate all facets of this nascent
have policy makers in attendance and launch NCDD projects with participation and support of convention attendees
Creating opportunities for funding and financial support for those trained and skilled in providing this ESSENTIAL service to those in our community who are grappling with divisive, polarizing issues.
by building the rural and urban area were their is low understanding of the new way of leaving and negotiation.
Through networking of participants, which I am sure will be created without hard efforts, concrete suggestions, share of experiences and best practices. Also, a listserv should be created to keep in touch time to time and let everyone know on our common or new activities.