This year’s March for Life offers a little more of a challenge for some groups as they make
their plans to come out to Washington, D.C. With the MLK federal holiday on Monday, January 20th and the March for Life on the anniversary of Roe on Wednesday, January 22nd, this mid-week March may have created some extra hurdles for your group.
So, what is a bus captain to do? Below are some tips for helping your group to organize:
For the students you are taking, find out if the schools you may be coordinating efforts with cancel classes for the MLK Holiday, some do not. Depending on the kind of students you have in your group (academic or activist, lol) this may affect when you can leave for Washington, D.C.
Have students ask their administration, individual instructors, and coaches if they can have their absence excused for the trip to Washington, D.C. If students have classes on the MLK holiday they will be missing 2-3 days of classes depending on when you travel. You will need to alert your group members right away so they can plan accordingly.
Secure your transportation. If you are looking at charter bus options, consider our 2014 National Conference sponsor, Champion Coach! Champion Coach was our choice for a charter bus when we went to Austin, TX on our Students #Stand4Life Bus Tour. Their excellence in service, great drivers, and team who stand on the side of Life make them the bus company of choice for us! When you book through Students for Life, Champion Coach will give 5% of your costs back to the mission of SFLA, which is another good reason to consider Champion. To get pricing, contact Phil Rabe at 800-583-7668 or phil@championcoach.com and mention Students for Life. You may want to consider coordinating your trip with other SFLA groups or Diocesan groups in your region to reduce costs.
Register your group for the 2014 Students for Life National Conference now!
This year, the conference will be held on Tuesday, January 21, 2014…the day before the March for Life. Even if you don’t have all your group members names you can hold spots for your estimated group size, and then drop them once you have your group size confirmed. Last year’s conference sold out the week of Thanksgiving, so it will be important to get your spots held right away. This year there will even be an adult workshop led by 40 Days for Life. So, there truly will be something for every pro-lifer from high school, college, to adult!
- If you register before December 31st the cost will be $45 per student (a discount from last year!) and $60 per adult. Tickets will include lunch and dinner. If you have a group of 100+, please contact Tina Whittington to get your group registered and ask for special discount pricing!
Book your hotel before they fill up! You can start by checking out
this list of hotels
that are located near the National Conference and have easy access to Washington, D.C. for the March. Also, consider driving through the night on Monday, January 20th to save you an extra night in a hotel room!
To help offset the increased costs associated with a mid-week trip, be sure to prepare a budget now so that you can set good fundraising goals for your group and your group members. Here are some great guides to help you with budgeting and fundraising (these apply to student and adult organizations!):
Group Funding: www.college.studentsforlife.org/group-funding/
Budgeting: www.college.studentsforlife.org/budgeting/
Fundraising: www.college.studentsforlife.org/fundraising/
School Funding: www.college.studentsforlife.org/school-funding/
For those of you who have never come, the SFLA National Conference is a day full of education, training, and networking with students, other grassroots pro-life activists, and national pro-life leaders who know that this generation has the greatest chance to abolish abortion in our lifetime. Past students have had invaluable experiences and training by attending, including one former leader from UNC – Chapel Hill Students for Life who said,
“The SFLA conference is your one chance per year to meet hundreds of other pro-life student activists from all over the country, hear the latest success stories, and learn new strategies for defending life on your campus. It has inspired me to become much more active in the pro-life movement, and I am excited to see the same thing happening for so many other students. Please don’t miss it!”
The 2014 Students for Life National Conference will kick off at 9:30am on Tuesday, January 21st, and will feature morning, afternoon and evening sessions with speakers covering topics ranging from pro-life apologetics, how to start and lead a pro-life outreach, your rights on campus, dispelling the top 5 myths about abortion, and how to transform your campus and community through revolutionary strategies.
For all the details and to register go to: SFLALive.org
The 2014 Students for Life of America National Conference will both inspire and equip your group to Be the Revolution!
We hope to see you in January at the 2014 Students for Life National Conference and in D.C. as we march together as a united pro-life movement!
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