Call for Presenters

The American Camp Association® (ACA) is accepting proposals from high-quality presenters for innovative, timely, and dynamic educational sessions to be presented at the ACA National Conference, February 17-20, 2009, in Orlando, Florida. All sessions will take place in Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort.

Analysis of previous conference evaluations, informal feedback gathered from attendees, and the most recent Educational Needs Assessment indicate that camp and youth professionals seek high-level knowledge in these areas:

• Youth Development and Behavior – This track encompasses how camp professionals can effectively use the camp experience to help prepare young people for healthy and successful lives. Topics may include: exploring participant development and behavior in the areas of health and wellness, bullying, etc.; program design; and other ways to build on the fun and link activities to desired outcomes. This topic area covers both campers and counselors.
• Staff Training and Leadership – In addition to critical areas in human resources like skillfully recruiting, selecting, managing, training, and motivating staff and volunteers, we’re seeking programs that address goal setting, leadership, outcomes attainment, youth involvement in decision making, and developing life skills on the job. Sessions that address staff behavior, health, and wellness are sought as well.
• Business and Operations – This topic covers important areas of operation for camps and conference centers such as fundraising, development, finance, risk management, strategic planning, site and facility, marketing, environmental issues, food service, transportation, technology, and public policy.
• Emerging Issues, Tools, and Strategies – Think of emerging issues, and in some cases urgent issues, and how camps and conference centers can rapidly and appropriately address these challenges.  Best practices in like-minded organizations, examples from your own programs, and programs you’ve adapted may be suitable.  Innovative tools and resources that improve efficiencies are also sought. 
• Innovative Programs and Activities – We’re seeking the 400 level series of program and activities that showcase the best the camp experience has to offer.
• Commerce Sessions – Our exhibiting business affiliates can offer targeted, tactical education essential to camp operation.  We value this education and welcome these submissions. Commerce sessions are forty-five minutes in length, as opposed to seventy-five. These sessions are presented on Thursday, a day devoted to exhibits and commerce-related education.
• Our conference theme, The Power of Our Experience, offers the focus for our sixth program area. This year’s theme explores both the meaning and power of our experience with children, youth, teens, and families.  With the strength of our voices and the compelling story of the camp experience, we can make a powerful, societal impact. Programs that address sharing the story in resonating language with related audiences are sought, along with sessions that frame the transformational experience of camp to other experiences in the cycle of complementary learning.

We seek high-quality speakers and facilitators who can challenge us to think about the world in new ways and those who can help us sharpen the skills that are essential to provide dynamic camp environments for campers and counselors.

Target Audience

The national conference draws camp and youth professionals from across the country and around the world. Presentations should apply to directors, owners, executives, administrative staff, and other youth development professionals and educators. Although we draw some professionals relatively new to camp, keep in mind that the balance of the national conference audience is comprised of experienced professionals committed to life-long learning. They seek high-level educational opportunities, and we are committed to providing them.

General Information - Sessions

Educational breakout sessions are seventy-five minutes in length. Presenters are encouraged to leave ten minutes or more for questions and answers with participants. Lectures, hands-on workshops, and panel presentations are welcome. Commerce sessions are forty-five minutes in length, and scheduled to be presented on Thursday, February 19. Approximately one hundred sessions will be accepted for presentation in Orlando.

Submitting Session Proposals

Proposals will be accepted beginning May 1 through September 15, 2008. Submitters will receive notification no later than September 30, 2008. If you have a late-breaking session idea, you may submit, with the understanding that your session may in fact be considered for presentation at the 2010 National Conference, rather than the 2009 National Conference. Please e-mail akatzenberger@ACAcamps.org if you plan to submit post-deadline. Responses to late submissions are made on a time-available basis. You are strongly encouraged to submit by September 30, 2008.

Presentations must not have a commercial message for a particular organization or business or be perceived as a "sales pitch." ACA reserves the right to reject any proposal.

Proposals are taken online, through a series of questions. Step one is creating an account with a login and password. The login is your e-mail address where you wish to receive e-mail related to your submission. Select a password that you can recall easily. You may use your login and passwords you created in 2007 or 2008. The submission site allows you to cut and paste text from Word, in areas requiring more detail. The site provides a confirmation e-mail, upon request, confirming our receipt of your submission. Submitters may go back into their session proposals up until the time the site closes, September 15. This is especially helpful to those who wish to update submissions to include new insights from summer 2008. You may submit multiple sessions for consideration.

Selection Process – Sessions are reviewed and ultimately selected by the volunteer Program Review Team, which is chaired by Dayna Hardin. On occasion, submitters will be asked for further clarification.