Officer Resources-CofD Policies and Procedures

AEJMC Council of Divisions Policies and Procedures

(revised August 2004)

I. Conference Format

Among the first items of business at the annual winter program planning meeting of the Council of Divisions will be the adoption of, and consideration of changes in, policies and procedures for conference planning.

Over the years, a standard conference format has emerged. Standardization makes it easier to plan and coordinate program activities, but neither the Council of Divisions nor the Board of Directors should feel obligated to follow the standard format. Changing needs of members and growth in the organization may dictate the modification or elimination of old approaches in favor of new ones. Annual reassessment of format is encouraged as are experimentation and innovation within the confines of available meeting space.

A. Conference dates and times of opening and closing sessions, as well as all-conference social events, are set by the conference manager in Central Office. By vote of the Board of Directors, conference dates always include the second Saturday of August and the conference returns to Washington, DC, on a regular, rotating basis.

B. Also by action of the Board of Directors, the conference itself is limited to four days. The outgoing Council of Divisions meets on Day 1 and the incoming Council meets on Days 3 and/or 4. The Board of Directors meets on the day prior to the opening of the conference and on Day 4. Division member meetings must be held on Day 2 or Day 3 to allow the early selection of new division heads and vice heads so that they may attend the incoming Council of Divisions session.

C. In addition, what has come to be called a pre-conference day of workshops and other special programming of some length (several hours to all-day), takes place the day before the beginning of the conference. Since the number of these activities may be limited by the availability of meeting room space, they must be scheduled through the Council of Divisions at its winter meeting. Though it is also possible to schedule such activities on Day I of the conference at any time before the keynote speech/opening session, these time slots are usually filled by regular programming, which is given a higher priority in the scheduling process. Another option may be to sponsor such programs on the day after the conference ends. In all cases, special programming of this sort is expected to be self-supporting financially and a separate fee is normally charged by the sponsoring division(s).

D. To add consistency to the scheduling, a template for the grid blocks will be based on the same starting times for each of the conference days. In addition, each block on the grid between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. during the first three days of the conference will be labeled as being either for panels or for research or for some special activity. On the last day of the conference, the afternoon slots (beginning at 1:30, 3:15, and 5 p.m.) will be open for either research or panels.

II. Program Scheduling Guidelines

A. With few exceptions, all conference activities must be approved by and scheduled through the Council of Divisions at its winter meeting or through the Council’s chair between the winter meeting and the time of the conference.

B. The exceptions are:
1. Opening and/or closing sessions, keynote speaker(s), AEJMC general business meeting, plenary sessions and certain other all-conference events (scheduled before the winter meeting)

2. Sessions sponsored by the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (scheduled by ASJMC president in cooperation with the AEJMC executive director and the chair of the Council of Divisions after the division scheduling process has taken place.)

C. Programming Rights
1. Only the 17 duly recognized AEJMC divisions, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Council of Affiliates and the Community College Journalism Association shall have full programming rights for the winter meeting.

2. Officially constituted “interest groups” shall have limited programming rights and other AEJMC groups (committees, etc.) shall be able to program only through and with the agreement of one of the official programming groups. Committees may also petition the Council of Divisions chair for any available program slots once the division programming process has taken place.

3. Because of the limitations imposed by the number of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. time slots available in a four-day conference, the total number of Council of Divisions programming groups may not exceed 28 without triggering a reduction in the allocation of programming chips.

4. Since there are now 30 programming groups, the Council of Divisions voted in August 2004 to begin a rotating chip reduction policy. During Year 1 of the reduction (for the 2005 conference), 6 divisions and 1 affiliate group will each give up one chip; 3 interest groups will each give up 1/2 chip. During Year 2 (for the 2006 conference), the same procedure will occur. In Year 3 (for the 2007 conference), 5 divisions and 1 affiliate group will each give up one chip, while 4 interest groups will each give up 1/2 chip.

D. Programming Limits
1. Full program rights shall consist of seven program “chips” for the four days of the annual conference.

2. Interest groups with programming rights (Civic Journalism; Community Journalism; Entertainment Studies; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender; Graduate Education; Internship and Careers; Media and Disability; Religion and Media; SCI Group; and Small Programs interest groups) shall have three and a half program chips.

3. Each regular conference “chip” will correspond to a typical 1 1/2-hour program slot.

4. Regular conference programs which are jointly sponsored by several divisions will cost each 1/2 a chip.

5. Mini-plenary sessions are a type of joint session that highlights special programming by limiting competing programs in a timeslot. A minimum of two time slots will be devoted to mini-plenaries, with four mini-plenaries scheduled per timeslot. Any combination of groups may buy a mini-plenary for two chips (one group could pay two chips; two could pay one each; four groups could pay one-half chip each, etc.). No group may be part of more than two mini-plenaries.

