Please study the brochure, read the conference website, the questions and answers
on the FAQs page, then, if you still need help contact these conference vets - they have attended the
conference many times and are willing to help guide you through the maze of what to take if you're
a lay-leader, a clinician, a community organizer:
Rita DeMaria, PhD - Clinician/MFT, Community Marriage Organizer, has attended 13 Smart Marriages
conferences since the first one in 1997. MarriageDoctor@aol.com
Dick Cronk - lay leader/lay minister has attended 9 Smart Marriages Conferences.
937-890-7078/ rcronk@woh.rr.com
Kathy Schoenborn, MS/262-662-2232 - kschoenborn@wi.rr.com
Professional counselor, have attended 4 conferences and am faith-based.
Carolyn Curtis, PhD - Clinician/MFT, Community Marriage Organizer, has attended the last 7
Smart Marriages Conferences.
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Hi Diane,
I advised someone yesterday who will attend for the first time. I suggested a couple of things to him:
1. If this is your first time, it will not be your last. So, when trying to decide what to do, pick a focus for this year.
2. When choosing which workshops to attend, think in terms of your "theme" this year. Will it be stepfamilies, marriage strenghtening, sexuality, youth programs? Decide on a need that you intend to put into play the minute you get home from the conference and become well versed in that.
3. Pick one training to take pre-conference and another post-conference. These might compliment your theme (i.e. Stepfamilies or Infidelity) or just be basic skills courses. You might as well get the most out of your travel dollars and fit in everything you can while you're there.
4. Be sure to attend the opening ceremony on Thursday night (some people don't even realize there are these keynotes as they don't appear on your badge), and be sure to make time during breaks to visit the many vendor tables.
5. Attend banquet if you can afford them. The keynotes are great and it's a wonderful time to meet new people.
6. Bring your spouse or a colleague who shares your passion for smart marriages. You will then have a team member to keep you fired up and moving on what you learned once you return home.
There is a huge amount of opportunity at each conference. You will meet the gurus in the field and see first hand how all of this works and return home ready to make huge contributions to your community and/or church.
Elsie Radtke
Chicago Diocese