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Networking - Bringing Political Leadership Programs Together

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation grant enabled identification of three to eight best designed bipartisan, statewide, and politics-focused fellowship programs to invite to a comprehensive information sharing network as well as a planning conference at the Hewlett Foundation.

The conference, at Hewlett Foundation headquarters in Menlo Park, California, was slated for two overnights and a single day on May 21, 2018 (allowing for cross-country travel) and brought together 16 people with close ties to statewide and training programs empowering political leadership.

Front Row: Terry Strine, Meghan Newberry, Matt Grossmann, Leslie Winner, Lauren Gilbert, Colleen Smith, Rosarita Ramirez
Back Row: Don Norton, Steve Tobocman, Tom Walls, Myra Van Hoose, Spencer Overton, Lora Matteis, Jamil Scott, (not in photo: Cynthia Kyle, Daniel Stid)

Leaders representing six different statewide training programs -- in Delaware, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia -- gathered for an intense, single day of introductions to each other and to programming, debate and discussion. Leaders from national programs with roots in California, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. also attended, broadening perspectives of statewide groups. Hewlett Foundation Program Officer Daniel Stid also attended. The agenda identified ideas for shared curricular innovations, broadened recruitment and alumni engagement, and joint fundraising opportunities.

The group included:

A Google Drive was established as a downloadable and searchable facility, attracting reams of fundraising, recruiting and curriculum materials as shared resources. In the wake of the conference, a series of highlights were jointly produced by the group’s two communicators.

Documents

Agenda (.pdf)
Conference Notes (.pdf)
Sample Evaluations (.pdf)