The report from last year’s No Better Time conference is now available: No Better Time: A 2010 Report on Opportunities and Challenges for Deliberative Democracy (PDF, 1.1 MB)
Executive summary
In July 2009, more than 250 campus and community leaders came together at the University of New Hampshire to talk about the “deliberative democracy” field, the tide of civic change on campuses and in communities, and what those changes mean for the practice and teaching of democracy. No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative Democracy for Educators and Practitioners (NBT) was hosted by the Democracy Imperative (TDI) and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC), two organizations that work to promote best practices, research, and teaching for a strong democracy.
A number of factors made this conference timely: an historic election, increasing use of dialogue and deliberation in communities across the country, record-setting youth political engagement, a presidential administration that is experimenting with e-democracy to increase transparency and public participation, and a growing interest on campuses (without distinct ownership in any one academic department or administrative office) in teaching democratic principles and practices.
All of these developments seemed to highlight the need for more just, comprehensive, democratic systems and the need to educate and prepare citizens to be more effective participants in those systems. People working in these areas were asking questions about how to “embed” democratic principles and practices in the daily routine of campuses and communities.
The conference gave people a chance to make progress on these challenges as a field. The discussions seemed to coalesce around eight priorities for “embedding” democracy, and conference participants generated a number of plans, proposals, and new activities for moving forward in each area. For each of these priorities, we will give the context preceding No Better Time, summarize the conversation at the conference, and describe what has happened since.
Priority #1 – Rethinking what we call this work (see p. 7)
Priority #2 – Connecting deliberative democracy, advocacy and organizing, and social justice (p. 
Priority #3 – Preparing students more comprehensively for citizenship and leadership in a democracy (p. 9)
Priority #4 – Restoring higher education’s role as an agent for democracy and social change (p. 10)
Priority #5 – Fostering international exchanges and initiatives to advance global democracy (p. 12)
Priority #6 – Routinizing and democratizing evaluation and measurement (p. 12)
Priority #7 – Understanding and incorporating online tools for democracy and participation (p. 13)
Priority #8 – Working with the Obama Administration (p. 14)
From the email the conference organizers sent out this morning:
In response to the survey, many people expressed an interest in hosting a local conference like NBT. So we created a “Step-by-Step Guide that describes how No Better Time was organized. All of our work product is included, like those witty FAQs and clear instructions on leading a learning exchange. This is available on line, at
http://www.unh.edu/democracy/guidebook.html.
I’m starting to think we really need an appropriate event on the West Coast this year.
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