From: Alan Khazei <info@bethechangeinc.org>

Dear bile,

I just returned from this year’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service in San Francisco, an outstanding event where more than 4,000 service leaders gathered to celebrate our achievements and plan the path forward.

This is an extraordinary moment for our movement, with a new law on the books promising unprecedented federal resources for service; people across the country becoming more engaged in their communities than we’ve seen in a long time; and a President and First Lady in the White House who come from the service world, and who want service and civic engagement to become a part of every American’s life.

So many terrific ideas came out of the event, and you’ll be hearing more about them in the weeks and months to come. But before that, we need you to become a part of this discussion.

Our supporters on the ground are the ones who powered us from the beginning.  And today, it’s your input and your ideas that will carry us forward as we plot out the next steps for this organization – and for the service movement as a whole.

Please fill out this short survey – your feedback will help shape the future of ServiceNation:

http://www.servicenation.org/survey

If you didn’t make it to the Conference, there’s a lot to fill you in on. Here are a few of the highlights from the event:

-    The crowd gave a hero’s welcome to Michelle Obama, the keynote speaker, who talked passionately about the White House’s commitment to service and the need to find innovative ways to expand it.

-    I had the honor of interviewing Maria Shriver, the First Lady of California, about her path-breaking efforts to strengthen service in that state. (More to come about that interview in a follow-up message.)

-   The Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) announced a week-long October campaign to promote service on all the major TV networks. This is a big opportunity to get new people involved in service, and it’s something we’ll all be hearing much more about in the months ahead. As part of the announcement, we were treated to a terrific concert from Jon Bon Jovi, a longtime friend of the service community who came to the Conference as a representative of EIF.

-    ServiceNation also was proud to host a luncheon for hundreds of service champions.  Melody Barnes, President Obama’s chief domestic policy advisor, spoke movingly about the future of service in America, and all the attendees participated in a strategy discussion led by Arianna Huffington, EIF’s Lisa Paulsen, and Colin Jones, a current AmeriCorps VISTA serving with the program BUILD in San Francisco.

With so many people across the country spending time this week to talk about what’s next for the service movement, it’s absolutely essential that you get involved in the discussion. We want to know more about you, your impressions of the work we’ve done so far, and your thoughts on where we should go from here.

Please fill out the survey today:

http://www.servicenation.org/survey

Thanks – we’ll be following up with more takeaways from the Conference soon.

Alan

The multiple choice sections are limited but there are opened ended areas to let Alan and friends know that we don’t appreciate the move toward national servitude.

> Thanks for answering our questions, very nice from you.
>
> 1- First of all we would like to know what is exactly SERVICE NATION
> SUMMIT and what’s your position there?

Service Nation (http://servicenation.org) is an organization which
is attempting to get more people to be volunteers. Primarily by
increasing US federal government programs such as PeaceCorps and
AmeriCorps. The Service Nation Summit was to “bring together 500
leaders of all ages and from every sector of American life from
universities and foundations, to business and politics to celebrate the
power and potential of citizen service, and lay out a bold policy
blueprint for addressing Americas greatest social challenges through
expanded opportunities for volunteer and national service.”

I’m not a member of the organization. I attended as a member of the
press representing the Manhattan Libertarian Party
(http://manhattanlp.org), Free Talk Live (http://freetalklive.com) and
my own blog, http://blogofbile.com.

> 2. Then, why do you think Jon Bon Jovi there?

He is a well known celebrity and well liked. He’s made significant
charitable contributions and created his own organization to help
people. Inviting that sort of individual would gain attention for
Service Nation and the summit.

> 3. How was the speech of Jon Bon Jovi?

I thought it was fine. What I disliked was that Service Nation is
advocating expanding government funded service and yet most of their
examples of service, like Bon Jovi’s, are in fact private voluntarism.
I whole heartily support private individuals volunteering their time and
money to charities they believe in. However, taxing the populous to
provide similar services which they may not agree with is both an
inefficient use of resources and immoral. Incentivising people with
education grants and the like negates the meaning and nature of voluntarism.

> 4. What is the feeling there in the States about the charity things
> Jon does? People like them or they think “God! he’s doing this with a
> purpouse!”?

