ACCG-Jerry Griffin Scholarship Program

The ACCG Board of Managers approved the creation of the ACCG-Jerry R. Griffin Scholarship Program earlier this year to provide reimbursement for expenses for county officials and/or staff to attend ACCG and National Association of Counties (NACo) conferences in 2026 and 2027.  The primary purposes of this scholarship program are to foster lifelong learning, enhance engagement among county officials at the state and national level and increase conference participation.

The ACCG-Jerry R. Griffin Scholarship Program portal is now open to set up your county’s account.  The Chief Elected Official or his or her designee of each county must designate one person to enter reimbursement requests into the scholarship portal. 

Please note the following important information:

• Only one person per county may create an account to access the scholarship portal and submit requests on behalf of the county.
• The person designated to request reimbursements on behalf of the county should have a clear understanding of how reimbursed funds will be allocated back to the county budget once they are received. 
• The county may choose to submit reimbursement for one person or split the available funding among several people. 
• ACCG will only reimburse the county, not individuals.
• Once someone has created an account for the county, this person cannot be changed without contacting ACCG.

To ensure your account is set up prior to the first submission period, please designate someone from your county to create an account as soon as possible. Please read the Scholarship Portal Guidelines for more information and details regarding the reimbursement process.  Click here to access the scholarship portal.

The scholarship totals, eligible conferences and reimbursement submission periods are outlined below:

2026 

• ACCG Annual Conference and/or Legislative Leadership Conference - $3,000/yr for either or both conferences 
• NACo Annual Conference and/or Legislative Conference - $3,000/yr for either or both conferences 

2027 

• ACCG Annual Conference and/or Legislative Conference - $3,000/yr for either or both conferences 
• NACo Annual Conference only - $5,000

For each conference, the following expenses are eligible for reimbursement: 

• Conference registration fees
• Hotel/overnight accomodations 
• Travel costs (airfare, and/or mileage rate at the prevailing rate set by the IRS) 

Note: ACCG encourages counties to adhere to their respective travel policies 

The following information includes the conference dates and locations for 2026 and 2027.

Conference Dates and Locations 

Please note that the first conference that is eligible for reimbursement through this scholarship program is the NACo Legislative Conference, scheduled for February 21 – 24, 2026 in Washington, D.C.  Registration is now open for this conference.  The reimbursement submission period for this conference is February 25, 2026 – April 3, 2026.

A webinar will be held on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 at 11 a.m. to explain the scholarship reimbursement process and to answer any questions about the program. Click here to register.

If you have any questions regarding the ACCG-Jerry R. Griffin Scholarship Program or the scholarship portal, please contact Beth Brown at bbrown@accg.org.  We look forward to seeing these funds being used by your county and having more county officials and staff attend these conferences!