The Call for Sessions Guide

2007 GCYF Annual Conference
Atlanta, GA September 26 - 28
The Power of Partnership:
Building Capacity, Creating Opportunities

Thank you for your interest in the 2007 GCYF Annual Conference.
If you have questions about this process, please contact Jennifer Skillicorn, 301-589-4293, or jskillicorn@gcyf.org


| Online Submission | Dates | Key Points | Conference Calls | Review Criteria | Session Formats | Required Proposal Information |

Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families (GCYF) is an affinity group established in 1985 as a part of the Council on Foundations. Today, GCYF is a national membership organization with over 400 participating grantmaking institutions, ranging from small family foundations to large institutional grantmakers. The mission of GCYF is to increase the ability of organized philanthropy to improve the well-being of children, youth, and families. GCYF serves as a forum to review and analyze grantmaking strategies, exchange information about effective programs, examine public policy developments, and maintain ongoing discussions with national leaders.

GCYF’s Annual Conference brings together over 200 grantmakers each year around a theme of broad appeal to children, youth, and family grantmakers. Through a range of speakers, workshops, site visits, and networking activities, participants meet other colleagues and acquire policy and program information on key issues and are exposed to a variety of promising and effective grantmaking strategies.

The 2007 GCYF Annual Conference Planning Committee invites our grantmaking colleagues and partners to submit a session proposal for the 2007 conference through a call for sessions process. This process is intended to help surface promising practices, programs, policies, partnerships and emerging issues and strategies that will enhance our collective work on behalf of children, youth, and families.

The 2007 Call for Sessions seeks creative session proposals that will engage grantmakers in learning and inspire action related to the theme of the conference: The Power of Partnership: Building Capacity, Creating Opportunities. Instructions for submitting a proposal to GCYF’s 2007 Annual Conference Planning Committee follow on the next page. Please follow submission instructions carefully.

Important Dates for the 2007 GCYF Annual Conference Call for Sessions

January 18; 23 - Call for Sessions Instructional Conference Calls.

February 9 - Deadline for submitting session proposals to GCYF.

April 13 - Session Coordinators are notified of review process decision.

April - Session Coordinators confirm speakers & session descriptions, and work with GCYF to ensure session format and objectives support the conference theme.

May 4 - Refined session descriptions and confirmed speaker contact information due to GCYF for promotional purposes.

June - July GCYF provides speaker packets to confirmed speakers. Session Coordinators conduct planning calls with confirmed session speakers.

July 27 - All final changes to session descriptions and speakers due to GCYF.

Note: Other deadlines for speaker handouts, bios, and other session resources will be forwarded to Session Coordinators of confirmed sessions.

The Call for Sessions Guide: Key Points

Eligibility:

The GCYF conference seeks to create a learning and sharing forum for grantmakers. Proposal submissions will be accepted from:

  • All grantmaking organizations (including the United Way, corporate giving foundations, as well as organizations designated as a private or public foundation per IRS guidelines);
  • Staff of grantmaking affinity groups, networks, and regional associations of grantmakers;
  • Non-profit colleague organizations and consultants demonstrating a formal relationship with one of the above (as required in online submission process).

Please note that all Session Coordinators, Speakers, and Moderators are responsible for making their own conference registration and covering their own travel expenses related to participating in/presenting at the conference.

Instructional Conference Calls:

If you intend on submitting a Call for Sessions, we strongly encourage you to participate on one of the two scheduled conference calls to review the call for sessions process and the role and responsibilities for Session Coordinators. See the section titled “Call for Sessions Instructional Conference Calls” for details.

Online Proposal Submission:

All proposals must be submitted online by Friday, February 9, 2007 (5:00pm PT / 8:00pm ET). Incomplete, incorrect, or late submissions will not be accepted. Please read this information carefully before beginning your online proposal submission. Once the online submission form is begun, you must complete your submission and submit (you will not be able to save and return to the form at a later time). Please read the required proposal information in this packet before beginning your submission process. This online submission process is designed to take only a few minutes, and will help us streamline the review process.

Review Process:

Session proposals will be reviewed by a subgroup of the 2007 GCYF Annual Conference Planning Committee. Reviewers will represent a broad and diverse range of experience in grantmaking, as well as in children, youth and family issues. Reviews will take place in February and March, 2007, beginning immediately following the submission deadline.

