www.volunteeringandservice.org
The National Conference on Volunteering and Service (or should be known as the “Global” conference as it’s the world’s largest.) kicked off with an opening plenary at Radio City Music Hall. Michelle Nunn, President and CEO of the Points of Light Institute and Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service welcomed the 5,800 attendees to the convening titled “It’s Up To You!.” Melody Barnes, Chair of the White House Domestic Policy Council spoke about the power of social innovation to help strengthen the country. She introduced a video of Michelle Obama greeting the group. The First Lady gave the keynote address at last year’s conference in San Francisco but unfortunately was not able to attend this year. Probably the best presentation of the Opening was from Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Over the past few months he has been leading the effort to get his fellow mayors across the country to establish Chief Service Officers. He appointed the Nation’s first for New York, Diahann Billings-Burford. I had the privilege in leading a panel that Diahann participated on at the Conference Board’s Contributions Council Meeting in Washington in April. The panel’s subject was the Government’s Role in Service. From the Federal level we had Sonal Shah, Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation and at the State level, Secretary of Volunteering and Service for California, Karen Baker. Diahann represented local government. Diahann is a model for the rest of the country. The Rockefeller Foundation held a competition to award a two year salary for 10 cities. California I am happy to say received two of the grants, Los Angeles and Sacramento. The Mayor invited the 10 Chief Service Officers on stage along with Diahann. Rockefeller, along with Bloomberg Philanthropies has awarded another 10 cities. This is all part of the Cities of Service initiative effort that Jim Anderson is leading for Bloomberg. Service truly takes place at the local level and this initiative is the most exciting that I have seen in years to engaged citizens in their own communities.
The Reimagining Service forum continued the discussion on how service can be transformative for both communities and its people. This self-organized community of individuals from nonprofits, government and the private sector has released a report and is seeking comment. My favorite line from their information is: we can all re-imagine service and collectively, convert good intentions into greater impact.
In addition to the workshop track aimed at the Corporate sector, there were several convening’s of the workplace volunteerism leadership from the Points of Light Institute’s Corporate Service Council to the CEO Roundtable, Ernst & Young’s Future of Volunteering breakfast to the Employee Engagement Action Network meeting co-facilitated by the International Business Leadership Forum and the Clinton Global Initiative held at Edelman. The POLI Corporate Service Council meeting was chaired by John Rice, a Vice Chair of General Electric and co hosted by GE and IBM. It was a dynamic morning both advising POLI on its corporate work as well as learning from former head of the White House Office of USA Freedom Corp and current leader of Civic Enterprises more about the Service World initiative. Service World takes on, where the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act ends, at the US boarder and applies the principles in a global context. Jonathon Tisch moderated the CEO Roundtable that included Rice and Jack Dorsey, Creator, Co-founder and Chairman of Twitter, Inc. and CEO of Square, Inc. He just published a new book on corporate, organizational and individual philanthropy and volunteering titled Citizen You. He is a great speaker and I am sure it will be just as an engaging read!
The closing morning of the conference continued with an emotional breakfast and in my opinion the most import plenary. The breakfast was to announce the 9/11 Day of Service to be conducted on the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2011. This effort is being lead by David Paine and Jay Winuk. I have known David for years as he started his own PR firm in southern California and started My Good Deed (then One Day’s Pay) as an effort to get September 11 as a national Day of Survive. His hard work and perseverance paid off and the effort was included in the Serve America Act. At the breakfast, several people spoke who are leading various efforts on behalf of those lost including the work of compiling the stories/biographies of each individual. Many family members were in attendance and told personal stories of their heroic loved ones.
There is nothing more important in fixing our societal ills than to reinvent education. Arne Duncan US Secretary of Education gave the key note address at the Role of Service in Remaking Education forum. He is brilliant and passionate. If I had it, I would paste in his entire speech. He truly understands the problems and more importantly understands the opportunities. It is disheartening to know the realities where there are so many competing interests in the educational arena that cause us to be stuck in paralysis. I am a product of public schools, our country was built upon public schools and for us to succeed in this century we need to overhaul our system and make it effective and relevant for a global economy.