This is truly an exciting time to be an IAP2 USA member! April is full of opportunities and we hope you’ll take advantage of a few of them. Our President, David Hovde, is in Italy representing the US affiliate at the Federation level. (Expect an update on Federation news next month.) In the meantime, I’m pleased to share our affiliate’s great offerings and status updates on a lot of work happening behind the scenes.
Our new Mentorship program has launched, providing opportunities for mentors and mentees alike, so participate!
A Celebration of Excellence in Public Participation:
IAP2 USA Core Values Awards
You and your team worked hard to deliver a great P2 project: now it's time to make sure it gets due recognition. The application process is now open and continues through June 1. The Application Package and more information are available on the Core Values Awards webpage. Remember that it takes time to write an application, so plan ahead and learn from last year's winners.
The categories are:
Research Project of the Year
Organization of the Year
Project of the Year
The winners will go on to compete against other Core Values Award winners from around the world at the Federation level (last year, the St Vrain Valley School District in Colorado won Research Project of the Year from both IAP2 USA and the IAP2 Federation!). Winners will be announced at the Core Values Awards Gala, part of the 2015 North American IAP2 Conference in Portland on Thursday, September 10.
If you are thinking about applying but still want a little more information, join us for the IAP2 USA Core Values Awards webinar where we will review the process, provide some insights from the USA judges and answer any questions that you might have. The webinar will take place on Friday, May 1st, 8:30 - 9:30 - register here or Friday, May 15, 11:00 - noon - register here
Join us for IAP2 USA's Annual General Meeting, via webinar, on Wednesday, April 22 from 9:30 – 10:00 AM Pacific. Meet you IAP2 USA Board of Directors and learn about what was done in 2014 and the plans underway for 2015.
CALLING ALL RESEARCHERS OR ANYONE WITH AN INTEREST IN P2 RESEARCH!
IAP2 USA is pleased to be collaborating with IAP2 Canada on a North American Research Committee. Are you interested, do you have questions – learn more or join the Committee by contacting Maria de Bruijn.
Take a look at one of the initiatives this Committee is working on.
IAP2 USA is pleased to announce that we will now be offering our members a terrific professional development opportunity through our brand new Mentorship Program. As this is a new initiative our first Mentorship session will be a six month pilot project (May-November). We are looking for up to eight mentors and 8 mentees to join us as we create the made in USA version of a Program currently being provided by IAP2 Canada. Please think about participating and join us in this exciting opportunity.
The Mentorship Program connects those new to the P2 profession (the mentees) with experienced P2 practitioners (the mentors), who provide a sounding board, advice and general wisdom on best practices and potential pitfalls. The form of the mentoring relationship is determined by the individual pairings, developing their own "Terms of Reference" and framework for the mentorship program.
This program not only provides additional learning and professional development opportunities for those new to the field, but also offers seasoned practitioners the opportunity to live part of IAP2's Code of Ethics: SUPPORT OF THE PRACTICE. We will mentor new practitioners in the field and educate decision makers and the public about the value and use of public participation.
By "popular demand" of our members and friends, IAP2 USA has partnered with the University of Minnesota to offer a fantastic Skills Symposium this May 27-31. There are a variety of 1-day, 2-day, and 3-day courses available – all held at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs on the University's Minneapolis campus.
Experienced practitioners especially, please take a look. While there are a few basic sessions, the Symposium emphasizes intermediate and advanced training so there really is something for everyone. And AICP members have the option to get credit for these courses, too!
Even better, the price is right: $300/day includes all course materials, lunch, and breaks for courses developed and delivered by some of the leading practitioners in the country.
Here's the web page link to look at the offerings and register ASAP. Note that this is essentially "on-demand" training – so the only courses we'll actually offer are those with 12 registrants by April 27.
FROM OUR MONTHLY WEBINAR: “ENGAGED PEOPLE ENGAGE PEOPLE.”
As the City of Melbourne, Australia, set out to build its Citizen Engagement (CE) strategy, one of the first steps was to make the staff champions of CE, themselves. Desley Renton, Melbourne’s Community Engagement Manager, and Community Engagement Officer Kate Henderson, were the presenters for our April webinar, “Creating a Framework for Citizen Engagement”. Their project led Melbourne to be named Organization of the Year at the IAP2 Federation Core Values Awards last year.
THE IAP2 MAY LEARNING WEBINAR: “EVALUATING YOUR P2 PROJECT”
It's one of the great questions in the P2 profession: "Is it working?" Evaluating Your P2 Process, Tuesday, May 12, will feature some leaders in evaluation. Dr Julia Abelson of McMaster University, Geoff Wilson of the Capital District Health Authority in Halifax, and Charmagne Campbell-Patton and Michael Quinn Patton of Utilization-Focused Evaluation in St Paul, MN. With them, you'll learn how the principles they've discovered and put to work can be applied to your own practice.
Have you booked your trip yet to the "birthplace of P2," Portland, Oregon? The 2015 IAP2 North American Conference is set for September 9 – 11 at the Hilton DoubleTree in the Rose City. Four fascinating keynote speakers will be featured, and the selection panel is currently reviewing over 80 presentation proposals. The Schedule-at-a-Glance will be released soon.
Once again this year, the North American Conference is offering Student Scholarships, including admission to the sessions, breakfasts, lunches and supper at the Core Values Awards Gala. The scholarships are available to any full-time post-secondary student who plans to use the knowledge gained to help further public involvement in his or her community; but hurry! Scholarships are being granted on a first-come-first-served basis. Contact ameliaiap2usa@gmail.com for more information.
Amidst looming end of term papers and finishing corporate quarterly reports students, faculty and practitioners alike took 90 minutes out of their days on March 31st to share experiences and dream about what's possible for student engagement and IAP2. You can check out the full recording to feel like you were there, or simply read the reflections of two participating panelists below.
The speakers at Frontiers of Democracy 2015, which will take place in Boston, MA on June 25-27, include Tina Nabatchi, Harry Boyte, Tiago Peixoto, Hahrie Han, AbhiNemani, Caroline Lee, Diana Hess, and Brenda Wright.
"If forms of government can be likened to operating systems, current variants of democracy are like early, primitive versions of Windows."http://ow.ly/KQ0dg "They are neither optimally functional nor user-friendly – they are buggy, susceptible to malware, and lack desired features."
"Rather than blame our leaders for the dysfunction, we need to change the game." http://ow.ly/KsHDx How engaging citizens in participatory ways – and treating democracy as more than just voting – can tackle problems like climate change that seem politically impossible to address.
Public Agenda is expanding its research on participatory budgeting, with a community of practice and annual reports – http://ow.ly/KmS9d
Upcoming Events
Until June 1st
Applications accepted for IAP2 USA Core Values Awards visit the webpage
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