MAC members,
As your Vice Head/Programming Chair, I am excited to see the discussion about ideas for our upcoming annual conference in Washington, DC.
We'll be posting a lot over the next few weeks and months about the activities that will be happening during the conference.
But, I wanted to directly address the question about proposing panels/sessions in the Spring semester (i.e. closer to the April 1st paper deadline)
I am one of the biggest proponents that we leave room for "breaking news" type of topics to be included on the program. AEJMC has historically reserved one or two slots for "Hot Topics" panels or sessions that can be organized in the final weeks of the convention planning cycle.
(You may recall that I organized a roundtable in 2015 at our San Francisco Conference in the wake of the Charleston Shootings that occurred in June)
With nearly 20 AEJMC Divisions, Interest Groups and Commissions, and ONE convention hotel, the association has to utilize a very long planning window for a very complicated process. Most convention sessions that are not refereed research paper sessions are co-sponsored by at least two (2) units. Those programming "slots" have already been allocated and panelists finalized.
Our programming copy for panels has already been submitted and is now in the editing stage.
This allows us to focus primarily on the refereed research papers that are going into the review stage now that the April 1st submission deadline has past.
Toronto is coming! That's our 2019 conference and our incoming vice head will be looking for ideas at our conference this summer. Let's begin building that list for next year.
In the meantime, we'll keep our ears and eyes open for a HOT TOPICS sessions that we may be able to convince AEJMC leadership to add early summer should the need arise.
I am copying our AEJMC Council of Divisions Head Heloiza Herscovitz to this conversation as I'm sure she would add more to our understanding on how the convention program comes together. The process is managed by the Council of Divisions.
--
George L. Daniels, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Journalism and Creative Media
The University of Alabama
Box 870172
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0172