Chugim (professional development electives) This year we’re excited to provide an hour of chugim (your choice of activity) to enrich your professional experience. Like at many Jewish summer camps, you’ll have a wide variety of activities to choose from when you register. Examples of chugim could include using pivot tables in Excel, understanding budgets, writing attention-grabbing emails, and more!

Deep Dives These 90-minute sessions are designed for you to engage more deeply with a topic—including collaborative work time in small groups—and walk away with concrete next steps to implement in your local community. Deep Dive sessions will be offered twice unless otherwise noted: Tuesday at 11:15 a.m. and Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.

Dinner Buddies To support our first-time conference participants, we arrange dinner buddies for the Monday evening dinner. Matches are based on community size and geographic location. If you would like to have a dinner buddy or be a dinner buddy, please indicate that on your registration. If you forgot to sign up, you can email conference@hgf.org by March 14 to participate. 

Networking One of our primary goals is for you to leave the conference knowing at least one other person with whom you can brainstorm and problem solve when you're back in the day-to-day of your role. We accomplish this through facilitating intentional networking sessions and providing more informal opportunities for connection. Networking session assignments will be provided when you check in at the registration table on Monday. You will meet with these groups on Monday and Tuesday.   

Peer Learning The PJ Library Engagement Framework highlights seven documented practices and supporting strategies found in high-performing, vibrant family engagement communities. These practices are helpful when designing and assessing a community’s approach to family engagement. One 45-minute panel discussion on each practice will be offered on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. You can choose the one that you most want to prioritize in the upcoming year!

Table Topics Spend time each morning at breakfast chatting with your colleagues about shared topics of interest. 

Workshops These are 60-minute interactive sessions, designed to help you think about ways to incorporate practical strategies and ideas into your work in order to grow and strengthen your local community. Workshop sessions will be offered twice unless otherwise noted: Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. and 3:45 p.m.