Process
Aimed not just to “talk” about problems, the NIF is a way for people to deliberate, or to have serious discussions on issues. In its early years, NIF depended on Public Agenda Foundation, an agency found by Dan Yankelovich, to select issues for the deliberation of NIF. But now, various groups and individuals have been able to frame issues for discussion.
NIF forums have moderators to moderate the discussion, (Melville, Willingham, Dedrick, 2005). While the moderator may not be expert in the issue being discussed, his/her function is nonetheless important to the discussion. NIF moderators do 5 things:
1. Lay out ground rules for discussion.
2. Introduce issues.
3. Draw participants into discussion by keeping a healthy atmosphere for discussion (i.e., ask participants questions).
4. Encourage participants to consider alternatives carefully.
5. Lead the final segment of a discussion, to “reflect” upon the experience.
Also, some forums would publish a report on what they have deliberated at the forums. These reports usually come from the forum moderators based on the deliberations at the forums. For information on these reports, visit this link: http://www.nifi.org/reports/issues.aspx. It is unsure whether any decision maker would read these reports. But these documentations are available to the public. And they are valuable insights into the society’s perception on various issues.
Read more about this topic: National Issues Forums
Famous quotes containing the word process:
“Interior design is a travesty of the architectural process and a frightening condemnation of the credulity, helplessness and gullibility of the most formidable consumers—the rich.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)
“At last a vision has been vouchsafed to us of our life as a whole. We see the bad with the good.... With this vision we approach new affairs. Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify and humanize every process of our common life, without weakening or sentimentalizing it.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“The a priori method is distinguished for its comfortable conclusions. It is the nature of the process to adopt whatever belief we are inclined to, and there are certain flatteries to the vanity of man which we all believe by nature, until we are awakened from our pleasing dream by rough facts.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)