The 65th Annual National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) will be held September 17, 2010, at the Library of Congress. Entitled, “BIG Citizenship: Citizens as Catalysts and Innovators,” the conference will explore the powerful role civic innovators are playing in fostering societies that are informed, engaged, giving, and trusting.
As an annual event that focuses on the state of civic engagement in America, NCoC brings together 400 civic leaders, educators, CEOs, and representatives from each of the three branches of government to address issues related to our nation’s civic health. Program highlights:
1. the land or territory that forms the furthest extent of a country’s settled or inhabited regions. 2. Often, frontiers.
a. the limit of knowledge or the most advanced achievement in a particular field: the frontiers of physics. b. an outer limit in a field of endeavor, esp. one in which the opportunities for research and development have not been exploited: the frontiers of space exploration.
This year’s 2010 Global Corporate Citizenship Conference is entitled: Frontier Markets. Global Partnerships. Local Solutions. Why the term “frontier”? Let me tell you what you can expect from this conference on September 27- 29, and then you will see how this term embodies what our program seeks to accomplish.
The last two weeks have been illuminating in terms of the challenges companies face when dealing with community development and disaster recovery. Both of these buckets are diffuse, abstract, and not easy to grasp.
We need to get our arms around different community support functions like education, health care, housing, and small business cultivation. Then, we need to figure out how they relate to each other and how businesses can make the most difference.
Two weeks ago in Suffolk, Virginia, the U.S. Chamber BCLC convened 80 experts to look at how disaster response leaders hand off their tasks to community recovery leaders. The answer is: not very well.
BCLC convened 80 experts to look at how disaster response leaders hand off their tasks to community recovery leaders. The answer is: not very well.
Most states and the federal government have 15 to 18 emergency support functions. These emergency support functions are represented at FEMA’s field headquarters or the state’s headquarters in order to improve coordination. For example, when someone has an issue getting emergency medical aid somewhere because the roads are down, they can report the issue to their health care coordinator in headquarters who can then relay the message to the transportation emergency support function to fix it.
I flew into Monterey, California, late last night for the Sustainable Brands 2010 conference (Twitter: #sb10), hosted by Sustainable Life Media. The schedule is jam-packed, and looks pretty amazing. I’m really looking forward to networking (in-person!) during tonight’s opening reception and tomorrow night’s gala at the world-class Monterey Aquarium. The conference sessions I’m excited about are just too numerous to list. I expect these next three days to be a whirlwind of activity, networking, and knowledge gain.
If you are here in Monterey, please stop by and say hi. If you’re not here but are interested in the conference, please follow my updates on BCLC’s Twitter page and CSRwire’s Twitter page.
Finally, many thanks to Joe Sibilia, Jack Wysocki, and the whole CSRwire team for inviting me to the conference as one of their bloggers. Both the CSRwire blog and BCLCblog will be updated with conference content.
The parties have ended, the thank you notes have been written, the expenses have been totaled and filed (well, almost). After 350 friends of BCLC’s Corporate Community Investment program gave their time and resources to attend and make this year’s CCI conference a terrific success, what does it all mean? Do we all just go back to our daily routines?
I sure hope not. More to the point, we can’t afford to. There’s too much work to do. Borrowing from the BCLC Business and Society program’s ten campaign, a “ten list” of takeaways from the conference is a good way to organize the cavalcade of good people, good ideas, and good times to move the program forward while remembering this year’s conference.
I wanted to give you a quick run-down of the agenda, so you can follow along Wednesday – Friday online (or, if you’re joining us in Houston, so you can participate online!). First, follow BCLC’s official Twitter feed, @chamberbclc. Conference hashtags are #bclc2010 and #csr, but you’ll also see us posting under some other tags as relevant, such as #sustainability, #jobs, etc.
There will be several different people posting under their own feeds, too, so be sure to also check out Taryn Bird (@tarynebird), Mark D’Alessio (@mfdalessio), Brooks Nelson (@brooksdnelson), and Jim Turner (@affinityjim). As more tweeters join in, I’ll share their names.
Conference: Corporate Citizenship and Competitiveness in the 21st Century
Wednesday
Workshop on Sustainable Communities
Off-Site Tour, ARAMARK – Neighborhood Centers Inc.
Reception at Discovery Green
Informal Networking Dinners in the Galleria District (3 dinner topics: Social Media, Volunteerism, and Disaster Response)
Ben Erulkar, BCLC senior advisor on Corporate Community Investment, recently said, “The fascinating thing about corporate citizenship programs now — because of budgets being tighter and greater accountability being demanded — is that they are now directed toward addressing the competitive challenges that companies face. This has leveraged the effectiveness of these community-based investments to do two things: 1) Produce measureable and tangible benefits to communities and 2) Enhance the value proposition of the company.”
Last week, the opening session of the BCLC-United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP) forum turned into a thoughtful retrospective on the field of corporate social responsibility. It showed that many different influences have come together to shape the CSR field, while underscoring that the field is still young and rapidly evolving.
Each speaker brought a unique perspective to the issues. Robert Forrester, the President and CEO of Newman’s Own Foundation, talked about the 1970s and the impact that the environment and Earth Day had on Aetna and some of the other northeastern companies. He also talked about corporate philanthropy and the 5% club pioneered by Dayton-Hudson and the Minneapolis corporate community.
Dr. Claire Gaudiani, an author and NYU professor, focused on the legal and philosophical underpinnings of CSR and did her best to bury a stake in Milton Friedman’s thesis that “the business of business is business.” She contended that corporations as “persons” owe more than just taxes to contributing to the civic order, emphasizing the connectedness of companies to the communities in which they operate. Companies, she asserted, have a “self interest properly understood” to encourage the vitality of their external stakeholders.
Last Wednesday evening, a very interesting discussion took place at the United Nations headquarters. So interesting, in fact, that panelists and members of the audience thought it would be wise to post the questions here to encourage further dicussion. But first, a little background.
The opening session of the “Investing in the Millennium Development Goals” forum, co-hosted by the U.S. Chamber BCLC and the U.N. Office for Partnerships, focused on the role of the private sector in philanthropy and the future of CSR. A prestigious group of experts participated in the panel discussion: Read more…
“The Guidelines are there to help the UN more effectively work with businesses,” said Melissa Powell, Head of Partnerships at the UN Global Compact offices in New York.
At “Investing in the Millennium Development Goals,” Powell explained the role of the UN Global Compact and the ways that the entire UN system has been coordinate its efforts to engage the private sector in its mission. This work includes a new website—www.business.un.org—created to match businesses to potential UN partners.
“We want our members to activate what’s relevant to them in their business,” Powell said. “We work with them to better leverage their competencies toward the UN goals.”
The 65th Annual National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) will be held September 17, 2010, at the Library of Congress. Entitled, “BIG Citizenship: Citizens as Catalysts and Innovators,” the conference will explore the powerful role civic innovators are playing in fostering societies that are informed, engaged, giving, and trusting.
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