1. Convening Deliberative Forums in Your Community or Organization
Resources in your handout
Convening Forums in Your Community or Organization (“Getting Started” steps for a steering committee or partnership)
Logistics Related to Convening: Checklist
Representation Matrix
So What Do You Do Next?
Sign-in Sheet

2. Form a Steering Committee or Partnership
Create a purpose statement
Recruit people who (see Representation Matrix)
can implement deliberation; share the philosophy
have skills in different areas
represent diverse interests, resources, perspectives
Create a climate for committee success
Be inclusive
Involve members from the earliest planning stages
Define members’ roles
Ensure all partners understand the goals

3. Build Partners’ Confidence
Think big, but consider the committee’s comfort level
First forum - friends, colleagues, existing group
Further forums

4. Define Success Forum participants did the following:
Found common ground for action
Identified trade-offs
Recognized tensions/dilemmas between options
Examples of small successes
Liked the forum and want to attend another
Learned something new about the issue
Committed to individual action/change

5. Understand That Results Take Time
Achieving the committee’s goal of developing a habit of public deliberation and addressing an issue:
Takes time - One forum with one group is not enough
Doesn’t work when immediate action is required

6. Decide on Forum’s Purpose
One or more of the following:
To build the capacity to deliberate as a group
To identify ways to act individually or collectively
To contribute to public policy
To discuss contentious issues in a safe way
To contribute to self-rule
To find resources to address a public issue
Whether the 1st or 20th forum, the purpose affects:
Choice of issue guide
Publicity and participant recruitment
How the forum results will be reported e

7. Choose an Issue Guide Consider the following:
Experience and comfort with deliberative forums
Steering committee
Potential forum participants
Moderator and recorder
[At first, may want to avoid a highly charged issue]
Community members’ or organization’s interest in an issue

8. Recruit Co-sponsors Can lend credibility and resources
May have an interest in:
A specific issue (short-term collaboration )
AND/OR
The deliberative process (long-term collaboration)
For forums in Oklahoma, always state the following as co-sponsors:
Oklahoma Partnership for Public Deliberation
National Issues Forums

9. Determine Forum Size
Large forums expose more people to the deliberative process and the issue and allow for more diversity
BUT
Small forums have more opportunity to speak and interact
Aim for participants
Can always expand as the committee’s reputation grows in a community or organization

10. Recruit Forum Participants
List potential forum participants
Deliver personal invitations
Phone calls
Personal visits
Letters, s
Promote using press releases, flyers, newsletters,
web sites, tweets, social media, etc.

11. After the Forum: Participant Action
A committee’s plan could include:
As the forum ends:
Offer handouts related to the issue
Schedule a following-up section on how to move to action
Caution: Keep the committee’s focus on advocating for deliberation. Avoid being seen as an advocate for a particular action on any given issue.

12. After the Forum: Reporting Outcomes
Each forum will generate:
Moderator Response (to committee and NIF)
Flip chart recordings (to committee)
Examples of reports
On and
Renee Daugherty
OPPD workshop on report writing

13. Forum Supplies / Kit Markers Posters Tape Sign-in-sheet / pen
Name tags / marker
Time cards
Flipchart pads / easels

14. Logistics
Checklist / timetable
Shared responsibilities

15. Game Plan -------------------- Questions?