About

All interested NH citizens are invited  to participate in the community conversations, which will take place in the following locations: 

 Berlin                Littleton

Concord            Manchester

Conway            Portsmouth                  

Keene               Rochester

Laconia             Salem

Lebanon

 The small-group dialogues will begin at 9:00 am on Feb. 13 in each community and conclude no later than 4:00 pm; lunch will be provided.  Participants will be expected to stay throughout the day so there will be ample time to study available data, consider a wide range of options for expanded gambling-from no change in the current policies to the creation of casino resorts-and develop recommendations for the Governor’s Study Commission. 

 The organizers and facilitators of What’s At Stake? are committed to an open, fair process that considers all points of view.  It is the citizens themselves who will deliberate, weigh options, and develop position statements or recommendations.  Each small group will submit a report of its deliberations and outcomes, and all of the small group reports will be summarized and submitted to the Governor’s Study Commission in March, 2010.

 The discussion sessions themselves, once they begin, will be open only to registered participants and their facilitators. This policy is essential so that participants will have no distractions and interruptions, providing them the opportunity to listen and ask questions of each other in an open, safe environment.  This process is not intended to reach a single conclusion or group consensus.   The process is intended to capture the essence of the participants’ diversity of views-and why those views are important to this issue-as well as their hopes, concerns, and new ideas for the Study Commission to consider.

 This project has received funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the WK Kellogg Foundation, with in-kind contributions by the University of New Hampshire and UNH Cooperative Extension.