Bridges-Related Presentations at ARNOVA, 2001

For pictures from ARNOVA 2001, click here. 

Apart from new research, curricula, papers and other nonprofit management education products, the Building Bridges Initiative has also produced interesting ideas about methods of convening large groups. Several Building Bridges Initiative team members presented a panel discussion entitled "Methods of Convening: Powerful Strategies for Building Bridges." Chaired by Katheryn Heidrich, of CenterPoint Institute, presenters discussed four different strategies used to facilitate group processes and a statistical analysis of communications among Building Bridges project teams.

Initiative team member R. Sam Larson presented preliminary results of a Building Bridges networking study. The study showed a marked increase in contact among Bridges projects from 1998 through 2000. Next, Kellogg Program Director Andres Thompson detailed a new network of Latin American colleagues that arose as a result of planning and hosting site visits for the 1999 Learning Community meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Robert Ashcraft told of using the InteractiveManagement (IM) method of group discussion and decision-making to enable a productive interest group meeting at Arizona State University.

The AnyTime AnyPlace Virtual Meeting Strategy, used by University at Albany - SUNY’s Margery Saunders, allowed constituents and stakeholders to form, compose and refine the agenda, in cyberspace, for an upcoming meeting. Finally, Bob Long, Kellogg Foundation Vice President, discussed Kellogg’s long-term support of the Salzburg Seminar and the transforming effect of gathering a diverse group of international scholars in a neutral, residential environment.

The Kellogg Foundation also sponsored a breakfast presentation called "Building Bridges with Latin America." Andres Thompson and Bob Long spoke to a crowd of over 200 about the collegial and academic ties that have developed because of a purposeful strategy to engage Kellogg’s United States and Latin American grantees over the topic of civil society.

For more information on any of these topics, contact Katheryn Heidrich at CenterPoint Institute, (815) 436-1300 or kwh@centerpointinstitute.org.