AEA Conference Program Scheduling Guidelines

These are the guidelines for scheduling the program for the Annual Conference. The AEA Executive Director (ED) is responsible for scheduling the program based on these guidelines.

Rejection Rate: To the extent possible, room use should be allocated, and additional rooms secured, so as to maintain the rejection rate at a level consonant with recent previous years.

Plenaries: There are three to four plenaries, up to one per day, Wednesday-Saturday, averaging no more than 60-minutes in length (although some may be longer, others shorter) at times specified by the President in consultation with the Presidential Strand Chair and the Executive Director. No AEA-sponsored activity may conflict with the plenaries. The Presidential Address is to be given during one of the plenary or one of the Presidential Strand slots.

AEA Business Meeting: There is one AEA business meeting to be held at a time specified by the Past President/Secretary in consultation with the Executive Director.

TIG Business Meetings: All TIGs must have a business meeting. The business meetings may be held during any of the concurrent session rotations during the conference, or any evening or morning that does not conflict with workshops, plenaries, the AEA business meeting, or AEA-sponsored receptions. As part of the proposal review process, TIGs will be asked to identify a preferred time and these are given priority within those timeslots. No other sessions sponsored by that TIG should be scheduled at the same time as its business meeting, unless approved by the TIG, although the business meeting itself may contain a presentation. When there are more requests for a timeslot than can be accommodate due to space restrictions, the available slots will be assigned randomly to the TIGs requesting them and the remaining TIGs asked to select a new option for which they will be given priority.

Sessions for AEA Work: A maximum of five sessions will be set-aside for work of AEA Board Task Forces and a maximum of five sessions will be set aside for work of AEA Operational Working Groups. These sessions are submitted using the regular proposal submission forms but are not peer reviewed. The work of the association is automatically given space on the program up to these limits.

Lunches: A minimum of 90 minutes should be set-aside for the AEA Awards Luncheon, traditionally held on Friday. Lunch breaks on other conference days are preferable, but not mandatory, and should be incorporated when the overall rejection rate can be maintained at a rate consonant with previous years.

Presidential Strand: One session in each timeslot is set aside for the Presidential Strand with the exception of the timeslots devoted to the plenaries, the AEA business meeting, any after hours slots devoted to TIG business meetings, and the lunches. The Presidential Strand is developed by the Strand Chair. When possible, the entire strand is scheduled in the same room throughout the conference – and ideally in the same room as the plenaries. The room should be among the most prominently located breakouts as is befitting this highlight strand.

Roundtables: The roundtable slots should be spread throughout the program. Roundtable rooms should be able to accommodate a round of 10 plus at least 6 additional perimeter seats. Two roundtables may be held in the same room in a 90-minute slot, with one using the first half and one the second half. When two are in the same room, they should be on a common theme so as to be of interest to one another whenever possible.

Emergency Backups: The Executive Director shall retain one 90-minute and one 45-minute session placeholder and not schedule any sessions into these two slots. These placeholders will be used to accommodate emergency changes to the program or to rectify errors.

TIG Sessions: The total number of 45-minute and 90-minute session slots remaining available after scheduling each of the above items A-I should be identified. The total number of 45-minute and 90-minute slots needed to accommodate the sessions recommended for scheduling by the reviewing bodies should be identified. Calculate the ratio of sessions available to sessions recommended for both 45-minute and 90-minute slots. This is the estimated rejection rate. If all sessions recommended by the reviewing bodies for acceptance can be scheduled, all should be. The following guidelines should be employed when scheduling:

1. Sessions with Overlap: The Executive Director should identify any sessions with significant overlap that were sent to different reviewing bodies. The ED should work with the reviewing bodies regarding any sessions with significant overlap to see if they recommend: a) consolidation, b) rejection of one and scheduling of the other, or c) scheduling both if space is available.
   

2. Consistency of Rejection Rate: At the margin, if all sessions recommended for scheduling by TIGs may not be accommodated, the Executive Director should strive to maintain a parallel rejection rate across the TIGs, with the exception of the very smallest TIGs (those with 3 or fewer total sessions) and those TIGs that chose to over-reject, beyond the estimated rejection rate, as part of the review process.
   

3. Statement of Priorities: Decisions at the margin should be made based on the priorities identified in the following Board-endorsed statement of priorities:
   
   The American Evaluation Association’s Annual Conference is among its most important member benefits. The conference is among our primary venues to showcase our work, acquire additional skills, and debate issues central to our field. The AEA Board believes it is essential to the vitality of our field that the conference include evaluators of diverse professional and personal backgrounds. Diversity is good for the Association and the evaluation profession. It is our vision that the conference include the perspectives of evaluators working in diverse professional settings and at all levels of experience. We are also committed to representing the voices of racial and ethnic minority, sexual minority, women, disabled, and international attendees at the conference.

4. Posters: The ED should schedule all recommended posters during the reception on Wednesday evening.
   

5. Roundtables: The ED should schedule roundtables into appropriate rooms so as to minimize or eliminate the rejection of roundtables.
   

6. 45 & 90-minute Sessions: The ED should schedule sessions based on the rankings of the reviewing groups using the following steps. Treat 45-minute sessions and 90-minute sessions separately:
   

   • Schedule sessions based on a conservative estimation of the rejection rate and slots available. If by a strict accounting, the group would receive 6.5 slots, 6 should be guaranteed.
   • All TIGs, even those reviewing the fewest proposals, shall have at least three sessions scheduled if they have three to recommend.

7. TIGs That Over-Reject Proposals: If a TIG has rejected more than the estimated rejection rate, with rounding taken into consideration, then all of its recommend sessions should be scheduled.

8. Room assignment: When assigning a room, the ED should consider the following:

   • When possible, keep all TIG sessions in the same room on a given day
   • Consider the likely size of the audience based on topic and presenters
   • Spread use of less desirable rooms across the TIGs
   • Use a single room setup (theatre, classroom, rounds) throughout the day whenever possible

9. Timeslot Assignment: When assigning a timeslot, the AMC should consider the following:

• Schedule so as to ensure that each presenter is not double-scheduled within a timeslot
• Do not schedule a TIG-sponsored session opposite its business meeting without the permission of the TIG
• Spread sessions sponsored by any one TIG approximately equally across all days and times

• Spread highly ranked sessions approximately equally across all days and times both generally, and in terms of each TIG

• Include at least two sessions in each of the last days’ timeslots with the most popular presenters
• To the extent feasible, spread the types of sessions scheduled (Roundtable, Demonstration, Panel) approximately equally across all days and times
• To the extent feasible, limit overlap among topics within a timeslot
• Accommodate special scheduling requests, other than those based on a desire for high-profile slots, whenever possible

10. Remaining Proposals: The AMC should separate the remaining proposals that are recommended for scheduling, yet cannot be scheduled in the format proposed, into two categories. In order to do this the AMC will need to dis-assembled the multipaper sessions and examine each component paper proposal:

    • Proposals that refused poster as backup: Reject all
    • Proposals that accepted poster as backup: Schedule as posters

[AEA HOME] [CONFERENCE HOME] [FAQ] [CONTACTS] [PRESENTATION TYPES]