A flat, worn, almost round stone
Flung by the arm of the universe,
I skip across the rippling waters
Leaving in my wake
A string of
ever-expanding circles...

[Conversation Week 2007] was a significant start to a valuable tradition, so I look forward to more next year. Let's keep those ripples expanding!
- Tobin

It's coming again! Conversation Week 2008 is already in the planning stages, so save the date now - March 24-30, 2008!! Stay tuned to the CC website for more information.

"Dialogue is to love, what blood is to the body. When the flow of blood stops, the body dies. When dialogue stops, love dies and resentment and hate are born. But dialogue can restore a dead relationship. Indeed, this is the miracle of dialogue: it can bring relationship into being, and it can bring into being once again a relationship that has died. There is only one qualification to these claims for dialogue: it must be mutual and proceed from both sides, and the parties to it must persist relentlessly."
- Reuel L. Howe, The Miracle of Dialogue, 1963

The Bayview Farmer's Market - a weekly effusion of vegetables and flowers and fruits and cheeses and bread and art and music - is pure community. You go and taste and munch and buy and dance to marimba bands. You also, through the conversations with friends that are sometimes brief and sometimes deep, repair and infill and expand the web of community which is as much nourishment as the organic vittles we buy.

Conversations create community and community is more than a personal fabrication, with you at the center and your family, friends and acquaintances as spokes around you as the hub. Communities like mine on an island in Puget Sound are generated daily by all the life they hold within them, giving everyone safety and belonging and a sense of being part of something that endures. Every conversation in the grocery store, the bank, the coffee shop, the farmer's market is actually adds to that safety, belonging and sense of permanence that feeds us all. Without conversation - without those brief, perhaps inconsequential moments when we listen to one another and - community perishes, leaving behind a dead carcass of houses and stores and roads and strangers.

Are you planning to go abroad in the next year? Or do you live in an international community?

Create a CC for a fabulous cross cultural experience! Here are three success stories from my experience to inspire you.

**A few years ago, I was visiting Mexico where my daughter was doing an internship. We decided to hold a CC. We joined three local professional people as well as my daughter, her best friend and myself as three Americans, meeting at their office.

Our hosts spoke English and we began in that language. By the second half of our evening, we three Americans chose to struggle through our Spanish to feel more connected with them and to share the burden of speaking in a second language.

The conversation became an incredible exploration of family life in the US and Mexico. Through our sharing, we American became aware of the toll our independent lives of exploration takes on family connection. And our Mexican friends realized that, while their families are very close, they never experienced the level of intimacy in communication that we share in that sweet CC circle with siblings or parents.

In this new column, Ron Gross will share ideas, techniques, and experiences, including topics for sessions, facilitation strategies, and promotional tips. Ron conducts his Socratic Conversations at Columbia University and throughout New York City, writes a column on lifelong learning for About.com, and is the author of SOCRATES' WAY (www.SocratesWay.com) and 20 other books. While the form of Socratic conversations is somewhat different from Conversation Cafés, the principles and intentions are very much the same. His (and Socrates') wisdom can help us all have livelier, richer, deeper conversations.
-Vicki Robin

How can you attract people to your Conversation Café? And how can you assure that the people you attract are diverse enough to generate the cosmopolitan atmosphere which many of us treasure in our groups?

That was the subject of a Host Support Conference Call several weeks ago, with a dozen hosts around the country and as far flung as Tokyo.

I learned a lot, having over the years made every mistake in the book in trying to lure the right folks to my sessions: getting nobody, getting too many, getting all-white, or all affluent, or all professional, or all retired, or getting zealots and narcissists.

Increasing diversity is something most CC hosts strive for in their CCs, but one CC Cousin is taking his CC to where the diversity is by crossing country borders and using his CC to overcome cultural and language barriers.

Napa Valley native Shawn Berlin, a European Director for a foreign exchange company based in Geneva, Switzerland has been using the CCs to overcome language challenges for more than two years. "I was teaching myself Czech while living in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic two winters ago when I hit upon the idea to host evening foreign language gatherings at a local 'hospode' (Czech for 'bar') and 'Pivo Skola' (Beer School) was born. Many locals would ask me if I would tutor them in English or Spanish and as I was also struggling with Czech so it seemed like a good idea. Not being fond of traditional language instruction, with too much emphasis on grammar and syntax, I developed a very casual style to bring participants into conversation, no matter how proficient their skills were."

