Clearview Consulting organizes inaugural meeting of “Communicating about our Democracy” advisory committee

October 2011 - Link

More than 40 democracy advocates representing a diverse mix of 35 organizations gathered in Washington, D.C on October 14, 2011 for the inaugural meeting of “Democracy Communications Advisory Group.” The meeting was organized by Clearview Consulting president Patrick Scully, who is currently serving as interim director of the Campaign for Stronger Democracy. Pat organized the meeting in collaboration with The Proteus Fund and with the generous support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

This meeting capped the first phase of an ambitious research project designed to develop a communications framework and strategy to more effectively communicate with the public about our democracy. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to translate public support for strengthening democracy into action.

Following introductions, Celinda Lake and Daniel Gotoff of Lake Research Partners presented the highlights from a new report commissioned by the Campaign. The report summarizes findings from an extensive review of public opinion research by polling organizations, communications firms, and democracy organizations throughout the last decade on five topics: public trust and accountability, the role of government and of citizens in a democracy, wealth and democracy, racial equity and civil rights, and electoral reform and voting rights.

Lake Research’s presentation sparked a frank Q&A session that informed the day’s work. Participants worked for the rest of the meeting in an iterative series of small-group and plenary discussions to identify a research agenda for the next phase of research and to refine goals for the broader Campaign.

Please click here to see notes from the meeting and an executive summary of the report from Lake Research Partners that informed the day’s work.

The Campaign for Stronger Democracy asks Clearview Consulting president Patrick Scully to serve as interim director

May 2011 - Link

Clearview Consulting president Patrick L. Scully has been hired to serve as interim director of the Campaign for Stronger Democracy. The Campaign is a new coalition that aspires to foster greater communication and collaboration among democracy reform advocates, and create a stronger, healthier democracy in which everyone has a meaningful voice.

Pat brings to this work stellar project management and leadership skills that are ideally suited to building collaborative, multi-organization initiatives. As director, he will work closely with the Campaign’s organizing committee to advance the Campaign for Stronger Demcracy’s programmatic objectives, recruit a permanent staff, and raise additional funds.

Clearview president Patrick Scully named project manager of Participedia

January 2011 - Link

Professors Archon Fung (Harvard University) and Mark E. Warren (University of British Columbia Vancouver) developed the idea of Participedia in the summer of 2009. Soon after, they asked Clearview president Patrick Scully to provide advice on program development and fundraising. Pat played a leading role in writing a grant proposal that resulted in the award of a $200,000 Partnership Development Grant from the Social Science and Humanities Council of Canada. He was named Participedia’s project manager in January 2011.

The Participedia Project responds to a transformation of democratic governance that involves hundreds of thousands of new channels of citizen involvement in government, often outside of the more visible politics of electoral representation, and occurring in most countries in the world. Given this rapid and extensive development, we need to know what kinds of processes exist, and we need to know what kinds work best for specific problems and issues, for specific goals, under specific circumstances.

The Participedia Project combines an extensive global partnership with new information technologies to create the information base necessary for high quality research and evidence-based practice. At its heart is an innovative research platform (www.participedia.net) that enables decentralized, collaborative creation and mobilization of knowledge in ways that will exceed the capacities of a more traditionally-organized research team.

Clearview president Pat Scully Leads Session at ESPN Women’s Leadership Conference

November 2010 - Link

At the invitation of the Leadership Research Institute, Clearview president Patrick Scully helped design and lead a session on “work/life effectiveness” at the “ESPN Women’s Leadership Conference 2010” on November 2 in Hartford, Connecticut.

Scully led a plenary session of 500 ESPN employees who used wireless keypad polling devices to register their response to several scenarios about challenges related to achieving optimal balance between their personal and work lives. After noting the audience’s response to each scenario, Scully led a “fishbowl” dialogue about issues of work-life balance with five of ESPN’s senior executives. Two senior researchers from the Center for Work-Life Policy also participated in the fishbowl dialogue after presenting highlights of how issues of work-life balance are playing out at ESPN and in dozens of other global corporations.

Clearview president Pat Scully Leads Webinar for Community Development Society

October 2010 - Link

Clearview president Pat Scully will lead one of a series of six webinars for the Community Development Society’s professional development program “Integrating Community Development Tools in Your Profession-(Re)Tooling with New and Innovative.” Scully and his co-presenter, Professor Paul Lachapelle of Montana State University, will discuss the role that study circles – sometimes referred to as “dialogue-to-change” circles – can play in community development. They will use the Northwest Area Foundation’s “Horizons” program as a case study. The Horizons program’s goal was to reduce poverty in small rural and reservation communities facing economic decline and demographic change.

The Community Development Society provides leadership to professionals and citizens across the spectrum of community development. CDS members represent a variety of fields: education, health care, social services, government, utilities, economic development practitioners, citizen groups, and more.

Clearview Consulting Website Launch

October 2010 - Link

Welcome to Clearview Consulting.

Our first important news is that our business launched this new website! We hope it gives you a clear sense of our mission, skills, experience, and interests.

Look to this section for news not only about our work and that of our clients, but also for items of general interest.