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Guidelines for Coordinating and Hosting a National AIS Conference Once Your Proposal is Accepted

What to do to Initiate a Proposal to Host an AIS Conference
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE CONFERENCE
ONE AND ONE-HALF YEARS PRIOR TO THE CONFERENCE
ONE YEAR PRIOR TO THE CONFERENCE

By November
By January (before mid-January)
By late May
By late June/early July
By late July/early August
In September
After the Conference

(You can use the above links to "jump" to a section of your choice, or you can scroll down the page to read the information in its entirety.)

TWO YEARS BEFORE THE CONFERENCE:

Send representatives to the AIS conferences for at least two years prior to your planned conference (to meet with the Board of Directors). Encourage membership and conference attendance within your planning team so that your institution has a visible presence at the conference and so that you can develop a core of active, informed participants to assist with local arrangements.

Work with the conference liaison to the Board as you prepare the preliminary report on conference planning that will be presented at the Fall AIS Conference.

Click here for sample Two-Year Report

Maintain a comprehensive binder in which you include at least the following sections: Correspondence; Call for Papers - Development and Revision; Program-Development and Revision; Budget; Timetable of Activities - Development and Revision; Committee Meetings - Minutes and Other Notes; Hotel - Logistics and Negotiations; Other Matters.

To facilitate conference planning, the AIS Office Manager will handle arrangements for the placement of ads and the Call for Papers in selected publications and will contact publishers' representatives and sources for other AIS-related texts in preparation for a book display. The Office Manager will make available an archive of planning forms, sample letters, and materials used by previous conference hosts.

Prepare information on availability and cost of transportation from the
airport to the conference (and between hotel/ motel and conference center,
if appropriate); availability, cost, and accessibility of hotel or motel;
nature of conference facilities [e.g., plenary session room(s), breakout
rooms, etc.].

Identify a tentative theme or several alternative themes, and sub-themes.

Identify a potential keynoter or keynote program.

Identify tentative dates for the conference, preferably the first weekend in October, but
certainly between the end of September/beginning of October and late October.
Conference days are generally Thursday (afternoon) through Sunday (Noon),
with the Board meetings at the conference site on the Wednesday night prior and on Thursday morning. The Board may meet at other times during the conference as necessary.
Often there is a Pre-Conference Workshop on Thursday morning.

Identify logistics and costs your institution will assume. The AIS does not provide financial support for the conference. All costs must be covered by the conference registration fee and college/ university subventions (minimum: $5000-$8000). In the past, host institutions have typically covered part or all of at least the following:

(1) duplication and mailing costs for the call for papers;
(2) support of AIS program committee participation in previous and current conference;
(3) printing and mailing of the Call for Papers, registration brochure and printing of the conference program and materials;
(4) all local arrangements, including any shuttle service necessary between hotel/ motel and conference center (and between conference site and airport if commercial service is unavailable);
(5) honorarium and expenses for keynote speaker;
(6) expenses for spring on-site visit for Board liaison to participate in program planning, screening of proposals, and conference support; and
(7) development of a conference website to be linked to the AIS webpage. Some institutions have subsidized participation of graduate students. Form your local program committee consisting of administrators, faculty, staff, and students/alumni, if possible. Representation from all segments of your operation will encourage the kind of team spirit and involvement which will make the implementation of the conference successful and enjoyable. If your institution has a Special Events Coordinating Office, you may be able to acquire additional support or assistance with planning and implementation. As soon as possible, identify and clarify benefits to your unit, faculty, and institution related to coordinating and hosting an AIS conference.

Accommodations

Entertain bids from local hotels, motels, and conference centers for the conference site. Do not hesitate to bargain with bidders for sleeping room rates, meal costs, complimentary rooms, etc. Be imaginative in negotiating with hotels. They want to make a profit, but they can only do that if they get your business. Let them know you are discussing options with other hotels. You should not have to pay anything, normally, for ballrooms and breakout rooms because of the large number of sleeping rooms and meals you will arrange for. You may negotiate a free hotel suite for AIS Board Meetings, free rooms for the conference coordinators, etc. Moreover, you certainly should not assume that the first prices they quote you are necessarily their lowest prices.

