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Dear Friends,
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e late innings of summer are giving us all a chance to catch our collective breath and get ready for another season of projects, research and the other activities in our profession. We're looking forward to the North American Conference in Portland with (gasp!) just over a week to go now. As of this writing, we have over 340 people now registered to catch a choice of more than 60 (count 'em!) sessions, four great keynote speakers and a bunch of amazing extra-curricular offerings, like the "Keep Portland Weird Tour" and the "Fair Housing Council Tour" -- a trip down a lane of memories about racism in The Beaver State that many might want to forget.
One of the highlights, also, will be the Core Values Awards Gala on Thursday, Sept. 10, honoring the best in P2 in the USA!
Are you joining us? If you can't make it, we'll be posting like mad on Twitter @iap2usa and Facebook: #2015NAConf.
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Your Chance to Show North America What You're Made Of!
IAP2 USA is pleased to host our first fundraiser to benefit USA student scholarships! The fundraiser will be held at the 2015 IAP2 North American Conference in Portland as a silent auction of items donated by chapters, businesses and generous attendees like you. Supporting students encourages student membership, relationships with universities, research in the field, and the ongoing vitality and sustainability of our organization. (Read more.)
TECHNOLOGY CORNER by Adriana Hemzacek
Lessons Learned from the IAP2 August Webinar -- "Meet the Authors"
Is P2 today the same as it was 20 years ago, when IAP2 was in its infancy? Chances are, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone to say that it is, and even harder-pressed still to find anyone to say it will be the same as it is today, even 20 months from now, let alone that many years. But where is P2 heading? What are citizens like and what do they expect these days? Tina Nabatchi and Matt Leighninger have just brought out a book, Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy, and they shared some of their insights in our most recent webinar, held August 25.
They state that, despite reluctance – even fear – on the part of elected officials and bureaucrats to take P2 deeper, there are demonstrated benefits they would do well to consider, including:
- Lower corruption
- Lower inequality
- More community connectedness
- Higher trust in government
- Higher tax compliance
- Higher completion rates for government projects
- Officials more likely to be reelected
NB: there will be no webinar in September, due to the North American Conference. On October 13, John Stephens and Rick Morse of the University of North Carolina will be our presenters in “Getting Engaged – Staying Engaged”, about their insights in using a blog to keep people engaged – even when there’s no cause for a P2 project. Click here for more information and to register (and remember the two-stage process to reserve your “virtual seat”: your confirmation email will include a URL to follow, to get your login information).
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Tina Geiselbrecht is a Research Scientist with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). She leads the Public Engagement Planning program, a two year old program whose mission is “To advance the practice of public engagement through research and innovation.” Sound familiar?
Texas A&M has the largest university-based transportation research institute in the country. They’re interested in things like pavement markings, traffic operations, pedestrian safety, transportation planning, and policy development, primarily at the state level. (Read more)
The City of Edmonton, Alberta, continues to break new ground in citizen involvement, with its Civic Education programming at City Hall. Check out how City Hall High is bringing learning alive.
And the Centre for Public Involvement – a partnership of the City of Edmonton and the University of Alberta – has brought out a new report on strengthening engagement with a focus on thinking about and examining civic infrastructure and best practices. The report was done for the City of Edmonton Council Initiative on Public Engagement but provides examples and ideas useful for all practitioners.
Have you written or come across an article or report that would interest your colleagues? Send us the link and we'll pass it on!
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Coming up …
The IAP2 North American Conference, Portland OR, Sept 9-11.
"Turbo-charge your P2 Efforts with Social Media", IAP2 Greater Los Angeles area, Sept. 30.
IAP2 October Webinar, “Getting Engaged / Staying Engaged”, online, Oct. 13 2pm Eastern
IAP2 Australasia Conference – including presentation of the IAP2 Federation Core Values Awards – Perth, Western Australia, Oct. 14-16
We hope you have a great rest-of-the-summer, and look forward to more exciting discussions and opportunities in the fall!
