The Blue Book
PART III. GUIDELINES FOR LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEES
PART III. GUIDELINES FOR LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEES
A. GENERAL SCOPE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The Local Arrangements Committee (L.A.C.) establishes the atmosphere of each annual meeting through its selection of a headquarters hotel, its arrangements for special events, and its manner of coping with details. Under the general direction of the President, the Committee is responsible for planning, organizing, and running virtually all of the on-site elements of the meeting. It provides basic administrative services, including hotel and other facilities, local transport, publicity, printing, registration, financing, etc. It is also assists the Association's officers and the Program Committee in implementing the scholarly, ceremonial, and official segments of the program. Finally, as the host body, it establishes the social agenda for the meeting. However, it is important that the President and Secretary-Treasurer be apprised at an early stage of the general nature of all proposed events.
Frequently the person who has proposed the location and dates of an annual meeting, on behalf of the local sponsoring organization is subsequently appointed to serve as Chair of the L.A.C. The Council's acceptance of the invitation establishes the year in which the meeting will be held. The specific date of the meeting then can be determined by the L.A.C., in consultation with the President and Secretary-Treasurer. Once established, no changes in meeting dates can be made without the written concurrence of the Council.
B. COMPOSITION OF THE COMMITTEE
Designated by and responsible to the President, the Chair of the L.A.C. should be appointed at least three years before the anticipated date of the meeting. The Chair of the committee must be energetic, resourceful and well-organized and must have available support staff. (Indeed, the complexity of organizing the meeting is considerable enough that the Chair of the L.A.C. should consider budgeting for part- or full-time support, to be paid out of meeting revenues.) Other volunteer members of the L.A.C. should be named by the Chair, with the approval of the President, at least a year in advance of the meeting. It may be necessary or advisable to make quasi-honorary appointments to the committee of people who may facilitate the meeting (medical school deans, university presidents, etc.) The L.A.C. must retain responsibility for all hotel arrangements, bookkeeping, and overseeing the registration desk functions.
The efficient functioning of the L.A.C. requires that the Chair delegate portions of the planning to committee members and meet frequently during the planning phase to share information. Optimally, one committee member may take responsibility for each major function:
Committee members should explore the sources of support or services in their areas of responsibility early in the planning phase. Competitive bids are useful, but printing, catering or transportation firms will rarely provide final prices more than six months before the meeting.
C. HOTEL ARRANGEMENTS
Preliminary arrangements for an A.A.H.M. annual meeting hotel must be made a minimum of two and a half years, and preferably three years, in advance. Where there are a number of centrally located hotels from which to choose, the L.A.C. should provide written specifications of the meeting to each hotel and ask for bids. There are two kinds of considerations that need to be kept in mind when evaluating a hotel as a possible site for the meeting: costs and whether the hotel can provide the appropriate space. These will be discussed below.
Hotel Costs and Complimentary Rooms
Hotels bid for meetings by offering the organization a "conference rate" for single- or double-occupancy rooms. (These are, after all, hotels!) The bid often includes use of the hotel's meeting and banquet spaces, in many cases at no additional charge, because the hotel will require you to use its catering service, where it expects to make a considerable profit. In addition to the inclusion of meeting and banquet space in the contract, the hotel should also include a number of complimentary rooms in the offer, the number of which is often tied to the expected occupancy rate promised by the organization. One complimentary room for every 50 rooms reserved is not an unusual ratio, so the L.A. C. should count on having 3 or 4 complimentary rooms. An alternate way of accruing complimentary rooms is according to a schedule of room-nights (i.e., a room occupied for one night. A single room occupied for all three nights of the meeting would yield 3 room nights). In Birmingham (2005), for example, the contract promised a total of 17 room-nights of complimentary space for a minimum booking of 875 room-nights.
The allocation of complimentary rooms varies. In general, first priority should be given to the President and the Garrison Lecturer, and then to the Secretary-Treasurer and prize winners who will be attending the meeting. Where it appears that the extra complimentary space will be available (and it often is) members of the L.A.C. should not scruple at using complimentary rooms. It is one of the few compensations that the L.A.C. can receive in compensation for the headaches!
