There is much exciting news at the Sortition Foundation and beyond - here is a brief glimpse:
- We are hiring! Are you, or do you know, an experienced, skilled, strategic digital campaigner? Please let us know if you are or do!
- We have three new incredible directors: Rachel Oliver, Andrew Cave and Ansel Herz - welcome!
- We continue supporting citizens' assemblies all over the world, including in the Maldives, in Switzerland (a youth assembly), in Spain, in the Netherlands (coming soon!), and an MP's citizens' forum in Canberra, Australia (the first of its kind that we know of), and of course many, many in the UK: in Barnet, Wales, and with several universities, just to briefly mention a few.
- ALSO, we supported our first ever project in the USA: selecting by lottery five representative and diverse Borough Assembly Committees in New York City.
On the political front, especially in the UK, things are heating up as well. With Keir Starmer well ahead in the polls, and promising to abolish the House of Lords to "restore trust in politics", and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown releasing a "renewing our democracy" report calling the Lords "indefensible" we see that now is the time to ramp up our campaign to replace the House of Lords with a House of Citizens - please support us today to help us transform politics!
What more could you want to know? Except that:
- President Macron's second French national citizens' assembly on assisted dying is in its final phases.
- The Irish are at it again: after tackling same-sex marriage, abortion, biodiversity and gender equality their latest national citizens' assembly will be on drugs (i.e. it will talk about drugs, not actually be on them - thanks Tom!)
- There are at least two new permanent citizens' assemblies: the Copenhagen "parliament" and the Brussels Region has launched a permanent climate assembly.
- After the success of the Conference on the Future of Europe, citizens' panels are becoming a regular feature of democratic life in the EU - with a panel on Food Waste, one on Virtual Worlds, and one on Learning Mobility.
And what about events? There are a few:
- If you want to go back to school - there are more and more deliberative democracy schools popping up all over the place.
- In Oxford, UK, on March 9, Larry Lessig from Harvard University will talk about democracy, the media and - we've heard - sortition will get a favourable mention.
- Also in Oxford, on March 18, a discussion and book launch of the late Maurice Pope's new book "The Keys to Democracy: Sortition as a New Model for Citizen Power".
Still not enough for you?
Then why not help us build the movement to transform politics faster by becoming a Friend of the Sortition Foundation now - together we can make 2023 a year of political transformation!
Thanks for your ongoing support,