Selection Process:

The 2007 conference program will include approximately 25 sessions - including plenaries, concurrent workshops, offsite sessions, and skill-building institutes – as well as more informal roundtable discussions. We anticipate receiving twice the number of proposals as we’ll have sessions available. Proposal submission does not guarantee selection. We will make every attempt to accommodate our colleagues who take the time to go through this process with us. We will explore every opportunity to connect similar proposals and structure sessions in a way that maximizes opportunities for including the wealth of expertise represented in proposals received, while balancing our program to address the various programs, practices, issues, and strategies of importance to children, youth and families (CYF) and CYF grantmakers. Additionally, if a session is not accepted, there may be opportunities throughout the year to highlight this body of knowledge through another GCYF learning event or program vehicle. Upon notification of selection, Session Coordinators are expected to work with GCYF staff and planning committee members to confirm acceptance, finalize content and descriptions, confirm speakers, coordinate speaker planning calls, and review other steps and timelines for completing our conference program.

Adherence to Proposal Guidelines:

Proposal submissions must be complete (per the guidelines on the next page and noted in the online submission form), must be submitted online, and must be received by Friday, February 9, 2006 (5:00pm PT / 8:00pm ET). Information collected through this submission process will serve as the information reviewed by our session reviewers. Incomplete, incorrect, or late submissions will not be accepted. For this reason, it is very important to adhere to submission instructions. This Submission Instruction packet includes the following on the next pages: Annual Conference Theme; Session Review Criteria; Descriptions of Session Formats; and, Required Proposal Information.

Read all instructions carefully and have all information you need ready before proceeding to the online application.

The Call for Sessions Guide Instructional Conference Calls


If you intend on submitting a Call for Sessions, we strongly encourage you to participate on one of the two scheduled conference calls to review the call for sessions process and the role and responsibilities for Session Coordinators. GCYF staff and members of our logistical support team will be on the call to lead a discussion of the 2007 Annual Conference planning timeline, policies on non-foundation speaker participation, and respond to any questions you might have. Please plan to participate on one (1) of the following conference calls.


Step 1:

Choose ONE of the following conference calls:

Thursday, January 18, 2007 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. EST

Tuesday, January 23, 2007 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EST


Step 2:

Confirm your participation by Friday, January 12th by contacting GCYF Program Manager, Jennifer Skillicorn, at jskillicorn@gcyf.org or 301-589-4293.


Step 3:

On your selected day and time, use the following information to access the conference call

a) Dial 1-866-316-1519

b) Enter the access code 388140

2007 GCYF Annual Conference Theme
The Power of Partnership: Building Capacity, Creating Opportunities

As a broad and complex field of practice; children, youth and family grantmaking has the potential to strengthen its impact even more through the power of partnership. The core issues of early childhood development, youth development and family support all contain a subset of very complex issues like school readiness, racial and ethnic disparities, out-of-school time, and family economic security. Those who serve children, youth and families have long since understood that none of these issues can be addressed in isolation. Family and community economic security, quality early learning experiences, health status, opportunities to engage and feel a part of one’s community, and many other inextricably linked factors are harbingers for the future academic and vocational success of children and youth. Therefore, CYF grantmakers must be, and are, as diverse as the challenges faced by children, youth and families.

Intrinsic to our concern for individuals and families, is concern for the communities where they live and the capacity of organizations that serve them. Sadly there are often insufficient resources to adequately address the individual and family needs and provide community development and infrastructure support for grantees. Capacity issues – i.e. knowledge, abilities, and skills, and the opportunity to strengthen these – are not only concerns for grantees – grantmakers themselves must weigh their own capacity to strengthen supports for their grantees and other intermediaries, from community-based organizations to state and local governments, to meet the needs of our target populations in effective and sustainable ways.

To effectively address the complex issues facing children, youth and families, partnerships across public and private societal institutions, disciplines and frameworks are essential.
There is a wealth of expertise and experience in the CYF philanthropy field, as well as existing and emerging philanthropic partnerships that are leading to real systemic changes in the ways CYF professionals assess needs, deliver services, and leverage and distribute resources to best serve children, youth, and families.

In this context, the 2007 GCYF Annual Conference will provide a forum for surfacing and disseminating strategies for effective partnerships within and between philanthropy, other private and public agencies, and community-based organizations and other intermediaries, including partnerships that focus on not only unique place-based contextual needs and assets, such as health and economic disparities of low-income urban communities, but also population-based needs and issues, such as the social and emotional development of infants and toddlers, health and education disparities. The conference will also provide a forum for exploring partnerships that address broad cross-cutting issues impacting children, youth and families, such as poverty.

No matter the venue, the issue, or population, CYF grantmakers are digging deep into communities, and wide across the country to ensure that all children are ready to learn, all youth transition successfully to adulthood, and all families have the supports and opportunity to achieve optimal health and success. We invite you to join us at the 2007 GCYF conference in Atlanta as we explore the Power of Partnership!

