Attendees:
Task Force members - Ed O'Brien, Street Law Inc., Chair; Annette Boyd Pitts; Mabel McKinney-Browning, American Bar Association; Todd Clark, Constitutional Rights Foundation; Jim Davis; Susan Griffin, The National Council for the Social Studies; Karl Kurtz, National Conference of State Legislators; Andy Smith; and Nancy Tate, The League of Women Voters
Others - Sheila Mann, Peter Levine, Gary Homana

Meeting Summary

The conference call was scheduled in order to prepare recommendations from the Task Force for the upcoming NACE Steering Committee meeting next Wednesday, March 19. The conversation focused on two main issues: 1) The level and type of NACE involvement in coalitions; in endorsing reports, activities and programs of other organizations; and taking positions on proposed legislation, and 2) the role of NACE in disseminating the recently released Carnegie/CIRCLE report The Civic Mission of Schools.

1. NACE involvement in other coalitions and endorsement/support of other civic education materials, legislation and programs

A rich conversation revolved around the role of NACE in other coalitions' work. Task Force members discussed several issues including 1) the implications of collective support vs individual support, especially since different member groups have different agendas; 2) levels of support among members for specific NACE items of participation and 3) NACE's need for funding to support its activities and if seeking grants would be viewed as competing with its members.

Recommendation: Task Force members questioned whether NACE should speak collectively on behalf of its members and acknowledged the drawbacks of endorsements. Nonetheless, NACE has an important advocacy role. The Task Force recommended that NACE be able to express support for coalitions, grants and other opportunities supportive of civic education on a case-by-case basis. At the same time, it recognizes that each member has its own position on issues. Therefore, NACE should communicate the proposed positions to members and provide a reasonable amount of time for responses from those who choose to opt out of support for specific items, while still maintaining their membership in NACE. The Steering Committee will be asked to develop the timeline.

2. Support for The Civic Mission of Schools

Task Force members were very supportive of The Civic Mission of Schools report. They agreed that it is an important and useful document confirming the need for civic education and suggesting ways for affective civic education. Peter Levine indicated that Carnegie and CIRCLE are developing a dissemination plan, and would like to know NACE's position and interest regarding involvement.

The Task Force agreed that NACE should strongly support (not endorse the report itself) widespread dissemination of the report and that this position should be made clear to NACE members. The Task Force agreed that NACE is a portal for dissemination and options were discussed regarding how this would be done with the report. Members discussed how to encourage NACE member organizations to call their own members attention to the report and suggest how it can be used at as many local, state and federal levels as possible. NACE could encourage members by providing suggestions for strategies to do so. These include: a link on the NACE website; highlighting information from the report, e.g. posting recommendations on the website; strongly encouraging members and nonmembers to utilize and disseminate the report, providing ongoing feedback to NACE or CIRCLE about this use; and the creation of a mechanism on the website for members to discuss topics. It was felt that only members opting in for specific discussion topics should receive such messages.

Recommendations:

• The Task Force recommends that NACE strongly support the widespread dissemination of The Civic Mission of Schools report and will work with Carnegie and CIRCLE regarding these efforts.
• It recommends that NACE develop a list of activities that members can do to promote these efforts and identify exemplary practices for using the report.
• It recommends that NACE ask CIRCLE to send copies of The Civic Mission of Schools to each NACE member and ask them if they would be willing to disseminate more copies (Carnegie has printed another 10,000 copies).

3. Other Advocacy and Outreach Issues

The other issues recommended for consideration by the Steering Committee include: 1) Identification of exemplary legislation and administrative policies that support civic education, 2) Development of a plan to inform and engage members in advocacy and outreach for civic education, starting with the report, 3) Creation of online mechanisms that support member interaction and opportunities where they can support one another's work and 4) Exploration of how to get funding to augment NACE's staff capacity to accomplish assignments. The role of NACE in lobbying on the federal level will be an item for further discussion. As it was felt that NACE should have a role but that members might not agree on the exact legislative position NACE might take.

Some members of the task force voiced concern that they were not hearing enough from NACE about what it was doing and that it needs to become more visible with the members.

Recommendation: The task force recommends that NACE develop an internet mechanism for members to exchange of information. However, it was felt that any member should not be able to send any information he or she wants to any other member and perhaps a moderator would be needed to decide what was appropriate information for dissemination to members.

Recommendation: The task force recommends that NACE develop quarterly updates to membership regarding focus of NACE, task force and steering committee updates, and opportunities for involvement.

4. Next Steps

• The Steering Instead of setting up the next meeting, Ed O'Brien offered to send out an email regarding decisions made by the Steering Committee and then we will decide how best to proceed.