Blog review

The Artful Manager: This is a blog written by my former advisor, Andrew Taylor. He writes about the business of managing arts organizations, and his posts always provoke a lot of food for thought (and are likely relevant outside the sphere of arts management). Here's a great example of a great post, where he really spells out how and why a good question is a great tool:
http://www.artsjournal.com/artfulmanager/main/what-ive-learned.php

You can subscribe to get weekly digests of his posts.

Storytelling and Placemaking

I enjoyed our first meeting of the new year, and I'm excited about exploring the role of storytelling in public dialogue, change making and engagement.   We also talked about the current buzz around Placemaking in Madison.

Here are a few resources I can offer --

  http://sharinglearningstories.wisc.edu/

  http://www.pps.org/reference/what_is_placemaking/

Let us know if you have other resources to share, and see you at our next meeting on October 24th.

Keeping this Blog Relevant

It has been quite a while (two years) since we have posted to our Blog, but we recently decided that we want to make it relevant again to our efforts. The Public Participation Learning Community (PPLC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison continues to thrive as a community of practice. Our monthly meetings inform all of us about 'best practices' in convening deliberative processes, with our contexts ranging from small work and project teams to large-scale public meetings and complex policy deliberation processes. We come from across the University and our community, each bringing gifts and experiences that we generously and enthusiastically share with one another.

This past year, our sixth year, we started a new approach, creating three-month cycles around a specific topic: "First meeting" invites us to share what we know (or wonder about) regarding the topic, eliciting meaningful questions upon which to build. "Second meeting" closely examines a case study related to the topic, from which some questions are answered and others emerge. "Third meeting" synthesizes our insights and invites us to share tools and processes we have used in addressing the questions that have emerged.

My hope is that we now return to using this Blog to document our learning, invite readers to comment and share about their experiences addressing similar questions, and truly use this vehicle as an integral aspect to our learning together as a community. In addition, we agreed at this month's meeting to pull together some of the resources, articles, and books that we tend to cite in our discussions in a single, easily accessible manner that allows us to comment, recommend, and direct one another to them more easily. We invite readers to add their "two cents" in this area, as well... look for these later this summer.

Finally, we will use this Blog to help publicize workshops, reading groups, and other meetings we find relevant to our continued growth and learning. Again, since readers may live anywhere in the country (or around the world?), they may offer additional ideas.

With any of these comments or suggestions, please contact me directly at hwebnebehrman@ohr.wisc.edu so we can be sure your ideas are received. If you join the Blog as a 'friend,' you may comment... if you seek a greater challenge and wish to write Posts, just let me know!

Harry