CSC to virtually co-host national One Big Thanks conference Oct. 24

CSC students presented at the conference 2014-16. In 2019, graduate student intern Kelsey Brummels led the CSC Big Event staff to shadow the fall Big Event at the University of Wyoming in lieu of attending the conference, according to French Collins.

The purpose of the national conference is to bring together The Big Event students and advisers from across the country to collaborate, hear speakers, and learn more about improving their processes, according to Texas A&M students Sydney Duininck and Sarah Diebel who are helping Hansen and French-Collins with organizing the 15th annual One Big Thanks conference. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss operations, programs, technology, and participant recruitment, while sharing past successes and failures.

“Texas A&M and CSC have chosen to work as a team to strengthen the value of the first-ever online conference,” Duinick said. “We are both excited to be working with the Big Event team at CSC. We are confident that this year's conference through Zoom will still allow for plenty of collaboration and relationship building.”

Hansen and French-Collins will interview and select staff members for CSC’s TBE, who will play a key part in helping with the conference in September and October.

French-Collins said the new TBE graduate assistant, Kaci Waugh, will also play a significant role in the conference planning and The Big Event in Chadron in April. 

“It will definitely be a team effort from both schools,” Hansen said. “CSC’s The Big Event is thrilled for this opportunity to partner with Texas A&M. Since the conference is virtual, we hope to reach schools that might not have the chance to make it otherwise.”

In recent years, about 100-120 students and advisors have attended the conference. Due to the virtual nature of this year's conference, Duinick and Diebel are hoping for about 200 total attendees.

For the first 12 years, the One Big Thanks Conference was hosted by Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. Since then, other sites have hosted the event including Stephen F. Austin University and Virginia Tech.

Hansen said she, Brummels, Katelyn Lambert, and French-Collins all played key roles in completing and submitting the proposal to host the virtual conference in February. In July, they were notified CSC was selected as the conference co-host.

More than 170 The Big Event programs have been created worldwide since the inception of the concept at Texas A&M in 1982. Nationwide, The Big Event service days are organized by student groups, college academic courses, college alumni groups, high school organizations, municipalities, non-profit organizations, and community agencies, according to Diebel.