You@All: Hi Everyone - We’re just about to get started! Thanks for joining us :)
Viewer 21@All: Greetings from Kansas - looking forward!
Susan Partnow@All: So glad you are all here!
Carrie Stewart@All: Howdy from Dallas!
Susan Partnow@All: (suggestion that someone call in to the previously sent phone no. to make sure everyone moves over to here!)
Viewer 39@All: this is Bruce Waltuck near Princeton ?
Susan Partnow@All: Love hearing where you are all from! I'm in Seattle, where CC was first launched!
Viewer 43@All: Los Angeles
Mary Santiago@All: I'm also in Seattle
Sandy Heierbacher@All: Hi, guys! I just helped a bunch of people move over to join.me from the freeconference number. I’ll stay on this line for a couple more minutes, then join you guys. :)
Aaron Payson@All: This is Aaron Payson, Worcester, MA. Unfortunately I have to go off the call at 12:55 for another meeting. Apologies ahead of time!
Michael Freedman@All: Hello from Grass Valley, California
Viewer 44@All: Hi this is Ronnie from Israel
You@All: Thanks Sandy! We’re just talking briefly about the CC website, so they’ll be right on time for the training :)
You@All: No worries Aaron! We are recording the call today so you will be able to catch what you miss afterwards!
Susan Levin@All: What is the difference between conversation cafe and world cafe?
Lonnie Weiss@All: Listening from Philly (Hi, BruceW!)
Viewer 47@All: How do we encourage those” across the aisle” to join?
Susan Levin@All: I lost the call. Can you give me the number to call back in? Thanks.
You@All: The Facebook Group Keiva mentioned:
Sandy Heierbacher@All: Hi, Susan! World Cafe generally involves larger numbers of people in one room, broken into tables of four. The process involves multiple conversations that are about a half hour long each. After the first round of conversation, three people leave the table and one person stays to help the others know what happened at that table. Look in the NCDD resource center for much more detail.
Sandy Heierbacher@All: Susan - you can call in to 213.226.1066. Use access code 691-593-774#.
Susan Levin@All: I have used world cafes with intact groups. Conversation cafes seem like it draws random people from a community, is that correct?
Sandy Heierbacher@All: That’s generally the case, yes Susan, but it’s not a hard and fast rule (especially if you’re talking about a Conversation Cafe that’s ongoing, or a World Cafe at a conference where people don’t have a lot of connections yet.
Susan Levin@All: Thanks, Sandy and happy new year!
Sandy Heierbacher@All: In case people aren’t familiar with NCDD’s Engagement Streams framework, please take a look at it. It is something we developed to help people distinguish between various dialogue and deliberation methods. It’s at
Ron Gross@All: I'm here, in New York, Susan! Very glad to be participating, and glad to contribute anytime you like.
Aaron Payson@All: I'm particularly interested in this modality for inter-faith/inter-spiritual dialogue and for those interested in discussing end-of-life issues? Is this modality recommended for either/both of these?
Ron Gross@All: We have had great success using Libraries, which get the word out about the Cafe, provide neutral turf at no cost, have intellectual resources, etc.
Maya@All: Are you suggesting that the group be closed to new members once it has started?
Viewer 44@All: Is it important to keep it to "drop-ins" or does it pay to have invitations and RSVP?
Carrie Stewart@All: If you have school-aged children, school organizations and events draw on the breadth of community, so they are a great place to find folks withother connections to partner with.
Mary Santiago@All: Where can I find current conversation cafe groups on the website?
Ron Gross@All: For our experiences and resources here at Conversations New York, on venues, modalities, etc., please check out our website at
Susan Levin@All: How is information shared among conversation cafe groups and disseminated? It would be great if this effort took hold nationally and in an integrated way so we can bridge the national divide that this election really demonstrated.
Donna Schenck-Hamlin@All: ... paradigm?
Sandy Heierbacher@All: Maya - the list of ongoing Conversation Cafes is up at We’re in the process of updating it. Please complete the survey at if you should be added to this list!
Lonnie Weiss@All: Any experience using ConvoCafe with a newly forming coalition group? I'll be working with a new-ish collaborative of 3 sister organizations, learning to work together with with 3 cultures & variations...
