What is the FRN Annual Conference?

The Federal Relations Network Conference is hosted every year by the National School Boards Association in late January or early February. In 2008, the conference will be held February 3-. It’s an opportunity for school board members across the country to go to Washington, D.C. to meet with their congressional representatives to discuss federal education issues.

What Can I Expect When I Attend?

The FRN conference begins with an opening session at 1:00 pm on Sunday, February 3. All of Sunday’s sessions are plenary and include informed and engaging speakers who talk about topical education issues. Political analyst Norman Ornstein is one of the speakers each year. Sunday’s sessions conclude with entertainment from the Capitol Steps, Washington’s longest running musical political satire group.

Following the Capitol Steps event, CSBA will host a reception for all California school board members. This reception is an opportunity to meet with other board members from across the state, receive information from CSBA that provides the California perspective on the federal issues that will be discussed at the conference, and receive the schedule for Tuesday’s “Day on the Hill” congressional meetings.  The location of the reception will be in the conference hotel in a room to be announced. Refreshments will be served.

Monday consists of legislative seminars, breakout sessions and a general session, which provide specific information on the top federal education issues, the political context of the new Congress and advocacy strategies. Among the issues to be covered at this year’s conference are:

• Federal funding for key programs like Title I and special education
• Improving the No Child Left Behind Act
• Teacher Quality
• Voluntary Preschool

Tuesday is the “Day on the Hill,” when school board members meet with their own congressional members and/or staff to advocate on the top issues. These meetings will be scheduled by CSBA’s Governmental Relations staff on behalf of attendees. The conference concludes with the annual congressional reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Buses will provide free transportation between the conference hotel, Capitol Hill and the evening reception.

For travel purposes, plan on spending the whole day in Washington on Tuesday. Once CSBA members are registered for the FRN Conference, the Governmental Relations staff will begin scheduling Tuesday’s congressional meetings. We make every attempt to schedule these meetings as early in the day as possible, but aren’t always able to due to the busy schedules of members of Congress and their staffs.

Hotel Accommodations

All reservations must be handled through FRN Housing.  The Grand Hyatt will not honor direct reservations.  Reservations should be made prior to Friday, January 4, 2008. After that date, neither NSBA nor FRN Housing guarantees room availability at the FRN rate.

Registration

Since the FRN Conference is an NSBA event, attendees must register with NSBA. However, school board members must be pre-approved by their state association in order to register with NSBA. Therefore, CSBA has developed an online preregistration process which must be completed first. This allows us to submit your name to NSBA so you can complete the registration process.

For more information, go to NSBA’s FRN Web site here. Background information on the issues to be discussed at the conference will be available at the site later this year.