Session Organizer Guidelines
FOR ALL ORGANIZERS:
ASAO is characterized by social informality and collegial cooperation regardless of rank. At the same time, the rigorous examination of data and ideas in ASAO sessions is designed to lead to high quality, often publishable sets of comparative papers on topics of importance in Pacific anthropology.
The format of ASAO sessions differs from those at many scholarly meetings where individual papers are presented. Instead, ASAO sessions feature the ongoing give-and-take required for penetrating intellectual examination of difficult, yet vital, issues. ASAO sessions are of three types: Informal Sessions, Working Sessions, and Symposia.
Please note, however, that these session types are meant to serve as guidelines. Sessions do not need to follow a 3-year timeline (i.e. Informal to Working to Symposia). Rather, session organizers are invited to determine the session type and timeline that best suits their session's needs.
Session Organizers Role with PISA:
Session organizers are encouraged to involve the voices and perspectives of Pacific Islanders in their sessions. Some of your attendees may be applying for a Pacific Islands Scholars Award (PISA), which helps cover the cost of travel to the conference. PISA applicants are required to contact you in advance of submitting their application, and include your name and email as session organizer in their applications.
INFORMAL SESSIONS
INFORMAL SESSIONS involve the informal sharing of ideas to determine whether there is common ground for further inquiry. Anyone who has relevant data is welcome to attend and participate. If such sessions generate enough interest, participants make plans to develop and share lists of bibliographic references, draft and circulate papers, and discuss them (possibly via e-mail) in preparation for the next stage (see below).
Informal Sessions are of two types. Impromptu Informal Sessions can be announced at the Opening Plenary Session of the annual meeting and posted on the bulletin board in the registration area during the meeting. These sessions do not have pre-arranged meeting locations but may meet in available conference rooms, participants' rooms, or local cafes. The second type of Informal Session may be announced at the prior year's meeting, proposed in the ASAO Newsletter or on ASAONET, or otherwise pre-arranged. To appear in the full schedule of the annual meeting, which is published in the December Newsletter, announcements of Informal Sessions must be submitted to the Program Coordinator and the Newsletter Editor by November 1 (see Timetable).
The level of organization for Informal Sessions varies. Participants are not required to write papers in advance, although it is helpful to session organizers if people advise them of their interest beforehand. If planned with sufficient lead time, some Informal Sessions may be well organized, with precirculated abstracts or papers and, perhaps, be only one or two papers shy of meeting the criteria for a Working Session.
Thus time given to Informal Sessions will vary depending on the number of committed participants or people indicating an interest in the topic, and the level of organization of the session. Ordinarily, scheduled Informal Sessions will be given no more than three hours of meeting time, and most will receive only one and a half hours.
WORKING SESSIONS
WORKING SESSIONS are based on prepared papers that are briefly summarized (not read) during the session. Abstracts, if not drafts of papers, must be pre-circulated among session organizers and participants. Most of the meeting time during the session is allocated for discussing common themes, with an eye toward finding coherence and preparing for a second round of writing.
Session organizers can be imaginative in how they organize Working Sessions. Participants should respond to and make constructive suggestions on each other's papers. If complete drafts are pre-circulated, some organizers assign people to read particular papers and prepare commentary ahead of time; some have participants present each other's papers, allowing the authors time afterward to clarify points and respond to questions. One or more invited discussants can be helpful at this stage, but again, only if complete drafts of papers are circulated in advance.
Working Sessions form the heart of ASAO meetings and require considerable time for the discussion of provocative ideas, the analysis of different approaches, and the search for core themes. Accordingly, Working Sessions are ordinarily given first priority when meeting time and space are allocated. Time will be allocated according to the number of participants attending and presenting papers.
A minimum of seven participants presenting papers in person at the meeting is required for Working Session status. A list of participants, paper titles, and copies of their abstracts must be sent to the Program Coordinator by the November 1 deadline (see Timetable). Sessions that do not meet these criteria by the November 1 deadline will appear on the Program of the Annual Meeting as Informal Sessions.
SYMPOSIA
SYMPOSIA are sessions that normally have met at a lower level of organization at least once before. Papers must be precirculated among the session organizers, participants, and any invited discussants. Contributors do not read their papers but discuss the key issues that arise from them. Conversation in the session focuses on those issues and provides a constructive critique that contributes to building a coherent set of papers or book chapters.
Time should be set aside during the Symposium to discuss whether and how to pursue publication. Options include the ASAO Monograph Series (which has an informal right of first refusal for volumes arising from ASAO sessions) or other academic publishers; a special issue of an appropriate journal; or separate publication of individual papers.
Some Symposia may require only an hour and a half to wrap up unfinished business, while others may need as much as six hours to discuss issues, themes, and future plans. Symposium organizers should advise the Program Coordinator of their time requirements.
The presence of seven participants with precirculated papers is required for full Symposium status.
By the November 1 deadline the Program Coordinator should receive: Names of participants, titles of papers, order of presentation; session organizer affirmation of seven papers in hand; a list of which papers (if any) will be presented in absentia; how much time required (see Timetable). Sessions that do not meet these criteria by the November 1 deadline will appear on the Program of the Annual Meeting as Informal Sessions or Working Sessions, according to their level of preparedness as judged by the Program Coordinator.