American Humanics

I am finally getting around to publishing my blog posts from the ARNOVA conference.  I got a taste of being a working mom.  My husband and I drove to Toronto for the ARNOVA conference from Grand Rapids.  We took our one month old daughter with us and she did great! I attended every other conference session (I normally attend everything .  I couldn’t have attended the conference without the support of my wonderful husband who is a really hands on dad.  I am so happy that I attended the conference — the sessions I attended were awesome! The only issue I had with the conference was the poor internet connection at the hotel.  I couldn’t access the internet in most of the rooms and the internet was free for 1 hour increments in the hotel lobby.  I wish that hotels would make the internet free.  My phone didn’t work in Canada either.

The first session I attended was the Teaching pre-conference workshop. The workshop was coordinated by Mary Ann Feldheim.  Mary brought together representatives from nonprofit academic organizations including:

• Dr. K. Tom Liou from the American Society for Pubic Administration (ASPA). The mission of ASPA is to advance the art, science, teaching, and practice of public and non-profit administration. Liou – ARNOVA Presentation

• Roseanne Mirabella, President of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) & Will Brown, create of NERF – Nonprofit Education Resource and Forum Website –to share resources and syllabi.  Will is part of the ARNOVA educational committee that created a teaching resource website.  Nonprofit faculty members submit syllabi, cases and other teaching resources.Mirabella and Brown ARNOVA Presentation

• Katherine Campbell, Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration.  CCVA advances the profession and practice of volunteer resource management. CCVA Resources – ARNOVA pane. CCVA Slides – ARNOVA panel

• Laural McFarlend, members of National Association of School of Public Affairs Education (NASPAA). The mission of NASPAA is to ensure excellence in training for public service and to promote the ideal of public service. NASPAA also serves as the accreditor tor for public service degree programs.NASPAA Presentation on Nonprofit Standards

• J. Patrick Murphy and Sean Shacklett, the Nonprofit Academic centers Council (NACC).  NACC is a membership association comprised of academic centers or programs at accredited colleges and universities that focus on the study of nonprofit organizations, voluntarism and/or philanthropy. Established in 1991, NACC is the first group entirely dedicated to the promotion and networking of centers that provide research and education in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.

• Marcia Cross, Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. The mission of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance is a national alliance of colleges, universities and nonprofit organizations dedicated to educating, preparing and certifying professionals to strengthen and lead nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit Leadership Alliance – ARNOVA Presentation 2011

These organizations have many nonprofit management education resources available to faculty, students, practitioners and funders.

The panel discussion mostly focused on the pros and cons of standardizing nonprofit curriculum. Some were in support of standardization and others had hesitations.  Several panelists and participants emphasized the importance of sharing learning outcomes and rubrics.

There was agreement that there are silos in nonprofit management education and work needs to be done to identify the common threads and skills that help people cope with the realities of nonprofit management.