In this Issue
- President's Message
- Wild Rose Webinar Series
- Annual General Meeting
- Wild Rose Café
- Interesting Links
President's Message
Submitted by Deborah Eastlick, President
Happy New Year one and all,
It has not taken the year long to swing in to full gear. A new American president and a new Canadian opposition leader bring hope for change in a world turned upside down. I encourage you to take heart and continue to be beacons of optimism and forward thinking wherever your practice takes you. If you havent seen the New Years message from IAP2 Geoff Fagan on the home page of the IAP2 website, please take time to read it. As he notes, it is not a time for timidity. Be bold and confident! Now, more than ever, is the time to raise the profile of P2, and what is possible when we work together.
We have many new and interesting things planned for you this year. Following the resounding success of the first Wild Rose café, we will be hosting at least two more, hopefully with one of those in Edmonton. Our first WR webinar was also a success and two more are planned, one with the new Executive Director of IAP2, Moira Deslandes who resides in Australia. She is a huge advocate of technology-mediated participation and I know she will bring many ideas to that session. This years Annual General Meeting will be held in Calgary and the program is shaping up to be very provocative.
As part of a new training strategy for Wild Rose we will also be offering one or two professional development trainings this year after a good start with the IAP2 certificate training this January. We have so many members now who have completed the certificate training that we believe it is timely to offer something for the more advanced practitioner. We will be sending out a short survey in the near future to ask you what sorts of training you would like us to offer. Watch your email and our website, www.iap2wildrosechapter.org, for details.
And finally, if you are able to access the training dollars, the annual IAP2 Conference is happening in San Diego, California from September 21-23, 2009. The theme of the conference is Making Sustainable Decisions: the Price and Promise of Public Participation. The three streams are Sustainable Processes, Decisions, and Outcomes. The call for presentations should be posted on the IAP2 website, www.iap2.org. Wild Rose traditionally sends quite a large and animated contingent, as it is a wonderful opportunity to strut our stuff and to situate our personal practice in a global context. We hope to see many of you there as presenters as well as participants!
Wild Rose Webinar Series
Submitted by Blair McNaughton, Technology
It was great - thank you very very much to the organizers. I would not normally have access to a presenter from another part of the world so it was wonderful to have this.
On December 11, Wild Rose launched its lunchtime webinar series with a presentation by Crispin Buttress of Bang the Table. Crispin discussed online public engagement tools and how Bang the Table has been utilized in different Australian engagement projects. Approximately 40 participants logged on for the event, including a few guests from British Columbia, Ontario, and Colorado. Although the presentation ran a bit late, a number of participants were able to remain for some additional discussion after the presentation.
The webinar format was new to many members, but the reviews were generally very positive:
This was my first experience with a webinar format and I can definitely see exciting opportunities for it.
Great use of a new tool. I haven't taken part of a webinar and was a little hesitant however it was great.
Im glad to say that overall, the participants found the webinar software easy to install and use. Of course, this was a technology based pilot, so there had to be a few glitches along the way, most notably some problems with the sound on the teleconferencing rustling lunch bags and crunching carrots make for distracting background music. We have a few ideas to address these issues and other suggestions that participants offered.
We have two more lunchtime webinars scheduled for this year:
- February 19: Future Perfect Thinking, Moira Deslandes, IAP2 Executive Director
- April 23: SustaiNet Stakeholder tracking software, Colin Ellis
Watch for registration information on these events soon.
Annual General Meeting - Save the Date
Submitted by Paula Kupchak Hall, Director
The Annual General Meeting is scheduled for March 20, 2009 at Fort Calgary. The theme this year is, Thinking Outside the Open House Box - Different Approaches to Consultation. Panel members are still being confirmed and will be announced at a later date.
Wild Rose Café
Submitted by Ruth Klinkhammer, Training
Organizers are busy planning for the second Wild Rose Cafe to be held the end of February. This cafe will focus on issues surrounding trust building in Aboriginal communities.
Watch for details on time and place!
Interesting Links
Submitted by Rachelle Venne, Treasurer
National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) - offers discussion groups on a variety of issues the latest being the new president initiatives in regards to consultation around new policies. Although a lot of the information is specific to the US, members may find the information helpful. They have great tools and resources on their website http://www.thataway.org/exchange/ and it's a way to connect with other practitioners and some international advocacy groups. They talk about different types of consultations underway and the success/struggles with each.
If you are aware of other interesting groups and would like to share them with Wild Rose members, please send a note to our webmaster at: brenda@kairoscreativesolutions.com.
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