Happy summer! NCFR staff spent the first half of 2018 looking outward at how events around the world impact families and also looking inward at how to continue to serve our members in the family field.

NCFR Lends Its Voice

In 2017, the NCFR Board of Directors amended the NCFR governance policies to provide guidance for organizational actions related to raising the visibility of family research, theory, and practice to policy makers and the general public. The criteria for organizational advocacy are as follows:

1. The issue is important for families and/or NCFR members.
2. The issue is informed by research and member expertise.
3. There is a high level of member consensus regarding the research on the issue.
4. There is the potential for NCFR to make a timely contribution to the issue as a result of the proposed activity.
5. There are resources currently available within NCFR to support the proposed activity.
6. The proposed activity must not jeopardize our 501(c)(3) status, or nonprofit classification.

While this information has been shared with NCFR members previously, it may be helpful to see it again in relation to NCFR’s involvement in a recent request made to the U.S. Congress regarding funding for research into gun violence.

Through affiliation with the Consortium of Social Science Association (COSSA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), NCFR has been able to connect with other U.S.-based social science associations and leverage our collective resources to advocate for the development and advance of the profession (Global Ends 3). One method of advocating for the profession is to ensure that there are federal resources available to engage in family research. A recent example of NCFR advocating for the profession was when NCFR signed a letter to members of U.S. Congress calling for federal funding for research into gun violence because of the impact such violence has on families. NCFR was one of many organizations that signed this letter. The full letter can be read at marchforscience.com/gunviolence.

In an effort to have more research and resources on the topic of gun violence readily available for family practitioners and Family Life Educators, the fall issue CFLE Network the winter issue of Family Focus in NCFR Report will highlight articles on this theme. The purpose of these issues is to create new, original resources for family scholars and professionals to use when tragic events occur, such as school shootings. Issues of our publications have previously addressed similar timely matters relevant to our members. See the call for authors.

Leadership Initiatives

We wish to thank Stephen M. Gavazzi, Ph.D., for his leadership over the past three years as chair of the NCFR Academic Administration and Leadership Focus Group. Dr. Gavazzi has recently turned the chair position over to David H. Demo, Ph.D., on an interim basis, with assistance from Anne F. Farrell, Ph.D. This team is moving in earnest to develop the 2018 leadership workshop. According to Dr. Farrell, the workshop will be “open to current and emerging leaders in Family Science and is designed to enhance leadership skills.” The workshop will benefit returning participants from last year’s session and new and emerging leaders who are attending for the first time. Thank you to Drs. Demo and Farrell for stepping in, and to Dr. Gavazzi for his outstanding efforts to get the focus group off and running.

California, Here We Come!

With another record number of conference submissions, and more improvements to the peer review process, we expect an outstanding program at the 2018 NCFR Annual Conference in San Diego, Nov. 7–10. Because the U.S. national election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 6, we encourage attendees to vote early by absentee ballot to allow for more flexibility in making travel arrangements. We also wouldn’t want you to miss special preconference events on Tuesday!

A big thank-you to this year's conference host, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln's Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies, for its generous support of the conference. Organizations and individuals interested in being a conference sponsor can view a complete and updated list online at ncfr.org/conference-marketing. Questions may be addressed to Judy Schutz.

If you’ve already registered for this year’s NCFR conference, you may have noticed a number of improvements to the online registration process, including a feature that shows a sample of how your name and school or affiliation will display on your name badge. Thank you to Jay McGraw, NCFR’s database and web services manager, for leading the effort to improve our online customer experience.

The host city for this year’s conference is beautiful San Diego, California. West Coast venues improve our accessibility to members from Southeast Asia as well as all those folks who live in the western half of the U.S. As I’ve shared in past Report columns, sleeping room and other hotel costs in top-tier conference cities like San Francisco and San Diego are prohibitively expensive for many NCFR members. Being off the coast, inland, and at a quality resort with rooms at less than $200 per night allows NCFR to consider such cities as conference locations. Town and Country San Diego (towncountry.com) is a landmark hotel in the midst of a renovation. Delays have extended the timeline into early November, and hotel staff will be working extra hard to ensure our stay is enjoyable. While we have been assured that construction will not interfere with our conference experience, you can expect to see parts of the historic facility in transition. To acknowledge any inconvenience, the hotel is offering a complimentary continental breakfast buffet on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings. Additional information and concessions will be available and updated at ncfr.org/ncfr-2018/hotel-and-city.

Staffing Notes: Full Steam Ahead!

NCFR is fully staffed and taking on some ambitious projects in 2018:

• NCFR welcomed David Schmidt to the team as director of finance in February. David is on a fast track to complete the 2017 audit and learn as much as possible about NCFR prior to the 2018 conference.
• Bethany Cox, member relations manager, has been traveling the U.S. this spring to attend NCFR Affiliate Conferences to meet members and learn as much as she can about the work of affiliates. 
• We’ve partnered with a consultant, Sheri Jacobs of Avenue M, to gain a better understanding of member needs in terms of professional development, resources, and communication. With her assistance, we are reaching out to current members, past members, journal authors, Certified Family Life Educators, and other NCFR customers. Initial interviews will be followed by an all-member survey and follow-up interviews. The project is scheduled for completion by mid-September, and we hope to use the findings to guide future programming decisions. Thank you in advance for your participation.