I am happy to invite you to join us for some intellectual exercise in a few weeks in Austin.

We are co-sponsoring four “research to practice” sessions at the Alliance for Nonprofit Management conference. Each will offer a chance to dive deeply into a critical nonprofit management issue with a team that knows its way around both the research and varieties of practice in that area. But those who attend (which we hope will include YOU) will also have knowledge to share. Our hope is to come out of each session having advanced some questions and understandings useful to nonprofit consultants and leaders.

The Alliance is a place where nonprofit consultants share their expertise, so the emphasis will be on how to intervene and work with nonprofit and philanthropic groups to think about their options and change- practices. But leaders in nonprofits and philanthropy are invited, too.

The sessions last three and a half hours each. You can attend only two because of timing, but each will be intensive, interactive, and thought provoking enough to satisfy your thirst for the latest on the topic.

The topics are:

Readiness for Capacity Building with Lissette Rodriguez, managing director of PropelNext, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation; and Max Freund, facilitator

Governance beyond the Boundaries of the Board with Dave Renz, director, Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership at UMKC; Judy Freiwirth, principal, Nonprofit Solutions Associates; and Curdina Hill, executive director of City Life/Vida Urbana

Hybrids and Hybridity with Fredrik Andersson, assistant professor, University of Milwaukee; Rick Cohen, national correspondent, the Nonprofit Quarterly; and Ruth McCambridge, co-president and editor in chief, the Nonprofit Quarterly

Strategic Leadership: Transforming Management Practices with Will Brown, associate professor and director of the Certificate in Nonprofit Management, the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University; and Tara Levy, senior consultant, Greenlights for Nonprofit Success

Because these sessions are part of a larger conference, you will also have the opportunity to attend some of the other excellent sessions. You can register athttp://theallianceconference.org/. (Airfares just took a dip, by the way, in case you will be traveling by air.) 

We look forward to seeing you at the Alliance!