White House conference is a national meeting that the President of the United States calls to discuss issues facing the American people. Community leaders, concerned citizens, and various experts attend the conferences, which may last three or four days, to discuss the topics and recommend action. White House conferences have dealt with such issues as child care, drug abuse, the economy, education, family life, and nutrition. Other topics have included aging, civil rights, disabled people, highway safety, and libraries. Each conference reports to the President, and the President usually speaks at a major session of the conference.
In organizing most White House conferences, the President appoints a governing committee and an executive director, who heads the conference staff and directs the selection of delegates. The President will sometimes request that governors call state conferences on a particular issue before a large national conference is held. Recommendations from state conferences are forwarded to the national meeting.
There have been dozens of White House conferences, most of which have been held since 1945. President Theodore Roosevelt called the first conference in 1908 to discuss conservation of natural resources. The following year, Roosevelt authorized the Conference on Dependent Children. This conference of 216 delegates led to the formation in 1912 of the Children’s Bureau, now part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Some topics have become the subject of repeated and expanded conferences. Besides Roosevelt, Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, and Ronald Reagan all held conferences on children and youth. A number of conferences on aging have occurred since 1950.
