ServiceNation to host 911 summit

A major conference on volunteerism and emergency preparedness will be held this September in New York City and planners hope to have both Presidential front-runners attending.

Amateur Radio Newsline's Jeff Reinhardt, AA6JR, reports:

The two major presidential front runners have been invited to speak about the need for public service at a national symposium being held on the anniversary of the 911 terror attacks.

The ServiceNation Summit is being held in New York September 11th and 12th. Planners hope it will bring together 500 leaders of all ages and from every sector of American life to celebrate the power and potential of citizen service. Planners also hope to lay out what the group calls a policy blueprint for addressing America’s greatest social challenges through expanded opportunities for volunteer service.

There's already talk on the blogs that amateur radio operators could play a significant hole in some programs that ServiceNation plans to put in place. This, by providing volunteer communications for some of them. Some thoughts are that this type of involvement could breath new like into thousands of ham radio repeaters that currently lie dormant most hours of the day.

ServiceNation has invited Presidential hopefulls Barack Obama and John McCain to speak at the event. At this time, only Republican McCain has accepted. Also confirmed to address the meeting are New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The latter has already created a cabinet level post dedicated to service and volunteering.

Look for more on the ServiceNation volunteer program and just how ham radio might fit in coming in future Amateur Radio Newsline reports.

Jeff Reinhardt, AA6JR
Amateur Radio Newsline

• ServiceNation is a non-partisan organization formed to promote volunteerism by creating target groups with a goal of having 100 million citizens involved as volunteers in schools, workplaces and faith-based and community institutions each year. The summit is part of that campaign.

More information on this meeting and on ServiceNation is on-line at http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation

Source: ARNewsline, ServiceNation