Request for Proposals
Learning Session Proposal
The Planning Team of the Maine Out of School Time (MOST) Conference is requesting proposals for learning sessions for the 2025 event Igniting Purpose: Leading with Professionalism, Presence, and Passion. The two-day conference will be held on Thursday, September 11 and Friday, September 12 at the Sunday River Resort in Newry Maine.
For the 2025 event, we are seeking proposals that offer transformative strategies for supporting effective leadership, professional growth, high quality programming, and positive youth development. Each learning session is 75 minutes. There are also 30 minute SPARKS sessions meant to ignite thought and ideas around a subject.
Conference Purpose
Step away to the scenic mountains of Maine for the Maine Out of School Time Conference, a conference tailored to meet the unique needs of Out-of-School-Time professionals and those who support them. Youth serving professionals from around the state will gather together to learn, network, and share best practices. This event is intended to reignite your passion, provide skills to enhance high quality programming, and offer tools and resources that will inspire you to create positive change.
Audience
Out-of-School-Time directors, site coordinators, front-line program staff, administrators, educators, and community partners.
Keynote Speakers
DAY ONE: Heidi Hamm, National Afterschool Association
Even a year later, the world continues to buzz with news about megastar Taylor Swift and how she structured her record-smashing concert tour as a chronological exploration of the chapters in her career. Eras–Taylor Swift isn’t the only one who has them. All people do. Inspired by this pop phenomenon, together, we’ll explore the eras and markers of an Out of School Time career journey, remember the past, honor the present, and set the stage for the future. Join the journey, identifying key moments that shaped you and envisioning how you can build on your strengths to make an impact through a mapped career in OST.
Keynote Follow Up with The Flourish Lab Your Why- Staying Connected to the Heart of Your Work: Creating supporting environments for young people starts with the adults in those spaces. The Flourish Lab is an experiential learning series designed to positively shift the way adults show up for young people.
Whatever your reason for working with young people, your WHY matters. You may want to make a positive impact your community. You may want to pay forward the impact of a positive adult in your life. You may want to teach invaluable life lessons. When we’re able to hone in on WHY we work with young people, we’re able to have a bigger impact in the work we do. Come discuss why you do the work that you do and how it can keep you grounded in what matters most, especially when things feel hard.
Discover…
• your WHY
• the value in knowing your WHY
• strategies for keeping your WHY alive
DAY TWO: The Flourish Lab, Presence: Showing Up Matters
Being truly present means consciously choosing to show up with a heightened level of awareness. And it matters bigtime! Positive or negative — the choice is always ours, but either way, count on a ripple effect. Once we understand that our adult actions and attitudes have a direct impact on the youth we serve (and all who support them), we can choose to show up differently.
Discover…• mindful strategies for showing up positively• the ripple effect of adult attitudes & behaviors• how your presence impacts relationships
Learning Session Presenter Application Guidance
Learning Session Objective:
MOST learning sessions are intended to ignite passion and enhance skills in program providers, promote effective strategies for providing high quality programming, and improve youth engagement and outcomes NOTE: The full Learning Session Proposal form is found on pages 3 of this document.
Learning Session Options
We invite presenters to consider offering content in one or more of the following types of learning sessions:
Option 1: Effective Strategies-Exemplar Programs: These sessions will feature effective program-level tips, tools, and strategies that will improve youth programming.
Option 2: Positive Youth Development (PYD) Practice: Offerings that introduce or expand participant knowledge of PYD principles and strategies.
Option 3: Program Leadership/Providers Content offered in these sessions will focus on personal growth, knowledge, and increased confidence in the delivery of effective programs through professionalism, presence, and passion.
Logistics
The registration fee will be waived for one adult presenter per learning session. Any youth co-presenters can attend free-of-charge.
The proposals will be evaluated based on completeness, quality and clarity, range of information represented, relevance and (if possible) youth participation on presentation team. Proposals due by July 7, 2025.
The planning team requests that learning session presentations not be designed as lectures. Dialogue, interactive strategies, and hands-on activities should be employed as primary presentation techniques.