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A National Dialogue for
the Future
of America's Waterway
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 The Mississippi River is America's Waterway.
It is also a community that stretches over
2,000 miles and touches ten states. This
community is significantly impacted by the
Mississippi River. But the history of the
River is characterized by approaches that
are geographically limited or arbitrarily
determined by political or regulatory
boundaries.
With the availability of new and inexpensive
channels of communication we have an
unprecedented opportunity to unify the
Mississippi River community around whole
River approaches to its character, condition
and future. Through the use of technology
and a proven community dialogue process, we
can tap the community to begin to build
these approaches.
A National Dialogue for the Future of
America's Waterway has two important
purposes. First, this dialogue will build a
platform for information and action. Second,
the dialogue is designed to jump start the
concept of a Mississippi River constituency
that is empowered and motivated to take
action on behalf of the River.
To accomplish these two goals, two
organizations have come together: America's
Waterway - the internet community site for
the Mississippi River - and
AmericaSpeaks'
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the premier producer of deliberative forums
engaging citizens in the public decisions
that most impact their lives. Both are
nonprofits and each has a mission to provide
an authentic voice for citizens. For
America's Waterway, this voice is the voice
of the River.
This National Dialogue will be built on the
input of more than 10 representative Mississippi River
communities. So while the National Dialogue
is whole-River in scope, we can reliably
gather input that's representative of grass
roots as well as informed stake-holder
opinion.
The input gathered during the Dialogue will
be shared simultaneously with all the
locations and will build and be fed back to
participants electronically, culminating in
a shared vision, agreed upon principals and
the components of a plan of action. The
information will also direct and inform the
content of the America's Waterway community
web site.
The major components of this multi location,
National Dialogue are:
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Conference design to maximize
achievement of community goals -
AmericaSpeaks'
expertise creating the
correct day-long format to fit the
community's needs as determined through
interviews, surveys and conference
calls.
- An
advance/steering committee - including
community representatives with
representation from community-based
environmental, community development and
cultural sectors to plan and ensure the
framework and issues are current and
relevant.
- Advance
research and documentation of the issues
that are likely is the main focus so
that factual information can be prepared
and be included in the round table
discussions as well as the promotion of
the National Dialogue.
- Town
Hall meeting production and facilitation
to ensure the optimum input from all
participants and its efficient
processing - Extensive preparation of
sites, electronic equipment and
discussion materials is required to
ensure the quality and quantity of
citizen input and build the town hall
experience so it, in turn, builds
momentum for continued civic engagement.
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River-wide awareness building to set the
stage for expanded involvement. Included
is an intensive public relations effort
to increase interest in and support for
River-wide approaches to America's
waterway.
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Technical expertise to ensure successful
teleconferencing operations on a
national scale - This assistance is
co-located at all the sites as well as
in a central coordinating site. It plays
a major role in ensuring that equipment
is collecting, tabulating and
transmitting at all times and in all
locations.
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Immediate feedback to the assembled
group plus final reports to community
groups, participants, media and key
stakeholders.
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| Support and sponsorships are being
solicited from private foundations,
corporations and public agencies |
For more information please email:
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