The Call for Sessions Guide: Review Criteria

The Planning Committee will review proposals with the following criteria in mind:

  • Relevance to Children, Youth and Family Philanthropy: Does the session address a critical or emerging issue of importance to children, youth, and family grantmakers?
  • Relationship to Annual Conference Theme: Does the session address some aspect of children, youth and family philanthropy that highlights promising or effective partnerships with another organization, foundation, or agency?
  • Objectives: Are there clear objectives for the session to impart new knowledge, training in news skills and/or changing opinion?
  • Format: Is the session structured to fit one of the acceptable conference formats (descriptions below)? Provide attendees with tools or ideas to take home and apply to their own foundations; and,
  • Balance and Diversity: Will the suggested presenters/discussion leaders offer perspectives that include different professional, ideological, political, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, geographic and gender experiences? Will the session help provide a balance of grantmaker demographics including local, regional and national funding perspectives, as well as experiences of different types of foundations?

The Call for Sessions Guide: Descriptions of Session Formats Available

Plenary Sessions are 90-minute key note presentations framing broad discussions of some element of the conference theme. Plenary proposals should include no more than 2 speakers and a moderator (along with the session coordinator). Preference will be given to speakers who are not the usual suspects and instead challenge grantmakers to think in different ways about critical issues and funding strategies. The 2007 GCYF Annual Conference Planning Committee and GCYF staff will work closely with plenary session coordinators and speakers to shape such presentations to support the conference theme, including combining speakers from multiple plenary proposals with similar themes and purpose. Plenary proposals will be reviewed along with concurrent workshop proposals, and in the event a plenary proposal is not accepted as a plenary session, it will be considered for a concurrent workshop.

Concurrent Workshops are 90-minute sessions designed to be strategy-focused. While describing a critical issues or problem, sessions should focus the majority of the time on solutions and strategies to address them and provide practical steps for funders to take to be engaged and effective. Such strategies should be broadly applicable and not focused on one organization’s approach to a problem. All sessions should be designed to be interactive and provide ample time for audience/speaker discussion and interaction. Concurrent workshops should include no more than 2 speakers and a moderator. Formats of concurrent workshops will vary (such as case studies, panel discussions, talk-show formats), and Session Coordinators should determine the most appropriate format for the session.

Skills-Building Institutes are three-hour sessions providing an in-depth learning experience in some aspect of the conference theme. Institutes should fit the overall conference theme, but offer a more in-depth, experiential learning forum for participants that results in a new framework, skill or tool for participating grantmakers to take back to their own work. More than two speakers and a moderator can be incorporated into Skills Building Sessions, but the number of speakers and moderators should be appropriate/proportional to the proposed presentation vs. experiential/interactive format of the session. GCYF staff will work with Session Coordinators in finalizing the institute’s agenda.

Offsite Sessions are half-day sessions, conducted offsite – either in one location or through a “tour” of multiple locations, that provide a unique learning experience that could not be gained through a presentation in a conference meeting room. These sessions offer an opportunity to take advantage of local culture and expertise, as well as an opportunity to include more speakers and local experts than can be accommodated in workshops. Session Coordinators are responsible for providing suggested transportation routes to/from offsite sessions (maximizing their knowledge and experience with local traffic patterns) and will be asked to provide a more detailed “script” of speaker timing and tour stops than is required for other session formats.

Breakfast Roundtables: GCYF recognizes that networking and dialogue between participants are a valued part of the annual conference experience. The 2007 Annual Conference will feature breakfast roundtables intended to provide an opportunity for conversation about great ideas and lessons learned. These sessions should include no more than one formal speaker (plus the Session Coordinator, if different). These sessions are not intended to be as in-depth as concurrent workshops, but offer an opportunity to share important emerging information, get feedback from participants on an issue/program, or begin a dialogue that you intend to continue with participants following the conference.

The Call for Sessions Guide: Required Proposal Information

All proposals must be complete, submitted online, and received by Friday, February 9, 2007 (5:00pm PT / 8:00pm ET). Incomplete, incorrect, or late submissions will not be accepted. Please read this information carefully before beginning your online proposal submission.

The following information is required for the online proposal submission process. Please have this information available when you begin your online submission. Once the online submission form is begun, you must complete your submission and submit (you will not be able to save and return to the form at a later time). This online submission process is designed to take only a few minutes, and will help us streamline the review process.

Tracks

As an affinity group with a focus on children, youth and families; the 2007 Annual Conference will maintain this population focus through four tracks structures – Early Childhood, Youth Development, Family Issues and Emerging Issues. In the Call for Sessions, Session Coordinators will be asked to determine which track the session fits into best. The purpose of the tracks is not to create population silos, but instead to ensure that all populations get equal coverage at our conference. We realize that some sessions may not neatly fit into one track; therefore, we recommend that you indicate the primary choice and note that the session has cross-track implications.

Preferred Session Format

Preferred session format must be indicated in your proposal. Available formats include: plenaries, workshops, offsite sessions, and skill-building institutes, and roundtables. More than one format can be selected for a proposal. We anticipate receiving twice the number of proposals as we’ll have sessions available. Proposal submission does not guarantee selection, or selection for the session format preferred.

