The DCA has recently engaged Iowa CareGivers Association Executive Director Di Findley to develop tools and materials to assist with the development of direct care worker associations. One feature we are previewing today are questions posed to Di from around the country.
Here's the first one:
Di,
Do you have any tips we can use on how to set up a state direct care worker conference? For instance is there a Uniform Fashion? Do you pay speakers to present and workers/agencies to participate? Do you do contracts? How is the venue chosen? Any suggestions you might offer will be most appreciated.
Thank you
Di's Response:While your question is about how to plan a ‘statewide’ conference…there is nothing magical about going statewide. In fact, you might want to consider doing something much smaller…a county or regional conference. Starting small provides you a testing ground. Our first conference was not statewide.
Having said that.....We begin planning every year in January for a September conference.
We begin planning our conference every year in January for September. Our conference has evolved over the years. Our first year we had less than 40 people attend and each year it has grown. Last year we had 327 attend and 150 attended the two day conference on scholarship.
You can use the scholarship approach to raise money for your conference. Figure out your budget (cost per person) and then fund raise by asking sponsors, corporations, foundations, providers, individuals to sponsor or underwrite the cost of 1 or 5 or 100 scholarships. We don’t actually send money or a scholarship to individuals, the funding simply covers the entire costs of the program (meeting costs, printing, postage, staff time, speakers, etc.)
We try very hard to keep our conference as exclusively for direct care workers as we possibly can. That way workers begin to feel a real sense of comfort, ownership, etc... Attendees look forward to coming back each year to see the new friends they have met from around the state.
The only speakers we pay are the keynotes.
We never have a contract with anyone other than the paid keynote speakers. If a speaker doesn’t show up which has happened only once or twice in 14 years..we just have a backup plan/speaker/topic. Sometimes even staff fills in.
It is always best to select a theme and topics that are recommended by direct care workers or that resonate with our members. We look for topics that will be appropriate across all care settings as well as special break out sessions that might be more specific to a certain care setting (e.g. home care, hospital, hospice, etc.).
The first year you may just need to pull together a small planning committee that is made up of some direct care workers and other agencies you deem appropriate. Some of the organizations that are represented on our conference planning committee are: Long term care ombudsman’s office, family caregiver program, Iowa Foundation for Medical Care, a home care provider, a nursing home provider, Department of Human Services, department of Inspections and Appeals, and direct care workers to name a few.
Be sure to collect evaluations your first year and ask participants to be painfully honest with you because it can help you to improve your conference for next year. You should also ask for topic suggestions and then use those ideas in planning your agenda for next year. You also need to have an evaluation that will help to support the need for holding such a conference.
Do you plan to promote the concept of the direct care worker association during your conference? If so, DCA, or I might be able to help you in that area.
The other advice that I would offer is to get your brochure or promotional materials out at least two months in advance to allow people time to request the time off. If you are going to provide scholarships and expect folks to apply and submit scholarship applications which would then need to be reviewed, you would need to allow much more advance notice.
Finally, please keep your conference free of “ownership” from those in the positions of power. You will have to ask yourselves some very tough questions. Are you going to invite administrators, licensed nurses, etc.? Or keep it for DCWs only. Do you invite family caregivers? Do you open it up to anyone who is interested?
That’s sort of the quick down and dirty and alot to think about. I may be developing a tool to answer questions of this nature for other DCW Associations in the near future and so I appreciate the questions.
Thanks and good luck.
Di
