National Conference focuses on engaging business volunteers

I attended the National Conference on Volunteerism from Sunday through Tuesday of this week, after hosting the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on Thursday and Friday of last week.

One of the great quotes was from Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, who said, "We all came to this company in different ships. We're all in the same boat now."

I'm just beginning to get all of my notes together and to share the information I learned from these events. However, I've started two discussions that focus on business involvement and university engagement. These include links to places like the Jimmy and Rosalynd Carter Partnership Program, and to volunteer and nonprofit impact and involvement research being done by companies like Deloitte and Accenture.

In the next few days I'll post more of my ideas and begin to reach out with email to the people I met over the last week. However, I encourage you to visit these two forums and begin to look at the same research and resources that I have been looking at.

As Congressman Lewis said, "We're all in the same boat." To me this means that from this common based of knowledge we can find more ways to innovate ways to work together to solve problems that we cannot solve by working alone.

While I'm reaching out to you, I hope you'll find time to contact the Tutor/Mentor Connection.