Ruthy Kohorn Rosenberg@All: I'm hoping that you will be talklng about how to train the facilitators - how to give them enough tools that they feel comfortable taking this on. I know people are worried about people getting upset or raising personal problems
Sandy Heierbacher@All: Jacob Hess’ report on what we learned about framing D&D in a way that’s accessible to the broadest audience (especially conservatives) is up at
Carrie Stewart@All: I have used ConvoCafe to discern values and identify issues for organizations.
Viewer 44@All: How do you prevent the conversation cafe becoming a platform for political debate and bickering? Does it happen every so often?
Roger Chapanis@All: How do you prevent some people from taking over the conversation by interrupting others?
Aaron Payson@All: Can you point us to the article on framing questions?
Roger Chapanis@All: When someone is finished talking how do they indicate that they are finished? And, how is the next person chosen to speak?
Viewer 4@All: Possiblly Ron and others could do training for small groups sometime. -Cobie, Oregon
Aaron Payson@All: Thanks all!
Sandy Heierbacher@All: One of the docs on the site is called “How to Craft Questions.” It can be found at
Roger Chapanis@All: Suppose that someone will not honor the process. Can the host invite them to leave? if so, how would the invitation sound (in person, or in a conference call)
Sandy Heierbacher@All: There’s a list of all documents on the CC site up at Go there and simply search the page for “questions” and you’ll find a few other things to check out.
Maya@All: might you want to spend a group going in rounds to discuss these agreements?
Donna Schenck-Hamlin@All: Does 2 rounds without Q&A slow us or help us to formulate questions better? How much time will the 2 rounds take in comparison with the 3rd round?
Ron Gross@All: Susan, it's wonderful how you inform this webinar with your personal experiences, convictions, and wisdom. BRAVO!!!!!!
Ron Gross@All: Beginners in this work may want to consider doing their initial forays on some NON-political/NON-controversial topics, so that they can get deft at it without having to deal with partisan rancor. I.E., "What is Happiness?" or "What's Our Technology Doing to Us?"
Ron Gross@All: Anyone in the Greater New York area is warmly invited to our next Conversation Day on Sat., Feb. 11th -- details on our website at com
Roger Chapanis@All: To facilitate the formulation of agreements, you might consider the "consent decision-making" model used by Dynamic Governance (
Ron Gross@All: I find a small version of the Native American Talking Stick very serviceable -- it's evocative, colorful, and its tradition is greatly congruent.
Viewer 44@All: Is there a need to limit people to a time frame when speaking or does this naturally fall into place. Some forums use buzzers for a minute or more but it seems to me that this is probably better for networking and not for conversation- any guidance on this?
Donna Schenck-Hamlin@All: Maybe the second object could be a sand hour glass (like a little 3-minute egg timer) ;>
Roger Chapanis@All: Is one of the agreements to talk about only one topic, or can anyone speaking talk about anything?
Maya@All: Will we be able to access the resources given in the chat after the training?
Sandy Heierbacher@All: Yes - we’ll share the recording of the call, plus a list of resources from the chat on the NCDD blog in a couple of days, Maya. When in doubt, go to and look for the archives there.
Donna Schenck-Hamlin@All: Great, thanks for that
Ron Gross@All: THIS HAS BEEN JUST WONDERFUL! I AM RE-INSPIRED. May I strongly recommend that each of our benefits from this experience will be significantly enhanced by Using what e have learned this morning by conducting a group as soon as possible.
Donna Schenck-Hamlin@All: I plan to try one with my working group first... Thank you so much for explaining this protocol
Roger Chapanis@All: What about confidentiality? How do you safeguard that?
Donna Schenck-Hamlin@All: Good question - do you ever suggest that "what is said in this room stays in this room?"
Ruthy Kohorn Rosenberg@All: Feeling energized and more confident about getting this going, and with so many ideas - thank you for your generosity. Also, sharing how you deal with situations - the words - are wonderful and helpful
Viewer 4@All: Thank you for all the resources! I'll check out some more of them. - Cobie
Mino Akhtar@All: Thank you for a wonderful overview. Mino Akhtar, Interfaith Women's Initiative, Bergen County, NJ
Ruthy Kohorn Rosenberg@All: did you share the framing questions link? That wold be great!
Viewer 44@All: Thank-you for your generous and helpful training!
Carrie Stewart@All: Thank you!
Maya@All: Thank you
David Salahi@All: Thanks!!
Sandy Heierbacher@All: Ruthy - the How to Craft Questions document is up at
Sandy Heierbacher@All: Thanks everyone for participating!!