4 Reasons I’m Attending the National Conference on Volunteering and Service

This post originally appeared on the VolunteerMatch blog and we liked it so much we wanted to share it here too!

With conference season upon us, it’s decision time for nonprofit staff – which conferences do we attend, and which do we just file away under “Nice to go?” Like any nonprofit, at VolunteerMatch we’re limited by budget, time and resources, and yet each year the National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS) makes the cut.

Why is this conference, occurring this year June 6-8 in New Orleans, so important? I figured I’d share with you why I chose to go, because chances are, these reasons are relevant for you as well:

1. To Share Ideas and Best Practices

   NCVS is a place to learn and be inspired, and with close to 4,000 attendees already registered and more than two hundred sessions and workshops to choose from, the ambiance will be stimulating, to say the least.

   We’ll hear from leaders including Ruby Bridges, Civil Rights Activist, Wendy Kopp, CEO and Founder, Teach For America, Political Consultants Mary Matalin and James Carville, and more. Whether you’re looking to build a social media strategy, engage your Boomer population more deeply, or make the most of volunteers who spring up following disasters, there’s a session and there’s an expert at the conference that can help you.

2. To Meet Others Like – and Unlike – Us

   How often do you get to dish with fellow volunteer managers about your work? Each year NCVS is the largest gathering of volunteer and service leaders from the nonprofit, corporate and government sectors.

   So not only will you meet other nonprofit volunteer managers like you, you’ll meet others in the volunteering sector that are NOT like you, such as nonprofit capacity builders like VolunteerMatch, and volunteer program funders from the corporate and government realms. Oh yes, and there will be a heck of a lot of volunteers there to remind you why what you do is so important.

3. It’s More Affordable Than Ever

   To thank you for your work for the community, Points of Light Institute is inviting you to join us all at the conference using a special discount code. Register using the Friends and Family discount before Friday, May 20 with the code DISC22011 for $200 off your registration costs.

4. It’s in New Orleans

   Destination conferences are always fun, but this year’s location has extra significance for the volunteering world. We’re excited to go to New Orleans to explore, and we’re excited to support their economy as the region struggles to recover from yet another disaster.

   We’re excited to go to New Orleans to see first-hand the power of volunteers to help those in need and rebuild communities, and to learn from their ongoing community organizing and development efforts. Many of this year’s featured speakers, who are leaders in volunteering and service, hail from the New Orleans region.

We hope we’ll see you June 6-8 in New Orleans! Let us know if you’ll be at the conference.

Here are some step-by-step instructions to make it easier to register:

• Go to www.volunteeringandservice.org.
• Click “Register Now.”
• Select one of the following categories that applies to you:
  -”I am a HandsOn Network Member”
  -”I am a grantee, subgrantee, participant, program sponsor, or employee of the Corporation for National and Community Service”
  -”I am not in either the HandsOn Network or the National and Community Service Program”
• When asked for a promo code please enter: DISC22011.
• Continue to register as normal.
• When you reach the payment page you still need to click the box that says “I agree to pay the $XXX fee.”
• The $200 discount will come off at the end.

What factors influence your decision to attend conferences like NCVS?