As this year comes to a close and we get ready to welcome 2006, we will also be entering a year that will mark the 25th anniversary of the National Issues Forums (NIF).

This is to introduce you to some plans that are underway regarding the 25th anniversary of NIF and to ask you to consider how your plans, activities, interests, or professional endeavors during 2006 might help to enrich and advance the practice of public deliberation.

New Things Coming to the NIF Website

We are in the process of planning some changes to the NIF website that will be dedicated to information, plans, and activities related to the 25th anniversary of NIF. The website is the one place where NIF is accessible to people around the country, around the world, and around the clock- there is great potential there. I will be in touch to let you know more about those changes as they happen.

Forums for the Fourth

One way that has been suggested that people around the country might observe this anniversary is something called "Forums for the Fourth." This project, started in 2002 by NIF moderators and conveners at the University of Kentucky, was an experiment in combining the celebration of our nation's independence with participation in public deliberative forums. As a way to observe NIF's 25th anniversary, Forums for the Fourth might be held on or near the Fourth of July, or at any time during the year. I will be sending you more information about Forums for the Fourth in a future e-mail, and information about this project will also soon be on the website as we move into 2006.

25 Years of Deliberative Forums

Watch for more about the history of NIF in future e-mails and on the NIF website, but for now here's just a brief introduction to the roots of this growing movement in public deliberation:

In 1981—After two years of discussions about ways to increase the role of citizens in the formation of public policy, and ways to provide citizens with opportunities to express and convey informed opinions on the issues to the nation's decision makers, a series of three conferences were held in 1981 at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin. These conferences resulted in the formation of the Domestic Policy Association (renamed a few years later as the National Issues Forums Institute.)

Twenty-five leaders from national and local organizations interested in public policy education attended the first conference. Their main interest was in public policy education. Leaders from community-based institutions attended the second conference. This group talked about problems that needed to be solved, approaches that had worked in other programs, and possible resources that could create the necessary networks to support the new program. Members of a new steering committee attended a third conference to focus on national issues that would engage public attention. From a list of possible issues, three were chosen for the inaugural year of this new program call the National Issues Forums (NIF). The three issues were: 1. retirement and social security, 2. inflation, and 3. jobs and productivity.

More about NIF's Past, Present, and Future

Watch for more—by e-mail, and on the NIF website—about this upcoming year of observing the Past, Present, and Future of the National Issue Forums. For now, please begin to consider ways that you, your group, organization, or profession might celebrate, participate in, or recognize, the National Issues Forums (NIF) and its work "to promote public deliberation in America."