Presented at a conference

I was a presenter at the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership conference this week. It's nice to have my first academic conference behind me. The presentation topic was racial representation on nonprofit boards and the effect this has on stakeholder orientation. I won't bore you with details, but basically there is a belief that white, male nonprofit boards are better at fundraising than boards including women or minorities. We tested this theory using a survey of Michigan nonprofits to see if it was true. We found that all nonprofit boards believe they have responsibilities beyond money. I received lots of good comments from attendees. The moderator was an author of one of my textbooks (which was kind of like having a celebrity sighting) - he had done research on my background in preparation for his responsibilities. He came up to me afterward and said I had a very good presentation style, he thinks it must be my experience in journalism that helped. I think it was just something I was born with - whatever that innate thing is actually helped me when studying journalism. But I didn't tell him that. I just thanked him for the compliments.

It was a star studded event, with many celebrity sightings. I met more than one author of my textbooks. There is a GIANT book on nonprofit leadership & management that I had to read for a class this semester - it is often referred to as the nonprofit bible. It is nearly 1,000 pages in length. I met the author of that book. He told me he was sorry to miss my presentation, but he heard good things about it and read the paper I wrote on the topic (they make it available to participants online for the conference). I met a woman from the Urban Institute in Washington D.C. - an organization I wouldn't mind working for when I graduate. I met representatives from consulting organizations, and other PhD students from around the nation. I even spoke with a very powerful woman in the nonprofit world locally. I've observed her from afar for years. Someone introduced me to her and I admitted this to her along with the admission that I wanted to request money from a board she sits on. She gave me her card and asked me to send the proposal to her directly. It was truly an interesting event.

It was a lot of work preparing for this event. I'm glad to have it behind me...now I can focus on projects for the end of the semester. I should actually finish in about two weeks. I can't wait!