The 2007 gathering of AmeriCorps Grantees will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the National Conference on Volunteering and Service.  The meeting provides an opportunity for sharing stories, building on our successes, expanding our networks, and growing our professional skills– so that we can make our organizations and programs even better.  For the first time, you can pre-register for the conference and select your workshop sessions.  Therefore, it is important to register early to reserve a space in the sessions you want.

What you need to know:

Conference Registration:  Register for the conference, reserve your hotel, and select your workshops at http://www.volunteeringandservice.org beginning later this month.  We will send an email notification once registration is live.

The AC Grantee meeting registration process is integrated into the overall registration for the National Conference on Volunteering and Service.  Saturday and Sunday, July 14 and 15, are Pre-conference days.  The official AmeriCorps grantee meeting starts on Sunday, July 15, with AmeriCorps State and AmeriCorps National luncheons.  The national conference opens Monday July 16 at 9:30 a.m. and closes Wednesday, July 18 at 2:30 p.m. Please see the schedule on the website for specific details.

The Registration process includes creating an account and password.  Make sure that you maintain them in case you want to change your selections at a later date.  In order to ensure that you can find the AmeriCorps specific workshops, they can be searched using the keyword AmeriCorps.  However, don’t forget to check out the larger workshop offerings. 

State Commissions will receive $1500 in additional funds as part of their PDAT award to supplement the cost of staff members and/or Commissioners participation in the conference.  Questions? Contact Sachiko Goode at sgoode@cns.gov.

This promises to be a great meeting and conference.  Here are some highlights of what’s happening…

• Baby Boomer Institute
• Federal Financial Management Training
• Mentoring Institute
• AmeriCorps Town Hall Meeting
• State of Volunteering Town Hall
• A Special Event at the Constitution Center
• ... and much, much more

We are working with the AmeriCorps T/TA Planning Working Group made up of your peers who may have already contacted you for any additional ideas or thoughts that need to be considered in developing the final agendas for the workshops or business meeting. Please share your ideas with them or feel free to contact one of us.

We look forward to seeing all of you in Philadelphia in July!