Along with the basic overnight room charge, the financial consideration in a hotel's bid depends on two other factors: catering and auxiliary equipment rental. Catering costs are often difficult to compare between one hotel and another, because they all offer slightly different menue and hor d'oeuvres packages. Equipment rental must be brought into consideration before signing a contract, because otherwise a reasonable-looking hotel contract offer can become very unreasonable when audio-visual charges are put into the equation. Because the A.A.H.M. Council has now articulated a clear policy of what speakers at annual meetings can expect to have for audio-visual equipment, hotel charges for this equipment can easily be estimated. However, the L.A.C. should try to anticipate that its actual rental needs will far exceed what is needed by speakers in regular conference sessions. Those needs include, but (unfortunately!) are not limited to:
Hotel Facilities
Beyond the costs of the hotel contract, the L.A.C. also has to take care that the hotel offers the right kind of facilities. Assuming a meeting attendance of 425 individuals, these must include:
Obviously, these requirements are adjustable for possible off-site location of the Garrison lecture. It is important to note that Saturday afternoon, following the end of the second set of regular parallel sessions, presents a particularly tricky problem. The hotel will want to be setting up its largest space for the upcoming banquet, but the A.A.H.M. will want to be holding its annual business meeting. Typically, a regular session room that seats 40 will be a little too small for the business meeting (especially if something juicy and interesting is anticipated on its agenda). Thus the L.A.C. must be aware of a potential difficulty at that time and plan accordingly.
In planning for the meeting's space requirements, the L.A.C. also has to take account of other functions that typically are held in conjunction with the meeting. These include the Osler Society, the Sigerist Circle, the Medical Museums Association, and the Archivist and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences. Contact information about those societies can be obtained from the A.A.H.M. President or the Secretary-Treasurer. In many cases, it is easier for the L.A.C. to take charge of arranging space for the meetings of those organizations, rather than for them to make separate agreements with the hotel. the L.A.C. is not responsible for covering the expenses of those meetings, and arrangements should be made with the affiliated organizations to secure reimbursement of the cost of renting meeting space and catering to their functions. On the other hand, if the L.A.C. keeps in mind the need to accommodate those groups at the time the contract is signed, the space can often be secured in the basic contract with the hotel.
Other functions during the annual meeting that the L.A.C. needs to be aware of are:
Finallly, the L.A.C. should plan for the unexpected. Grab an extra room or two in the initial contract, if any are available. It would be a pity to arrive at a point 6 months before the meeting and discover the need for an extra space, only to have the hotel inform you that another organization has already rented desirable additional rooms. Remember that although you will probably be the hotel's primary tenant during the meeting, and therefore will have some lieverage with them, their interest lies in generating income from every unoccupied space larger than a broom closet. Better to have something extra in reserve and magnanimously release it back to the hotel if it is not needed, than cope with the frustration that limited options can impose.
Other Factors in Choosing a Hotel
Location, location, location! the most miserable meetings are those in which people cannot leave the hotel on foot and find anything more interesting than a generic food court in a generic shopping mall. Other factors being equal -- and of course price never is one of these factors -- the best deals will often be offered by hotels set amidst such dreary offerings. The L.A.C. thus should try to secure a downtown meeting site or other location that has obvious appeal for attendees.
Inadequate soundproofing between rooms is a frequent complain about meetings. Do not trust anything the hotel claims in this regard. have them set a standard divider between a couple of rooms and go speak very loudly in one, thus to assess the soundproofing first-hand.
It is also worth checking into the full range of transportation connections to airports and sites of interest. Will attendees have to take cabs from the nearest airport, or does the hotel run its own shuttle? Are there other forms of public transportaiton within easy reach of the hotel, by means of which people can explore areas of the town not within easy walking distance?
What is the likely ease of access for people who are wheelchair-bound, or who otherwise might have difficulty with the hotel's facilities? The hotel might be formally in compliance with A.D.A. requirements, but it is wise to assess whether meeting attendees will find the experience enjoyable.
The L.A.C. should identify a local babysitting agency that individual attendees can contact for child care services. This information (phone number and location) should be distributed with both the pre-registration packets and the registration packets.
D. FINANCING THE ANNUAL MEETING
It is the responsibility of the L.A.C. to
In general, the A.A.H.M expects its meetings to break even or to turn a small profit. The Association does not, however, intend to fund its regular activities from meeting receipts.
The principal portion of the expenses should be covered by the registration fees, advertising receipts, book exhibit fees, payments for tickets to luncheons and the annual banquet, or local donations.
