Workshop Proposals

Call for Proposals

The Volunteer Retreat education team is now accepting proposals from high-quality presenters for innovative, timely and dynamic educational sessions. These workshops will be offered on Saturday and Sunday November 9 & 10, 2019 at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA.

As an educational session presenter, you will be an integral part of the retreat. Its success is directly related to your willingness to work with 4-H volunteers, teens, and staff to provide meaningful educational opportunities.

Submission Process and Deadlines

• Submission Deadline: Open till filled
  
• Notification of Proposal Status: 5 days after submission
  
• Workshop Acknowledgement & Agreement Deadline: 5 days after workshop acceptance
  

Click Here to submit a workshop proposal

Workshop Criteria

In an effort to provide the HIGHEST QUALITY workshops, proposals should have clearly defined educational goals and outcomes for participants. Presenters should model the experiential learning cycle and workshops should be fun, engaging, and stimulating for participants.

Workshops should address one of the listed subject areas below

Proposal Selection Criteria

When reviewing the workshop proposal, the committee evaluation will be based on the following criteria: 

• The content offers a significant contribution to the purpose of the retreat and clearly fits into a category.
• The workshop has a clear purpose and objectives.
• The workshop format is dynamic and engages the participants through activity and discussion (use of the experiential learning model).
• The workshop provides the participants with concrete ideas/models that can be applied in their 4-H experience and beyond.

Please also try to include volunteer roles for youth in your proposal. Bonus consideration: Workshop content that can be applied to volunteers who work with youth beyond the California 4-H program.  

Click Here to submit a workshop proposal

Workshop Goals

The goal is to provide quality education sessions with take-home strategies which will ENGAGE, ENERGIZE, EQUIP and EMPOWER participants in their volunteer roles.

Please try to include youth volunteer roles in your workshop. Bonus consideration: information that can be applied to volunteers who work with youth beyond the California 4-H program.  

Audience

The audience will be:

• New and returning 4-H adult volunteers
• Youth volunteers ages 15 and up
• Staff who work with youth

Session Categories

Session topics should address one of the following categories. Interactive lectures, panel discussions, and hands-on activities are encouraged. The goal is to build or increase the participant’s knowledge, skills, and/or experiences in specific subject matter.

Process

Workshops that focus on administrative and technical skills, fundraising techniques, and effective communication practices.  Some examples are: “The Art of Delegation”, “Intergenerational Communication Strategies”, and “Effective Social Media Strategies”. 

Program

Workshops that focus on program specific development such as useful skills or tools to manage club or project meetings or for staff to engage and develop volunteers.  Some examples are: “Essential Practices to Leading an Effective Project”, “Engaging Volunteers”, “Evaluating Your Club’s Success”, and “Creating an Inclusive 4-H”

People

Workshops focused on soft-skill development and team building.  Workshops may include areas such as work/life/volunteer balance, interpersonal communication strategies, presentation/facilitation skills, problem-solving, conflict resolution, team-building, and time management.

Positive Youth Development

Workshops focused on building skills that will equip volunteers with the most current best practices in PYD may include: Youth-adult partnerships, building emotional, physical, and cultural safety, and healthy relationships.  Also, the development of knowledge and skills around positive educational practices such as experiential learning, project-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and service learning would fit into this category.

Projects

Workshops focused on building knowledge and skills for volunteers for a specific project skill or new curriculum. Another option is to have a booth at the new Project Skills Showcase. The Project Skills Showcase is designed to give all participants access to project resources in an exhibit environment, where people are free to roam from booth-to-booth and gain the knowledge and skills necessary to bring tools home with them.  To find out more about this option, go to the Project Skills Showcase page.

Session Information

Sessions will be 90 minutes in length. We encourage you to allow for 10 or more minutes for questions.

Saturday, November 9

Session A: 10:15 am - 11:45 am

Session B: 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm

Session C: 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Sunday, November 10

Session D: 8:30 am - 10:00 am

Click Here to submit a workshop proposal

Any questions? Email us at thevolunteerretreat@ucanr.edu Subject line: Education Questions