SPN Annual Meeting

This pre-conference sessions concentrates on what tools SPN members can use to address energy and environmental issues.

Please RSVP to Mike Thompson at mikethompson@erols.com if you can attend.

Monday night's agenda:

6:30PM Pre-Dinner Reception

7:00PM Dinner: General Discussion

This Leadership Round Table will focus on what actions we can take and are being taken at the state level to counter the extreme enviornmentalists. The Round Table is prior to the SPN Annual Meeting and is the lead-in to the SPN break-out session on Thursday.

The Energy/Environment Leadership Roundtable is hosted by the Thomas Jefferson Institute.

This session is before the SPN Annual Meeting and requires separate registration, please RSVP to Mike Thompson at mikethompson@erols.com.

AGENDA

8:30 AM Continental Breakfast

Four Challenges Facing States

9:00–9:45 a.m.  Fracking (Chris Tucker, FTI Consulting – invited)
10:00–10:45 a.m. Renewable Energy Mandates (Todd Wynn, ALEC)
10:45–11:30 a.m. Regional Haze Rule (William Yeatman, CEI/Chamber – invited)
11:30–12:15 p.m. Climate Change (David Kreutzer or Jack Spencer, Heritage Foundation – invited) 
12:15–1:00 p.m. Working Lunch: Discussion on the morning topics

Political Tools: Examples of what has worked, viz. state policy institutes and how to apply to the four challenges

1:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m. Grass roots (Gabe Joseph – invited); State Legislative and Administrative Initiatives (ALEC); Sue and settle legislation (William Yeatman, CEI – invited); Referenda (speaker TMD)

Legal Tools: Review of cases and the challenges to prosecuting these claims viz. role of state policy institutes and how to apply to the four challenges

2:30–4:00 p.m. Offensive Actions: Dormant Commerce Clause Claims (RPS – Michael Pepson invited); Petition-litigation (Climate Change – David Schnare); Defensive Actions: PLF CWA case; Goldwater cases

School choice is changing. Since 2011, two developments have prompted policymakers to rethink how public education is delivered. Find out what those policy shifts are and what they mean to other states, taxpayers, education standards, and school choice advocates at “The Future of School Choice,” hosted by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, featuring national education experts including special guest Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

RSVP to Keri Hunter keri@edchoice.org by Sept. 18

12:00 pm Lunch Served

12:30 pm Welcome

Robert Enlow and Leslie Hiner

Introduction/setting the stage

Michael McShane, AEI

Panel 1: Fiscal

Moderator Jonathan Small; Jeff Spalding, Ben Scafidi, Colin Hitt

Panel 2: ESA

Moderator Brian McGrath; Lindsey Burke, Matt Ladner, Tim Keller

Panel 3: Common Core

Moderator Michael McShane; Robert Enlow, Jay Greene vs. Mike

Petrilli, Phyllis Hudecki

Louisiana: School Choice Expansion in 2013 & Beyond

Gov. Jindal

Conclusion: Where do we go from here?

Robert Enlow

Prohibition was a period in U.S. history that included nearly 14 years in which the manufacture, sale and transportation of liquor was made illegal.  Freedom and fun-loving Americans fought back … by having a party! 

This party is for freedom-loving adults only – sorry, no minors allowed.

Please make sure you aren’t being followed and do TWO THINGS to gain admittance to our top-secret NJOY soiree – 1) Bring your SPN credentials and 2) Use the word NJOY in a freedom-loving sentence to gain admittance.

Joel Salatin is a full-time family farmer. And that’s where the stereotype stops. This self-described “environmentalist, capitalist, lunatic farmer” runs Polyface Farms, a successful family endeavor in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. His approach to food and the land is decidedly controversial in some circles. But his principles related to food choice, entrepreneurship and government regulations are right up our alley. In his charismatic, intelligent and humorous fashion, Salatin will describe how he beat the odds to create a “highly marketable product surrounded by a warm, fuzzy story.” Another outcome that’s right up our alley.

Complementing the sessions in the SPN Communications Track, Spark Freedom’s Communications Lab will be a place to learn new skills, discuss ideas and connect with other communications leaders from freedom-oriented organizations. Scheduled demonstrations, individualized help and small group communications training from marketing professionals will be available throughout the week, as well as a place to hang out and talk about applying what you are learning.

Are your communications based on the insanity plan—doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result? How do you measure success? Learn to develop a strategic communications plan tied to your organization’s goals. Discover how to avoid vanity metrics and use results-based assessments instead.

