What CUPSO Has to offer

Here we offer a sample of resources to give you a taste of what CUPSO has to offer your public service organization. Want access to more? Join CUPSO to access our knowledge network and our full library of electronic resources.

Engaging Conference Sessions

Our Spring conference is open to all directors and staff of CUPSO members to explore areas of common interest and hear what other centers are working on. We don't generally record our sessions, but we do have a recording of a session from Spring 2021 (when we offered our conference hybrid). 

Fall Meeting for Center/Institute Leaders

In addition to the Spring conference, CUPSO offers a fall meeting specifically designed for leaders of member centers. This is an intimate gathering of 30-40 colleagues for a day and a half of peer-learning, workshopping common challenges, and sharing each others' burdens.

The fall meeting provides a safe space for like-minded professionals to share pitfalls and explore the ideas confidentially.  However, to give you a taste of what the retreat has to offer, we invite you to sit in on this conversation from our 2020 Fall Directors meeting where we explored with representatives from the National League of Cities (NLC) and the National Association of Counties (NACO) how university-based public service organizations could support local governments through the crisis of a global pandemic. 

Benchmarking, Knowledge Sharing, and Other Resources

From member surveys, to issue briefs, to benchmarking reports, to sample resources, CUPSO offers access to a network of peer organizations that can help strengthen your public service game. This includes a listserv and forums where members can quickly share questions, assistance connecting with peer or aspirational centers for advice, and a library of electronic resources across a variety of internal and external issues. These are often developed in response to specific questions from member centers

Here you can find a sample of a survey from 2017 on types of training offered by various member centers in response to a request from a center looking to expand its own training offerings and seeking to survey the field of peer-offerings.

Here is a link to a collection of mission and vision statements developed for a center as it conducted its own strategic planning process.

Coffee with CUPSO

CUPSO offers a series of virtual conversations throughout the year, where members can come together online to share initiatives and challenges and learn from each other's experiences. These virtual "Coffee with CUPSO" conversations range from internal topics like professional development, recruitment and retention, and center/university relations to issue-focused conversations like workforce, planning, or economic development. These conversations offer a safe place for directors to wrestle with obstacles, explore ambitious ideas, and inspire one another. An archive of these recordings is available to leaders of CUPSO member centers. 

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