The Conference Coordination Initiative is an outreach activity sponsored by USDA agencies and coordinated through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. Under this initiative, USDA agencies participate in annual national conferences of organizations representing limited resource communities and underserved populations, including African American, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Hispanic American, American Indian and Alaskan Native communities, and organizations representing women.

Representatives from USDA agencies participate in the conferences by distributing information about USDA programs and services, providing speakers from USDA agencies, holding workshops, and as exhibitors. USDA officials and USDA subject matter experts attend the conferences, presenting an opportunity for the conference attendees to have one-on-one meetings with USDA officials and USDA subject matter experts to discuss issues concerning the respective communities. This is also an opportunity for effective networking.

The Conference Coordination Initiative participates with organizations that meet the following criteria:

• are proactive in providing educational materials to the communities they serve;
• hold an annual conference that is national in scope with at least 3,000 attendees (exceptions may be made for those communities with smaller conferences); and
• serve as a major advocacy group to the community they serve.

Organizations meeting the criteria can request to participate in this initiative by sending a letter of request to Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. Letters of request should be sent to:

Program Manager for Conference Coordination
USDA Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20250, Mail Stop 0115
E-mail Address: Conference.Coordination@usda.gov

Conference Coordination Schedule for 2009