By Amee Bearne, National Coordinator, The Democracy Commitment

Pre-conference sessions offer fantastic opportunities for faculty, staff, and students alike to come together to develop their skills and collaborate toward a specific end goal, generally a project or program that can be taken back to the campus for implementation.

This year the American Democracy Project and The Democracy Commitment have put together an impressive roster of options for pre-conference sessions, (that will henceforth be referred to as “pre-cons”) at the national 2013 Denver meeting, June 6- 8, (registration information can be found here).

Interested in the Global Challenges curriculum? There’s a pre-con for that.

Want to learn more about community partnerships and leadership certificates for students? There’s a pre-con for that!

Need support for grant writing, or even finding the grants in the first place? You get the picture – there’s a pre-con for that.

Our pre-conferences begin and end at various times from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, June 6. While some of the meetings have attendance restricted to participants in a given initiative, many are open to all. Be sure to read the italicized comments for important information or participant restrictions; if none, it is open to anyone interested!

The following is a quick run-down of the available pre-cons:

All day (9 a.m. – 3 p.m.):

• Campus & Community Civic Health Initiative Summit and Working Lunch (by invitation)
• Global Challenges Workshop: Educating Globally Competent Citizens & Working Lunch (Registration Fee: $65)
• Urban Civic Minor Working Meeting and Lunch (closed meeting)

Morning (9 a.m. – 12 p.m.):

• Stewardship of Public Lands Course Working Group (by invitation)

Partial morning:

• Political Engagement Project (PEP) Business Meeting (9 a.m – 11 a.m.) (by invitation)
• Using Street Law as a Means to Promoting Civic Engagement in Community Colleges (10 a.m. – 12 p.m.)

Afternoon (12 p.m. – 3 p.m.):

• Public Achievement (Open to all Public Achievement Coaches and Coordinators, RSVP to [email protected])
• Developing a Winning Civic Engagement Grant Proposal (RSVP required; capped at 15)

Partial day:

• Developing Educational Pathways into Community Change Careers: The Community Learning Partnership (9 a.m. – 1 p.m.)
• eCitizenship Initiative Working Meeting (9 a.m. – 1 p.m.)
• Metro State University Denver Site Visit (10 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.) (RSVP required; capped at 25)

Partial afternoon:

• Stewardship of Public Lands Workshop (1 p.m. – 3 p.m.)
• Citizen Alum Invitational Meeting (12 p.m – 1:30 p.m.) (by invitation)
• Bridging Cultures To Form A Nation: Difference, Community and Democratic Thinking (12 p.m.- 2 p.m.) (Lunch provided; registration is required to Amee Bearne at [email protected] before June 1.)
• eJournal of Public Affairs Board Meeting (1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.) (by invitation)
• Political Engagement Project Pre-Conference Workshop: Exploring Strategies to Educate for Democracy (1 p.m. – 3 p.m.)
• ADP Orientation (2 p.m. – 3 p.m.)

• The Democracy Commitment Denver Kickoff (2 p.m. – 3 p.m.) (Attendance of all conference participants from TDC member institutions is requested)

• The Civic Curriculum: Exploring Learning Objectives for Civic Literacy and Engagement (1:30 p.m – 3 p.m.)

If you are more visual, the following picture might be helpful:

Either way, let us know if you have any questions. For more specific information and descriptions of each pre-con visit http://www.aascu.org/meetings/adptdc13/#schedule.

See you on Thursday June 6 in Denver!