Issue #14: May, 2009
 Greetings!Hello! Welcome to this month's TableTalk!
As always, there's a lot happening in the World Cafe community; read on for details of World Cafes happening in Europe, Asia, Russia and the U.S. One of the ways we share our news with each other is through this newsletter, so a heart-felt thank you to everyone who contributed to this issue - if you don't see your own story featured here, drop a line and tell us about it!
Some of the most exciting news this month is that the initial design for the new World Cafe Community platform is finished and we're are about to do a "soft launch" with a small "beta team" that will test it out and get it nice and cozy for the rest of us. We're really looking forward to sharing it with you!Another crucial bit of news that we want to let everyone know about right away is an important initiative coming from a collaboration of World Cafe practitioners, led by Christine Whitney Sanchez. This initiative is in response to a call for citizen participation from US President Barack Obama. We're inviting the World Cafe community to vote for this initiative (which is backed by the World Cafe Community Foundation and other dialogue/social change groups like the NCDD). There have been some extraordinary ideas submitted and even those who can't vote may find them interesting.
Finally, we want to extend our special gratitude to those who have contributed financially to the World Cafe recently. These personal financial donations and "give-backs" coming from people who're being paid for World Cafe work all over the world ensure the health of the small but vital infrastructure that helps the gift of the World Café continue to travel around the world.
Thank you so much! Warm Wishes,
 Amy Lenzo, Editorand the World Café Community Foundation
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| Great Dates
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Every Friday Night
World Cafe at Starbucks
St Petersburg, Florida
May 19 - June 2
Authentic Leadership
in Action
Victoria, British Columbia
June 4-6
Preparation for Designing & Hosting World Cafes
Atlanta, Georgia
June 6
Fair Trade Conference
with World Café
Trinity College, Carmarthen
June 12 & 13
Dialogue in/as Action
New York City, NY
June 21 - 27
Shambhala Summer Institute
Halifax, Nova Scotia
June 28 - July 1
Art of Hosting and Convening Conversations
Gold Lake Mountain, Colorado
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Send us your World Cafe event dates!
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"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have
come alive."
~ Howard Thurman
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A Great Opportunity - But We Must Participate before May 28th!
by Juanita Brown, co-founder, of the World Café
On January 21st, President Obama issued the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, calling for an unprecedented level of openness and citizen participation in national affairs. In the memorandum, the President outlined three principles for promoting open government - transparency, participation, and collaboration. Now the President, through the new Office of Public Engagement, is calling on each of us to help shape how that commitment is fulfilled.
There is a unique opportunity before us to both offer ideas and to vote on those ideas for the citizen engagement you think seem promising, including one we've submitted called Promise USA.
A group of World Café stewards have put in a proposal for an initiative called Promise USA. Promise USA seeks to engage a series of intergenerational, transpartisan conversations in cities and towns across the nation, hosted by the Obamas, on critical issues for our common future. This national network of conversations has the potential to involve many World Café and other dialogue hosts across the nation, and is being supported in collaboration with the National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD).
The online brainstorming and voting is only open from May 21st to 28th, 2009, so please vote today.
Nancy Margulies, whose wonderful art work graces the World Café website and who was an originator of the Promise USA idea, has an additional proposal in for Using Visual Recording and Mini-Animations to Convey Complex Ideas.
We'd appreciate your reading the full proposals and consider voting, both for Promise USA as well as for other ideas you think are exciting. We'd also be grateful for any help you can provide in getting the word to your networks as soon as possible regarding this opportunity to help shape how our democracy can reach its full potential, as voting ends on May 28th.
We do not know if global citizens outside of the US can vote, but we encourage you to go to the site (it's very educational!) to review the ideas being presented and to see if you can register your vote. Whether or not that's possible, you may discover ideas that can be useful in your own national contexts.
This invitation from the Obama administration may signal a turning point in our capacity to constructively engage the collective intelligence of our communities and our nation around questions that matter!
With warm regards and best wishes,
Juanita
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What Else is New?
Several heart-warming stories have come in lately about the World Cafe being used in schools with young children. Read this one from teachers at the Explorer Elementary Charter School in San Diego.
 The World Cafe book has now been translated into Korean!
Perhaps as a result, we've received some wonderful correspondence from new World Cafe hosts in Korea, including this story of a "Space Cafe" from David Tamoschus.
From Europe there are stories of a World Cafe with German Mayors, and one called Coach for Peace that was offered in the Geneva region on the border between Switzerland and France. It has some fabulous visuals - photography, video, doodles and drawings.
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The World Cafe Community Foundation
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