Community activities at CANVAS may include symposia, oral sessions, business meetings, workshops, tours, and social functions. Communities can also sponsor or conduct activities that go beyond CANVAS, including virtual meetings or workshops, publications, awards, leadership development, white papers, books, grants, or other activities. All community activity should be guided by feedback from members.
CANVAS Programming
Communities, with their topical interests and close connection to members, are key to creating a compelling CANVAS program. Community leaders should consider:
- Soliciting program ideas from community members.
- Communicating those ideas and ideas for other activities to their section chair and keeping the section chair informed about sessions, symposia, and events the community is developing.
- Adding events (like oral or poster sessions and your annual community planning session) to the program through our web-based scheduling software, Confex.
- Providing student activities and competitions. Communities are encouraged to work with their sections to integrate student competitions into their programs to mentor and attract graduate and undergraduate students in the society. This could include poster/oral competitions and awards.
- Publishing proceedings or meeting-based publications. Take advantage of the Societies’ journal publications by developing proceedings or a publication out of your symposium. The Societies request first right of refusal to publish these documents.
Program Planning Resources
The meetings department from ASA, CSSA, and SSSA provides program planning information for Society leadership. You can find the latest deadlines, updates, tips, and tools by visiting the meetings planning page.