Book a block of rooms, perhaps 50-75 (singles and doubles), as well as the meeting and banquet rooms at the site you choose. Do not sign a contract with room price "estimates"; that may rise later. You want a firm price that is locked in and guaranteed not to change, and you want a contract that will allow you to cancel without penalty up to a reasonable time before the event. Check on required cancellation dates for meals and rooms. Block a small number of hotel rooms for Wednesday night for 12 Board members, other "early birds" and Pre-Conference Workshop participants. If the hotel typically fills, you may wish to identify a second location for overflow and secure special rates there as well. Make sure you reserve a sufficient number of meeting rooms for both individual and plenary sessions. Typically, five breakout rooms have sufficed, plus banquet facilities, display and coffee break areas (and possibly a breakfast buffet/conversation area), a location for Board meetings, and a location for the keynote session (if it differs from the banquet hall). Check on prices for computer and A-V equipment rental/usage. Use university/college equipment if possible to keep costs down, but, if you do so, make sure you have on site arrangements for equipment troubleshooting. You may wish to arrange for one event on your campus—i.e., a reception, pre-conference workshop, computer session, or tour, if you can work out the transportation.

Conference Budget

Develop a conference budget early in the planning; revise as necessary along the way. AIS hopes that some funds will be returned to the organization from the conference and asks conference planners to set their registration fee accordingly.

Tentatively set the final registration fee (member; non-member; student; "early bird") and propose it to the AIS Board. The host institution should: recommend a registration fee to the Board that is manageable and appropriate within the goals of the conference planning; attract participants for the duration of the conference; engage in careful budget planning; maintain and keep accurate budget records for the duration of the conference and future reference as well; plan to return some funds to AIS. Set the registration fee for non-members higher than for members, so that it includes the AIS membership fee. The new membership income thus collected should be forwarded to AIS after the conference with the names and addresses of new members and should not be used to cover conference expenses.

The fee should include most catered meals (at least one evening meal is generally "on your own") and beverage breaks (coffee/tea/soda/bottled water), all charges for local arrangements and registration, the cost of one trip by the Board liaison to meet with the program committee, as well as the keynoter's expenses (if these are not covered by your institution's subvention). Be sure to set the registration fee high enough to cover emergencies and to compensate for an attendance somewhat lower than anticipated. If you are using university transportation to get people to and from the airport, make sure you reserve the vans or buses now. If you are relying on commercially-operated or hotel-sponsored transportation, make sure you have all the details.

Transportation Arrangements:

Explore the possibility of an official airline for the conference as well as added car-rental packages, since this can result in favorable rates. Back to top

ONE AND ONE-HALF YEARS PRIOR TO THE CONFERENCE (February)

By the winter meeting of the Board of Directors, you should be prepared to submit a draft of a Call for Proposals, Proposal Submission Form, and Letter of Invitation to the conference liaison for review by the Board. The Call should be as detailed as possible: theme, sub-themes, guidelines; minimum information re: costs (registration fee, hotel, etc.). The Proposal Submission Form should request a one-page proposal, abstract for program, contact information for convener and participants, bios, computer and A-V needs, etc. Include also the conference coordinator's complete contact information (address, phone, email, fax), and the conference and AIS websites. Indicate that proposals may be mailed, emailed, faxed or submitted electronically. If the conference is in early October, the deadline for submissions should be no later than April 1. Accompanying the Call and Submission Form should be a warm, encouraging, and informative Letter of Invitation from the conference coordinator, inviting active participation and attendance (samples of the Call, Form and Letter are available from the Office Manager). Your conference liaison will represent you at the winter meeting, typically in February. Be prepared to submit your preliminary report on the progress of conference planning in sufficient time to allow for the liason to contact you to anticipate areas that may need more elaboration prior to the Board meeting. Back to top>>

Click here for sample Letter of Invitation Go>>
Click here for sample Call for Proposals Go>>

ONE YEAR PRIOR TO THE CONFERENCE:

By November
By January (before mid-January)
By late May
By late June/early July
By late July/early August
In September
After the Conference

Click here for sample Letter of Invitation Go>>
Click here for sample Call for Proposals Go>>

ONE YEAR PRIOR TO THE CONFERENCE:

By November
By January (before mid-January)
By late May
By late June/early July
By late July/early August
In September
After the Conference

(1) No later than one week before the conference previous to yours, send to the conference hosts a sufficient quantity of conference flyers for the following year (one side the Call for Papers and the second side the letter of invitation from your campus). These should arrive in sufficient time for the planners to insert them with other materials in the conference folders

. (2) Attend the annual AIS meeting, along with others on your planning committee. This will be your opportunity to see the logistics of the conference at close hand and to acquaint yourself with the membership and tone of the sessions.

(3)You will normally make a formal presentation to the Board early in the conference, most likely the Thursday morning before the official conference opening day. At this point you should have firm information on costs (housing, proposed conference fee, other expenses, etc.) and all local arrangements, including airport and local transportation, the keynote, and special events. You will also have an opportunity to briefly announce the conference to participants during one of the meals.