Donations
It often happens that host institutions or local medical societies have contributed to annual meetings by funding receptions or, occasionally, by making cash donations. The 1985 Committee on Meetings discussed circumstances which might prevent the acceptance of such subsidies. The Committee concluded that it was appropriate to accept donations to assist with meeting expenses, if no conditions were tied to such gifts other than acknowledgment in the program. In many cases, a university, medical school, or corporate logo can be "sold" for a donation for space in one side of the meeting bag, as was done with the Madison meeting of 2004. When accepting corporate contributions, however, the L.A.C. must be extremely careful not to accept contributions from any company that might later cause the A.A.H.M embarrassment through a perceived connection to the company's products or advertising. Clearly the scope of potential donations, along with the L.A.C.'s willingness to solicit them, will vary considerably. In receipt of $30,000 U.S., the 1998 Toronto meeting could boast the largest donations in A.A.H.M. history; however, the Williamsburg meeting of 1997 well exceeded expenses, having gathered only $3,250 in donations.
Registration Fees
The principal source of income for the meeting will be registration fees, which must defray the costs of
In recent years, the following registration categories have become standard for A.A.H.M. meetings, which are here listed as approximate percentages of a standard registration fee (100%)firm cut- off date for the reimbursement of the registration fee to those who cannot attend the meeting should be noted on the registration form.
The Spouse/Partner category was created to account for the likelihood that people who accompany attendees will go to the receptions and perhaps the general breakfast buffet, thereby adding to overall catering costs. However, since the A.A.H.M. does not require people to wear badges or other ID when attending these functions, compliance with this category is essentially voluntary. People who register as a spouse or partner are routinely provided a printed program and a name tag (and a bag!), but not an abstract book.
Theregistration deadline (after which time all registrations become late registrations) can be set by the L.A.C. as it chooses, but it commonly falls about 4 weeks before the meeting date. All walk-in registrations at the meeting will of course be charged as late registrations.
Banquet
Traditionally, the Saturday banquet and awards ceremony is an opportunity for the L.A.C. to generate a small profit for the Association. In most cases, after the basic per-meal cost of the banquet has been decided, the cost for banquet tickets will be set at 50 to 100% above the actual cost of catering the banquet. Needless to say, the price of a banquet ticket cannot be so high that it discourages attendance. Recent experience suggests that $50 to $60 per ticket has done nothing to discourage attendance. The L.A.C., however, should remember to factor in the price of service and wine at the banquet and other catered functions.
Book Display
In the past, the book display has been another place where L.A.C.s have hoped to earn some profit for the meeting. In recent years, however, the declining representation by publishers, and especially the declining numbers of antiquarian book sellers at the book display prompted the Madison L.A.C. (2004) to reenvision the role of this component of the annual meeting. They came to the conclusion that a good book display contributes materially to the success of a meeting, and therefore decided to set the rental price for space (typically figured as the cost of a 4' x 8' table) at a level that merely covered the costs of rental. Costs of rental should include the number of tables a book seller requires, the cost-share of the room, the cost of the exhibitor(s)'s attendance at the receptions and breakfasts, and any other equipment required by the exhibitor. This plan was very successful.
There are two basic strategies for pricing tables. One is to set the price of the first table to be comparatively high -- say $175 -- and then offer discounts on the second and subsequent tables (in this example, $125). A second strategy is to offer the same price for all tables (perhaps $145). The "discount" approach favors the larger exhibitors (e.g., Johns Hopkins, Cambridge, Scholars' Choice), while the uniform price approach favors smaller exhibitors and antiquarians. The purchase of one or more tables at the book exhibit should include one free registration, in the name of someone specified by the exhibitor. The exhibitor should be permitted to purchase additional registrations at the spousal/partner rate.
It is important that publishers and antiquarian book sellers understand that they are not to arrange display space for themselves at the meeting independently of the L.A.C. Instead the L.A.C. should allocate space at the time the exhibitors are first let into the room to set up, generally on Thursday afternoon or evening. They are not to be left to grab space for themselves. The L.A.C. should clearly label where each exhibitor may set up, and make sure exhibitors respect the assignments.
A list of the publishers and antiquarian book sellers that attended the Madison and Birmingham meetings (2004 and 2005), will be made available elsewhere in the Blue Book. However, the L.A.Cs should recognize that most of the antiquarian book traffic will often come from regional and local book sellers.
