Project Summary

Imagine all citizens of a town addressing key issues respectfully and reaching thoughtful conclusions together. Now imagine the youth of the town convening this "We the People" conversation. Our project seeks to realize this ideal through a social invention, the "Wisdom Council process."

About me

I teach a seminar on "dynamic facilitation" where people practice these skills by working on social issues. These people have breakthroughs. One night in 1993 all the breakthroughs came together for me in an idea for how it might be possible to bring all people in a community together as "We the People". Through experiments we've discovered that this idea can work ... and it can be initiated by ordinary citizens. In 2002 DeAnna Martin, my wife, Jean, and I formed a nonprofit corporation called the Center for Wise Democracy to support volunteers with this work. Lance Bisaccia, Karen Gossetti, and David Wick who convened the experiment in Ashland, OR (see the video at www.WiseDemocracy.org) heard me give a radio interview. In Port Townsend, a local teacher, Marci Van Cleve, read my book, "Society's Breakthrough!" and came to me about doing a Wisdom Council with her students. But most people who become involved do so through attending the seminar ... like Nancy Rosanoff who sponsored the Pleasantville, NY experiment; Adin Rogovin, who led the experiment among homeless people in Eugene, OR; Linda Condon and Hugh Watson who led the Wisdom Council within the Washington State Department of Agriculture; Rene Tanner for the one in the Port Townsend Food Coop; George Sranko and Caspar Davis who originated the one in Victoria, BC; Peter Bonyun and Al Scalf for the one in the Community Development Department of Jefferson County; and Manfred Hellrigl for the city of Wolfurt, Austria.