The United States is the most charitable nation
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16638810/,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-25-charitable_N.htm) and
voluntarism is a major component of many people’s lives. You may find
people who disagree with his methods or target but the fact he’s doing
something to help those in need likely gains the respect of most
Americans.

> Thanks so much iambile, feel free to add any comments to the interview
> outside the questions.
>
> Regards
>
> Javier

I just want to make sure it is clear that those in the liberty movement
completely support true private voluntarism. What we don’t and can’t
support is government funded service, so called voluntary service or
compulsory service. Compulsory because it’s tantamount to slavery and
so called voluntary because the government is inefficient and the
taxation process is theft. Taking from John to give to Paul is wrong
regardless of the reason it’s done or the individual doing it. So
called voluntary service is what Service Nation is advocating. However,
several members of their coalition desire compulsory service and the
natural progression of government increasing the size and scope of
voluntary service is toward mandatory service.

UPDATE:

You can find the interview, translated, here.

I’m not sure how well the translation is… putting a couple things into Babel Fish I’m not so sure my points get across. Though the one comment made on the post seems to understand that I’m being critical.

http://www.bethechangeinc.org/…

• Nine-year-olds growing up in low-income communities are already three grade levels behind their peers in high-income communities.
  Does this include children attending private schools? Stating the effect without an understanding of the cause means wasted resources treating symptoms. Could it not be that the war on drugs, which harms low-income communities more, combined with welfare and other government disincentives, combined with the general inefficiencies of government provided education are the sources of these sad statistics and therefore should be the focus?
• Only 31% of fourth graders are proficient in reading. Low-income students do half as well.
  See above. I’d also recommend reading John Taylor Gatto’s The Underground History of American Education, Mary Ruwart’s Healing our World, and Samuel Blumenfeld’s Is Public Education Necessary?
• As many as fifteen million students have no place to go after school.
  You can blame some of this on the war on drugs and the welfare state which has split apart families. On a more abstract note I would focus on the Federal Reserve System [PDF]. The federal government through the Fed through inflation taxes all users of Federal Reserve Notes without their supposed consent or knowledge. It hurts those who receive lower or no increases in their income the most. As inflation increases so do prices and do so ahead of any increases in income. Slowly wealth is stripped away requiring individuals to work more and/or longer to bring home the same amount. No longer can an average family survive on a single salary.
• Teens who do not participate in after school programs are nearly three times more likely to skip classes or use marijuana or other drugs, drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes.
  Is it that teens who participate in after school programs are less likely to do those things because they are participating or simply because those who tend to participate just don’t. Could it be that those who are not interested in after school programs are also the same ones who have issues with the school curriculum?
• The hours between 3-6 p.m. on school days (referred to by law enforcement officials as a “danger zone”) are the prime time for violent juvenile crime.
• More than 1.2 million children drop out of school each year. The cost is more than $312 billion in lost wages, taxes, and productivity over their lifetime.
• Only 70% of students in the U.S graduate from high school. In the nation’s urban schools, the dropout rate is fifteen percentage points lower. Those who do graduate high school will, on average, read and do math at the level of eighth graders in high-income communities.
• Only 1 in 10 students in low-income communities will graduate from college.

• Since its founding, 17,000 people have participated as Teach For America corps members, teaching and affecting over 2.5 million public school students.
• Since its founding in 1988, City Year’s 10,400 corps members have served 1,060,000 children, completed 16 million hours of service, and engaged more than 1,015,000 citizens in service.
• According to a study by The Urban Institute, high school students taught by TFA corps members on average performed significantly better on state-required end-of-course exams, especially in math and science, than peers taught by far more experienced instructors.
  If that’s the case why don’t they teach the “far more experienced instructors”? Wouldn’t that be more efficient? Are they teaching a general curriculum or teaching to the state-required end-of-course exams? Are they comparing general instruction to specific tutoring?
• A study by Mathematica Policy Research in 2004 randomly assigned students within the same schools to teachers both from TFA and traditional certification programs. It found that students taught by TFA teachers performed better in math and science as those taught by non-TFA novice teachers.
  Again, if the goal is helping the children why wouldn’t they be teaching those running the certification programs? Perhaps they do but it’s not something I’ve heard from them.
• One study shows that first-, second- and third-graders tutored by AmeriCorps members gained seven to fourteen percentile points in reading scores compared to their peers.
• AmeriCorps members in Education Works help inspire students to improve attendance, helping low-income schools to keep students coming to class for an average of 20 more days per year than other neighborhood schools.
  I have no doubt that showing a student more attention and giving the direct encouragement would increase attendance. But how does the Education Works members compare to Big Brother Big Sister and other organization which are private and perform effectively the same service? 20 days is huge but 20 more days to from what?
• By focusing its efforts on standardized test preparation, the AmeriCorps program Admission Possible helped students raise their ACT scores by an average of sixteen percent.
  This is a meaningless value. Teaching to tests is not education.
  
