Day Three: National Conference on Volunteering & Service

Starting with the morning panel featuring former Senator Sam Nunn, former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, Michelle Nunn and Alan Khazei, the founder of City Year. The talk was the future of our national service programs - how should these programs be structured, should there be mandatory national service, etc. Quite a lot to think about, when you consider the programs run the gamut from AmeriCorps for 18+ year olds to the SeniorCorps program for 55+ citizens. Add in things like Peace Corps, and you get a wide variety of opinions and sentiment.

I'm certainly in favor of expanding the programs - these are very viable - but I also believe that the program participants deserve more recognition and perhaps benefits for their sacrifices. Some of the AmeriCorps members that I met this week could easily be filling whiz-kid jobs anywhere in America - for example, Andrew Ewing, who greeted conference participants with me at the airport on Sunday. And while he gets some great skills and personal satisfaction from his work with the NCCC group of AmeriCorps, the inducement of $4750 for future education may not be enough to attract more young people of his calibre.

So, maybe a boost in the education award for the AmeriCorps participants, and an increase in the hourly stipend paid to SeniorCorps... it's important that these programs not degrade. We shouldn't let AmeriCorps slide into a program for students who can't find other employment & "settle" for AmeriCorps.

Climbing off my soapbox ...

Some good sessions in the morning that I attended in smorgasboard fashion - a little here, some there, a bit of that ... The panel discussion on Media was well-attended; I think it should be offered multiple times next year so that every organization can attend. It offered a lot of valuable tips and ideas for the very small nonprofits, and could be of use to any size organization. I certainly got some ideas to put into use as a Board Member of a nonprofit that is struggling for exposure. Is there any organization that is willing to get less coverage? I think not!

It was raining GE folks at this Conference; Jill Lazzaro Heinrich of the GE Foundation was a panelist on using technology to leverage employee volunteer programs for outstanding results.

Fun followup discussion with Bea Boccalandro, who is managing the survey on effective Employee Volunteer Programs. She says 'two weeks' until she's ready to open the survey for corporations to input their information. This is important stuff, so be sure to have your company participate - or your corporate funders!

The Closing Session, back at the Georgia World Congress Center, featured former President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter. As always, President and Mrs. Carter demonstrated their unwavering support of the concept of servant-leadership in their remarks. President Carter has the most engaging soft wit and charm, and Mrs. Carter never fails to endear herself with earnestness and eagerness in the same moment. Former Senator Nunn returned to the stage for a town hall format Q&A.;

Serendipity prevails ... a board meeting for Creating Pride, a local arts/education nonprofit, was scheduled for 3pm in the building adjacent to the Marriott (main conference venue). As I was leaving the Board Meeting at 6:30, I ran into Shawn Reifsteck, Pat Chandler, Ellen Ferber and Ann Burroughs (hope I've spelled all correctly).

We had a long chat; I suggested that the black Hands On Network t-shirts be reserved as a special 'limited edition' for the staff will be taken.

The staff has, over the past year, dealt with the enormous challenge of integrating the two organizations and deserve for their efforts to have a unique visual representation to all of us who work with them.

Kudos to the entire team, and looking forward to seeing even more attendees next year in San Francisco.