Napa Valley native Shawn Berlin, a European Director for a foreign exchange company based in Geneva, Switzerland has been using the CCs to overcome language challenges for more than two years. "I was teaching myself Czech while living in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic two winters ago when I hit upon the idea to host evening foreign language gatherings at a local 'hospode' (Czech for 'bar') and 'Pivo Skola' (Beer School) was born. Many locals would ask me if I would tutor them in English or Spanish and as I was also struggling with Czech so it seemed like a good idea. Not being fond of traditional language instruction, with too much emphasis on grammar and syntax, I developed a very casual style to bring participants into conversation, no matter how proficient their skills were."

"I live in a small town and I'm afraid a Conversation Café would seem too strange here where everyone already knows each other - for better or worse! How would you suggest I introduce the CC method in my situation?"

CC is a great way to interact in fresh and new ways with people you already know: a small town is like a neighborhood: I've used CC with great satisfaction and delight on my block. I invited my neighbors to come and share stories around topics of mutual concern. I never knew what interesting people I was living near!

The CC process brought us beyond the usual superficial chat about the weather and sports - and brought us to a deeper level of connection and mutual understanding. It felt comfortable and safe and very wonderful.

It works well within the extended family as well. So I bet you will be surprised to try this in your little town!

Begin with stories everyone will and connect around. Choose something like one of these: What do you love about our town? What is your dream for your children? What is the most important lesson you have learned in your life so far? What do you think is the most important question for our times?

We often feature excellent articles we've collected about conversations that matter. We welcome readers to forward powerful articles to us. Send your submission to: [email protected].

"We regard our living together not as an unfortunate mishap warranting endless competition among us, but as a deliberate act of God to make us a community of brothers and sisters jointly involved in the quest for a composite answer to the varied problems of life."

- Steven Biko, Black South African activist

"In human societies there will always be differences of views and interests. But the reality today is that we are all interdependent and have to coexist on this small planet. Therefore, the only sensible and intelligent way of resolving differences and clashes of interests, whether between individuals or nations, is through dialogue. The promotion of a culture of dialogue and nonviolence for the future of mankind is thus an important task of the international community."

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in a speech to the "Forum 2000″ Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, September 4, 1997

Hosting Conversation Cafés may be one of the most rewarding and complex volunteer activities you've ever done. The conversations are at once rich and challenging. Topics, guests and keeping the agreements can be thrilling or tough or both at once. You as a host are outposts for civility and community in a sea of alienation and confusion. Hosts are courageous conversationalists. We can all use an occasional hand - a round of applause and a bit of assistance.

Host Support Calls are designed to help you with every aspect of your ongoing hosting and foster a sense of community among current and former hosts around the world. Some calls are open topic, welcoming all concerns and celebrations for group reflection. For others, specific hosts who have a deep interest or good track record in a particular aspect of hosting will share tips and hear yours and together we'll create the breakthroughs we desire.

Don't miss these wonderful opportunities! They are only the cost of a phone call and will be one of your best hours of the week, guaranteed, because it's a meta conversation café among your peer hosts. --Vicki Robin

The next Host Learning Circle Tele- conference call is Sept. 12, 2007 from 9:00 am to 10:15 am PDT, with host Vicki Robin.

2007 Host Learning Circle Tele- conferences:

Sept. 12, 9-10:15 am PDT with Vicki Robin, open topic
Oct. 1, 5:30-6:45 pm PDT with Jacquelyn Pogue, "Partnering with Community Organizations and Reaching Out to Local Media"
Dec. 6, 5:30-6:45 pm PST with Susan Partnow, "Going Where the People Are"

November 1, 2007:
5:30 pm-7:00 pm PST

Join our own Susan Partnow, professional trainer and CC co-founder, for a telephone training Nov. 1st at 5:30pm -7:00pm Pacific Standard Time.

Sign up yourself, or (and!) forward the newsletter along to other folks you know who would enjoy a jump-start into CC hosting.

A donation of $18 for this 90-minute training is requested.

To register contact [email protected]

Conversation Cafés really are about making life on earth wiser!

This short self quiz will help you know you have all the ingredients at hand for a delicious Conversation Café. It's a way to check your understanding and pick up details you might have missed the first time through the manual or training. Have fun! And we welcome you as a host for Conversation Cafés and beyond. Select all the answers that apply!