Building on the success of our first round of Practitioner Support Network videoconferences, Groundswell is pleased to announce a second Call for Proposals for a Summer 2012 round!

Submit a Proposal: Currently, we are accepting proposals from practitioners who would like to discuss their work on one of our monthly video calls this summer or early fall. The deadline for proposals is Friday, May 25th. Proposals can be submitted online.

Join a Call: As soon as we’ve finalized the call schedule for our next round of Practitioner Calls, we will open the sign-up process for call participants. Make sure to join the Groundswell E-mail Listserv to be the first to hear once calls are scheduled, or check the PSN page in early June for more details.

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The Vision: Activists, organizers, cultural workers and oral historians who engage oral history as a method for movement-building and social change often confront challenging ethical and practical dilemmas in our work. The Practitioner Support Network seeks to create a safe space for practitioners to explore these challenges and get feedback and support from others who share similar values and commitments to a liberatory politics and praxis.

The Idea: About once a month, Groundswell will host and facilitate a video conference for a small group of practitioners (five to eight) focused on a particular question or challenge that one of the participants is confronting in their own work.

Before the Call: Featured Practitioner writes and shares a brief description of the specific question or challenge that they are facing. The Practitioner may also choose to share additional materials for call participants to review in advance (up to 10 minutes of audio or video material, a written project description, a website, etc.).

On the Call: A rough agenda for each call might look something like this:

Introductions (5 min)
Framing / Problem Posing (10 min) – Featured Practitioner provides a basic overview of their work and the specific challenge or question they are facing.
Facilitated Discussion (25 min) – A Groundswell representative will facilitate a group discussion during which call participants can respond to the Practitioners’ question and offer feedback, comments, suggestions, related examples or strategies from their own practice, etc.

After the Call: The Featured Practitioner will write up a brief, general summary (no more than 2 pages) of the discussion for wider distribution on the Groundswell website. (Call participants will have a chance to review/approve before distribution).