L.A.C. Voices from the Past
The L.A.C. should "list all possible costs, estimate them on the high side, add 10% and divide by the lowest possible estimate of attendees." The L.A.C. should set the registration fee with the hope of "breaking even," but "it is better to show a profit than to go in the hole and have the A.A.H.M. Treasury bail out the meeting."-- Robert Joy, L.A.C., Bethesda, 1982 (the meeting closed with a profit)
"The L.A.C. should rattle the handles of meeting room doors before deciding on a hotel." -- Leonard Wilson, L.A.C., Minneapolis, 1983
E. RUNNING THE REGISTRATION
The emergence of on-line registration as the preferred method for the large majority of A.A.H.M. members has effectively removed direct L.A.C. control and responsibility for this complicated, time-consuming process. In almost all cases, anyone thinking of hosting a meeting in the future should first determine whether his/her institution has a meetings service available to manage online registration. The advantage of allowing a meetings service or professional office to manage registration is that it will effectively serve as the bank for the meeting. It will collect and hold income from registrants, pay bills, and make final dispersal of the funds. It will also handle all registration functions, not just the online registration. The disadvantage of meetings service providers is the cost, often ranging between $15 and $20 per registrant, regardless of registration category. Yet the experience that such offices have with running registrations and meetings often makes them indispensable.
Before signing a contract with a service to run registration, the L.A.C. needs to make certain that the software package used by the office allows for the registration categories typically used by the A.A.H.M. The L.A.C. should show the service a sample paper registration form and get them to explain how the categories on that form will be transferable to the software's database fields. Most such services will presumably resist a request to create a mock-up of an A.A.H.M. online registration form prior to signing a contract, due to the work that would involve, but as far as possible the L.A.C. needs to insure that the service's software is sufficiently flexible of the A.A.H.M.'s and L.A.C.'s requirements.
Even before a registration service has been chosen and the online form has been prepared, the L.A.C. should think about creating a meeting website that is linked to the main A.A.H.M. home page, from which the online registration can eventually be linked. The website should also clearly identify the lead and secondary hotels for the meeting, and offer links to their online registration pages. Finally, a meeting web page also gives the L.A.C. a chance to put up other useful information about transportation, things to do in the area, a restaurant guide, and so on. The L.A.C. should make sure that both the meeting web page and the online registration page(s) contain a clear statement of the registration deadline and late fees charged after that deadline.
For an annual meeting to be held in late April, it will probably be sufficient to open up registration near the beginning of February, with the (early) registration deadline in late March. It matters little when one sets the deadline: the greatest flood of registrations will come in just before it!
F. COORDINATION WITH THE PROGRAM COMMITTEE AND A.A.H.M. OFFICERS
The President, Secretary-Treasurer, Local Arrangements Committee Chair and Program Committee Chair must establish early and continuing coordination. The President will advise the L.A.C. as to his/her wishes and needs in connection with scheduling and conducting
The Chair of the L.A.C., in turn, should keep the President apprised of the general nature of plans for receptions, tours, banquet, and other special events. S/he must inform the President and Secretary-Treasurer promptly of any major problems or crises, and should keep them up to date on such matters as advance registrations.
The Secretary-Treasurer will advance funds to the Local Arrangements Committee, should any be needed, furnish supplies of the A.A.H.M. brochure for the registration desk, and provide information and other back-up assistance.
The L.A.C. must plan well in advance to establish good communications with the Program Committee. Because the hotel contract has to be finalized well before the Program Committee has even been created ex nihilo by the President, the L.A.C. should communicate to the Program Committee any relevant information about the particular requirements and limitations of the meeting space. In turn, while the Program Committee has ultimate responsibility for the content of the meeting program, including luncheon sessions and special sessions, it must give the L.A.C. sufficient opportunity to plan for those sessions in tandem. Especially if the Program Committee plans to institute a special session, at a time when the annual meeting traditionally has not scheduled a session, it must give the L.A.C. early warning of the change (and it must fit within the hotel's space limitations). The person serving as the L.A.C.'s liaison to the Program Committee is specially charged with representing these concerns, in addition to his/her regular Program Committee responsibilities.
Luncheon sessions shall be open to anyone wishing to attend, regardless of whether they purchase a meal or not. LAC shall provide an additional option on the registration page for registrants to sign up to attend a luncheon session WITHOUT buying the meal. This information will help the LAC choose rooms of appropriate sizes for the audience.
For an annual meeting held in late April, for which registration will open at the beginning of February, the Program Committee must deliver a full list of sessions, speakers and affiliations to the Chair of the L.A.C., by the end of the first week in January. A later delivery of the program creates serious problems for the L.A.C.
G. CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION (C.M.E.) ACCREDITATION
Since boards which license physicians in the United States and Canada require annual proof of physicians' continuing medical education, C.M.E. accreditation of the A.A.H.M. annual meeting is important. Not only is accreditation valuable to medically qualified members of the A.A.H.M., it can enhance attendance.
In 1999, Council is exploring the possibility of an arrangement for obtaining annual C.M.E. accreditation through a single, unchanging academic center. At the time of writing, however, it is the responsibility of the L.A.C. to seek C.M.E. accreditation, which is usually done through the Continuing Medical Education office of a local medical school or hospital, usually one of the sponsoring institutions for the annual meeting concerned. A new American Medical Association policy suggests that only programs focussed on patient care will be eligible for C.M.E. credit in the future. No C.M.E. credit was obtained for the 1999 meeting. The following information about C.M.E. is provided to explain past practices in the event that C.M.E. accreditation becomes possible in the future.
Some medical journals will publish the "Call for Papers" only if the meeting has been approved for C.M.E. credit. If the "Call for Papers" is sent out by mid-March of the year prior to the meeting, final C.M.E. accreditation, in terms of the number of hours, might not yet be available. The Program Chair, however, can include a general reference in the "Call for Papers" to the effect that the A.A.H.M. meeting has been approved for C.M.E. credit in earlier years.
The L.A.C. may delegate a Committee member to handle the accreditation. Most C.M.E. offices will not specify the number of C.M.E. credits until they see the program. Some are willing to review a typescript of the final program, making it possible to include the number of hours of accreditation in the printed version.
A sign-up sheet should be available at the Registration Desk for those who request C.M.E. credit. If the C.M.E. accreditation office will pre-stamp or pre-sign the C.M.E. credit slips with the authorized signature, it is possible to give the credit slips out at the meeting. Alternatively, they can be mailed following the meeting. The L.A.C. should file a report on the meeting with the C.M.E. office providing accreditation.
Since boards which license physicians in the United States and Canada require annual proof of physicians' continuing medical education, C.M.E. accreditation of the A.A.H.M. annual meeting is important to medically qualified people. It can enhance attendance at meetings and new memberships.
From 1999 through 2007, Council has been exploring the possibility of an arrangement for obtaining annual C.M.E. accreditation through a single, unchanging academic center. In 2005, this task was assigned to the Education and Outreach Committee, so far without success.
For the two meetings in Canada in 2006 and 2007, C.M.E. credits were granted by Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario, the home of the then AAHM President. To faciliatate this process, the online submission process for paper proposals was constructed by Dr. Walt Schalick to require every author to provide at least one learning objective. Overall objectives for the meeting were composed. Many physicians took advantage of the opportunity: 25 in 2006, 30 in 2007. But a Canadian office cannot give accreditation for meetings held in the USA.
As a result, into the immediate future it will be the responsibility of the L.A.C. to seek C.M.E. accreditation. It is done through the C.M.E. office of a local medical school or hospital or association, usually one of the sponsoring institutions for the annual meeting concerned. An American Medical Association policy suggests that programs focussed on “practice outcomes” for patient care will be eligible for C.M.E. credit. A reasonable task for AAHM will be to identify “practice outcomes” related to history and other humanities research.
Some medical journals will publish the "Call for Papers" only if the meeting has been approved for C.M.E. credit. If the "Call for Papers" is sent out by mid-March of the year prior to the meeting, final C.M.E. accreditation, in terms of the number of hours, will not yet be available. The Program Chair, however, can include a general statement in the "Call for Papers" to the effect that previous A.A.H.M. meetings have been approved for C.M.E. credit.
The L.A.C. may delegate one Committee member to handle the accreditation process; it helps if that person is an MD who underrstands the C.M.E. experience. The office should be alerted to the emerging request as soon as the meeting site is identified. But most C.M.E. offices will not specify the number of C.M.E. credits until they see a near-final draft program. They will review the program, the objectives, the meeting budget, and the proposed evaluation forms, making it possible to declare the number of C.M.E. credits by the time of the meeting. They will expect a statement about fund-raising to ensure that it is free of commercial bias.
