Older and Weiser

Remarks on citizenship made by Michael Weiser, chairman of the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) at NCoC’s Annual Conference on September 9, 2009.

Good morning everyone and welcome to the 2009 National Conference on Citizenship.

Thank you to Dr. James Billington and the Library staff for hosting us. This is a first for the National Conference, and we are honored to have our conference in this elegant and historic building. Thank you also to Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina for his generous sponsorship of our event at the Library, and for the work of his staff, which helped make this day possible.

Today we can boast the largest crowd we’ve ever had at our annual conference, some 500 registrants, plus the participation of an unrestricted audience online. Your support in such numbers is a capstone, of sorts, to five years of hard work to revive this National Conference. It is fitting, I think, that our conference should be held at the Library of Congress, whose sponsors turned to one of the nation’s founding leaders, Thomas Jefferson, after the Library was destroyed by the British in the War of 1812.  It was Jefferson’s personal library that was the core of the Library’s revival. In returning this National Conference to a position of relevance and leadership, we also turned to leaders who were the core of our revival.  I will take just a few moments to recognize them this morning.

·    First, John Bridgeland, our guiding light and lead muse, and the chair of the NCoC Advisory Board.  John, thank you for your leadership.

·    Second, I would like to give a special thanks to Jean Case, a champion and early supporter of our efforts.  Most recently, she challenged NCoC to take our message outside the walls of this auditorium, and, as you’ll see today, we have heeded her message and expanded our outreach. Thank you to the Case Foundation, the official Online Engagement Sponsor of our event.
Your support is greatly appreciated.

·     Third, to Board members of NCoC, who are seated in the front of the room and whom I’d like to ask you to join me in thanking. Their passion drives what you see taking place today. Please stand and be recognized.

·     Finally, I would like to recognize one of our directors who led us in the earliest days of our revival, Terry Newmyer.  Thank you, Terry, for your leadership.

The theme that underscores today’s conference is defining modern citizenship. The challenge confronting NCoC and everyone in this room is wrapping our heads around the role of a U.S. citizen in 2009 and beyond. Conceptually speaking, the notion of citizenship has held firm in this country throughout our 233 years but, at the same time, has arguably become less relevant for many Americans. So, NCoC seeks to define citizenship within a modern context.

As de Tocqueville observed 175 years ago, Americans do not wait around for others to do it for us; we will step up and do it ourselves.

Our role in defining modern citizenship – is to track, measure and promote citizenship in America. There is no way to do this, unless we submit ourselves to the rigor of measuring properly the civic return on investment, or ROI, to borrow a Wall Street term, that is generated by the investments made by government, foundations and other nonprofits. Concrete progress and lasting results, no matter how slight or nuanced, is what drives this Civic ROI, and we are working to demonstrate how these investments bolster our civic society.

NCoC began to measure Civic ROI four years ago through the launch of our Civic Health Index, which has become the definitive measure of the health of U.S. citizenship. Congress earlier this year validated the CHI’s value by codifying it in law, with its passage of The Edward M. Kennedy Service America Act.  The Kennedy Service America Act created a partnership between NCoC, the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Census to create a “Civic Health Assessment” to help communities throughout the US leverage the power of their citizenry.

NCoC is developing other measures of our civic engagement, including a series of state civic health indexes, a new measure of corporate civic engagement and a renewed emphasis on civic learning, which we believe is the cornerstone of civic engagement.  We will be sharing the details of these and other initiatives with you and other members of the citizenship field in the weeks and months ahead. In all our work, please be clear about one thing: NCoC seeks to support you and your work.

Finally, it is my good fortune to share leadership of the National Conference with our executive director – and my partner – David Smith. David towers over me in more than just physical ways.  His energy and savvy is fueling our continuing success. With that, David, the floor is yous.

Filed under: Uncategorized by Michael Weiser