Sandy Heierbacher <sandy@THATAWAY.ORG> wrote:

Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:52:28 -0500
From: Sandy Heierbacher <sandy@THATAWAY.ORG>
Subject: [NCDD-DISCUSSION] need your help identifying conservatives who support D&D
To: NCDD-DISCUSSION@LISTS.THATAWAY.ORG

Hi, all!  Susan Clark and Jacob Hess - two members of the 2008 NCDD conference planning team - would really like your help with something.  If you have feedback or ideas for them, please submit a comment on the blog post about this at www.thataway.org/events/?p=42

 

Dear NCDD community,

Among the many preparations for the upcoming NCDD conference in Austin, Sandy has asked a few of us to brainstorm and move forward plans to increase the participation of conservatives at the conference and also to facilitate liberal-conservative dialogue. Given our track record for attracting conservatives to past conferences, we need your help as we explore ways of involving more conservative dialogue practitioners – and potential practitioners.

 

Some of our main ideas to date:

 Identify and make visible dialogue projects that include conservative leadership – and/or explicit bi-partisan leadership.

 Plan a plenary session at the conference that provides a forum to address increasing polarization in the media and the need for dialogue between people with traditionally “liberal” and “conservatives” views.

 Identify and reach out to specific conservatives who are or could be interested in the work of NCDD.

One workshop idea is to use evaluation findings from the liberal/conservative dialogue course at the University of Illinois as a stepping off point for a discussion of how to “frame” dialogue in a way that avoids inadvertent cues that would turn off conservatives.  And we thought you might enjoy reading this student’s quote about the class:

“Before this class, I went through the logic of conservatives and would think, "They have to be crazy!"  From this experience, it's great to know half of the world is not nuts.  You don't get this on TV—they're goofy on both sides there.   But from this class, I better understand now the conservative logic; I may not agree, but it makes more sense.” 

We send this note in hopes of tapping into your collective NCDD wisdom.  We’d love your suggestions on specific projects to highlight (in workshops, or as something to receive an NCDD award) and/or practitioners or community leaders who should be invited to the conference.  Plus we welcome any other suggestions you have on this issue.

With wishes for a happy new year,

Susan Clark, Common Knowledge

Jacob Hess, ABD, Univ. of Illinios