Monday, May 21, 2012

National Disability Rights Network: 2012 Conference. June 4-7, 2012. Baltimore, MD

Register for the 2012 P&A/CAP Annual Conference by clicking here

2012 P&A/CAP Annual Conference

crowd-webWith plenty of new challenges ahead and a variety of emerging issues, the P&A/CAP network must be prepared to advance the rights of all people with disabilities.

The 2012 P&A/CAP Annual Conference presents a wonderful opportunity for you to hone existing skills and learn new ones.

Through the formal trainings and informal contacts with your fellow participants, you can renew and deepen your commitment to the work of the P&A/CAP System and become an active participant in improving the quality of life for people with disabilities.

We look forward to seeing you in Baltimore this June.

Sincerely,
Curt Decker
Executive Director, National Disability Rights Network

Registration

Get registered in 2 steps.
2. Reserve your hotel room. (Please register by May 4th.  Hotel rooms are not guaranteed after May 4th.)

General Information

 June 4 – 7, 2012

The Conference begins at 8:30 am Monday, June 4, and continues through 5:00 pm Thursday, June 7, 2012.

TASC Conference Registration Includes:

•    Two General Sessions (Tuesday and Thursday mornings)
•    A choice of 6 full-day Institutes on Monday and over 70 sessions Tuesday through Thursday (Monday Institutes require separate registration)
•    On-site program with session descriptions, speaker and attendee lists, and general information
•    Session handouts
•    Conference CD with handouts and resources from all conference sessions
Food is not provided with your conference registration, however, for your convenience, you may choose conference services (CS) which includes breakfast, lunch, morning and afternoon refreshments, and an evening reception on Tuesday, June 5.
Attendee Payments:
Full conference with CS, Tuesday – Thursday ..............................$465
Full conference without CS, Tuesday – Thursday .........................$0
Full conference plus Institute with CS, Monday-Thursday ..............$605
Full conference plus Institute without CS, Monday-Thursday ........ $0
NITA Only, Monday and Tuesday ................................................$295
Institute Only with CS, Monday ..................................................$140
Institute Only without CS, Monday .............................................$0
Full conference with CS and NITA, Monday-Thursday ..................$605
Full conference without CS and NITA*, Monday-Thursday ............$295

We encourage you to register by Monday, May 21, 2012 to ensure you have a space in the sessions, a complete agenda book, and all materials. For assistance contact registration@ndrn.org

CAP and PAIMI Subsidy: TASC provides a subsidy ($300 for CAP; $800 for PAIMI AC) for one individual from each state P&A/CAP to attend the conference. Please indicate which subsidy is being taken on the registration form. Subsidies will be sent to the agency in the form of a reimbursement after the conference.

Full-day Institutes are available Monday, June 4th, and require an additional attendee payment; please sign up early, as space is limited. The National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) will conduct a two-day training Monday and Tuesday, June 4-5.  *Since NITA is an intensive course, participants must purchase conference services for those two days.

•    ADA Employment Discrimination Litigation Institute
•    Investigation Deaths and Injuries Related to Specific Events
•    Legal Directors Meeting (limited to Legal Directors)
•    NITA Training (Monday AND Tuesday)    LIMIT: 16      
•    PAIMI Advisory Council Training (limited to PAIMI AC Chairs, Coordinators, and members)
•    School to Prison Pipeline

Cancellation Policy:

Any cancellations before Friday, May 4 will get a refund less a $50 administrative fee.  Cancellations after May 4 will not receive a refund.  All cancellations must be in writing and received by 5 p.m. on Friday, May 4 for a refund.
  
Conference Location:
The 2012 P&A/CAP Annual Conference will be held at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, located at the edge of Baltimore’s historic Inner Harbor:
700 Aliceanna Street, Baltimore, MD 21202
410-385-3000

•    The hotel is 12 miles from the Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).
•    Parking is available at the Marriott at the rate of $25/day or valet parking at $38 day. Parking garage does not accommodate over size vehicles.
•    The Baltimore Waterfront Marriott is a smoke-free hotel and all guests and attendees must comply with Marriott’s policy.
•    When making reservations, Marriott requires a one-night room deposit.  Reservations cannot be made without this deposit. Check-in time is 3:00 pm; check-out time is noon.

A block of rooms with a negotiated single/double room rate of $209 per night has been reserved during the conference. When making reservations, please call 1-800-266-9432 or go to: https://resweb.passkey.com/go/ndrn2012

Please make reservations early, as reservations in the room block are not guaranteed and the room block may sell out prior to the reservation deadline of Friday, May 4, 2012. After May 4, if there are any rooms left in the block, they will be released for sale to the general public and rooms and rates cannot be guaranteed.
   
Accommodations: Every effort has been made to ensure that the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you anticipate a need in this area, please make arrangements with the Marriott as soon as possible.  Accommodation needs for the conference itself should be indicated on the registration form.

Questions?  You may reach anyone at NDRN by phone at (202) 408-9514 or by fax at (202) 408-9520. For information concerning hotel, travel, or conference logistics, please contact Paula Hirt at paula.hirt@ndrn.org (Paula is only in the office two days a week) or kevin.scott@ndrn.org (Kevin is available Monday-Friday). Program questions may be directed to Nachama Wilker at nachama.wilker@ndrn.org.

GETTING THE MOST FROM THE CONFERENCE: We want your conference experience to be the best possible. With that in mind, we urge you to take time to review the agenda at-a-glance prior to the start of the conference to decide which sessions interest you the most. Preliminary workshop descriptions can also be found online at http://tascnow.com/tasc/meetings-and-trainings.html. For the most up-to-date information, please check the website and, upon arrival, the on-site program.

