The Activist Solutions Dialogue Network for Action (DNA) project will begin once the Solution Exchange is up and running. Essentially, the DNA program will consist of a national network of small groups of highly compatible people who meet regularly for the purpose of creating, discussing, and refining innovative solutions to many of the tough problems confronting our country. Groups will be composed of compatible people who have chosen to relate to several different aspects of the same idea. Authors with similar solutions will be urged to merge their proposals, both within each group and between groups.

Each DNA Group will be composed of no more than seven people, with one person (or several in rotation) chosen by the group to serve as volunteer facilitators. The facilitator’s primary task will be to help participants follow a preset structured group format, designed to keep the discussion focused, on target, positive, and productive.

Before joining a group, each DNA participant will pick a problem that has been posted on the Solution Exchange. To pick one, participants will browse through lists of issues (Economy, Environment, Health), and then open up the list of problems under each issue topic. (Participants can also look for a particular problem via the Search command.) Once a problem has been picked, the person will read the provided In Depth Discussion posts linked to it, and then post ideas for proposed solutions to various aspects of that problem on the Solution Exchange.
Group members will have chosen the same problem and a complementary range of aspects of that problem to focus on. In order to minimize unproductive conflict, group members will be further matched for the similarity of their solutions, of their points of view, and of their compatibility in a variety of dimensions.

Dialogue Groups will meet face-to-face or online in real time as often as necessary for them to finalize each of their proposals for solutions to the target problem of their choice.

Essentially, each small group will be an ongoing problem solving unit that functions as a practical tool for turning ideas into finished proposals for action. Group members will help each other develop, refine, and finalize their own presentation of solutions to the same problem. Each group participant will be free to post revisions of their ideas on the Solution Exchange as well, in order to get as much input as possible.

After a Dialogue Group finishes work with their target problem, they will be encouraged to keep meeting as a group to relate to the next problem that interests them.

Three consecutive phases

Phase 1 will involve the development of innovative solutions to a range of political problems, as described above.

During this process, group members will circulate their initial proposal drafts to each other. Other participants in the group network and the larger Activist Solutions community will read them, giving feedback and making suggestions. Wherever similar or complementary solutions emerge from different sources, groups will be encouraged to merge their proposals. After each group member has made whatever final revisions s/he chooses, final individual or joint solutions will be posted.

In the second or Selection phase, participants in both the Dialogue Network for Action and the Solution Exchange will read and rate the proposed solutions produced in each problem area and collectively select the best of them. Solutions that get the most positive response will be circulated on public petitions, where they will accumulate still more support.

All readers will be asked to declare their level of support (or opposition) to each solution that they read. Readers will check off one of the following: 1 –I would volunteer time to get this solution enacted. 2 – Good, but I wouldn’t put time into it. 3 – I am neutral on it. 4 – I don’t like it. 5 – It doesn’t make sense to me.

In phase 3, the action phase of the program, necessary efforts will be made to promote selected solutions in each problem area. Volunteers will be recruited from all of the organizations and individuals that have been involved up to this point, as well as from the public at large. As many participants as can be recruited will help generate publicity and public support for the selected proposals of their choice. They will also lobby policy makers to adopt and support them.

Phase 3 participants will also be invited to join groups, in which they can create strategies for accomplishing all of this, and for recruiting and training still more volunteer participants in the program.