6. The first four juried research paper sessions for each division or interest group will be assessed 1/2 chip apiece. Sessions in excess of that will cost one chip or may be shared with another division, in which case they will cost each division 1/2 chip.

7. Pre-conference activities will be scheduled at the discretion of the Council of Divisions.

8. Division and interest group member meetings and executive meetings must be scheduled, but will not cost a chip.

E. Scheduling Restrictions
1. Conference sessions, with the exception of certain business and committee meetings and social functions, may not be scheduled to begin before 8 a.m. nor concurrently with previously-scheduled all-conference functions (plenaries, keynote speaker, etc.). No panel or research session may be scheduled to begin after 5 p.m., unless the session is sole-sponsored and is specifically targeted at the division’s members (for example, a honors lecture).

2. No more than 14 sessions may be held concurrently in any time slot including one or two sessions in each time slot reserved for non-CofD organizations.

3. No group may sponsor or co-sponsor more than one activity during the same time slot.

4. Alumni receptions, which are scheduled through the Council of Divisions chair, may not begin before 6:45 p.m.

5. Sessions must be scheduled in the appropriate time slot set aside for either panels or juried research sessions. Panels that feature research topics, however, may go in either type of slot. Mini-plenary slots may be on any topic. Exceptions: 1) once the chip auction ends, groups may move their sessions to any open time on the grid, including an unfilled miniplenary spot; 2) back-to-back sessions may be scheduled into a time slot that conflicts with the type; and 3) in the rare event no open times remain for a type (all panel slots have been filled, for example), a group may schedule regardless of type of slot.

F. Program Types
1. Keynote Session(s) — The keynote is pre-scheduled; content is the responsibility of the AEJMC president.

2. Plenary — These sessions are designed to appeal to the widest possible range of AEJMC member interests and thus are scheduled without competition in their time slots. There may be from one to three plenaries sponsored or jointly sponsored by AEJMC’s standing committees on Research, Teaching Standards, and Professional Freedom and Responsibility.

3. Members’ Meetings (formerly called business meetings) — The AEJMC general business meeting is pre-scheduled in its own time slot. Division and other groups’ business meetings are pre-scheduled on the second and third days of the conference. Those members’ meetings will be set before the chip auction by the CofD chair in consultation with the members of the Council.

4. Receptions and other social activities — All-conference events are pre-scheduled. Alumni activities are scheduled through the Council of Divisions chair after the divisions have scheduled their activities. Individual or shared division socials are scheduled during the winter meeting. Division socials do cost chips unless scheduled off-site.

5. Awards presentation — Many divisions present their awards at business meetings or at events specially designed to recognize the awardee. AEJMC also recognizes divisional winners through a listing in the printed program at the Kappa Tau Alpha-AEJMC awards session, which is designed to recognize all organization awardees.

6. Joint Sessions — This term refers to any session that is jointly sponsored by two or more Council programming groups. Care must be taken that all participating groups understand their responsibilities and obligations. Because of the possibility of confusion, a primary sponsor is always designated for multiple-sponsored activities. That division or group should do everything possible to see that the needs and interests of all sponsoring bodies are accommodated.

7. Sole-Sponsor Sessions — These are sessions, which are arranged by one group, primarily for its members. While joint sessions allow divisions to participate in a greater number of sessions, sole-sponsored sessions are often a good way to focus the interests of the division or interest group while limiting the effects of excessive conference programming.

8. Off-Site Sessions — Sessions that don’t require conference-hotel meeting space may be scheduled without program chip investments. Off-site meetings, however, may not compete with other events sponsored by the same sponsoring groups and must be announced at the beginning of the Winter Meeting scheduling meeting. Off-site sessions may run longer than sessions in the regular program grid, but it is helpful for them to be timed to correspond with the start and stop times of the regular grid.

III. Program Scheduling Procedures

Although some time is allotted for group caucusing and individual consultations and deliberations at the winter meeting, it is not nearly enough to plan an entire division’s convention activities. Groups should have made their decisions on joint activities and determined their conference requirements well in advance of the winter meeting scheduling session.

This planning process starts with the development of written one-page joint program proposals by appropriate programming groups. These proposals are due at AEJMC headquarters November 1 and then are mailed to all divisions, interest groups, the commissions on the Status of Women and the Status of Minorities, Council of Affiliates and the Community College Journalism Association. These proposals form the basis for the intra-group discussions and result in the cooperative programming that has come to dominate the conference.

At the meeting itself, it is not necessary to have every last detail of sessions firmed up. But it is useful to have a fairly thorough outline of the type of session so that other divisions and other programming groups will have a good idea of whether their participation would be an appropriate investment for their members.

