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ABCD Newsletter

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 Volume 2, Issue 3

Fall/Winter 2012
In This Issue
New Staff
Internal Call Update
Edmonton Deliberations
Civil Society Initiative
NCDD Seattle
Quick Links

 

New @ ABCD

Ian Moore

ABCD welcomes Ian Moore, a recent graduate from the political science and human geography departments at UAlberta, and currently our Project Assistant for the Citizens' Panel on Edmonton's Energy and Climate Challenges.
 
Ian's experience with public involvement includes assisting with the Deliberation on Campus Sustainability, Edmonton's Food & Agriculture Strategy, The Way We Green's stakeholder process, and co-founding Sustain SU.
 
Internal Call Update

 

In June 2012 ABCD announced a call for proposals to internal members interested in leading projects that would further our research in 2013 - 2014. The Steering Committee awarded seed funding ($5000 each) for three projects to develop full proposals due at the end of November. From these proposals we will select which one(s) will go forward and receive an additional $20,000 in funding.
ABCD in the Twitterverse 
Premier Redford
Alberta Premier, Alison Redford, was at Queen's University this past Monday, Nov. 26 to speak about civic engagement. 
 
Some who were there Tweeted that ABCD was mentioned in her talk. We'll attempt to track down the transcript for a future post.

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happy holidays
 
ABCD friends and members,

 

This issue includes updates on new hires, details on our current deliberation project, and a hint of future projects.

 

We welcome our many new readers that signed up for our newsletter at the 2012 NCDD Conference in Seattle! 

 

Enjoy, share, and please send us your feedback.

  

Edmonton

Edmonton Deliberations In Progress!

 

ABCD, in partnership with the City of Edmonton and the Centre for Public Involvement, has commenced with the Citizens' Panel on Edmonton's Energy and Climate Challenges. Beginning in mid October, over 60 citizens of Edmonton were recruited to learn about climate change and energy vulnerability from balanced materials and presentations by experts.  

 

The Panel has worked together over five day-long sessions. The last, Session 6, will be held this Saturday, Dec. 1st. They will all have a say in the content of the Citizen's Panel Final Report that will outline their recommendations for the City's consideration.     

   

Panellists have heard presentations from City representatives, industry, and university experts, and have taken part in facilitated exercises to help them find common ground. With the use of iClickers panellists are able to respond to questions and show their preferences anonymously throughout the proceedings.

 

ABCD researchers have been on site to collect information from the Panelists using interview, survey, journalling, and observational research and learning methods.

 

We are very excited that this initiative is now underway. The sessions to date have been energetic and thought provoking. After two years of talks and planning we can now see our innovative deliberative democracy theories in practice.

 

Reports for Sessions 1 through 5 can be found on the ABCD website.  

Citizens' Panel Session 2
Panellists working in groups to select and prioritize values
Civil Society Plans for 2013
JClementsJill Clements
 

Aside from the continued learning in connection with the Citizens' Panel on Edmonton's Energy and Climate Challenges, ABCD is planning for possible future deliberations involving Civil Society.

  

Jill Clements was added to the ABCD team to oversee a Civil Society initiative. She is in the process of developing a concept paper for consideration by our Steering Committee. 

 

Prior to ABCD Jill was the Executive Director of the Greater Victoria Coalition to end Homelessness and spent 12 years in South Asia and Europe working with the British Red Cross and with other international development and humanitarian initiatives. 

2012 NCDD Conference, Seattle

 

In October, Susanna Haas Lyons and Gwendolyn Blue presented ABCD research at the National Coalition for Deliberation and Dialogue biennial conference. The talk helped raise awareness of the current ABCD activities and pointed out some of the challenges of incorporating deliberative dialogue on an issue as complex as climate change.

The audience included people with a great deal of experience in convening public discussions on climate change, which led to a robust group discussion. For details on the presentation please see the more detailed report posted on the ABCD website.

The Citizens' Panel, currently taking place in Edmonton was of great interest, encouraging many people to sign up for our newsletter to see how things will unfold.

For a more details on Susanna and Gwen's presentation at NCDD Seattle, please visit the ABCD website.
Gwen
Gwen Blue, ABCD Researcher

 

 

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David Kahane & Sue Cole
ABCD Executive Committee