Schedule and offerings are subject to change.

Friday, January 23 – Workshop Group One – 10:10 to 11:10 a.m.

Executive Directors’ Roundtable

Whether you supervise an organizer, campaign manager, fund raiser, communications expert, spokesperson, lobbyists and more, or you play many of these roles yourself, this is an opportunity to share experiences and learn from colleagues. Learn how others address the challenges of managing the complex structure of an effective abolitionist organization and receive important information such as the new requirements for filing IRS Form 990.

Board of Directors’ Roundtable

An effective Board of Directors plays a vital role in helping to set the strategic direction of the campaign and ensuring that the necessary resources are available. Learn best practices and gather new resources to enhance the capacity of your Board. Address ways to overcome challenges and gain support from other Board members. The discussion will touch on many issues, including planning, fundraising, new requirements for filing IRS Form 990, campaign evaluation, Board expansion to support campaign objectives, and navigating dual roles when Board members implement parts of the campaign.

Cultivating Your Elevator Speech

The first in a series of communications training programs at this conference, participants will enhance their skills at speaking concisely against the death penalty using the most powerful messages. Whether you’re a seasoned activist or new to the issue, it is always useful to know how to marshal your arguments and present them it at the drop of a hat. This interactive training will help you make the most persuasive and effective messages against the death penalty.

Death Penalty Overview and Update

This capital punishment 101 session is particularly valuable for people new to the issue and those wishing to be up to date on the latest issues. This workshop presents the nuts and bolts of the death penalty, including: the state of the law and new legal developments; who is on death row; an overview of the stages of a capital trial and the appellate process; and a summary of clemency procedure.

Friday, January 23 – Workshop Group Two – 11:20 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.

Resolved: Resolutions Build Membership and Energize Campaigns

Whether it’s a call for a study, moratorium, abolition, or action in a particular case, working with civic, community and faith groups to help them take a stand on the death penalty helps build membership and move a campaign forward. Participants will learn how resolution efforts fit into larger campaigns, what kinds of groups to approach and how to approach them, planning for passing resolutions, the different kinds of resolutions, and most important, what to do once your resolution is approved.

Building Your Membership Base Through Event Planning

Our movement has many allied organizations, but how do we find the active abolitionists among their members? This workshop presents a model of membership building that centers on carrying our message to other groups by getting on the agenda of their events and meetings. Participants will leave knowing how to identify potential opportunities, reach out and negotiate access, make the presentation and sign up new members while not wearing out your welcome, and close the deal with proper follow up.

Recruiting and Mobilizing Grasstops

Grasstops are community leaders who have their own constituencies, a unique voice, and/or established relationships with policy makers. Participants will gain an understanding of the importance of grasstops and learn concrete strategies for recruiting, retaining, mobilizing and supporting this vital component of our membership.

Programming to Effectively Mobilize New Members

You signed up 23 new members at the event last week – now, what do you do with them?

Designed for NCADP Affiliate staff and volunteers responsible for follow up, this workshop will provide and walk through a new NCADP tool kit with guidelines and resources for bringing new contacts into the organization.

Bringing Law Enforcement Voices into Your Campaign

We know that the death penalty ranks near the bottom of the list of things that law enforcement leaders believe are helpful in fighting crime. Participants in this workshop will learn how to engage various types of law enforcement professionals in a productive dialogue on the death penalty as a way to build relationships that will advance your campaign. Examples of successful law enforcement outreach will be shared by organizers doing this work. Participants will leave with a law enforcement outreach plan and with experience practicing initial conversations through role play.

Friday, January 23 – Workshop Group Three – 1:45 to 2:45 p.m.

No Strategic Plan?: The How-To Workshop

Working from a strategic campaign plan is the key to a successful effort to end the death penalty. Designed for NCADP Affiliate staff, Board Members and highly engaged volunteers, this workshop explores what to do if you don’t have a strategic plan for your state campaign, or if you are ready to take your program to a higher level. Participants will leave with information that helps you understand how to plan and prepare for engaging in a complete strategic planning process, including how to find the right strategic planner, what information to gather, and who to bring to the table.

Letters to the Editor as an Effective Campaign Tool

There is an art to writing crisp, on-message and engaging letters to the editor about the death penalty. Participants will benefit from learning the “how to” and a little practice. Equally important is understanding how to use letters to the editor as part of an effective communications strategy. As such, this workshop will also unveil a new model for monitoring print media and coordinating appropriate and timely proactive and reactive letters to the editor.

Organizing a Speaking Tour with Voices of Experience

There is no better way to engage the public than to put them face-to-face with someone who understands the issue from personal experience. Whether you bring a single speaker for a one-time event or tour for a week with 20 speakers, there is much to consider if such efforts are to be as effective as possible. Hear a sample presentation and leave with a how to manual and lists of available death row survivors, murder victim family members and death row family members.

Working with Murder Victim Family Members

This workshop explores strategies for building relationships with murder victim family members who are not entirely abolitionist, as well as their organizations and advocates. It includes a discussion about the use of broader victim messaging that takes it from just the personal stories of family members to why the death penalty is bad policy for victims’ families.

Working with Death Row Family Members

Many death row family members actively support their loved ones on death row, but some want to do more. Workshop attendees will learn strategies for involving and utilizing death row family members in our broader campaign work (beyond their individual cases). Ohio and Pennsylvania death row family groups will share their group models and experiences.

Friday, January 23 – Special Topic Panels – 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Speaking Innocence to Power

This session will examine the rise of the innocence issue and look at how campaign strategists are using increased public awareness of the risk of executing the innocent as one of the most powerful arguments in the debate. Oklahoma Death Row Survivor Curtis McCarty will share his experience.

Reducing Death Sentences: Strategy Update

A number of NCADP Affiliates have set a goal to reduce death sentences in their states and have valuable lessons to share from their experiences. Join us for a progress report and learn how to apply this strategy to help reduce death sentences and build towards abolition in your state.

Racial Discrimination and the Death Penalty in Pennsylvania

From racial profiling in the selection of death penalty juries to the disproportionate concentration of racial minorities on death row, racial disparities in the application of the death penalty are more blatant in Pennsylvania than in most other states.  Learn about the not-so-brotherly practices in the City of Brotherly Love, how racial bias plays out across Pennsylvania, and what is being done about it.  This session includes recent sociological research on the arbitrary role race plays in determining who lives and who may be sentenced to die, and how the courts have responded (or refused to respond) to evidence of discrimination. Also, an update on the case of Mumia Abu Jamal.

Changing the Conversation: A Positive Vision

Successful abolition groups maintain a single-issue focus while discovering common ground with key criminal justice stakeholders. The workshop will explore how abolitionist arguments and outreach can be used to validate the legitimate concerns of law enforcement, victims, prison families, mental health advocates and others. Allies recruited across a broad range of constituencies work to build the movement's credibility and political strength. Panelists will discuss strategies for implementing such broad outreach and the implications for continuing work in a post-abolition environment. As our movement evolves, abolition is more than the absence of the death penalty; it is the presence of justice.

Death Penalty in the Caribbean

Almost 70% of the reported foreign nationals on death row in the U. S. are from Caribbean nations. One of every four countries that voted last year against the United Nations resolution to establish a moratorium was from this region. Learn the facts about capital punishment in the Caribbean, the steps developed by the Puerto Rican Coalition Against the Death Penalty to increase activism in these countries, and what you can do to help.