Section Business Meeting

Section business meetings will be held at CANVAS. The meeting is chaired and conducted by the section chair and the vice chair keeps minutes. A report on the section business meeting, including annual community planning session notes, is submitted to the communities and divisions liaison at headquarters, memberprograms@sciencesocieties.org.

Section business meetings should follow this format:

• Deliver message from one of the Society presidents.
• Deliver report from the board representative.
  • Section board reps will provide an update on Society activities (they will receive talking points in advance of CANVAS).
  • This may include the CANVAS report, budget and finance summary, and a membership update.
• Review section activity.
• Open discussion for section-wide symposia ideas.
• Discuss the Program Enhancement Fund.
  • Explanation of the fund policy.
  • Encouragement for community leaders to submit proposals for funding if needed.
• Conduct election nominations.
  • Section chairs identify and discuss the candidates for vice chair and section board representative when positions are vacant.
  • Section chairs identify and discuss candidates for ASA President-Elect.
  • Section chairs provide candidate names of section officers and ASA President-Elect to their section board rep. Section board reps will announce names of candidates at the ASA Board meeting at the end of the CANVAS.

Community business meetings can be held as breakout sessions following the section business meeting. Section chairs should coordinate with community leaders when scheduling the section business meeting.

CANVAS Programming

For CANVAS program, section chairs may:

1. Ask colleagues and community leaders for program ideas.
2. Guide community leaders in organizing sessions and activities for CANVAS.
3. Serve on the A711 ASA Program Planning Committee.

Section chairs should organize oral and poster sessions, symposia, student activities, contests, workshops, tours, and more at CANVAS. These activities should capture the combined interests of communities and members within the section.

Topical overlap: Since there may be topical overlap between communities and their research interests, section leadership should ensure coordination and communication between communities. Leadership should do their best to prevent topical overlap of programming created by communities.

Section-Wide Symposia: Symposia that span entire sections are excellent vehicles for promoting communities within a section. They also provide a fitting form for highlighting issues that are relevant to multiple communities within the section. Speakers are generally invited, and symposia are also excellent for inviting a heavy-hitting speaker from outside the Societies. Symposia should focus on fewer presenters providing longer presentations, typically involving three speakers giving 40-minute presentations each, or four speakers providing 30 minute presentations. They’re the centerpieces of section/division/community programming.

Note that each section and community are allotted a single two-hour symposium. If sections or communities would like to have additional symposia, they can consider “cosponsoring” with another division, section, or community that has not used their allotted number of symposia.