Meetings & Conferences

Future Meetings
Past Meetings

Each year, the Association sponsors several meetings and conferences to offer state officials an opportunity to share ideas, experiences, and concerns with their colleagues in other states. The two and one-half day annual meeting generally is built around a central program theme, offering members a chance to explore the ramifications of related issues with a wide range of program experts. Recent examples of Annual Conference themes include: Bringing Self-Determination into the Mainstream (November 1999), a meeting cosponsored by the National Programs Office on Self-Determination at the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability, Developing Strategies to Address the Workforce Crisis (November 2000), Creating New Management Systems and Tools: Adapting to the Changing Service Delivery Environment (November 2001), Achieving Desired Outcomes through Strategic System-Wide Management (November 2002), Pathways to Excellence: Achieving System-Wide Strategic Goals Together (November 2003), Ensuring Assess to High Quality Health & Dental Care (November 2004), Balancing Autonomy and Accountability in a System of Individual and Family Supports (November 2006), and Taking Care of Business: Employment Strategies That Work (November 2007). NASDDDS' annual meetings are held in the Washington, D.C. area.

NASDDDS also sponsors a Mid-Year Conference in the spring. This meeting is held in a different city each year. Like the annual meeting, the Mid-Year conference is organized around a central program theme, which allows participants to examine the policy and programmatic ramifications of a topic in-depth. Recent meetings, for example, have been built around the theme of: Targeting Waiting Lists (Charleston, South Carolina; May 1999), Maintaining Effective Oversight of Community Service Systems (Park City, Utah; May 2000), The Shifting Service Delivery Landscape (Chicago, Illinois; May 2001), Maintaining the Momentum: Protecting Individual Community Supports When Budgets Are Cut (Breckenridge, Colorado; May 2002), Building A Comprehensive, Data-Driven Quality Management System: Practical Approaches to Improving Quality (Savannah, Georgia; May 2003), Building Supportive Communities for Individuals Facing Behavioral Challenges (Portland, Maine; May 2004), Reaching the Summit: Changing Systems to Personal Choice & Control (Portland, Oregon; April 2005), Confronting the Challenges of Change (Santa Fe, New Mexico; May 2006), Preparing the Workforce - The Next Generation and Beyond (Rapid City, South Dakota; May 2007), and Beyond the Spectrum: New Knowledge, Perspectives, and Strategies to Support People with Autism and other Complex Needs (Nashville, Tennessee; May 2008).

From time to time, the Association also sponsors special workshops or forums on topical issues.

Future Meetings

• 2007 Annual Meeting, Alexandria, Virginia

• 2007 National Policy Forum, Baltimore, Maryland

• 2007 Mid-Year Meeting, Rapid City, South Dakota

• Alliance for Full Participation: 2005 Summit, Washington, D.C.

• 2004 Annual Meeting; Alexandria, Virginia