The Latest

So much has happened over here at the Kitchen Table that we haven’t had a chance to catch our breath and catch up with you!

First, we’ve posted the third and final set of results for the pilot consultation.  Check the results for the Economy and Jobs and Healthy Environment Outcome Areas Findings as well as comments from tablemates in response to those results.

Second, a group of dedicated citizens and community leaders have been working closely with Oregon’s Kitchen Table and public opinion researchers to create a consultation that will gather input from Curry County residents about the county services and county funding.  That consultation will go live for Curry County residents next week, so keep watching The Latest to follow our first regional consultation.

And, finally, we hope you got a chance to hear yesterday’s Think Out Loud on Oregon Public Broadcasting on navigating political divisions. We loved hearing the stories from Oregonians about how they have (or don’t have!) discussions about political issues with friends, family, colleagues and neighbors whose political views may differ from theirs.  The discussion touched on how we can create spaces that allow us to come together to actually address issues that impact each of us, despite those political differences. It made me think of how Phil Keisling, the Director of the Center For Public Service at PSU, has described Oregon’s Kitchen Table providing such a space: “The essence of the Kitchen Table project is that it’s neither left-wing, nor right wing. Rather, it’s fundamentally “Oregonian” — a sincere effort to engage as many diverse voices as we have in this state to share their thoughts and opinions on issues important to all of us.”

Sarah

This fall, Oregon’s Kitchen Table will be inviting folks in Curry County to take a seat and join in a discussion about their county’s financial picture.  Our second consultation is all about you, Curry County!

The Curry County Board of Commissioners (BOC), under Chair Dave Itzen, have asked the Table to assist them in continuing their efforts to hear from Curry County residents on how to address the County’s revenue shortfall.

Oregon Community Foundation and the Ford Family Foundation are funding the consultation, which will include facilitated, small group discussions held concurrently with the online survey.  This time, we’re actually going to set some tables so you can sit down face-to-face with your fellow Curry County citizens and talk about these important issues.

The consultation will build upon the work the county’s Citizen’s Committee convened by the BOC and facilitated by one of our sister programs here at PSU’s Hatfield School of Government, Oregon Consensus.

We’ll keep you posted as the Board and the Table develop the consultation! In the meantime, take a look at the results of our first, statewide consultation.

Sarah Giles

We hope you all are enjoying a pleasant summer and that you are getting the chance to spend time with family and friends.   We’re writing to say:  Don’t worry!  The results from the pilot consultation are forthcoming.  To tell the truth, we’re a pretty small staff here at the Table, so we have been a little slower getting the results out than we wanted to be!  We’re trying to balance an awful lot of plates at once, but we don’t want you to think we’ve forgotten about you or the project.  Results soon . . .then more to come.

Thank you again for your patience, for your participation, and for your dedication to Oregon.  Enjoy these long July days, and don’t be a stranger.

Good morning! Looks like the Governor stopped by Oregon’s Kitchen Table for a visit and he’s got a message for all of us.

We’ve been asking you for a couple of weeks to take a seat at the Kitchen Table and to encourage your friends and family to do so, too.  Today, though, we’re asking you to do one more thing: participate in the very first online citizen consultation about the state’s budget and the kind of Oregon we want in the future.  The information that you provide will be used to inform the Governor in developing the state’s 10 Year Plan and the 2013-15 budget.

Go sign up for Oregon’s Kitchen Table, and then you will be asked to share your opinion about some of Oregon’s most pressing decisions. This first consultation should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.
So pull up a chair at oregonskitchentable.org and join the conversation.

We want to hear from you before June 22, but please weigh in as soon as possible and encourage your friends and family to join the conversation!

Sarah

Living here in Oregon, I’m a continent away from my dad, but we manage to keep really good conversations going about the issues affecting us in our different states. And he’s always sending me clips from his local paper or links to news articles.  Then we exchange long emails or phone calls about what we’re thinking. These exchanges remind me of the kitchen during dinnertime when I was growing up. More than anything else, I hear the noise of the six of us simply talking and discussing the things that mattered in our house, our family, our neighborhood, our town and beyond.  Even now, when we get together for a holiday meal, we come around to the really important issues in the public square. We shove our chairs back, pound the table, argue a little, get up for another helping, and keep talking.

This week, my dad sent me an article he thought I’d like from the Boston Globe about how questions could drive learning, innovation, business strategy, and creativity and even help in our relationships with decisions makers.

In “Are We Asking the Right Questions?” Leon Neyfahk writes, “Wielded with purpose and care, a question can become a sophisticated and potent tool to expand minds, inspire new ideas, and give us surprising power at moments when we might not believe we have any.”

And it got me to thinking about what we’re doing here with Oregon’s Kitchen Table. This experiment relies on decision makers and our advisory board – a fantastic, dedicated group of civic leaders – working hard to make sure they’re asking questions that will inspire new ideas from all of you.

Soon, we’ll be sending all of you who have signed up and taken a seat a series of questions (what we’re calling a “consultation”) about an important issue in our state. And even beyond that, we think that Oregon’s Kitchen Table will itself become a potent tool to inspire you to become interested in participating in public issues at the local, regional, and statewide levels.  We hope you will think about the kinds of questions we all need to be asking each other to get to the innovative ideas that will lead to good solutions in our state. And we hope you’ll take your questions back to the conversations you’re having at your kitchen table.

As Dan Rothstein, who heads up the Right Question Institute, says:  “It’s essential to democracy. . . .You want citizens to be able to ask good questions.”

Sarah Giles

As people across the state start to gather around Oregon’s Kitchen Table, we’d like to thank you! If you sign up by May 31, you’ll have a chance to win one of four collectible, mint condition 1959 Oregon Statehood U.S. Postage Stamps, donated by an anonymous Oregonian committed to bringing us together on the issues we care about most.

On June 1, we’ll draw the names of four lucky people who’ve taken a seat at the table. Make sure to give us your address when you sign up – we’ll need to be able to mail the stamp to you if you win.

We also want to get to know you! Send us a photo of you and your household, your friends, colleagues or neighbors at your own kitchen table. Send them to us by email (info@oregonskitchentable.org), post on our Facebook wall, or join our Flickr Group, Oregon’s Kitchen Tables, and submit there. Oregonians are a hospitable lot! We’re getting pictures of kids (what inspires you to make decisions about our state’s future?) and pets (what are the things that make you feel most at home?) and, of course, the tables where we all gather to talk things over.

Here’s mine. In my household, we like to come armed with a recipe or two when we hash things out!

Sarah Giles
Recipe Reviewer (and PCI Special Projects Manager)