The following information is from the June 2006 Portland conference and can guide programs who are developing their own "Next Steps" conference for members.
Planning
- Start as early in the year as possible.
- Choose people for the committee who can meet at least four or five times during the year.
- The planning committee for the June 2006 conference consisted of seven people.
- Decide on the topics for conference sessions — if possible, base these decisions on surveys of members and evaluations from the previous conference.
- Ask members in the pre-planning survey if they're planning to stay in the area or move away after service; this will guide how "local" the sessions should be. (See a sample Planning a Life After AmeriCorps Training pre-survey.)
- Divide the work of signing up speakers among committee members.
Recruiting Speakers
Speakers can be:
- People from the community, with whom planners already have a working relationship.
- Former AmeriCorps members.
- Current members presenting topics about which they have expertise. (This idea comes from a smaller AmeriCorps program with fewer outside resources.)
Because speakers volunteer their time and are not paid, make sure to allow them to share their websites and contact information as part of the printed program. (See a Life After AmeriCorps Day sample event program.)
Choosing a Venue
Make sure the space is donated (or inexpensive), centrally located, and easily accessible by mass transit.
Developing Sessions
- Remember that not all members are starting from the same place, so be sure to include information that will be helpful to people at different stages in their lives and careers.
- Offer a wide variety of sessions.
- At the June 2006 conference, there were fifteen different sessions — each lasting about one hour — for members to choose from. Most sessions were comprised of panels of speakers, but there was one presenter who offered hands-on exercises.
- Provide the opportunity for members to have their resumes reviewed by licensed human resource professionals.
- Add a drop-box at the resume sign-up so people who don't get an appointment for a one-to-one review can still leave their resumes and get written feedback after the conference.
- At the 2006 conference, the five most popular sessions, in order of attendance, were: (1) International Work and Service; (2) Making Plans for Your Ed Award; (3) Networking and Informational Interviewing; (4) Traveling and Living Abroad on a Budget; and (5) Applying to Graduate School.
- Other sessions included: Personal Finance; Board Commission Membership; Education Careers panel (included a presenter from Teach for America); Social Work panel (included an art therapist and mental health professional); Careers in the Private Sector; Translating Your AmeriCorps Experience; Visioning Workshop (with a certified life coach); Getting Started on a Job Search; Environmental Careers panel; Pursuing Your Art panel (included a musician and visual and literary artists).
- An additional session (as requested by members at the 2006 conference), could be "Becoming an Entrepreneur."
- Provide time at the end of each session for members to complete an evaluation. (See a Life After AmeriCorps sample training evaluation.)
Networking
- Give members the opportunity to network with each other and socialize before the sessions.
- Organize a cookies-and-coffee reception by AmeriCorps alums at the end of the conference to provide closure for the event and allow for networking time. The alums could use this as a recruitment opportunity, or it could double as a fundraiser if alums want to include a job fair and charge employers/organizations for booths.