In this two-part, experiential workshop, we’ll explore how to have productive and strategic conversations with your donors, ask the right questions and listen for intent. We’ll end with sure-fire, artful solicitations that result in inspired, joyful and generous yeses. Whether a seasoned professional or volunteer and relatively new to major gifts, you will walk away with fresh ideas, strengthened skills and increased motivation.

To launch a successful nonprofit you need vision and confidence, but to make a sustained impact, you also need to lay the foundation for successful growth. This roundtable discussion will offer you the opportunity to ask questions of HR, finance, and outreach experts with extensive experience working with start-up organizations.

Think tank, litigation, grassroots, investigative reporting and opposition research leaders formed a coalition in Douglas County, CO, to fight a groundbreaking school choice battle. Hear how they banded together, messaged their issue campaign, overcame an obstacle as big as the state teachers’ union and leveraged their combined networks to become a formidable force.

Meeting America’s energy needs can be balanced with responsible stewardship of our natural resources. Participants in this session will review emerging energy opportunities and discuss the federal government’s pattern of picking winners and losers. We will explore potential responses to obstacles and opportunities in the energy marketplace.

In this two-part, experiential workshop, we’ll explore how to have productive and strategic conversations with your donors, ask the right questions and listen for intent. We’ll end with sure-fire, artful solicitations that result in inspired, joyful and generous yeses. Whether a seasoned professional or volunteer and relatively new to major gifts, you will walk away with fresh ideas, strengthened skills and increased motivation.

Project management is a mature and proven discipline in corporations across the spectrum from technology to healthcare to entertainment. Its value is seen in bringing transparency, predictability and nimbleness to challenging environments. Learn from a certified Project Management Professional about the nuts and bolts of how successful organizations in other industries use it to drive their day-to-day activities.

We work to return power to individuals and local government, but some of the biggest encroachments on liberty happen closest to home. How can we better understand the incentives of local officials, send more effective messages and deploy coalitions to make a change at the local level?

Common Core has been a central and heated issue in statehouses across the country. Join us as we hear from the advocates and opponents of national curriculum standards. We’ll review Common Core against the backdrop of the road forward for market-oriented education reform.

Unfunded pension liabilities are the dark cloud on the horizon of state budgets, a cloud totaling trillions of dollars. Though they represent unavoidable fiscal debt, pension liabilities often slip under the radar when states tally up their spending. We will discuss the substance and form of aggressive pension reform urgently needed in almost every state.

For 18 of her 34 years in business, Karen Osborne has personally led philanthropic campaigns as large as $200 million. As a consultant, she has helped organizations and institutions develop and engage high performing boards, buildinternal capacity and achieve campaigns as large as $500 million. Karen specializes in helping entire organizations develop exceptional customer service and productive and satisfying donor engagement. It’s a matter of stewardship for Karen. She is a thought-leader, gifted writer and engaging
speaker. In her contagious manner, Karen will help us assess where we are today and map a road to success.

Finding your target audience is critical to any successful communications plan. Learn how to use data and polling to find the audience you need to persuade in order to achieve policy victories.

Millions of dollars are being raised via social media. Learn how your organization can tap into this opportunity to create innovative social fundraising campaigns.

Successful organizations plan for achievement, but putting together a strategic development plan can seem intimidating. It’s hard to carve out the time. You may be a referee between different organizational interests and factions, and it is all too easy to substitute wish lists for strategic decisions. This session will offer clear rationale for development planning and practical steps for creating a plan that has a good chance of working.

Join us for a highly interactive workshop that will help you as a CEO or board leader artfully solicit leadership and major gifts; inspire joyful, generous investments in fund development priorities; and result in lifelong commitments and engagement. Together we will work through the best way to start the solicitation conversation, how to advance it strategically, and the key role a CEO or board leader plays. We will end with how to request the Right amount for the Right results. You’ll walk away with a fresh perspective, burnished skills, and increased confidence and enthusiasm.

How well do your development, operations and marketing plans connect to your strategic objectives? Improve your organizational alignment by learning how to develop and manage initiatives that track back to verifiable metrics that matter for your bottom line. Q & A
included.

Freedom’s future depends on a deep bench of young talent.  It depends on us reaching the hearts and minds of the next generation. Get some visionary and practical ideas about how to do this through your own institute or by joining with like-minded student organizations in your state.

When you frame your policy message well you put your competition at an immediate disadvantage. Tough objections often can benefit from the jujitsu-like tool of a reframe. In this session, learn from messaging expert Kevan Kjar more about “framing” important policies and “reframing” many common objections and turn them into powerful arguments for your cause.

CEOs and senior development professionals will learn how to chart a powerful course for transformational gifts from donors through building a major gifts culture, having a bigger shared vision, and discovering the passions of your best donors.

