Identify research areas of current interest
and together with President-Elect (who will be President
at June meeting) discuss ideas for a theme for invited
sessions at the meeting and a short course the day
before the meeting. If possible, bring suggestions
for themes and short courses to the Regional Committee
meeting the year before the meeting for discussion
and approval.
Contact individuals to serve as chairs
of invited paper sessions on these topics. The
chairs organize the sessions, that is, they identify
and contact the speakers. It is desirable to
have commitments from the session chairs by mid-October,
and the names of the invited speakers and the titles
of their talks by early December. Recently, WNAR
has had around five invited paper sessions and two
sessions jointly with IMS. Typically, the sessions
are one hour and forty-five minutes long and consist
of three speakers. Try to have enough sessions
to attract members from both major areas of WNAR members
(medical and environmental).
Contact potential teachers for short
courses, and together with local arrangements chair,
set up short course (identify materials to be shipped
and copied, audio-visual equipment needed).
Discuss co-sponsorship of the short course
with IMS program chair. So far WNAR has identified
short course teachers by word of mouth and from programs
from other meetings. Larger societies advertise
for proposals (e.g. in AMSTAT news).
Send the names of all invited speakers
and the titles of their talks along with short course
information to the WNAR Secretary/Correspondent for
use in mailings about the meeting and publication
in the Biometric Bulletin and other Journals. This
should be done by early December.
Receive abstracts (via US and electronic
mail) for the contributed papers. There are usually
around twelve to fifteen contributed papers. They
can be organized in three to four sessions, with fifteen
to twenty minutes for each paper.
Contact individuals to serve as chairs
of the contributed paper sessions. Arrange the schedule
for the sessions. This requires coordination
with the IMS program committee and the WNAR Student
Paper Competition Chair. There are some constraints
to the schedule. WNAR has a President's Invited
Session and IMS typically has two Special Invited Sessions. If
possible, no invited paper sessions (WNAR or IMS) should
conflict with these special sessions. Also if
possible, schedule the WNAR Student Paper Competition
sessions on the first day so that the judges can decide
on the winners before the President's Invited Address.
Collect abstracts from all the invited
speakers. The session organizers should ask their
speakers to send in an abstract as soon as they can,
but in any event it should be before May 15 (or another
date specified by the local arrangements chair) so
that they can be published in the abstract book distributed
to participants at registration. Abstract length limitations
should be given when they are solicited. Abstracts
can be sent via electronic mail. This medium
is actually preferable, so that they may be sent to
the editor of the Biometric Bulletin by email.
The program chairs should be sure that
all invited speakers receive advance registration material
and that the speakers are aware of the fees involved
in attending the meetings.
Send the schedule, including the names
of all speakers (invited and contributed, including
student paper competition oral presentations) and the
titles and times of their talks, to the local arrangements
chair to include in the materials distributed at the
conference.
Send all abstracts (invited and contributed,
including student paper competition oral presentations)
to the local arrangements chair (by May 15, or whatever
deadline s/he provides).
Send all the abstracts (invited and contributed,
including student paper competition oral presentations)
to the editor of the Biometric Bulletin for publication.