• AmeriCorps members working for College Summit help low-income students apply to and enroll in college. One study found that 80% of College Summit students got into college, compared to less than 50% of their peers. Aren’t guidance counselors and parents supposed to do this? As with above shouldn’t these College Summit members be working with counselors and parents so that the labor can be distributed?
  
• National service programs give students who did not complete high school a chance to finish their education. Since 2002, almost 5,000 AmeriCorps members in the program YouthBuild USA have earned their GED. Many of these GED recipients were previously incarcerated.
  Doesn’t the federal prison system already provide prisoners with the ability to get a GED and take college courses? Seems to me that AmeriCorps was used by these young people as an outlet from their situation at home. Likely it helped them but these programs should be provided by private institutions which would direct the participants labor toward things the community would need instead of what bureaucrats want.

Opening:

• Was just visited by Henri Makembe. Told me they would be providing for interview with people but I’d have to keep it friendly. “If we make them mad then they won’t want to give any of the other bloggers time.” So… they don’t want me to ask serious questions. What a surprise.
• Have quoted Winston Churchill, Mother Teressa, Mahatma Gandhi.
• They show all these examples of service yet they all appear to be real voluntarism, ie no government involvement.
• “We are not here as Republicans, Democrats, libertarians, socialists or Green party members. We are here as Americans.” I appreciate the shout out but I’m here as a libertarian.
• “We are here today because of Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” Too bad they don’t wish to abide by the ideas contained in those documents.
• “Politicians get a bad wrap. Some deservingly. But there are all kinds of politicians who help America.”
• Being a citizen of the United States is the highest reward.
• If you googled “giving back” you’d likely find “Mike Bloomberg.”
• Bloomberg: New York City’s government school system improvement is an example for the rest of the nation.
• New York City is the city of service because William James who wrote The Moral Equivalent of War (intro by Jon Roland) advocating national service was born here.
• “We are the beneficiaries of those who give their lives to defend us.” Defending from the Koreans? The Vietnamese? The Iraqis? The Pakistanis? The Iranians?
• Bloomberg babbles on about global warming, “We are polluting the air we breath.” Yes… by breathing.
• “Service should be asked of everyone and should be open to everyone. So we are creating new programs.”
• “Democracy and capitalism hasn’t helped everyone…”
• George Bush: Asks everyone to spend two years or 4k hours helping out in a lifetime.
• Laura Bush: “People have more opportunities to volunteer through government programs.” Being incentivized by tax payers money is not voluntarism.
• Rolling Ridge elementary school gives it’s kids service journals and have made ’service’ party of the curriculum.
• “Children who learn the importance of service early are more likely to volunteer later in life.” Gotta indoctrinate them young.
• The program has moved on to personal stories from ‘volunteers.’ One from City Year, Civilian Conservation Corp, AmeriCorps.
• Admiral Michael Mullen: “the soldiers in Iraq are protecting our democracy at home. They are there because of what happened on 9/11.” I thought Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. How is it that our invasion of Iraq is protecting us?
• “There is no greater reward than working for something greater than yourself.”
• “Keep singing (God Bless America), keep waving (flags), and keep serving!” Yay nationalism/fascism!
• Obama, McCain, Dodd, Clinton have said they will cosponsor the Serve America Act from Kennedy and Hatch.
• The language used always refers to “the two candidates for the oval office.”
• Senator Hatch: “We want to help children who want to serve.”
• “Our efforts will start early in our classrooms.”
• “Service learning has shown to keep kids interested in school. So we are going to offer more incentives.”
• 61 million Americans volunteer without government incentives.
• “We will invest into a volunteer fund matched dollar for dollar from the private sector.”
• Want to create funds to help non-profit entrepreneurs.
• Offer older people “education rewards” to give to their children and grandchildren to pay for school.

