Have you called your travel agent today? Imagine nearly 750,000 AIDS activists and NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt panel makers in Washington, DC over Columbus Day weekend 1996. Better yet, why imagine when you can be there? Once again, it is time to start making preparations to hone your management skills at the sixth annual National Skills Building Conference ('96 NSBC). A collaborative effort of the AIDS National Interfaith Network (ANIN), National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA), and National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), the National Skills Building Conference, will be held October 10-13, at the Washington Hilton and Towers. Over 2,000 people are expected to attend this year's meeting which will feature over 150 workshops and seminars. As customary, day-long Critical Issues Institutes will kick-off '96 NSBC on Thursday, October 13. Adding poignant remembrances of all those we've lost and as a charge and reminder of the work that we must continue to do, the NAMES Project Foundation will display the entire AIDS Memorial Quilt on the grounds of the Washington Mall that same weekend. Certainly, there are many of us who remember what this weekend was like in 1992 when NSBC and the Quilt convened in Washington over the same weekend. It was busy, busy, busy! A cautious word from the wise conference sage, 'make your hotel reservations today'!

The National Skills Building Conference is dedicated to enhancing the effectiveness of front-line community-based organizations to respond to the needs of HIV-infected individuals and individuals at risk for HIV-infection by providing technical management training to staff and volunteers associated with those organizations. The Conference is the winner of the 1994 American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Award of Excellence in Education for Best Community Service Education Program and the 1995 ASAE Award of Excellence in Education for Best Convention Education Program. The American Society of Association Executives is an individual membership organization comprised of more than 23,000 association executives managing leading professional, trade and voluntary organizations across the United States and in 44 countries around the world. Confirmed speakers at this year's meeting include: internationally renowned Latina activist and businesswoman, Cristina Saralegui, star of the Univision television talk show Cristina; NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt founder, Cleve Jones; and acclaimed spiritualist/author and lecturer, Ram Dass.

If you have not received the most recent NSBC brochure, or if you need additional ones, please do not hesitate to call 202-483-1124. The highlighted box below contains important '96 NSBC dates and phone numbers.

Critical Due Dates:

May 31, 1996 early member registration fee $300.00
May 31, 1996 early non-member registration fee $300.00
July 12, 1996 scholarship application deadline
Sept. 20, 1996 member registration fee $330.00
Sept. 20, 1996 nonmember registration fee $450.00
after Sept 20 On-Site registration fee $550.00

Hotel Information:

The Washington Hilton and Towers
1919 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20009
Tel: 202-797-5820

You must make your reservations by September 20, 1996 in order to reserve space in the NSBC block of rooms. Otherwise you will be assigned a room on a space and rate availability basis.

Only dues paying members of ANIN, NAPWA and NMAC are eligible for scholarships.