Function
The Conference Committee coordinates the logistics and scheduling of the Society’s Annual Meetings, recommends sites for future meetings, and submits those recommendations to the SPNHC President to put to a full Council vote. The Committee maintains/updates written guidelines on meeting organization and makes decisions on issues referred by local organizing committees (LOCs) that do not require a Council vote (selection or rejection of program abstracts, scheduling concerns, logistics, etc). The Chairperson of the Committee acts as liaison between Council and the LOCs for the meetings.
Leadership and Composition
The Conference Committee is chaired by the SPNHC President- Elect and is comprised of the Local Committee chairpersons from the two immediate past annual meetings, the present annual meeting, and upcoming annual meetings, as well as the Chairperson of the Membership Committee.
LOCs are chaired by the individual(s) representing the host institutions and responsible for planning the meetings under the guidance of this committee using the documents mentioned below. The LOC for each meeting is selected by its Chairperson, with no restrictions to the number of people (members or non-members of SPNHC). The LOCs should work closely together to ensure continuity and transfer of ideas and working documents.
This committee works closely with the Professional Development Committee with regard to meeting workshops and also with Vendor Relations (both for the US and Europe).
Duties and Products
The LOC is responsible for all aspects of the running of the meeting, including organization and coordination of local services, program development, internal resources, external resources, registration and reservations, social activities, local transportation, graphics, and program and abstracts production.
The committee monitors and updates the SPNHC Meetings webpages for upcoming and past meetings. https://spnhc.org/meetings/ They also maintain and update the appendices documents.
See Appendix 1. Policy and Guidelines for conducting a SPNHC meeting (Policy & Guidelines for Conducting SPNHC Meetings), which is maintained on the SPNHC public website. After each SPNHC meeting, edits should be requested from the LOC to keep the guidelines current.
See Appendix 2. Document outlining other professional societies, with meeting dates to try and avoid meeting conflicts (Other Society Meetings Dates). Each year, other society meeting dates should be researched so advice can be given to upcoming LOCs.
Schedule for Soliciting Invitations
The Conference Committee is responsible for soliciting invitations from institutions to host the Annual Meeting of the Society. The process for identifying a venue and soliciting an invitation is as follows:
Meeting minus 4 years:
Informal discussions regarding choice of meeting venue
Identifications of likely host institution
Meeting minus 3 years:
Informal discussions regarding choice of meeting venue
Identification of likely host institution
Letter of invitation from host institution
Invitation presented to Society at Annual Business Meeting
Society votes on acceptance of invitation
Invitation is accepted by SPNHC Council
Host institution requests SPNHC loan, if needed*
Meeting minus 2 years (if not done in year 3):
Invitation presented to Society at ABM
Society votes on acceptance of invitation
Invitation is accepted by SPNHC Council
Host institution requests SPNHC loan, if needed
Meeting minus 1 year:
Presentation at ABM on meeting arrangements
*LOCs should be encouraged to decide as early as possible (year 3) if they want a SPNHC loan or not; otherwise, funding may not be possible if two LOCs. ask for a loan during the same year. If that happens, then Council will need to decide which LOC has priority.
In principle, the Society can accept an invitation as little as one year in advance of a meeting; in practice, however, it is unlikely that this would allow the host institution sufficient time to make arrangements.
In addition to the schedule for meeting arrangements, the Conference Committee has the following Calendar Items:
February 1: Submit report to Newsletter
April: Chairperson prepares report on committee activities for Annual Meeting
May/July: Chairperson attends the Annual meeting
August 1: Submit report to Newsletter
August: Solicit updates from the year’s LOC for the Policy & Guidelines for Conducting SPNHC Meetings document
August 31: Submit any corrections or text revisions to the Secretary for the Leadership Manual
September: Transfer important records and items of committee business to the Archives Committee
Appendix 1.
Policy and Guidelines for conducting a SPNHC meeting (Policy & Guidelines for Conducting SPNHC Meetings document) is maintained on the SPNHC public website and can be found at (https://spnhc.org/resources/guidelines-for-running-a-meeting/ ).
Appendix 2.
Other professional societies with potential meeting conflicts with the SPNHC annual meeting:
American Alliance of Museums (AAM; www.aam-us.org) // <meeting dates>
Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA; www.nscalliance.org) // <meeting dates>
American Institute for Conservation (AIC; www.conservation-us.org) // <meeting dates>
International Institution for Conservation (IIC; www.iiconservation.org) // <meeting dates>
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH; www.asih.org) // <meeting dates>
American Society of Mammalogists (ASM; www.mammalsociety.org) // <meeting dates>
Canadian Museums Association (CMA; www.museums.ca) // <meeting dates>
Canadian Association for Conservation (CAC; www.cac-accr.ca) // <meeting dates>
Geological Association of Canada (GAC; www.gac.ca) // <meeting dates>
Geological Society of America (GSA; www.geosociety.org) // <meeting dates>
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP; www.vertpaleo.org) // <meeting dates>
American Ornithological Society (AOS; http://www.americanornithology.org/) // <meeting dates>
Society for American Archaeology (SAA; http://www.saa.org) // <meeting dates>
Botanical Society of America (BSA; http://www.botany.org) // <meeting dates>
Canadian Society of Zoologists (CSZ; http://www.csz-scz.ca) // <meeting dates>
Ecological Society of America (ESA; http://www.esa.org) // <meeting dates>
Entomological Society of America (ESA; http://www.entsoc.org/event-calendar/) // <meeting dates>
Entomological Collections Network (ECN; http://ecnweb.org) //<meeting dates>
Geological Curators Group (GCG; http://geocurator.org/) // <meeting dates>
International Council of Museums Committee for Museums and Collections of Natural History (ICOMNATHIST; https://icomnathist.wordpress.com) // <meeting dates>
International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER; http://www.isber.org/) // <meeting dates>
Natural Science Collections Association (NatSCA; http://www.natsca.org/) // <meeting dates>
Society of Herbarium Curators (SHC; http://www.herbariumcurators.org/) // <meeting dates>
Other Societies:
“Prioritized” North American Societies to which SPNHC Members also belong (originally based on responses to Membership Survey ca 2008). Duplicate numbers indicate a tied ranking.
1. American Alliance of Museums (AAM)
2. Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA)
3. American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH)
3. Registrars Committee of the American Association of Museums (RC-AAM) [now The Collections Stewardship Professional Network]
4. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP)
5. American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) [now American Institute for Conservation]
6. Geological Society of America (GSA)
7. American Society of Mammalogists (ASM)
8. American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT)
9. American Ornithologists Union (AOU)
10. Canadian Association for Conservation (CAC)
10. Society for American Archaeology (SAA)
11.Botanical Society of America (BSA)
11.Canadian Society of Zoologists (CSZ)
Reviewed by Linda S. Ford and Laura Abraczinskas, November 2019
Revised by Debra Trock, October 2019
Revised by Barbara M. Thiers, July 2017
Minor style edits contributed by Laura Abraczinskas, July 2016
Revised by Linda S. Ford, May 2016
Revised by Andy Bentley, June 2014