USCA Update

We hope you will join us in San Francisco for the 2009 United States Conference on AIDS (USCA), set for October 29-31, at the Hilton San Francisco. We know these are difficult times, so we want to share information about how we are making USCA more responsive and why we hope you will attend. This email will cover the following:

Critical Issues
1. 2009 USCA Target Population
2. Greener Initiatives @ USCA
3. How We Are Trying to Reduce Costs and Increase Value
4. How Scholarship Decisions Are Made

Critical HIV/AIDS Issues
We hope you will attend this meeting, we have a new administration, new priorities, and lots of critical issues to discuss. The AIDS community must address Health Care Reform, Ryan White Reauthorization, PrEP, and the National AIDS Strategy. These topics and more will be discussed at USCA, the final agenda will be on the web by the end of July

We will have representatives from the new administration at the meeting who will speak and listen to community. It will be your opportunity to be heard. Make sure your voice gets included in this important dialogue. We will also have lots of learning: workshops, institutes and seminars on How to navigate these difficult financial times, Understanding PrEP, and most of the other topics identified in the needs assessment. Early member registration fees are due July 17th.

2009 USCA Target Population
This year's USCA target population is the Transgender Community. According to the Centers Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the HIV infection rate for specific transgender populations has a low of 19% to a high of 69% in a study of 34 states. The highest rates of HIV infection in the U.S. may be among male-to-female transgender sex workers.

For far too long this community has been forced to stay in the shadows. This year's meeting will have a transgender plenary, transgender institute, and the largest number of transgender workshops in the history of USCA. To all of our constituents who work with this community, we hope you will send staff or clients to participate.

Green Initiatives @ USCA
We are trying to go a little green, first to save the planet and second to save some money. For example, we will not do a second registration brochure; instead, we will print a postcard directing folks to the website

The USCA program book will be abbreviated, most of the information will be on the USCA flash drive. Don’t worry if you like reading things on paper, computers and printers will be placed strategically throughout the meeting to allow you to print specific information. We will also print and post several large versions of the program book as a way to limit downloads.

The conference bag can also serve as a reusable grocery bag. No more plastic or paper, just USCA! We will have limited information in the bag, instead we are asking sponsors and partners to put their materials on the USCA flash drive. We will even have a "virtual" registration bag. This bag will be available online for free after the meeting. It will hold all of the information in PDF versions to download on your computer.

No more bottled water. Unless we get a health alert, tap water will be available throughout the hotel. At the end of the meeting we will collect your nametags to be recycled and used at next year's meeting. Finally, we will support the recycling programs already in place in the city of San Francisco and the Hilton Hotel.

This is our first attempt at a greener meeting. Help us to save some money, cut down on waste, and maybe save a tree or two. If you have any other ideas, please email info@nmac.org

How We Are Trying to Reduce Costs
These are very difficult financial times, particularly in the state of California. The California advocates have done an amazing job, all the funding cuts to the ADAPT program were restored. Ryan Clary of Project Inform wrote on his Facebook page “We are not done but for now eating donuts in celebration of fierce advocacy (truly fierce advocacy, not Obama's definition) by people with HIV and their advocates.” We want to thank the Bay Area Host Committee, they continue to contribute and support the meeting during this crisis.

With this financial reality, we could not ask the Bay Area Host Committee to raise money for special events. As a result, Bristol Myers Squibb will sponsor one of their events and the other will be held at a donated church next to the hotel. We are very lucky to have the Glide Memorial Church directly across the street from the Hilton. This church is more than a church; it is a sanctuary for poor people in the Tenderloin. The church has a drop-in center, daily free meals program, housing, women's center, training and employment program, health center, and a family and youth services program. They have years of service to people living with HIV/AIDS.

At Glide, we will hold El Día de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead service to honor everyone we have lost to HIV/AIDS. Traditionally celebrated in Mexico every 2nd of November, and closely associated with the Catholic celebrations, All Saints' Day, El Día de los Muertos brings together family and friends to pray for and remember loved ones who have died. Many honor the deceased with private altars featuring sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, which they often leave as gifts on their graves.

The spring USCA survey identified lack of funds as a major barrier to your participation. So we've added a new scholarship option: Option C. This option includes an airline ticket, hotel, and registration. We are no longer accepting applications for Option C: however, other unique registration and scholarship opportunities are still available

Youth Registration Rate: Anyone under 25 may register for the "youth" rate, which is 50% less than the regular registration fee. Proof of age will be required.
USCA Registration and Hotel Room Discount Package: If you pay for your registration now, you are eligible for a special $25 per night discount on hotel accommodations at this year’s venue, the Hilton San Francisco.
USCA Registration and Individual USCA Sponsor Membership Package: This unique package offers a $90 discount on conference registration and individual membership with the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC). There are many benefits to NMAC membership, including the opportunity apply for USCA scholarships! To learn more about NMAC membership, call Cynthia Stannard, Member Services at (202) 483-NMAC (6622) ext. 325 or members@nmac.org
Group USCA Registration Rate: Finally, we will be offering a group registration fee, in July.

Per the needs assessment, we are also offering more advanced skills building workshops geared to HIV/AIDS professionals; sessions on how organizations can navigate fiscal challenges; and discussion groups on working with special populations. In addition to these workshops, we hope to offer:

1. A job fair
2. Meetings with the Obama Administration
3. Additional continuing education credit courses and offering

Not only we are trying to help with some of the costs, but we are also trying to make sure you get value for your money.

How Scholarships Decisions Are Made
For many constituents, scholarships are how they get to the meeting. The deadline to apply for scholarship Options A or B is July 10th. Our online system is down at the moment; you can either wait or download the PDF version and mail it to NMAC. To provide transparency, we want to share information about the selection process. Scholarships are distributed based on the needs identified in the application and how the recipient will use his/her experience after the conference. Priority is given to People with AIDS and agencies with small budgets. Additionally, the following rules run the process:

1. Maximum of one scholarship per agency
2. At least one scholarship per state
3. At least two scholarships for each of the top 20 cities impacted by HIV infection
4. Ten scholarships are set-aside for a specific target population. In 2009, the target population is the transgender community.

Scholarship applications are reviewed by your USCA partner agency. Each partner receives a limited number of scholarships. As a way to ensure that People with AIDS get scholarships, we have an optional section where you can list your HIV status. Please know this information is optional and your entire application will be shared with your USCA partner agency and their reviewers, including your HIV status and all other information you put in the application.

I hope you will attend this year's meeting. We have a new administration, new priorities, and lots of challenging issues to address. Please feel free to email me at any time at pkawata@nmac.org.

Yours in the struggle,

Paul Kawata
Executive Director
National Minority AIDS Council, 1931 13th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009-4432
Tel: 202.483.6622; Fax: 202.483.1135; Website: http://www.nmac.org

Please support AIDS Programs of the National Minority AIDS Council CFC #10557 (new number)

2009 United States Conference on AIDS
October 29-31, 2009
San Francisco, CA
http://www.2009usca.org