All right, folks...here's your chance. Have a good idea for a name for this thing? Or even a bad idea that will get us started? The blank slate is yours...have at it!!

Suggestions for Names

• The National Campus Conference
  • [the biggest downside of this simple name is that other than telling you it is a higher ed conference it does not inherently tell you what it's about. It could even be a generic gathering of college students for no purpose other than to meet one another.]
• SAY Service, Activism, Youth- or Service, Activism and Young Adults
  • Possible tag lines could be:
    • The 2008 SAY conference: It's your turn to talk
    • The 2008 SAY conference: What are you going to Say?
• SAID- Service & Activism Innovativation and Development
  • Come and find out from other Student Leaders how they are impacting the world and what they have Said (not as good)
• SASSI- Students, for Activism, Service, Sustainability and Innovation ( or a Y word here)
  • I'm not a big fan of acronyms! We overuse them in the service world.
  • However, the advantage of acronyms is that no matter what name we give the conference, people will resort to some form of shorthand when referring to it. For many years, the official name was: "COOL National Conference on Student Community Service." But people just called it the "COOL Conference."
  • Along the lines of short-hand how about a one or two word name?
  • I think it was maybe 1991 when the Student Environmental Action Coalition held a national conference at the University of Illinois that drew 7,000 participants! That conference was called "CATALYST." So people would say things like, "Are you going to Catalyst?"
  • In 1996 the Children's Defense Fund held a huge rally called "Stand for Children." The event also gave birth to the organization called Stand for Children.
• National Conference on Student Civic Engagement
• National Conference on Student Community Service and Social Action
• National STUDENT IMPACT Conference
  
  • If we felt like this effort could potentially lead toward creating an organization, I'd suggest STUDENT IMPACT and the conference could be the National STUDENT IMPACT Conference
• National Campus Conference: Everyday Action, Everyday Passion
• National Campus Conference: A Conference on Student Volunteering and Community Action
• National Campus Conference: Building Networks, Sharing Experiences
• National Campus Conference: Standing Up for a Better World
• Perhaps it's helpful to distinguish between the Name of the Conference and the Theme of the Conference. The name would be more permanent. So some of these taglines after the colon might be great themes.
• Are we allowed to use "COOL conference"? Even when Idealist changed the name last year everyone still called their conference 'COOL'. Would be nice to capitalize on the 'brand identity' that exists. (Steph R)
• I doubt we'd be able to use "COOL" legally, but I also don't know that many students know what that means. I think I'd rather look for a name that expresses both the past and the future -- any ideas? (Heather)
• I agree that most students don't know what COOL means. Most didn't even know what it meant at COOL's peak. However, among advisors and administrators who have been around long enough, they would know what it is/was.
• We could probably have a brief blurb in our materials that the conference builds on the legacy of the COOL and Idealist National Conferences, right?
• Yes, definitely! (Heather)
  
• Bobby Hackett: Last spring after Idealist.org held their national conference (with a name change away from COOL), Ariane Hoy and I had a check-in phone call with Ami Dar, Executive Director of Idealist. In that call I asked whether he would consider allowing a group of COOL alumni to have the name and logo back so we could, among other things, revive the national conference. He said he would consider that request. So, I would be willing to make that formal request. The main reason to do so is because the "National COOL Conference" name still carries a great deal of positive feeling with anyone who has either attended one in the past or sent students to attend. Since the impetus to hold this conference seems to be largely to keep that positive feeling alive, I don't see why we shouldn't at least make the request.