Session Coordinator Contact Information

Proposal submissions will be accepted from:

  • All grantmaking organizations including United Way, corporate giving foundations, as well as organizations designated as a private or public foundation per IRS guidelines;
  • Staff of grantmaking affinity groups, networks, and regional associations of grantmakers;
  • Non-profit colleague organizations and consultants demonstrating a formal relationship with one of the above (affiliation must be noted in online submission form).

The Session Coordinator is the individual who will be responsible for session content and speaker confirmations, and for ensuring that all deadlines for speaker materials, bios, and other session resources are met. Only one person should be submitted as Session Coordinator for the online submission process – this individual will receive the formal notice of a proposal being selected or not. If accepted this person will work with GCYF staff to finalize all aspects of the session. If this person does not meet multiple deadlines, GCYF reserves the right to remove this session from the conference agenda.

Required Session Coordinator information for online submission includes: Name, Title, Foundation/Agency or Affiliation with a Grantmaker or Affinity Group (i.e. grantee, consultant, or some other formal affiliation), Mailing Address, Daytime Phone Number & Fax Number, and Email Address.

Learning Objectives

All proposals must include learning objectives that are action-oriented and state what the session hopes to achieve. Learning objectives should be stated as “Session Participants will be able to….” No more than three objectives should be stated.

Session Title & Description

The session title should simply be a one line heading for your description. Proposed session descriptions should be a brief summary of the content and purpose of the proposed session. Descriptions submitted will be the only descriptive information (other than objectives) that reviewers will consider during the session selection process. Descriptions must be submitted in 500 words or less. After initial selections are made, GCYF staff will work with Session Coordinators to refine and finalize session descriptions that will appear in formal conference promotions. However, these initial descriptions should hold true to the overall intent/topic of the session, and later revisions should not change the intent/scope of the proposal.

Session Speakers & Moderators

Proposals must include speaker and moderator information based on the format of the session (see description of session formats available (last page). Proposals submitted without speaker/moderator information will not be accepted, as diversity and expertise of speakers/moderators are integral elements of the overall session proposal. If a Session Coordinator will serve in a speaker/moderator role, this information should be indicated. Although speakers and moderators may require revision after sessions are confirmed, Session Coordinators are expected to have preliminary confirmation that intended speakers are available during the conference time frame, with the understanding that the session may not be selected. Significant changes to speakers and moderators that alter the scope/intent of a session after sessions are selected could result in a session being dropped from the conference program. Speaker/moderator information required in the online submission form includes: names, titles, foundation/agency of each proposed speaker and moderator and their correct mailing contact information.

Travel Support Information

Travel support must be indicated for all proposed speakers and moderators (i.e. who will financially support registration fees and travel). Travel support can be provided through a grant to GCYF (to reimburse traveler), direct billing of travel expenses to the sponsoring foundation/funder, or by speakers/moderators individually supporting their own travel. GCYF has a limited number of travel scholarships available for plenary, workshop, and institute speakers, but the ability of a session to go forward should not be contingent on availability of GCYF travel support. Following session selections, GCYF will follow up with any Session Coordinators that have requested travel support. In the event GCYF can not accommodate travel support, Session Coordinators will be responsible for working with speakers and moderators to identify other means of financial support.

Key Words/Issues

In addition to populations and strategies addressed in the proposal, the online submission form asks for a few brief key words for your session proposal, such as “mental health”, “crisis response”, “poverty”, etc. Although these words may appear in your description, your designation of the most appropriate key words will help better organize our internal review process.

Session Date/Time

Please let us know if there is a particular date/time that conflicts with speaker availability. We will try our best to schedule the session accordingly.

The Call for Sessions Guide: Online Submission Iinstructions

Proceed to Online Submission Form

You can access the online submission form by going to GCYF’s website at http://www.gycf.org, and clicking into the Annual Conference page. You can also link directly to the online submission form at:
https://www.dgimeetings.com/GCYF2007/CFS/CFS.cfm.

Completing the Online Submission Form

You may view the form to become familiar with the format at any time, then come back and begin the submission process. Once you begin the online submission form, you will not be able to save your information and return. We recommend saving all related information in a word document (for your own records) prior to inserting this information in the online submission form. After submitting a proposal, you should receive a confirmation email from GCYF within a week. If you don’t, please follow-up with GCYF immediately.

Deadline for Submissions

All proposals must be complete, submitted online, and received by Friday, February 9, 2007 (5:00pm PT / 8:00pm ET). Incomplete, incorrect, or late submissions will not be accepted.

Questions or Technical Difficulties

If you have questions about this process or experience technical difficulty with online proposal submission, please contact Jennifer Skillicorn, p. 301-589-4293, or jskillicorn@gcyf.org.