November 2008

In this Issue

• Season’s Greetings
• President’s Message
• Wild Rose sponsored Certificate Training Dates
• Wild Rose Café – What you missed
• New Training Options Added to Website
• Job Posted to Member’s Only Site
• Membership Update
• Lunchtime Webinar Series: Future Perfect Thinking

Wishing you good times, good friends
and a world of holiday happiness throughout the coming year.

The holiday season is an important time to come together to celebrate what we have, the people who are dear to us, and the hope of a safe and peaceful future. The Wild Rose Board of IAP2 would like to take this time to wish everyone the best of the holiday season. May you share the happiness of the season with family and friends. 

President’s Message

Submitted by Deborah Eastick, President

This is one of my favourite times of year. It begins with gratitude at Thanksgiving, moves through the peace and promise of Christmas, and the cycle begins again with the hope of the New Year. It is a time to reflect and to pause long enough to absorb peace, evaluate the promises of the year ending, and envision with hope the potential embodied in the year to come.

As you probably know, my term as Wild Rose president is also nearing its end. As I reflect on the years spent in various capacities on the WR Board, I am especially grateful for the experience, the relationships, and the opportunities to grow and learn about my participatory practice as the chapter has grown and evolved. In those years Wild Rose has more than doubled in membership, hosted three signature events and one international conference, sponsored an IAP2 Training Academy, put hundreds of practitioners through the IAP2 training certificate modules, supported the development of Alberta-based trainers, and sent five of our best to the International Board as directors. We have invested our funds in local events and services, non-certificate training, a chapter website and technology-enabled participation. We have provided significant financial support for IAP2 initiatives from conferences, to the establishment of chapters in developing nations like Ghana enabling participation of those members in IAP2 events. We have provided expertise, tools, and moral support to the Australasia Affiliate and chapters around the world that struggle to realize their potential.

But I am most profoundly grateful for you, the WR membership. I am inspired at every turn by your commitment to the practice; by the generosity with which you share what you’ve learned; and by your compassion for the people who enjoy greater and more meaningful participation as a result of your efforts. You are the heart and the soul of Wild Rose and the reason that we continue to be the very best.

As we wrap up the year and look to the future, I encourage you to extend the same support to the current Wild Rose Board and those of the future. Better yet, I invite you to think about taking your practice to the next level and actually join the Board. As a WR Board director you will, for the cost of only your time, get to meet eight times a year with an incredibly wise, funny, experienced group of practitioners. You will learn about yourself and your practice in a larger context and make a real and tangible difference to so many. You will make lifelong friends and be able to count yourself a part of an amazing chapter and write history as you go.

So as I take my own practice to the next level as a director of the IAP2 Board, I extend to you all a wish of peace. May Peace flow through all your endeavours, softening hearts and opening minds so that the promises of participation are fully realized. I leave you with one of my favourite quotes on the nature of hope from Vaclav Havel, poet, playwright and first President of the Czech Republic:

• Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation.
  
• Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.
  
• Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is.
  
• Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. 

Wild Rose sponsored Certificate Training Dates

Submitted by Ruth Klinkhammer, Training

The next Certificate Training Program offered by the Wild Rose Chapter will be held in Calgary from January 19-23, 2009:

• Planning for Effective Public Participation (Pre-requisite for the other two courses) - January 19-20
• Communications for Effective Public Participation - January 21
• Techniques for Effective Public Participation - January 22-23

Register now

Each course will be held at the Best Western Village Park Inn (1804 Crowchild Trail NW, Calgary) and will run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a complimentary continental breakfast at 8:00 a.m. A block of rooms have been reserved under “IAP2”. Participants MUST book your hotel room before Dec. 22 to get the rate IAP2 of $114/night. Contact the hotel at 1-800-937-8376 .

For more information contact the Wild Rose Training Director, Ruth Klinkhammer at r.klinkhammer@ucalgary.ca 

Wild Rose Café – What you missed

Submitted by Ruth Klinkhammer, Training

Outrage and grief in stakeholders and the general public were discussed at length during the first Wild Rose Café.

About 25 people attended the November 25 Café at the Unicorn Pub. Speaking were Mishka Lysack, assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary, and Doug Ford, long time public consultation practitioner and principal at Communica. Moderating was Lonny Gabinet, an experienced facilitator and director of Gabinet and Associates.

Lysack began by guiding the group through a powerful visualization exercise in which he asked them to pinpoint their favorite natural place. He then asked attendees what their worlds would be like if their favorite natural space was gone.

