Colleagues:
I recognize from your conference expectations feedback that we have a lot of planning to do over the course of this year to make for an attractive conference. But, apart from a luncheon, how do you recognize the conference committee members' extensive time and effort over the year meaningfully as part of service? I am really interested in hearing what you do so that I can take a pattern.
many thanks,
Debra
If they work in the same organization, the starting point is to make the work a part of their KPI for the year hence their performance evaluation for the year fully reflects those and they can get some financial rewards for their work. In addition, some mini celebration at inauguration and then a big one at the end. Open recognition at the opening and close of the conference is also helpful. At closing, certificate of excellent performance will not be out of order.
Simple. Make a checklist and provide duties and responsibilities to the members. Can check the progress time to time and can find where the progress is high and low.
Benefits include intrinsic ones such as interactions with industry, mutual trust built and opportunity to renew old acquaintances and meet more members, invitations to enjoy complimentary buffet / beverages/ snacks, conference participant registration packets on-site or complementary gifts, accompany tours and trips organized for overseas delegates, plus a certificate of recognition and photo / souvenir etc.,
As conference works are divided into various small groups so outcome of each group will witness about the committee members works. Overall successful conduction of the conference will proves the committee members hard works.
Dear Debra, different committees have different ways of doing the work. Sometimes they function as a whole to decide what papers to accept, and what must be rejected. They collectively inform the authors how to improve a paper so that the research is clearly communicated. Here, some bodies (IPGM, SEAMEO; Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization) have some temporary and some permanent committees to run conferences. It's bound up with the job, for which they receive a salary. Another perk is that they learned the ropes, and can easily become great authors whose papers are almost always accepted! That's the reward, thanks.
I have been part of organizing committee for about fifteen international conferences. I am having one this April.
All organizing committee members of my conferences worked pro bono. We do not give monetary reward except when a professional or a group of professionals are hired under contract. Paid professionals are usually not even named during acknowledgements.
Those who work pro bono:
1. Appear in the conference website
2. Appear with their role in the Conference Programme
3. They are verbally acknowledged by the chairperson or president of association in difference occasions
4. Student helpers used to be unpaid, but my Research Association now pays them hourly. They are also verbally recognized but not one by one; they do not appear with individual names in any written document. They get conference shirts as gift. If students need a certificate, we will make a nice one. We would not mind giving certificate to Org Com members, but this never happened.
5. Free lunch/tea breaks for all of the above.
6. If some of them present a paper in the conference, they have to pay the conference registration fee and membership dues. Not even the president and/or conference chairperson (myself for few years) is exempted.
So we might ask why? Well, 'pro bono', for the good of the cause. I think this is one of the last pro bono work that international academics are still open today (in my view). The only thing we get is one line in our CV, which btw has very little value (e.g., compared with academic publications).
As per Miranda's comment about papers being almost always accepted, I have been in a few conferences which 'glorifiy' themselves by saying that they reject papers. Actually they do.
Conference paper is another phenomenon worth a 'RG question'. For me, there are very intriguing issues:
1. What is the value of a conference paper published 'with ISBN' in a book that is a conference proceedings? Here in Hong Kong, it simply does not count at all for promotion or recruitment. Just making one's CV longer and 'flowery'?
2. Why should an academic submit a full paper to a conference to make it public before submitting it to an academic journal? I personally try to avoid at all cost submitting full papers to conferences. You never know how they are going to 'use' them. It can actually ruin your prospect of publishing it in a journal. What would be your answer if journals usually ask "Has this paper ever been published in any other XX?
3. In exact sciences such as medicine, advances are brought to conferences in 'veiled' forms. They do not submit a manuscript as people in social science and humanities do. Anyways, what can one present a 3-year research in 20 minutes with Q&A?
Recognition of conference committee members may be by:
1. By acknowledging their work in the conference publicaly
2. By monetary rewards and citation
3. Publish their contribution on web site
4. Give weight in their academic performance index
5. Etc.
Conference in any areas remains the basic end of the present time . It is the need for the information ,for improving the present system & method of working to prepare for the innovation .
In these line the members of committee should consider the conference as a missionary task for which they have to study correct information from the necessary sources & in the line with the requirements of conference,they should find a expertise & also to arrange a meeting & to find out the valuable information so that the conference gets equip with the well managed information to serve the main purpose of the conference .
This is my personal opinion
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