Click here for sample One-Year Report Go>>

By November

The AIS Office Manager will contact you in advance of the Nov. 1 and Feb. 1 deadlines of the December and March issues of the AIS Newsletter and the January and July deadlines of the Chronicle of Higher Education's "Events and Travel in Academe" to request any updated conference information to be included in the Call for Papers. The Call will also be circulated to the AGLS, NHC, NAHE, ANAC, and AGLSP, organizations with whom AIS has an ongoing working relationship. You should circulate the Call with an appropriate welcoming letter to other groups with which your campus has an association. Local institutions within higher education, school districts, and professional associations may take a particular interest in the opportunity to interact with the AIS membership. The AIS Executive Director can assist you in securing mailing labels. Consider approaches to promoting the conference among graduate students as well. The AIS has actively welcomed graduate students as part of its effort to prepare students to participate in the scholarship and pedagogy of interdisciplinarity.

Host institutions should place AIS conference information on their campus website and create a link to the AIS website by notifying Bill Newell that the website is ready to go live.

Make sure all random inquiries about the AIS are sent off to the AIS Executive Director or current AIS President. Every year we receive many such inquiries along with inquiries about the conference itself.

The AIS Office Manager will contact publishers with interdisciplinary interests and associations with AIS authors to seek flyers, books, or representation at the conference. You may wish to contact local publishers and your local bookstore as well as campus authors who might have a special interest in the event. Some bookstores may welcome the opportunity to have sales at the conference book table. As the conference approaches, the Office Manager will contact you to communicate publisher interest so that you may make arrangements for shipping, display, and processing sales. Your planning committee should include a book table/display table subgroup to manage these activities.

Make sure that the telephone number that is advertised for the conference leads to an office where someone is available from 9-5 to answer routine questions. Then, be sure to instruct those who assist you as to where to send questions they cannot answer. Many email inquiries should be expected. Have a plan for routinely and promptly responding to email questions and to the arrival of proposals through email and fax as well as mail.

As paper proposals begin to arrive, respond to them promptly. Indicate a realistic date for
communicating acceptance or rejection based upon the timing of your site
visit and proposal review (normally by mid- to late May). Typically each year the
Board mandates several sessions associated with Board initiatives--e.g.,
assessment, publication, research projects. You should expect proposals
to be submitted for each of these sessions in the same format as other
proposals. If proposals are incomplete, now is the time to communicate
with proposers.

Make a separate file for each presentation/proposal submitted. That way you'll have all pertinent information, correspondence, notes about phone calls, and actual proposals in one place. This will become increasingly useful later in the process when you will need to tag folders for various categories of information. Start a database that can be used for labels and lists, including your participant list. Back to Top >>

By January (before mid-January)

The AIS Office Manager will contact you for any updated information before the conference announcement and Call are placed in the Gazette section of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

You will also be asked to submit a status report to your Board liaison prior to the Board's mid-winter meeting. This is an opportunity to receive feedback on the status of your planning, to problem solve regarding decisions to be made, and to receive input from the Board on any Board-mandated sessions or themes that will help to shape the conference program. Back to Top >>

Click here for sample Six-Month Report Go>>

By late May

Once the schedule has been firmed up, communicate the specifics to individual presenters, including the day and session time, the equipment specified, and, if possible, the names and email addresses of others who will be part of the same session. This might also be a good time to insert a brief preview of the conference plans.

If you cannot send complete information on local arrangements and schedules at this time, give people an approximate idea and a reliable phone number to call for further information.

Seek moderators/chairs of sessions who will also be identified in the final program. They should be provided with a detailed instruction sheet to emphasize that time limits of presentations are firm and that discussion should be encouraged.

People whose proposals are rejected might be invited to serve as respondents in some sessions or to be in a special group session. They may also be asked to serve as moderators/chairs of sessions. Local faculty or (graduate) students may also be asked to serve in this capacity. AIS Board members and other AIS members may be called upon to assist you.

Confirm that your proposed registration fee continues to be adequate to cover your expenses. Make yet another check on local arrangements. Back to Top >>

By late June/early July
The AIS Office Manager will contact you in preparation for submitting a conference announcement and contact information to The Chronicle of Higher Education's Fall Gazette section.

