Hello ENVS Community,
The Local Government Commission would like to engage graduate students at Lewis and Clark at the 15th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference, February 11-13, 2016 in Portland. We are providing opportunities for students to volunteer during the 3-day conference in lieu of paying a registration fee. We have worked with colleges and universities in each city/region this event has previously been held to provide this opportunity to grad students (and sometimes undergraduates studying the same issues) who would like to attend the event but would otherwise not be able to afford to. We usually get far more people interested in volunteering than we have a need for, but we give first priority to students when it comes to securing volunteers for the conference.
Many students tell us that being involved in the conference provides them a fantastic opportunity to not only learn about cutting edge smart growth topics, but also the opportunity to network with potential future employers (private firms, nonprofits, local government agencies, etc.) in their field of study/interest.
For more information about the conference visit www.newpartners.org.
The basic details are as follows:
We are looking for approximately 20-25 student volunteers to work on-site during the conference. The conference will be held at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower in Portland. In exchange for volunteering 10 hours over the course of the 3-day event, students would receive a full 3-day complimentary registration.
Volunteering in Sessions
Students would be asked to volunteer to help out as Room Monitors in conference sessions — assisting speakers and moderators as needed with lights, equipment, and handouts. They would also be responsible for using a hand-held radio to contact conference or hotel staff should assistance be needed relative to the audio-visual equipment, etc.
Students are offered the opportunity to sign up as Room Monitors for the sessions they would be most interested in attending, based on a first-come, first-served basis (each potential volunteer chooses their top 3 choices in each concurrent session block). When students are not working in their assigned sessions, they are able to attend any other session they would like.
Volunteering at Registration
Each year, given the large audience this conference draws, the LGC always needs help with on-site registration. Onsite registration runs from Wednesday through Saturday, for several hours each day. Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning and Thursday afternoon are the busiest times where we need the most help in processing participants quickly.
Special Events
The conference will include several special events and features that may provide additional volunteer opportunities onsite, including a pre-conference workshop on Wednesday afternoon.
A detailed volunteer schedule (once all assignments have been made) as well as more detailed instructions will be sent out to all confirmed volunteers in early January 2016. Confirmed volunteers will be given a special Volunteer Registration Code to use to register for the conference, once they have been confirmed as an official volunteer.
Again, each potential volunteer needs to commit to at least 10 hours over the course of the entire event to receive the free registration.
Students should contact Kelsey Wolf-Cloud, kwolfcloud@lgc.org if they are interested in volunteering at this exciting event.