Move beyond the hardcore five percent donor universe. Learn to create a prospective donor database, conduct prospect research, and develop effective donor action plans for the full range of center-right donors. A real-life case study will describe how to build your pipeline, do donor research and track and mine relevant data.

 Join your peers in a rich discussion of roles, performance, accountability, and relationship building. When leaders build good partnerships, organization growth surges. This session is designed for CEO/CDO and board leadership teams to worktogether on clarifying roles and responsibilities, developing strategies, solving problems, identifying best practices, and sharing fresh ideas that work.

Whether you need to step up financial compliance in your organization, prepare for a smooth audit, or restructure your finances for organizational growth, Levi Morehouse of Ceterus and Brad Gruber of SPN have the experience and expertise to address your toughest questions. Join us for a lively discussion of how to create financial systems that complement your organization’s work.

If you want to be a force for change in your state, you need a committed army of citizens who become aware of pressing threats to liberty and are equipped to win the communications and policy battles. Outreach managers from both red and blue states who have built online call-to-action networks and on-the-ground education and community engagement programs will discuss ways to engage activists toward powerful and productive results. 

Technology reduces cultural, educational and physical barriers to opportunity for all people. It inspires innovation, risk, and profit.  How do we balance the need for technological progress with privacy? What happens to economic progress when policymakers intervene with taxes and regulations; when they pick winners and losers? Experts will discuss the high stakes and our potential response.

There has been great enthusiasm for tax reform in the states, yet victories remain elusive. In this session, experts will help you articulate a case for reform and will outline trends in tax policy and lessons learned from recent battles.

Join Frontiers of Freedom in Meeting Room 2-3 at 5pm as we present a panel on Emerging Issues and enter to win a free iPad. Enter your business card before the beginning of the panel discussion to be eligible. Must be present for the drawing at the end of the panel discussion to win.

Panelists include:

George Landrith

Travis Korson

Joe Brannon

Horace Cooper

Complementing the sessions in the SPN Communications Track, Spark Freedom’s Communications Lab will be a place to learn new skills, discuss ideas and connect with other communications leaders from freedom-oriented organizations. Scheduled demonstrations, individualized help and small group communications training from marketing professionals will be available throughout the week, as well as a place to hang out and talk about applying what you are learning.

Sometimes the hardest part of storytelling is finding your hero. Learn how to find the people most in need of policy reforms and how to integrate their story into a compelling narrative that will persuade hearts, resulting in real policy victories.   

Are you still relying on your gut to know if you are on track to meet your goals? Learn how to determine the data you need to track to monitor trends and improve productivity in your organization. Get an overview of methods and tools that can help you have key data at your fingertips, even if you aren’t a spreadsheet or database guru.

The principal opponents to shrinking the scope and cost of government are public sector unions. But the most important argument for public sector union reform may be voluntary association: individuals who want to work without penalty if they choose not to join a union. A menu of reform opportunities exists. Talk with experts who are crafting persuasive, winning reforms that will work in almost every state.

The right to own and use property is a cornerstone of American liberty.  Increasingly, federal, state and local governments are confiscating private property for economic development and to enhance revenue to government treasuries. Constitutionally protected “public use” is now stretched to absurd definitions. Civil forfeiture laws are abused. Extreme environmentalism is protected over good stewardship of the land.

Use data to evaluate your current fundraising programs and future potential. Ann Fitzgerald and representatives from several think tanks will discuss lessons learned and applied from recent fundraising audits. General findings regarding data collection, research, and cultivation strategies will be described. Think tanks of any size can take many of the specific steps.

If your communications consist primarily of preaching to the choir, your organization won’t grow or expand its influence. Discover ways to reach new audiences with the right messages and mediums.

When someone hears the name of your organization, can they immediately envision what you do? Have you carved out a distinct identity in the minds and hearts of your target audiences (and that includes donors)? If not, you may have a branding issue. Learn how to clearly define your organization’s mission and present it to your audiences in a way that advances your goals.

Part 1- Join us for a discussion of the characteristics of an effective donor presentation and examples of narratives that have raised millions of dollars for the freedom movement.

Part 2- Get your donor narrative presentation critiqued by a
professional. (By appointment only; contact Kristina@spn.org.)  

Strategy session with Tracie Sharp for SPN state think tank member CEOs only.

Make the most of your hard-won grant dollars (and increase the likelihood of winning more) by measuring what matters and communicating results to funders.  Experts from across the movement will gather to share their techniques for defining, tracking, and reporting on grant-funded successes.

