NDN Fellows Winograd & Hais in San Francisco Today at National Service Conference; Michelle Obama Kicks Off Week with Keynote

NDN Fellows and coauthors of the critically acclaimed Millennial Makover: MySpace, YouTube & the Future of American Politics, Morley Winograd and Mike Hais are in San Francisco today where they will speak at the federal government's largest conference on national service and volunteering. The conference is being hosted by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the keynote address to the conference last night. From the First Lady's speech, which she delivered after she and California First Lady Maria Shriver helped build a playground at a local elementray school:

So I want people, as they think about how they're going to spend this summer, in addition to making your kids play, think about engaging in United We Serve. And think about ways that you can take more time to devote to activities and projects that are going to get our kids healthy and moving, whether it's serving a healthy meal at a soup kitchen, building a play lot, finding a project in your area that's going to focus on the health of our kids, taking time to tutor, mentor, taking a kid to the beach. I know in Chicago there are kids all over my city at home who have never seen the lake. I know that this is true for many communities across the city. Kids don't even know where they can play or what they can play. That's where we all come in. That's where we need your help. And today is just the beginning.

Additionally, Cabinet secretaries volunteered across the country yesterday to kick off the United We Serve summer service initiative, which runs from Monday to September 11.

Today, Winograd and Hais will be speaking at the  Corporation's 2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service on a panel titled, “The Millennial Generation: Coming to a Volunteer Service Organization Near You,” which will focus on how organizations can effectively connect with this unique generation.

The panel will begin at 1:30 p.m. at The Moscone Center in Room 1312.

Members of the press who would like to attend Winograd and Hais' workshop or the conference should contact Sandy Scott at the Corporation for National Service at sscott@cns.gov or on his cell phone, 202.355.2173.

Slots for the conference are almost gone and are extremely limited. However, individuals interested in attending may go to the conference register on-site if there is available space.

Today's conference follows on a major op-ed by Winograd and Hais published in this past Sunday's Los Angeles Times on Millennials and how they are equipped to cope with today's tough job market and very uncertain economic times.

To learn more about Millennials, please see the analysis and commentary below:

Are the Millennials the new GI Generation? Los Angeles Times, 6/21/09 - It's a daunting time to be entering the workplace. Today's young adults -- like their great-grandparents eight decades earlier -- are graduating from high school and college and starting careers at a time when the American economy is shedding jobs at a record pace.

This newest adult generation, dubbed the Millennials, is known for its optimism and sense of personal confidence. But will those traits survive the new economic realities? Recent survey results suggest the answer is a resounding yes. Millennials are demonstrating remarkable resilience in the face of an economic crisis, even though the downturn has affected them disproportionately.

Obama's Millennial Moment: President to Sign National Service Bill Today, Hais and Winograd, 4/21/09  - A commentary on how President Barack Obama's signing of the GIVE act  reflects his support of the belief among Milennials that community service is an effective way to fix local and national problems.

New Attitudes for a New Era, Hais and Winograd, 2/18/09 -A commentary that details the changing attitudes the American people have regarding the purpose of government and the standards for evaluating public policy.

New Rules for a New Era, Hais and Winograd, 1/27/09 - the the inauguration of Obama as the first president of the new civic era, the rules that guide the behavior of our leaders and eventually all Americans have changed as completely and substantially as have our politics.