UNCG: News from the Network — October 2009
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- 2010 UNCG Meeting: "From Reactive to Proactive"
- Report from Web Conference on Standards and Principles
- Other Events: ECR 2010 and National Student Conference on Deliberative Democracy
- Recent Publications from Members
- Resources, Tools, and Reports
2010 UNCG Meeting - From Reactive to Proactive: Implementing Collaborative Governance in Changing Times
February 28 - March 2, 2010
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, School of Government
Co-hosted by UNC's School of Government and North Carolina State University's Natural Resource Leadership Institute
Please join the members of the University Network for our annual meeting in 2010! As we focus on our theme, "From Reactive to Proactive: Implementing Collaborative Governance in Changing Times," sessions will address the new challenges our centers face, both internally and externally.
The use of collaborative approaches for addressing community issues, government services, and local and national dialogues face these current realities:
- A deep economic downturn which limits resources for large-scale collaborative work
- Government leaders often caught in a polarized political environment
- Social and demographic trends which draw people to separate activities rather than cooperative action
- Declining public resources and increased complexity of many issues [e.g., climate change, sustainable energy and good economies] require increased inter-agency, inter-governmental and inter-sectoral collaboration
- These realities pose both challenges and opportunities. Reduced resources can lead organizations to have more of an inward focus, or to seek collaboration so as to meet essential goals in new ways.
Other important changes, such as:
- the decline of newspapers as the primary source of news for opinion leaders in many communities;
- the rise of social networking; and
- initiatives to increase government transparency from the Obama Administration and democratic reform advocacy by a coalition of civil society and deliberation advocates ["Working Together to Build a Stronger Democracy"] seem to offer new opportunities, as well as challenges, for informing citizens and forming inclusive approaches to community issues.
We will begin with dinner and an opening session on Sunday, February 28th, continue with an all day meeting on Monday, March 1, and adjourn by 4pm on Tuesday, March 2. Meetings will take place at UNC Chapel Hill's School of Government and at the nearby Siena Hotel, where we are reserving a group of rooms for the rate of $74 (plus tax) per night.
Registration will be open in the coming weeks, so watch for more details in future News from the Network!
For more information, contact Sarah Giles at PCI or one of our three co-hosts, John Stephens (UNC), Mary Lou Addor (NC State), or Steve Smutko (NC State).
Notes from UNCG Web Conference on Standards and Principles
This month several members of the Network gathered around their phones and computers to discuss the UNCG effort to support and promote the accountability of UNCG members. Jill Purdy (University of Washington, affiliated with the Ruckelshaus Center) shared her work in examining accountability standards for centers themselves as organizations as well as a compilation of sets of principles for collaborative governance that groups in the field have put together. Participants discussed the benefits of the Network developing and adopting both a set of accountability standards for members as well as a broader set of principles for the field of collaborative governance. Members will continue to work on this effort at the upcoming UNCG meeting in 2010.
Summary notes from the session are available here.
Other Events
US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution National Conference
The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution of the Morris K. Udall Foundation invites you to share your knowledge at the sixth national conference, ECR2010 “Environmental Collaboration and Conflict Resolution: Evolving to Meet New Opportunities,” May 25-27, 2010, at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, in Tucson, Arizona.
The ECR2010 program planning committee expects 400 participants representing federal, state and local governments; NGO’s; tribal nations; community-based groups; environmental groups; businesses; resource managers and users, and professionals in the conflict resolution, mediation and consensus building fields.
The conference will contain sessions on three tracks: 1) policy challenges policy-makers, agency staff and ECR practitioners will face during the next decade and the role of ECR; 2) how to better engage multiple governments, parties and affected communities; and 3) new tools and technology and their applications to the field of ECR.
Up to 40 concurrent, 90-minute, sessions will be offered on both Wednesday, May 26, 2010 and Thursday, May 27, 2010. Half-day training workshops will be offered on Tuesday, May 25, 2010. Training workshops provide an opportunity for participants to enhance their skills and learn new techniques and approaches to collaborative problem solving and environmental conflict resolution.
For more information on ECR2010, please contact Conference Coordinators Pam Carlson or Tina Gargus or view information on previous conferences sponsored by the U.S. Institute and copies of the ECR2008 Conference Proceedings.
National Student Conference on Deliberative Democracy 
The David Mathews Center for Civic Life, part of the Alabama higher education system, is hosting a spin-off conference to this summer's No Better Time Conference (The Democracy Imperative / Deliberative Democracy Consortium), March 3-6, 2010 on the Gulf Coast. So far, the design includes workshops on deliberative democracy and student-organized learning exchanges. Faculty, staff, practitioners, and others interested in youth participation in a more deliberative democracy are welcome.
Contact Lane McLelland at the David Mathews Center for Civic Life for more information or sign up to receive email updates.
Publications from UNCG Members
- Sanford Jaffe and Linda Stamato, Rutgers University's Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution - "To End and Prevent Wars Between States: Negotiate, Don't Litigate" in the International Institute for Conflict Resolution and Prevention's Alternatives. Jaffe and Stamato discuss recent U.S. Supreme Court original jurisdiction cases that have ended poorly after voluminous litigation. They urge the National Governors Association to step in to help resolve the modern day wars between the states and cite UNCG centers as a resource for doing so.
- Martin Carcasson, Colorado State University's Center for Public Deliberation - "Beginning with the End in Mind: A Call for Goal-Driven Deliberative Practice." In this occasional paper, published by Public Agenda's Center for Advances in Public Engagement, Carcasson presents a framework to help practitioners systematically consider both their short-term and long-term goals and the strategies that will set them up for success.
Resources, Tools, and Reports
- 2009 Higher Education Exchange essay - "Moving Towards a Civic Mission: The Relevance of Universities in Natural Resource and Environmental Policy" by Matthew McKinney (University of Montana's Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy)
- "Working Together to Strengthen Our Nation's Democracy: Ten Recommendations" - Report from the second conference on "Strengthening our Nation's Democracy" lays out recommendations for both the Administration and the democracy reform movement itself
- Free video tool from the New England Environmental Finance Center at the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School of Public Service - Growing Together: Consensus Building, Smart Growth, and Community Change (stream the video for free on your computer)
Join PCI on the Web!
PCI has created spaces on the web for those interested in or working in the field of collaborative governance to share information and resources and network with one another. You can now find PCI on Facebook, follow our feed on Twitter, or watch our videos on YouTube. For members of the University Network for Collaborative Governance, join the UNCG group on LinkedIn.