Read More…

Be the Change Inc YouTube channel

• McCain says he doesn’t support mandatory service.
• McCain says that if Target would have ran things during Katrina it would have gone better, there wouldn’t have been trucks of ice in Maine. If he really believes private organizations would do a better job than why would he advocate the federal government deal with natural disaster?
• McCain claims the reason the military is having a hard time keeping member and gaining more is because it’s not big enough. What?
• The guy from TIME is saying the US government should have mandatory service. McCain dodged the question asking if the US should have mandatory service for all and allow people to go into none military service.
• McCain says he would sign the Kennedy / Hatch Serve America Bill. Said he “love”s Ted Kennedy.
• We should send people to countries which don’t like us… but not money.
• McCain’s hero Teddy Roosevelt.
• Bring ‘all people are created equal’ to the world. Not necessarily military but in other ways. America is exception because of it.

• Obama gets a standing ovation several times longer than McCain’s.
• We believe in individual responsibility and ability… but also mutual responsibility.
• How to get more people into service? Start early with kids in school.
• He won’t have to pander to the union to get his national service plans through like Clinton did.
• The government should encourage voluntarism.
• Every student will get a $4k college credit by “giving back.”
• Big government suppresses private charity/voluntarism is an “old argument.”
• We have to have government. We have to have a FEMA that works. We need to encourage young people to serve so when they get older they are trained to work for those government programs.
• Government should expand the avenues of service.
• To keep more people in the military: restore peoples belief in service, inspiring people
• Universities which keep off ROTC should let them on campus
• Should provide full scholarships for math and science teachers and then make them go work in depressed communities.
• One of the primary aspects of his presidency would be to increase avenues for service in the nation.
• I want every young person to know that they won’t reach their potential unless they work with others.
• American voluntarism is what makes America great.
• Obama likes Teddy Roosevelt too.

All done. Check out the YouTube channel for the interviews.

Laurie,

Thank you for keeping us honest.  We are in the middle of ironing the details of our relationship with ANSA.  Unfortunately, we are not responsible for the language on their website in the same way that they are not responsible for the language on our website(s).  I invite you to contact them if you have concerns about the content on their website.  And Of course, continue to email us should you have any questions/concerns about ours.

When it comes to coalition organizations, it’s a bit tricky.  We will  seek to be more explicit about the nature of our relationship before agreeing to have them as part of our coalition.  That being said, we aim to be a big umbrella organization when it it comes national service programs and volunteering.   If an organization supports our agenda as is, not as they interpret it to be, we are more than likely to have them on board because we believe the majority of Americans want to volunteer and should be given the opportunity to do so regardless of their political views, religious affiliations, race, sex, shape or size.

As for the funding, while you make some good points, on some level we are going to have to agree to disagree.   We are asking the federal government to fund the infrastructure that makes volunteering at all levels possible. Studies have shown for every $1 invested in national service programs the government gets $3 back.  We are currently working on several case studies to support these claims.  I would imagine that we will post them on our website once they are completed.   Moreover, a study by the Brookings Institute has demonstrated that participants in programs such as Americoprs and PeaceCorps are more likely to be involved in the political system and run for office after they leave those programs. Additionally, the federal government is not the sole source (or even the biggest source) of funding for the vast majority of the members in our coalition. In fact, private citizens such as yourself do support many of these organizations despite the currently financial hardships.  However, we believe that with slightly more help from the federal government, some of the successful  programs can be brought to scale and give more people the option of volunteering.

Now that you have a better understanding of Be the change Inc and the ServiceNation Campaign, I would like to ask for the opportunity to do a guest post on your blog where we could explain the goals of ServiceNation to your readership and field any comments/questions that we may have.  Of course this will not any way mean that you endorse our organization or the campaign,  but just giving your readership a chance to make up their mind based on facts, and have a chance to voice their concerns as you did.  I hope that you will consider giving us that opportunity.

Best,

–
Henri Makembe
Be the Change, Inc.
202.778.3553 (office)
www.bethechangeinc.org

Blog of Bile has given Be The Change, Inc. the ability to post. If they’d like, we will leave the account open so they may post whenever they desire.