Big Daddy's Ozarks Writing Blog

The National Issues Forums (NIF) is a network of organizations joined by a common desire to discuss critical issues. Local issue forums offer the space to deliberate about public issues. Deliberation, rather than debate, lets us talk about concerns, weigh drawbacks and tradeoffs, and find a shared sense of direction before making decisions. This is a skill that is disappearing from American democracy and the community suffers as a result. Forums (which take about 2-hours) are is designed to help citizens examine the issues that surround a topic, become more informed about the larger issues that impact a topic and also learn how to participate locally to address the issue. Have you participated in a forum before? What was the result?