The Common Ground Network for Life and Choice Manual

discovering one another as human beings. By the end of thirteen months, the group had explored
the issue of sexuality education and arrived at a set of joint principles, which were provided to a
State legislator.
In the Washington, D. C. area, from an all-day workshop in 1994, a group has met
together for nearly five years. Their main purpose is to engage in, and promote pro-choice/prolife
dialogue. Periodically they sponsor workshops for new participants; an invitation is
extended to join the ongoing group. Occasionally the group engages in some activity involving
public outreach and education (e.g. a radio appearance, a press release, sending out speakers.)
However, their commitment to dialogue is reflected in an internal rule to always schedule
meeting time for dialogue whatever “business” needs to be attended to.
Common Ground of Philadelphia, another ongoing common ground group, often uses an
article chosen in advance to serve as the basis for discussion.
It is fair to say that a group needs to sustain a purpose for coming together that extends
beyond fostering their own relationships though in some instances, where participants are
activists/leaders in their movements, the relationship-building by itself can have significant
external impact and is an important outcome by itself.
Some further suggestions for a group of people meeting on an ongoing bases are these:
• The group needs to remain committed to ground rules and good process, like active listening.
• There ought to be facilitation. There have been instances where, with high trust created, a
member of the group takes on this role, or a PL-PC team.
• Discussions/meetings need to be focused by an agenda planned ahead (e.g. at the end of the
previous meeting.)
• Dialogue should continue, even when group business and action projects also become part of
the agenda.
• Trust building is an ongoing task. External events, changes in role by a participant – these
can spark the need for renewed trust building.
• Recognize that there will come a time when one person’s participation, or the whole group’s,
will reach an end point. It is worthwhile to arrive at a way to bring closure and to name the
outcomes and impacts of a person’s participation or a group’s activity.
The Common Ground
The following are areas of "common ground” that have emerged in common ground