Symposium Proposal Instructions

2009 AAAS ANNUAL MEETING

12-16 February • Chicago

Our Planet and Its Life: Origins and Futures

The deadline for proposal submission is Monday, 28 April 2008, 11:59 p.m. PT. Decisions will be announced in July.

Please follow these instructions carefully. Incomplete proposals will be eliminated from consideration. Proposals received after the deadline will not be considered.

For additional guidance, the Program Committee underscores the fact that a successful symposium proposal is characterized by interesting and timely topics that are thoughtfully developed and include capable and articulate presenters who are representative of the diversity of science and society, including disciplinary field, gender, ethnicity, and geographic location.

All proposals will be peer-reviewed. You will be required to describe your proposed symposium and the topics of each speaker. If your symposium addresses a subject for which there are differing scientific opinions, include speakers with different perspectives. Remember that the information you provide will be the primary source of information that the reviewers will use to evaluate your proposal.

For style, use The Chicago Manual of Style. For example, use serial commas and spell out abbreviations and acronyms. Do not use sentence case for the title of a symposium or the title of a speaker presentation.

To receive notifications about your proposal, please ensure that the following e-mail addresses will not be blocked: meetings@aaas.org, lwarrick@aaas.org, kklyberg@aaas.org, and brice@aaas.org.

Scheduling Note: When selecting speakers, please ensure that they are available to participate at any time from Friday, 13 February through the morning of Monday, 16 February. Once the schedule for sessions is announced in the fall of 2008, it will be considered final.

1. Title of Proposed Symposium

   Title must include no more than 85 characters, including spaces. Do not use sentence case for the title. When preparing a proposal and the title of the symposium, organizers are encouraged to be creative and to focus on the interdisciplinary nature of the AAAS Annual Meeting. Please avoid jargon.

2. Primary Subject Category

   Please select the subject category that best describes the overall nature of the symposium. Once the final selection is made, this information will be used by the Program Committee to help generate the program's broader symposium tracks or sub-themes.

3. Secondary Subject Categories

   Please select other relevant subject categories within which the symposium falls. This information will be used in the development of the cross-cutting General Subject Index contained in the Program Book.

4. Synopsis

   Provide a clear, succinct synopsis of your proposed symposium (1,500 characters, including spaces) as it would appear in the Program Book. Avoid the use of references, abbreviations, and technical jargon. Do not write the synopsis as though you are addressing the Program Committee. Annual Meeting programs are archived at s and can be a useful source of information.

   Describe the subject, highlighting the scientific issues, innovations, or research to be addressed. Do not name or reference speakers or the titles of their presentations in the synopsis. Speakers are listed separately along with their presentation titles and description (see Section H).

5. Relevance to Theme or Special Relevance to the Audience

   Describe how the proposed symposium relates to the theme. Almost any topic in science and technology can be related to the theme, and submitters are encouraged to extend their reach by thinking internationally. However, the Committee will consider proposals that are not directly related to the theme if they involve ground-breaking areas of research, new and exciting developments, and cross-cutting activities in support of science, technology, and education. (500 characters, including spaces)

6. Scheduling and Time Justification

   You are required to specify the total time requested for your symposium. Keep in mind that speakers may travel far and have busy schedules; allow them enough time to make substantive presentations and to take questions from the audience. The final 15 to 30 minutes of your symposium should be reserved for discussion with the audience.

   A 90-minute session requires three (3) speakers. A 180-minute symposium is limited to a minimum of four (4) speakers and a maximum of six (6).

   Proposals for 180-minute symposia must present compelling reasons as to why the additional time is needed (1,000 characters, including spaces).

   The Program Committee reserves the right to accept a proposal contingent on altering the time requested.

7. Disciplinary Sections (Optional)

   Indicate if you are a section member or if you discussed the proposal with an AAAS Section; prior discussion is not required.

8. Session Roles

   Explanation of Roles

   A symposium may have only one organizer, who submits the symposium proposal, and a maximum of two co-organizers.

   Please note: If the organizer or co-organizer will also be participating in the session, each separate role must be entered into the system (e.g., organizer and moderator).

   Symposium Organizer: The organizer serves as the primary contact for all communications with AAAS Meetings. It is the responsibility of the organizer to disseminate all relevant materials to the participants (including the co-organizer) in the proposal.

   Symposium Co-Organizer: Co-organizers assist the organizer with lining up speakers and ensuring that deadlines are met by symposium participants. There is a maximum of two co-organizers.

   Moderator (optional): A maximum of one. Provides a brief overview, introduces each speaker, and facilitates a general discussion by the audience and presenters through a Q&A session. This role is typically filled by the symposium organizer or one of the co-organizers.

   Speakers: Presentations by three (3) in a 90-minute session and four (4) to six (6) in a 180-minute session.

   Discussant (optional): Maximum of two discussants for a 90-minute session and three for a 180-minute session. Provides a brief review of, or counterpoint to, the main topics or issues covered by the panel. Discussants do not make presentations.

   Proposed Participants

   You are required to submit the following contact information for each of the proposed participants.

   Name

   Affiliation

   Telephone number

   E-mail address

   City

   State or Province (if applicable)

   Country

   Status (confirmed or invited)

   You should also include contact information for your proposed participants, including:

   Complete mailing address

   Fax number

   Without contact information, AAAS will be unable to:

   Confirm participation.

   Send travel support acceptance or decline letters to speakers who apply for travel assistance.

   Send information to speakers about press coverage, including invitations to participate in news briefings and interviews.

   For each speaker you will also be required to include a tentative presentation title (maximum of 85 characters, including spaces; title case) and a few sentences describing the proposed content or perspective of the presentation. This is crucial to the reviewers' understanding of why you are proposing a particular speaker. Please do not give only biographical information.

   Please note: This description is NOT an abstract. A request to submit an abstract will be made AFTER the Program Committee has selected the symposia from among the proposals submitted.

   While recognizing that some changes will occur, the Program Committee reserves the right to reconsider symposia if the final list of speakers causes a change in the symposium's focus that differs substantially from that originally proposed.

9. Travel Support

   Organizers and speakers participate in the meeting at their own expense or use funding secured by an organizer.

   As a nonprofit organization, AAAS does not have the financial resources to fund travel expenses for the more than 1,000 program participants at each year's meeting. However, one of the 24 disciplinary sections of AAAS may choose to authorize travel support from their modest budgets. Funding is limited and typically provides only nominal travel support.