In his deep well-know voice, Arnold Swarchenegger simply said, "I am here to pump you up! Pump you up about service". The crowd laughed smacked their bam ban noisemakers together and waited to see what else the Governor of California would have to say about the Civic Energy Generation, which was the theme of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service. As he went on to discuss how he was asked to serve and how important simply asking someone to give their time is, I began to realize exactly what a big event I was attending. (As if having Arianna Huffington as well as a host of other famous champions of service like the Governor speak as “warm up acts” was not a big enough tip off).

By the time the speaker many of us stood in line for hours to see First Lady Michelle Obama came on, I had "swallowed the kool-aid" so to speak and was feeling a part of something larger. This does not often happen in my daily experiences of managing 18-24 AmeriCorps members, keeping sites informed and on track, planning trainings, recruiting new members, and dealing with a host of other activities. Do not get me wrong I love my job and really enjoy helping my Corps serve, but it can be daunting and the past months leading up to this conference was just plain crazy. So it was a bit surreal to find myself listening intently as Michelle Obama came out to officially kick-off the Administrations "United We Serve" campaign. And was even more surprising when I screamed like a 12-year-old girl at a Jonas Brothers concert when Jon Bon Jovi took the stage to represent the Entertainment Industry Foundation (and sing a few songs including my personal favorite "Livin’ on a Prayer" which I am pretty sure he sung just for me!)

After Maria Shriver (now a personal hero of mine) and others spoke and all 5000 of us in the main room (who knows how many were in the overflow rooms) began to leave the building, I knew that something different was truly sweeping across our country. I had seen hints of "the change" as candidates began to apply to the LACNOLA program many of whom were established in their own careers but wanted to give back or specifically sited the president’s call to service as a main reason they were applying. Being in a room with 5000 professionals dedicated to service and volunteering in a variety of forms was amazing (I do not say this lightly since anyone who knows me also knows my cynicism). Over the next four days, I met people from all over the country that were doing the same job I was and believed in the value of service as I did. I attended sessions that will help me improve the service year experience for my members and even got a chance to catch up with other Literacy AmeriCorps program coordinators from Los Angeles and some GNO AmeriCorps/VISTA coordinators as well. By Wednesday night as the conference closed, I felt rejuvenated and ready to get back to work! (Unfortunately, I left Thursday for a vacation but I am ready to "get things done" when I return to the office next week!)