IEL's national meetings, the Leadership Forum and the Washington Policy Seminar, bring Fellows from across the nation into contact with ideas and individuals that Fellows might not encounter otherwise. Bringing together an audience of 200 to 300 individuals allows IEL to provide opportunities that no site alone can provide for just 20 or 30 Fellows.
National meeting programs, for example, engage Fellows in exploring demographics with Leobardo Estrada and Harold "Bud" Hodgkinson, dialogue processes with Daniel Yankelovich and Mark Gerzon, leadership and organizational culture with Terry Deal and Ellen Schall, "inside" Washington politics with Norman Ornstein, and state politics with Neal Peirce. Fellows have met informally with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala; debated education and welfare policy with key Congressional staffers and policy analysts Ron Haskins and Wendel Primus; and been privy to the behind-the-book research of Peter Schrag, Jonathan Kozol and Robert Dallek.
To ensure that Fellows get the real low-down in a city known more for exercising image and power than fact, the Capitol Steps comedy troupe have brought their own special brand of truth to a highly entertained Washington Policy Seminar audience for several years. As the Steps say, "The only thing funnier than we are in Washington is the U.S. Congress."
These are just a small portion of the many expert resources Fellows encounter at national meetings. Influential Congressional, agency and association staff are present in abundance. Media experts, innovative leaders in education and human service programs, gurus in pedagogical and public policy reform, academicians, and business trainers share their expertise freely. The special relationship so many of these resources have with IEL and their commitment to better public policy brings, literally, a world of experience and expertise to the EPFP™ Fellows each year.
Focus on Intergovernmental Policy and Governance
Public policy in most areas can best be understood as a product of intergovernmental interaction at state, local and federal levels. Given the variety of conditions and political cultures across the country, many policy problems differ by region and locale. The combination of state sites and national coordination allows participants in any site to develop both site-specific and national perspectives on problems of interest. The apt student of immigration policy and education reform, school vouchers, finance equalization, and state curriculum standards and assessments, for example, must develop an appreciation for both the uniform national policy dimensions and the unique local identities of these issues. The state site-IEL synergy helps make this possible.
Expanded Network and Resources
A hallmark of effective leadership is the leader's ability to call upon and leverage a constellation of resources that extend beyond the leader's own immediate capacity. Expertise, information and richer resources are available to members of the EPFP™ national network. As a concomitant benefit, network members simply are able to see the world in different terms. They are conscious of the variety and extent of social conditions, policy issues and approaches across the nation. This perspective enriches Fellows' own appreciation of conditions they deal with and of possible responses. The EPFP™ network is one more tool that enables Fellows and alumni to "think globally, act locally."
Managing Knowledge and Information
The network of EPFP™ sites and their coordinators manages the flow of information and new knowledge across sites. As both information and new knowledge expand exponentially, leaders need to be able to rely upon an infrastructure of trusted contacts and reliable sources to help them sort out and identify sound, relevant data. The coordinators network helps sites exchange lessons of successful practice, share insights gained from experience, and raise questions and issues of interest to others. Programs at each site can become better in less time and at lower cost through the communication across the network.
IEL provides the leadership and central coordination that makes the synergy across EPFP™ sites work. Greater efficiency, more sophisticated policy perspectives, national networks and better flow of information are the result of IEL's efforts to serve the sites. The major focus of IEL's efforts are to plan and conduct two annual meetings, the Leadership Forum and the Washington Policy Seminar, to foster communication across sites through the EPFP™ Web site, listserve, coordinator conference calls, annual coordinators meetings of site coordinators, dissemination of information and management materials, individual site support and technical assistance, and new site development. Many of these tools are explained at greater length in other parts of this Web site.
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