Drawing on the work of noted biologist E.O. Wilson, Lysack introduced the concept of biophilial – the theory that there is an instinctive bond between humans and the natural world. Lysack believes that as humans witness the demise of the world in the face of climate change and development, they are developing a profound sense of grief and of guilt.

He also contends these feelings are not restricted to adults. “Our kids are aware of these changes and at some level there is a sense of disturbance (in them).”

Doug Ford spoke about the increasing anger he sees in the field.

“What drives outrage? The mall, the sour gas plant, the transmission line – they are no longer seen to be of benefit to all,” said Ford adding, “What is important? Sustainability, predictability and accountability.”

There are several common triggers that push people over the edge and into the realm of outrage. One, said Ford, is the cumulative impact of development. A landowner will only watch for so long as his land is invaded by pipelines, then wells, then the expansion of roads.

“At some point, it just becomes overwhelming,” said Ford.

Gabinet deftly led the group through a café that was inclusive and engaging. Participants shared experiences. They talked to each other. They asked questions of the presenters and Lysack and Ford posed questions to each other and the audience. The result was a rich learning experience for participants and for the speakers.

The next Wild Rose Café will be offered after Christmas. Stay tuned for the date.

New Training Options Added to Website

Submitted by Brenda Walton, Webmaster

We’ve added some new training options to our website. They are not sponsored by the Wild Rose Chapter, but may be of interest to our members. Check them out at: http://www.iap2wildrosechapter.org/iap2_certificate_program/other_upcoming_training

Job Posted to Member’s Only Site

Submitted by Brenda Walton, Webmaster

We are excited that member companies are starting to use the job posting feature of our Member’s Only Site. Log on and check out the recent posting.

Membership Update

Submitted by Paula J. Kupchak Hall, Director at Large

Through 2008, IAP2 Wild Rose Chapter was thrilled to welcome 32 new members! The chapter grew from 209 active members in January to 241 today! It is particularly exciting to see so many members from different fields and sects. IAP2 is truly a group of diverse practitioners coming together to share best practices, learn from each other, and grow the profession of public participation. Welcome new members!

Lunchtime Webinar Series: Future Perfect Thinking

Submitted by Blair McNaughton, Technology

Date: Thursday February 19, 2009
Time: 12:15 – 1:00 pm

Vision exercises are part of creating the future; Future Perfect Thinking is bringing the future into the present. Originally an idea by Stan Davies who first published his book Future Perfect in 1987, along with ideas around scenario planning have proved to be useful tools in providing alternative futures for organisations and communities to aspire, plan and implement. The interface with public participation and these types of ideas is often ignored – consultants are hired by clients with a particular vision of what the future or end product or service might look like; communities are often constrained by government authorities advising what can and can’t be done for legal or economic reasons and government officials – elected or employed – are often required to deliver “quick fixes” based on an election or budget cycle. In English the future perfect tense is used to describe an event that has not yet happened but which is expected or planned to happen before another stated occurrence. To enhance our practice in public participation, the capacity to forecast the future is enriching and empowering for the communities and clients we work with. This Webinar will open up discussion on how you can predict the future, develop and apply future perfect thinking in your practice and liberate and learn from the future as well as the present and the past. Trained in narrative therapy as well, Moira likes to combine story and analysis to build dreams that can come true.

Moira has used Future Perfect thinking to transform families, communities, organisations and government authorities. She says it is a wonderful tool for those who feel “stuck in a rut” and whose dreams aren’t yet big enough to meet the challenges and opportunities that are confronting them. At the IAP2 International Conference in Glasgow in 2008 Moira offered a Future Perfect narrative for IAP2. She will share that story with you during the webinar.

Moira Deslandes BA, BSocAdmin, MLitt, AAICD
Moira is the Executive Director of International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). She is a volunteer Director of Issues Deliberation Australia/America and serves as a Governor’s appointment on the Medical Board of South Australia (SA), the Minister for Planning’s appointment to the Public Space Advisory Committee that distributes over $14M worth of grants to municipal governments annually, and is the voluntary Chair of the Community Foundation of SA. She is married with four adult children and lives in Willlunga on the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia. Moira enjoys the Willunga Farmers Market and is an active member of Playback Willunga.

Registration
Registration or the Future Perfect Thinking Webinar opens December 16. To register, email your interest to Blair McNaughton at bmcnaughton@maze.ab.ca . A confirmation reply will follow shortly after your registration with connection details closer to the date.