We know that writing the great policy white papers is not enough to win hearts and minds. We must be creative and strategic in how we craft and deliver messages to the right audiences. Learn how communication and policy shops work together to win on issue campaigns through memorable branding that moves target audiences.

Federal dollars limit how states can spend matching dollars. And federal largesse is at its limit. Join us for this roundtable discussion as we discuss ways for state lawmakers to recognize and limit their exposure. We’ll explore options for creating a context of comfort for lawmakers as they begin shortening or eliminating the federal umbilical cord.

Since actual demand for freedom is low, advancing liberty-oriented reforms requires cultural conversion as a precursor. We need to make our case for capitalism—to brand freedom through powerful stories and humor aimed at targeted audiences. We know a lot about our target audiences thanks to Heart and Mind Strategy research and other data portals. Through ArrowHead3 workshops, we’re learning to attach our policies to winsome stories. Now it’s time to craft and deliver messages that can persuade our audiences that freedom’s benefits are in their best personal interest. This highly talented speaker team will illustrate how all the dots are connected so we can reach millions of people. It’s more focused, scalable and affordable than ever.

Having the right staff as part of your communications team can mean innovative, creative, dynamic messaging that persuades and wins audiences. But finding great talent to create that team can be challenging. Learn how to identify the necessary talents and skills every communications team should possess and how to unleash that team’s full potential.

Highly effective organizations have the information they need, when they need it, to manage risk and seize leveraged opportunities. This happens through the daily discipline of overcoming communication barriers. This session will help you identify the four most costly barriers to communication and simple, disciplined steps to remove them. You will also learn how to significantly improve “just-in-time” communication and maximize the impact and value of Intentional, Accidental, and Incidental Communication whether your organization is on two floors or two coasts.

Advanced community organizers and grassroots leaders will share tactics to activate your outreach platform. They will discuss ways to move your existing network of advocates to be a force for lasting change.

The unhealthy results of Obamacare are now felt. The freedom movement has made a good policy case that greater government involvement equals reduced access and quality. We have been far less effective making the moral case for reducing human suffering by shrinking government’s inappropriate role in health care. And we may be ignoring the crass and potentially irreversible power grab set up by Obamacare. This Summit will squarely address all three cases. In addition to situational awareness, questions will be answered and potential remedies advanced.

Taking after speed dating, ask your biggest questions of one of our marketing professionals. These industry leaders will give you invaluable information in the few minutes you have with them before moving onto the next marketer in line.

Barbara Ford

Kevan Kjar

Matt Smith

John Kramer

Nicole Williams

Daniel Anthony

Ryan Green

Meredith Turney

Corey Burres

Kristin McMurray

John Tillman

Hosted by the Alliance for School Choice

The Alliance for School Choice/American Federation for Children team has been at the forefront of efforts to design and pass high quality and high-impact educational choice legislation in more than a dozen states around the country. This session will allow you to interact with our legislative team leaders and leave with a tool-kit for how to draft strong school choice laws and execute a successful legislative effort to enact it.

For more information inquiry with Christina Sandefur, Goldwater Institute at csandefur@goldwaterinstitute.org

Complementing the sessions in the SPN Communications Track, Spark Freedom’s Communications Lab will be a place to learn new skills, discuss ideas and connect with other communications leaders from freedom-oriented organizations. Scheduled demonstrations, individualized help and small group communications training from marketing professionals will be available throughout the week, as well as a place to hang out and talk about applying what you are learning.

Sometimes interacting with reporters can feel like playing with fire. But working with media can be mutually beneficial. Learn how to pitch op-ed ideas, create earned media opportunities and build a solid relationship with journalists.

This session will challenge you to gain both clarity and alignment in your organization and suggest tools that will help you move from Idea to Vision to Strategy to Execution to Results.  You will learn how to create elegant measurements and apply them to seemingly immeasurable concepts.  You will discover how to identify the “knowing-doing” gap in your organization and then bridge those gaps to create direct and indirect results.  Bring your calendar because you will leave this session with less on your to-do list than when you arrived, but with greater alignment of your efforts. 

Spend your time focusing on the purpose of your trip instead of worrying about logistical details.  Rachelle Reitz, a 12-year business travel veteran, will teach you how to find or train a travel coordinator who can save you money and keep you out of the middle seat. There may be one lurking within your organization! Rachelle will also share her tools and tricks of the trade and answer your questions.

The liberty movement is losing ground fast. How can we not only regain territory, but gain strategic and tactical advantage…and quickly? You’ll learn from people who understand how to target audiences, craft messages, tool delivery systems, test and retool. This session is about getting and staying one step ahead of statists, not one step behind.