Call For SSAR Symposium Proposals

Symposia are important components of the Annual Meeting. They allow researchers in a given subfield to come together and present the latest research in that area; society members benefit by interacting with the symposium participants. We invite the submission of symposium proposals for SSAR at the Annual Joint Meetings of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (JMIH). The following guidelines have been agreed to by SSAR, HL, and ASIH.

Proposal Submission.—Proposals (3-page maximum) for consideration by SSAR should contain the following:

1. Symposium Title (or Topic).
2. Name of the Symposium Organizer (phone number and e-mail address).
a. Names of Symposium Co-organizers.
3. Information on topic and background.
4. What benefit is the topic to the Society?
5. List of potential speakers and topics.
6. Length of symposium (1/2 day or 1 day).
7. Sources of funding other than SSAR.
8. SSAR funding requested, with a short budget (maximum per request = $1,500).

PROPOSALS DUE TO THE SSAR COORDINATOR by 1 February of the year prior to the year of the joint meetings (e.g., due Feb. 1, 2008 for JMIH in 2009).

Proposals should be submitted electronically (as PDF, Word, or RTF documents) to the Coordinator:

Dr. Richard D. Durtsche
Department of Biological Sciences
Northern Kentucky University
durtsche@nku.edu

SSAR Review Process:
1. Proposals received by the SSAR symposium coordinator will be sent for external review, and comments forwarded to the SSAR Board by mid- February.

2. Recommendations from the SSAR Board of the proposals (ranked based on merit) will be sent to the JMIH Meeting Planning Committee (MPLC) by March 1.

3. The top rated proposal from each of the four primary societies will be automatically accepted. The remaining four slots will be filled according to the rank order of merit.

4. Final decisions will be made and symposium organizers will be informed of the decision by the Chair of the MPLC by 31 March one year in advance of the JMIH.