Background
A significant program service of the Dakota 911 Conference, Inc. is focused on 9-1-1 Conferences. Dakota 911 Conference, Inc. may; sponsor, manage, support, sanction, or do any combination of the preceding to support such professional conferences. Actual events in each conference are conducted by trainers, presenters, government officials, business officials, and professional association officers.
This assistance includes, but is not limited to, the following:
“Seed” money grants
Other grants
Financial management of the conference
Sponsorship and management of the conference
Grants
A basic service, the Dakota 911 Conference, Inc. has grant funds available to help pay for some parts of public safety communications professional conferences. It can either grant “seed money” to help set up and organize the overall conference, or grant funds to pay for dispatcher education courses and instructors at the conference. Applying for these grant funds is readily accomplished using the documents available on our Grant Information page.
Financial Management
A more extensive service, the Dakota 911 Conference, Inc. is available to manage the financial aspects of a conference for the conference sponsors. The “mechanics” of this financial management service are:
The conference sponsors enter into a contractual agreement with the corporation.
All monies received in association with the conference are deposited in the corporation’s bank accounts.
All bills paid associated with the conference are paid from those funds by the corporation.
Any profits made by the conference stay with the corporation to use for continued grants for dispatcher education.
The corporation’s board of directors would have to approve an agreement for such a service. And a conference budget would then have to be approved by the corporation as would all expenditures.
It is important to understand that under this arrangement, the conference's organizing committee (sponsors) would run the conference and be legally responsible for its success. The conference organizing committee would be responsible to ensure adequate revenue was generated to cover the conference budget. And any revenue shortages would be the responsibility of the conference organizing committee (those organizations who sign the contract agreement with the corporation).
The benefits to the sponsors of entering into such an agreement with the corporation are:
Release from the accounting burden of financially managing a major conference.
Immediate addition of a “work force” to the conference.
Immediate access to the corporation’s “knowledge base” (the corporation handled the finances for the 2006 and 2008 South Dakota conferences - see Completed Programs).
Addition of a 501(c)(3) Exempt Organization to the conference’s sponsors.
Assurance and accountability that the conference’s profits support future conferences and improvements to local public safety communications.
Conference Sponsorship and Management
The most extensive program service, conference sponsorship and management, is also the easiest to describe. Basically, with this service the Dakota 911 Conference, Inc. is completely in charge of a public safety communications professional conference. This service is available to the region’s professional community when a conference is desired but no one entity is able to sponsor the event. This service should always be considered as an option when planning conferences.
A final note: “9-1-1 Conference Management Services” are primary to the Dakota 911 Conference, Inc. tax-exempt purpose of education. These are a great benefit for sponsors, conferences, and our profession. And they have already proven to work extremely well. If you are interested, please contact us. We’ll be happy to visit with you in detail.