For scheduling purposes, divisions should be prepared to list co-sponsors (if any) and to generally characterize the session as it relates to one of AEJMC’s three emphases: teaching, research, or professional freedom and responsibility. Divisions should attempt to balance these three areas in their program offerings.

A. Participation and Voting
1. While the Council of Divisions’ chair, assisted by the vice chair, presides at the winter meeting, that person only votes in the event of a tie. 2. Voting privileges are restricted to the heads (or designates) of divisions and interest groups, the president of CCJA, the chair of the Council of Affiliates, and the chair of the Commission on the Status of Women.3. These representatives, plus one from each interest group with programming authority, will be arranged alphabetically by group around the table with appropriate placecards.

B. Others
Even though only one person represents each group, it is important that the vice head or other appropriate officer of each group be present and take an active part in the process to provide continuity for the next year. In addition, other representatives of these groups as well as other individuals may attend the meeting to observe or comment on matters to be deliberated, but will not be seated at the meeting table.

C. General Items of Business
Before the schedule lottery process starts, changes in this policy and procedures for conference planning will be considered as well as other policies up for consideration. Divisional viewpoints on issues relevant to AEJMC will be discussed and information appropriate to convention planning (host city information, division activity evaluations, etc.) will be presented.

D. Lottery Procedure
It is important for the efficiency of the scheduling process that each division be prepared with the appropriate information for scheduling. The lottery is not the time to make decisions; it is the time to announce them.

1. Members’ meetings will be scheduled before the chip auction begins. Times are set at the discretion of the chair of the CofD, who will consult with the leadership of the divisions and interest groups to minimize conflicts among groups who share members.

2. Research sessions, joint sessions (including mini-plenaries), any sole-sponsored sessions, social functions and/or any functions including meals may be scheduled at any time during the chip auction. Once all the chips are gone, executive meetings will be scheduled, followed by 1) moving of sessions to any open times if desired, 2) off-site activities, and 3) finally the pre- (or post-) conference activities.

3. To begin the auction, each group entitled to request time slots will have its name on a lottery slip, which will be placed in a container.

4. A lottery slip will be drawn before the first round to determine which group goes first. Then the groups will proceed in a clockwise fashion from that starting point until each group schedules an appropriate session, announcing the conference day, time slot, co-sponsoring groups and type of session. The Council of Divisions’ chair will determine if the requested slot conflicts with any of the established restrictions and allow the scheduling group opportunity to choose an alternate slot if such is the case.

5. Once the first round is complete, the second round will begin with the group that is one-quarter of the way from the lottery-selected starting point (with 28 groups, the COD chair will move seven spots from the starting of one round to begin the next round). Again, the round proceeds clockwise until each group that wishes to schedule a session does so. The third round would begin at the start of the next group of seven and so on.

6. The fifth round would begin with the group that was second to choose in the first round, so that the group that chose first in the first round will now be the last group in the fifth round. The start of each successive round then moves one-quarter of the way clockwise. By the end of seven rounds (assuming 28 groups), each group will have had an opportunity to go first in a round, and each will have gone last in a round. The process continues until all scheduling is complete. If the number of groups is not divisible evenly by four, the remainders should be allocated equally among each quarter (thus if you had 30 groups, the first and second quarter would have eight groups each, while the third and fourth had seven).

7. For multiple-sponsored sessions, any group participating may schedule the session, so it is best for these groups to coordinate their actions during one of the several brief periods set aside for consultations. This is not intended to allow divisions to “trade” their turns to others. When it is their turn, divisions must either schedule a session in which they are involved or pass.

8. Groups planning back-to-back sessions (two or more consecutive time slots that would allow workshops or special activities) should simply declare their intention on one of the groups’ first turns in the first round. The co-sponsor of the sessions would use its normal turn in the same round to schedule the second session. The best strategy in sole-sponsored back-to-back sessions is for the group to use its first two turns for scheduling the two sessions. Note that back-to-back sessions may schedule into a slot that conflicts with its type (for example, a back-to-back teaching session would require that one of the sessions be scheduled into a time slot reserved for research sessions.).

9. After these sessions are scheduled, a final tally will determine if any chips remain unused. If so, these chips will be combined into a pool available to all who still wish to schedule sessions. Turns will continue until these chips are allotted. Turn taking will continue in the above manner through the scheduling of the pre-conference activities.

10. Once this process has been completed, the programming authority of all Council of Divisions’ programming groups will be expended and the remaining time slots will be allocated to ASJMC and then other AEJMC groups on a first-come, first-served basis by the Council of Divisions’ chair. This includes time slots that become available through cancellation of an activity by the sponsoring division(s).