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BACKGROUND

From September 18-21, 2007, over the three day conference, 41 leaders gathered at Wye River for a retreat facilitated by two experts in political dialogue, Mark Gerzon and Donna Zajonc.

Lead Facilitators

Mark Gerzon has served as president of Mediators Foundation since 1992, a non-profit incubator of innovative projects dealing with resolving conflict and promoting cross-cultural and cross-ideological understanding. In 1997 and again in 1999, Mark was selected by the U.S. House of Representatives to design and facilitate their Bipartisan Congressional Retreats. He is the author of A House Divided: Six Belief Systems Struggling for America's Soul (1996) and Leading Through Conflict: How Successful Leaders Transform Differences Into Opportunities (Harvard Business School Press: 2006).

Donna Zajonc is an executive coach, keynote speaker and leadership development consultant who works with Fortune 500 executives, public leaders and candidates for office to develop their natural leadership qualities. As an executive coach and former Oregon State Representative Donna understands the challenges facing public leaders. Donna outlines the essential leadership characteristics necessary to lead public organizations in these chaotic and challenging times in her book, The Politics of Hope: Reviving the Dream of Democracy. She co-founded the Bainbridge Leadership Center (Bainbridge Island, WA) with her husband David in 2003.

Facilitation Team

Joseph McCormick, Co-founder, Reuniting America
John Steiner, Chair of the Executive Committee, Reuniting America
Ana Micka, Co-director, Reuniting America
Michael Ostrolenk, Co-director, Reuniting America
Jeff Weissglass, Core Team Member, Reuniting America
Debilyn Molineaux, Event Coordinator, Reuniting America
Chris Bui, Option Technologies
Peter Hwoschinsky, Howsch Productions
Ben Gass, Reuniting America

RETREAT PROCESS

The location at Wye River about an hour and a half outside of Washington, DC, in Maryland, was peaceful and private, offering space indoors and out for group dialogue, small group work, deep conversation and private reflection.

Day One: The first evening was scheduled as an informal reception, dinner and brief introductory session to establish conference goals as well as to lay a foundation for open dialogue. Using Option Technologies voting wands for immediate feedback, participants shared their conference goals which were then presented to the group anonymously. The following outcomes were generally agreed upon for the conference.
• Build strong collaborative relationships that take action following the retreat, meet new friends with whom to work/play while creating change and or facilitating transformation
• Discover unexpected alliances that lead to aligned actions
• Identify tangible project relationships for citizen engagement and empowerment for project work
• Find opportunities for alliance with one or more people I previously would not have imagined talking to
• Understand deeply the art and practice of transpartisan – to learn the best practices of the transpartisan field

It is worthwhile to note that items A-D are very similar and focused on continuing activity beyond the conference.

During the following two days, instant voting was used to select which issues or topics were most interesting and relevant to the group as a whole. This process was very effective in allowing all voices to be heard, which honored the individual participants. At the same time, instant voting allowed the community as a whole to prioritize what was important for the conference. Many conversations occurred after conference hours about these single interests. Many conversations occurred about these interests and issues at breaks, at mealtimes and in the evening.

Day Two: Participants worked in large and small groups to develop solutions to issues of concern to the group. Small groups worked at the conference on four systemic issues.
• Engage others to promote transparency and accountability in government.
• Creation of new government mechanisms, at the national level, that bring the general interest public into the policy development and decision process as a matter of course.
• Support for election reforms such as non-partisan voting, open primaries, redistricting, open debates and easing ballot access.
• Develop an institutionalized process, at the local level, using the best practices in civic engagement and deliberation that strengthens social capital and allows large and diverse numbers of people to discuss, make decisions and take action on critical public issues.

Work groups were formed around these four topics with instructions to identify specific actions to be taken in moving dialogue forward. Written reports from each group were handed out to all participants. Follow up support is recommended to keep dialogue moving forward.

Day Three: Specific issues were presented by individuals to the group at large. After a voting process, five issues were selected as relevant to most participants, and new working groups formed to explore solutions.
• Intergenerational group: working to engage and communicate across generational barriers, more opportunities needed for dialogue
• Government & Big Business: identifying the need for transparency, financially between contractors, contributors and personnel changes.
• Money & Politics: working to insure equal access to the ballot by all parties or independents; role of nonprofits in elections; when is money freedom of speech and when is money buying an election?
• Transpartisan Group: laying groundwork for transpartisan facilitators around the country; mapping what already exists and best practices.
• Movement Building Group: how to start a transpartisan movement?
• Philanthropy: identifying and convening philanthropists from across the political spectrum in dialogue.

In closing, each participant shared their learning and their gain from the conference. In summary, everyone enjoyed the camaraderie and was pleased and/or surprised at the level of trust built in three days among people with whom they disagree. Many commented on the need to build relationships and how relationships of trust are the foundation upon which systemic change is laid. What made this conference unusual in our experience was the attendance by at least 10 people who had previously attended a Reuniting America gathering. Individuals who had been a little cautious previously (checking it all out) were much more willing to dive in this time. This helped set a stronger field for other attendees as well.

NEXT STEPS

Participants signed on to one or more projects to continue the work began at the conference. Below is a short recap on actions and planning:
• Philanthropy: The philanthropy project has two major goals: (1) engage funders working from different ideological perspectives in dialogue that can build trust and lead to findings of common ground and/or foster cross-spectrum collaboration; and (2) identify and support funders who are interested in supporting the emerging transpartisan field. The project is beginning with three basic questions: where are funders already meeting across the political spectrum; who, particularly on the political right, would be interested in participating; and what are the topics that are most likely to lead to engaging dialogues and collaboration?
• Transparent Government: this project involves creating and supporting open and transparent government. Since the retreat, Reuniting America has been facilitating with OpentheGovernment.org to invite more conservatives to join in the dialogue. This initiative includes federal, state and local levels where transpartisan support would be beneficial.
• Associated with the above project is supporting and making introductions for READ THE BILLS, an initiative for Congress to read bills before voting and make them available for citizen review for 7 days prior to voting.
• Intergenerational Project: Meetings have continued about an inter-generational transpartisan leadership conference to building the strategic architectures of engagement between the online, face-to-face and different streams of engagement.
• Participant Rob Ritchie of FairVote.org, has invited other conference participants, Dave Keating and Grover Norquist to join a plenary panel session with others at the Claim Democracy Conference. The session will be focused explicitly on the transpartisan vision of "searching for common ground" on electoral reform, building on some of the points identified in our gathering.

Other projects currently not supported directly by RA staff:
• Ease access to the ballot for independent and third party candidates.
• Election reforms such as open primaries, redistricting, instant run-off balloting
• How do we reach out to hundreds of facilitators around the country so they may be trained in this transpartisan process?
• Create a space for framework of trust for people to do what they agree upon. How do we create spaces to explore, talk about and work on areas of agreement?
• Map & disseminate what is already working that left and right agree on that builds trust in our society.
• Support and connect with local transpartisan efforts.

Another requested next step is a Reuniting America alumni gathering with attendees from all three DIA conferences to allow a deepening of our transpartisan work, report on all transpartisan projects and plan future steps.

CONCLUSION

Participants have demonstrated the value of building relationships across the political spectrum. Each has been enriched by the experience and many continue to dialogue and partner with each other on issues where they find common ground.