SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA KINDERGARTEN CONFERENCE, INC.

The Southern California Kindergarten Conference, Inc. (SCKC) is a volunteer organization dedicated to providing quality Staff Development activities for those involved in the education of children in Preschool, Kindergarten, and First Grade. SCKC sponsors an annual conference in Burbank, California (Los Angeles area) which enables educators, child care providers, and parents to acquire valuable pertinent information from prominent speakers, workshops, networking opportunities, and vendors. As many as 1100 people have attended these successful conferences. Staff Development enables adults to enhance their own skills working with young children. The SCKC conference, which takes place on a Friday afternoon and all day on Saturday, is planned and organized by volunteers. SCKC is celebrating its 20th year of providing quality staff development and is currently planning their 20th annual conference in February 2006.

The volunteer organization is composed of teachers and administrators from both public and private schools. Regular planning meetings are held after school, with many members driving over one hour to attend. Most planning activities take place outside of the regular meetings, but again after school, evenings, or on weekends. From May 2004 to April 2005, planning committee members accumulated more than 800 hours of volunteer time while planning and organizing the 19th annual conference that was held in February 2005. While some of the members are retired, most are currently working in the Early Childhood field. They are exemplary models of professionalism in the field of Education.

SCKC is not affiliated with any organization and receives no monetary support other than annual conference registrations. They do ask school districts and other educational organizations to serve as “co-sponsors” for our conference. In exchange for distributing registration booklets to its teachers, a co-sponsor is awarded a scholarship registration to enable a new teacher to attend.

Additionally, SCKC sponsors its own Teacher Award program. Teachers are encouraged to submit projects for a grant of $1000 to be awarded during the General Session at each conference. A volunteer committee and local Early Childhood Education professors review the projects based on established criteria. The awardees present their projects during the workshop portion of the conference, thus giving them the opportunity to present Staff Development. SCKC has a paid administrative assistant to process registration materials and conduct office business.