| What | - Stick to the Subject is a social club for independent thinkers who want to have an impact on public policy. The club follows an orderly process of self-study, face-to-face discussion, and anonymous, ranked choice voting to put forward their best consensus thinking on the policy subjects they choose to study.
- Participants meet across a network of restaurants, cafes, and taverns for round table discussions called Conversation Sit-downs.
- The goal is accurate, mutual understanding that leads to either points of agreement or agreeable compromise, and not necessarily the changing of minds. The give and take is respectful, courteous, and stays focused on the policy subject itself.
- The ideas resulting from these deliberations are added to the results of previous debates to maintain a dynamic public policy platform that remains in continuous development and directly responsive to the democratic process.
- Stick is a humanistic response to the social disfunction of social media and a resistance to the predations of artificial intelligence and robotics on our essential ways of life.
- However complex the structure of its idea is, the core of Stick to the Subject is this: people committed to the public good meeting over food for civil discourse on the policy issues that affect us all.
| | | | Who | - Stick to the Subject is a companionship of the open-minded, moving policy discourse from the political class to the people; from online to in-person; from rallies and town halls to a network of round table discussions; and from bands of ideological tribes to gatherings of free thinking individuals.
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| Where and When | - Conversation Sit-Downs are hosted in public locations, such as restaurants, which post weekly Schedules of Availability reporting the number of available seats at Stick's reserved tables by day and time.
- The Discussion Society operates during North Carolina's summer, fall, and spring academic terms. The Knowledge Base remains in continuous operation.
| | | | How | - Stick's system has two interrelated operations: in-person Discussion Societies (social art) and an online Knowledge Base (technical craft).
- Discussion Societies are stand-alone series of twelve weekly public policy discussions. Participating members are surveyed on their policy concerns and the top twelve policy subjects become the discussion schedule.
- Week by week, participants self-study the policy subjects using their own resources or the Knowledge Base, attend Conversation Sit-Downs to discuss them, and then vote on resolutions toward the policy using anonymous, ranked choice voting.
- The Knowledge Base provides information and logistical support for Discussion Societies. Some key features:
- There are no chat rooms or discussion forums. All interaction is face-to-face.
- There are neither links to social media nor any presence on them.
- A.I. is not used in any capacity and its use is condemned as a threat to humanity's best interests.
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