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CCSC-NW Region
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Program ChairIn addition to the timeline noted in http://www.ccsc.org/northwest/docarchive/bylaws/BoardTimeline2.rtf October, 1 year prior to conference: Program chair is appointed/volunteered by the end of the current conference. October, 1 year prior to conference: The program meeting date is tentatively set – usually one of the last two Saturdays in April. This meeting is held at the conference site. Communicate with the conference chair and site chair to make arrangements for the program meeting. A room for about 10 people with a big table is required. Internet connection is helpful. Between October and March – hound the conference chair and regional rep. to continue to push calls for papers. In March – finalize program meeting time, directions, location. Send an email to all program committee members (Papers chair, Panels chair, Program chair, Conference chair, Site chair, Regional representative, Editor). Other CCSC members are welcome IF they have not submitted a paper. In mid April – send an email requesting confirmation of who will be attending the program meeting. Late April – program meeting. Generally the meeting will run from 9 or 10 am until about 2-3pm. It is helpful if the site chair has arranged lunch – just cold sandwiches and drinks work or we’ve sent someone to get subs if needed. Certainly, having some drinks and snacks available is desired. This can all come out of the conference budget. So far, we have not reimbursed committee members for travel expenses, but there is no rule against doing that. It would just need to be accounted for in the budget – see treasurer and regional rep. The meeting: The paper chair should bring to the program meeting some document containing all the submitted papers. What has worked best in the past is a spread sheet of all the papers along with reviewer scores summarized. The papers chair must also bring complete copies of all papers. What has also been helpful is the abstract of all papers put together. All of these documents MUST BE edited to not show the authors nor institutions. Only the papers chair should know who the authors are. If everyone has computers, electronic versions of these are fine although we have not done that to date. The next step we have done is for all committee members to review the evaluations and rank them into 3 categories – Low, Medium, and High. We then go through each paper and tally the rankings. This gives an initial ranking of the papers and a viewpoint of how many papers of quality we might have. Depending on the number of paper submissions, this ranking may work out to be the bulk of the work. What we’ve had to date, is those ranked high have been accepted, those ranked low have been rejected, and those ranked medium we’ve had to discuss in greater detail to fill the program. The number of accepted papers has ranged from 7 to 18. There is no fixed number to aim for because it depends on the committees desires for what type of program they wish to set. In some years we’ve accepted more panels/workshops/tutorials than other years so that left less room for papers. List of accepted/submitted papers:
Before we finalize which last papers are accepted/rejected, we review the panels/workshops/tutorials. The panels chair should have brought a similar overview of the submitted panels/workshops/tutorials. These have not have peer review evaluations to date, although we have discussed adding this since the number of submissions has grown in recent years. Basically, we see the types of topics the panels/workshops/tutorials contain and how they fit with the papers we accept. At this point it is helpful to draw a program grid on a whiteboard and determine how many presentation slots will be available at the conference site. This will depend on the number of rooms available. We have usually had 3 tracks using three rooms. In some years there are 4 tracks at times during the conference depending on tutorials and workshops available. Count up the available slots (sometimes we’ve had 2 papers per session, sometimes 3). Once that number is determined, count the number of high marked papers, the number of available panels/workshops/tutorials, and determine how many medium papers, if any, will need to be accepted to fill the program. If there are more high marked papers than slots (great year), then the work becomes determining which of those to accept. Once all the accepted papers and panels/workshops/tutorials are determined, then setting the program involves trying to align topics so they don’t conflict and there is a nice flow to the schedule. Another factor to consider is that authors cannot be scheduled to be in more than one place at a time. In addition to the papers and workshops, etc, you need to include the location and time of all the extra items in the program (keynote, dinner speakers, student posters, vendors, etc.) Make sure to copy the program down before you leave the meeting. As soon as possible after the meeting the papers chair and panels chair must send to the program chair the complete names, schools, and paper/workshop/panel titles. Once these are received, the program chair creates the first draft of the program and sends it to all program committee members to proof read. The last item need is for the regional rep to send the program chair the names of board members who will serve as session moderators for paper sessions. These are then added to the program by the program chair. As soon as the program is proofed (make sure all names, schools, and titles are correct!) the program is then sent to the conference chair, webmaster, and editor. Any further changes to the program can be done by the conference chair. These are usually last minute changes during the summer and before the conference. The chair will send the final program out in August via email and land mail in the conference announcements. The program chair duties are done for the year. |