Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Conference, August 3-5
The Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools has announced their 2009 National Conference, to be held August 3-5 in National Harbor, MD (just outside of DC). OSDFS-funded mentoring programs should plan on attending this event as it is part of the required conference attendance that should have been included in your program budgets. As always, any questions about attending this event should be directed to your OSDFS Project Officer.
The 2009 OSDFS National Conference theme is "The Power of Change: Healthy Students, Safe Schools, and Engaged Communities." Conference goals include:
- Highlighting information from research and evaluation studies that will support State and local officials in assessing needs, establishing priorities, and selecting the most effective programs and strategies.
- Examining new trends, innovative approaches, and comprehensive, integrated strategies that may offer new approaches to both old and emerging problems and challenges.
- Enabling participants to build upon skills and receive training from practitioners in the fields of emergency management; health, mental health, and physical education; alcohol, drug, and violence prevention; civic and character education; and other areas related to school- and community-based prevention.
- Showcasing resources and tools developed by fellow practitioners and leaders in their respective fields.
If you are looking to enhance your mentoring program's understanding of other prevention, education, and youth development strategies, then this should be a valuable event.
You can learn more about the conference and how to register at the official website at: http://www.osdfsnationalconference.com/
Re: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Conference, August 3-5
Hey Michael,
I know there's some banter on the listserv regarding this issue. There seems to be some uncertainty as to who is invited to the final day of the conference. The conference link simply says that the Wednesday session is by invitation only. Is it safe to conclude that if programs haven't received an invitation we can head home a day early?
Joe Martinez
Re: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Conference, August 3-5
I would assume that if you haven't been invited to anything yet that it's probably not going to happen. But I would check with your project officer at OSDFS and get their take just to be sure.
As far as I know, there is no meeting for the mentoring grantees on that last day. But if that has changed (or is about to) they would know for sure.
Re: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Conference, August 3-5
I am posting this information from Judy Taylor who spoke to Bryan Williams at the Dept about this, just as an fyi:
"Regarding the third day of the National Conference, I just spoke with Bryan Williams at the Department and he said that no official word has come out about programming for Wednesday, August 5th. He said that if no official word comes out by next Friday then he doubts that there will be programming on the third day that any of the mentoring grantees need to attend.
He also said that anyone who needs to make plans before next Friday, and they elect to make plans to leave after the second day in order to ensure that they get seats on flights and good fares, will not be expected to stay for the third day even if mentoring grantees are invited to stay."
Re: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Conference, August 3-5
Do we know when the Tracks/Sessions information will be posted? With that info. we can more appropriately designate who from our partnering agency should attend.
Thank you,
Kim Vrabec
Re: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Conference, August 3-5
I do not know when that information will be announced, but in looking at the broad topics mentioned in the brochure (http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osdfs/09confbrochure.pdf) it seems like sending a district-level person might be the best idea. A superintendent, a curriculum developer, even a grant writer.
From the brochure: "OSDFS programs emphasize positive, disciplined, high-achieving schools; strong parent and community involvement; effective school planning and preparedness; research-based prevention and education strategies; and the effective use of data by schools and States to select and improve high-quality programs and activities."
That is a pretty broad array of topics, so sending someone who develops and oversees a broad array of school programs might be the best fit to attend.
Re: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Conference, August 3-5
I'm getting some reports that the room block for this event is sold out and that online registration for this event is no longer accepting registrations. Per the instructions on the registration page, I would contact the event organizer Rodney Yarborough (registration@dixongroup.com) via email, as well as your project officer at ED, if you need to register for the event. I'm not sure what it would mean for folks who have not yet registered, but it may be that the event is full in advance of the July 10th cut-off.
Re: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Conference, August 3-5
In case you missed the announcement on the listserv the morning of July 7th, this message came from the Project Officers at the Department of Education (via MRC Director Judy Taylor):
Hi Everyone,
We have received a number of calls and questions regarding the early cut off of the Department of Education OSDFS National Conference registration. I spoke with Bryan Williams about your questions and he asked me to relay the following additional information.
“While the Department wanted everyone to attend the OSDFS National Conference, there were a limited number of attendees that could be accommodated at the OSDFS National Conference and registration is now at capacity and closed. That is why the Department asked programs to register early as space was limited. If you were unable to register there will be no negative ramifications for your program with the Department.”
Thank You,
Judy Strother Taylor
5661 E. Corso di Napoli
Long Beach CA 90803
Cell 310 990 3911
Office 562 439 4499
Fax 562 434 0795
Judy@Strother-Taylor.com
Re: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Conference, August 3-5
This was just posted to the ED Mentoring listserv, but I thought I'd add it here as well. Please note that this only applies to US Department of Education grantees:
For Everyone that is attending the OSDFS National Conference August 3,4 and 5, 2009,
We just received notification from the Department of Education that there will be a presentation for Mentoring Grantees on the third day of the conference, August 5, from 9:00 am – 12:00 noon. The session will address general concepts and resources for mentoring programs for those representatives that are fairly new to mentoring, as well as approaches to sustainability as most existing mentoring programs are developing and implementing sustainability efforts. We will also be addressing questions that grantees may have for the Mentoring Resource Center Technical Assistance and Training staff and for OSDFS about the Department's existing mentoring programs and grantees.
The Department realizes that this is very late notice and that many of you have already made travel plans that conflict with your ability to attend this session. Therefore the session is not mandatory.
Sincerely,
Judy Taylor for Bryan Williams
Re: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Conference, August 3-5
Will the information/handouts from the sessions be posted anywhere? Some of the sessions I attended had so many participants that I wasn't able to get the handouts.
Kari Ratz
Re: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Conference, August 3-5
Kari, if it was Craig Bowman or Judy Taylor's sessions, you can contact Kari Heard at 1 (877) 579-4788.
(The other sessions were coordinated by OSFDS. I have had other grantees ask the same question, but as far as I know they haven't yet heard the answer from OSFDS about the other sessions).