The Office Manager will also confirm with you what publishers will either attend the conference or ship books for display purposes. You will need to follow up with the publishers to provide final arrangements for receiving shipments, displaying books, and returning materials. Back to Top >>

By late July/early August
Mail out conference registration brochures with all appropriate and necessary forms included. Be sure that you have worked out with the printer how much lead time is required to make these available for mailing by early August. Provide as much detail as you can about the presentations, the keynote address, and special features of the conference. Be sure you include a form on which people can indicate any special requirements, including vegetarian meals, handicapped facilities, and child care referrals. Stipulate that no more than two persons from an institution with institutional membership may register at the member rate; all others from the same institution, if not individual members, must pay the non-member rate. Indicate that presenters must pay a conference registration fee, and persons who want to attend only part of the conference must still pay the whole fee (member, non-member, student). You may wish to indicate a deadline by which presenters must register to be included in the program. Back to Top >>

In September
Plan to print your final version of the schedule/program (to go into the conference folder) as close as possible to the conference dates to reflect last-minute changes. Be sure to include not only names, titles, and affiliations of presenters but also names, etc. of respondents and moderators; include session titles, abstracts, and
meeting rooms. Include on the inside front cover a directory of the current AIS Board and a list of AIS institutional members; include (on the last page) "See you next year in __________!"

Also include the following in the conference folder: an alphabetical list of names, addresses, fax numbers, and email addresses of all pre-registered participants, badges/name tags with large print, local restaurant guide, local cultural and other events, visitors' map and guide to city/town, welcome letters from key institutional administrators and from the planning committee, conference evaluation form, note pad, pen or pencil, University campus map/guide (if relevant), AIS information brochure, special AIS events planned, flyers for AIS syllabi project, etc. Arrange to provide special badges or supplementary ribbons identifying Board members and campus hosts, as well as first-time AIS conference participants and attendees.

Click here for Sample Evaluation Form 1 Go>>
and for Sample Evaluation Form 2 Go>>

Review final arrangements:
a) local housing and transportation - Be sure to communicate with the hotel or campus location about where mailings can be sent several days before and during the conference.
b) equipment and room needs, including signs at rooms with session titles, videotaping, A-V equipment, etc.
c) catering, including exact counts for meals, cancellations and substitutions; breakfast/lunch, and dinner menus; beverage breaks, etc.
d) moderators for sessions, including distribution of instruction sheet, bios of presenters, and a training session, if possible, prior to the conference
e) availability of display tables for registration, book and journal display, and display of member institutions program materials; message bulletin boards; hospitality area for breaks, preferably near display tables
f) staffing of registration desks (clerks, receipt books, AIS membership forms, etc.) with designated work shifts; who will be problem-solving during off hours?
g) provision to distribute names and addresses of participants who register late/on-site
h) provision for distribution of evaluation form (if not in conference folders); some incentive for participation in the evaluation session
i) volunteers to serve as hosts, drivers, etc.
j) campus groups and city/campus dignitaries who will play a role in welcoming or entertaining attendees
k) publicity for conference in university student and other publications; local/area colleges and universities
l) a breakfast or lunch session with special interest tables (conference sub-themes) with a moderator/host assigned to each table to facilitate and focus discussion
m) arrangements for brief presentations at meals (hosting campus' welcome; business meeting with introduction of the Board, including announcement of new Board members by the President of AIS, announcement of subsequent year's conference by its host; your own thank you message and recognitions; updates on conference logistics). Back>>

After the Conference
Submit a final report on the conference by January 1, including your final budget, an assessment of the outcomes in terms of logistics, quality of proposals, programming, the planning process, the budget and any other issues that arose during the course of conference planning and the conference itself. Copies of the report should be submitted to the conference liaison, the AIS president, and the Executive Director.

Send new membership fees (including a list of new members) and the conference income (contributions and registration income) above and beyond your institution's expenses (keeping in mind the institution's subvention commitment) to the Executive Director of the AIS. Make sure all income associated with book and journal sales has been dispersed appropriately and any unsold books returned, if requested.

Congratulations on accomplishing the daunting task of coordinating a conference! We hope that you found the experience to be invigorating and satisfying and that you will continue to play an active role in the Association for Integrative Studies. We welcome your continuing input into the conference planning process, and we hope that you will encourage colleagues as other institutions to host an AIS conference. You are now among a select group of colleges and universities that form a part of the history of AIS. Back to Top >>

Contacts for Conference Information
AIS contacts for conference, questions, concerns are listed below. They will be happy to provide you with additional information.

Roslyn Abt Schindler, Board Liaison, (313-577-6566), roslyn.schindler@wayne.edu
Phyllis Cox, AIS Office Manager: (513-529-2659), coxpa@muohio.edu