CONTINUING EDUCATION: Attorneys who practice in Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) states may earn continuing legal education (CLE) credit for attending the conference. Copies of the Standard MCLE form and a workshop attendance form will be available in the on-site program book each participant receives at registration.

Certain sessions may also qualify for continuing education for social workers and rehabilitation counselors.

PASSPORT TO ADVOCACY LEARNING (PAL): As part of our commitment to provide state-of-the-art training and technical assistance to P&A/CAP professionals, TASC has identified seven areas of skill Network professionals should master to provide competent and well-rounded disability rights advocacy. Sessions are designed to not only give you the information to build these skills, but also the opportunity to practice them before returning home. For more information, please visit http://tascnow.com/tasc/communication/passport-to-advocacy-learning-pal.html. 



Sunday, May 20, 2012

National Small Business Week. May 20-26, 2012


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National Small Business Week is here!

28 Million Businesses Strong & Growing

President Obama and Karen Mills at Taylor Gourmet
A Special Message from SBA Administrator Karen Mills
It’s that time of year again! Today, SBA joins the entire Obama Administration in wishing a very happy National Small Business Week to the more than 28 million American small businesses, their employees and the people they serve! National Small Business Week is a public-private partnership to honor small businesses from communities across America.
Small businesses all over the country continue to thrive, driving the national recovery and creating an American economy built to last. Building on that momentum, President Obama and I visited Taylor Gourmet, a local small business in Washington, to discuss his “to do” list for Congress to create jobs and help restore middle class security last week and kick-off National Small Business Week.

> Read more


Today's webcast begins at 3 p.m. EDT

How Small Businesses Can Win Big with Large Companies

Are you a small business with a great product, but have no idea how to get it noticed by a large company? Have you ever wondered how to get your merchandise on the shelves of a major retailer? How Small Businesses can get in Big with Large Companies will share the secrets to small business success with big business partners. With a panel comprised of a major retailer, a small business product developer, and a non-profit small business mentoring organization, the session will offer solutions from all sides of the equation that add up to achievement.
Linda Boykin, Vice President of Merchandising for Office Depot, a leading global provider of Office Supplies and services, will share what retailers look for in small business partners. Holly Bohn, founder of See Jane Work, a stylish office and organization product company, will discuss her path to store shelves, and Mark Dobosz, president of SCORE, a nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, will offer tips to grow the business while also generating attention from larger companies.

Institute for Alternative Futures

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Pro-Poor Scenario ToolkitA free toolkit for communities, countries, and regions to explore their own futures
IAF has developed a free "pro-poor scenario toolkit" for use by communities, countries, and regions to develop scenarios of their own futures that explicitly include poor and marginalized populations.

Pro-Poor Scenario Toolkit: Workshop Materials and Global Forecasts for 2039

A sheet of "ground rules" for the scenario workshop can be found here.






How can the poor participate in shaping our global future? While many corporations, organizations, and government agencies frequently apply foresight methods, poverty is rarely included as an explicit issue for consideration.  To change that, the Institute for Alternative Futures, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, has developed an approach to applying foresight methods to expand social and economic opportunities for poor and marginalized populations worldwide.

As part of this effort, IAF convened a workshop of leading foresight experts at the Rockefeller Foundation’s conference facilities in Bellagio, Italy on March 16-20, 2009.  The meeting, which was co-chaired by Leon Fuerth and David Jhirad, highlighted the rationale and practice of pro-poor foresight in accelerating and enhancing “smart globalization” and in gaining a better understanding of foresight in relation to a set of key issues that are relevant to the global South.

The full report on the 2009 conference:  Foresight for Smart Globalization: Accelerating & Enhancing Pro-Poor Development Opportunities



Institute for Alernative Futures: Mission & Vision

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MISSION AND VISION

The MISSION of IAF is to help communities and organizations more wisely choose and create the futures they prefer by:

• providing techniques for organizational and social transformation that will instill vision and integrity;
• sharing insights gained from leading-edge futures research and a constantly expanding body of integrated knowledge;
• creating networks of relationships among leaders for more strategic, systemic, global and humane decision-making;
• developing practices that sustain organizational success in the present while consciously investing in endeavors that expand opportunities for futures generations.


Our VISION:

The Institute for Alternative Futures leads in the discovery and creation of preferred futures. People in organizations, communities and governments benefit from our drive to constantly think beyond the edge. We develop and teach our methods and processes. We plant the seeds for endeavors which will be sustained beyond our lifetimes.

Our staff, individually and collectively, are recognized and respected as catalysts for transformation. Our staff and clients are partners in a journey. We are guides and advocates, not for the destination, but for the search. Evidence of our work is abundant and clear. Leaders inspired by our work are more inclined and more capable of thinking in a futures context. Their decision-making is recognizably more strategic, systemic, global, and humane. The organizations they serve reflect the health instilled by vision and integrity.

We are idealistic and enterprising. Our creative adventures at the margins are anchored and supported by financial and systemic strength at the core. We are driven by compassion, fulfillment and service. We are constantly and wisely investing in our people, our infrastructure and our alliances. Quality of life matters. We live and perform in the moment while consciously creating alternative futures and expanding opportunities for future generations.

http://www.altfutures.org/vision_mission

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Webinar: America's Promise. Communications Research


America's Promise offers free communications webinar on May 31

America's Promise Alliance is hosting a free webinar on May 31 from 1-2:15pm ET to share how new communications research can inspire more participation from target audiences. The session will explore both the research findings and how to use the resulting messages to help reach the Grad Nation goal of a 90 percent graduation rate. 


These messages focus on the values of audiences critical to ending the dropout crisis, including nonprofits, educators, parents, students, business leaders and policymakers. To preview key findings and messages, download the Grad Nation Message Manual. To receive registration information for this webinar, email  billw@americaspromise.org