A file for charging, issuing receipts, and collecting names and addresses should be available at the Registration Desk for those who request to purchase C.M.E. credit. If the C.M.E. accreditation office will pre-stamp or pre-sign the C.M.E. credit slips with the authorized signature, it is possible to give the credit slips out at the meeting. In 2006 and 2007, this was not possible as two cities were involved; the forms were mailed following the meeting. The L.A.C. should file a report on the meeting with the C.M.E. office providing accreditation. This can be a copy of the final program and the summary of the evaluation forms.
H. THE PRINTED PROGRAM
Preparing the Printed Program
The most useful thing that one can do to understand the format of A.A.H.M. meeting programs is to collect samples from the previous two or three meetings and use those as a guide for the layout of the document. When other societies hold a meeting jointly with the A.A.H.M meeting, the programs of those societies' meetings are presented directly after the A.A.H.M. program, but before the list of participants. Perhaps the most important single consideration in the layout of the program is to find a way to let attendees know in the listing of sessions which day and time those sessions are taking place. It is a source of considerable wailing and gnashing of teeth for attendees to have to continually flip back and forth to another page on the program to determine this information.
The L.A.C. will need to decide no later than the fall of the preceding year whether or not the program will carry advertising. Although optional, advertising by publishers and book dealers can help to defray some of the cost of printing. Advertisers must supply camera-ready copy. See the table at the end of the Blue Book for a sample of advertising charges from recent programs.
Printing the Program
Between three and four weeks should be allowed for the actual printing and proof-reading of the program. When the program is ready for printing, it must be sent to the Secretary-Treasurer for a final proof-reading before going to press. Thus the L.A.C. must allow a week for this final stage in its determination of the printing schedule. The number of copies to be ordered from the printer should be sufficient for membership mailing as well as for all registrants. For a decade membership has held at about 1,300; registration numbers range from 350 to 450, and perhaps another 150 copies will be necessary to replace lost or defective copies, or for other purposes later, at the time of the meeting. Therefore a print run of 2,000 will easily suffice.
Distributing the Program Prior to the Meeting
By late January, the L.A.C. should arrange for the printing of registration forms, travel and hotel information, and special events or tour notices to be sent with the program. Hotel reservation forms can be obtained at no cost from the meeting hotel and should be clearly marked for return directly to the hotel, not to the L.A.C. The mailing of this packet should take palce during the first week of February. In preparation for it, the Secretary-Treasurer will authorize a set of computer printout labels of the membership by December, or earlier. For many years these have been available from Paul Henderson, 1017 Turnpike St., Canton, MA 02021-2828 (e-mail acadsvc@aol.com). The L.A.C. should check with the Secretary-Treasurer or the President concerning the current policy.
Pre-registration packets should include:
Mailings to members living in the U.S. and Canada must be sent by first class mail. Airmail must be used for those living elsewhere. In some cases, the L.A.C. will be able to make use of their university's mail service to obtain a discount. Be sure to check into that possibility.
Book of Abstracts
Since 1981, a book of abstracts has been made available at the meeting in the registration packets. A complete set of abstracts should be sent to the L.A.C. by the Program Committee at the time it sends the scholarly program. They are useful during and after the meeting and are much appreciated by registrants. The book can be arranged either in alphabetical order by author, or in chronological order by session. In either format, an additional index representing the opposite arrangement is advisable.
I. REGISTRATION PACKETS and MEETING BAGS
It has become standard practice at annual meetings for registrants to be given a bag containing general information and the specific details of the individual's registration package. The complete package should include:
The design of the bags is highly variable, and no attempt will be made here to prescribe a standard. Some bags have been canvas tote-bags with handles, others have offered fancy briefcase-type designs, and still others have been cheap and forgettable. In many instances, one will put the A.A.H.M.'s logo on one side of the bag with perhaps a local "meeting logo" or sponsor's logo on the other side, but here, too there is no set rule.
J. TOURS AND TRANSPORTATION TO OFF-SITE SESSIONS
Visits or tours to local historical sites, museums, libraries, medical schools and other facilities can enhance the program and help the registrants to become acquainted with the meeting city. Tours also help first-time registrants to become acquainted with others in the A.A.H.M.
The Association has not regularly provided supplemental programs for non-members who accompany members at meetings. Partners and families may look for supplemental tours programmed during the scholarly sessions. It is certainly an option for the L.A.C. to provide supplemental tours. Alternatively, maps, tourist brochures, and (in large cities) information on excursions can be available adjacent to the registration desk.
Arrangements for busses must be set well in advance of the meeting. Bids from responsible local bus companies should be obtained and contracts made early, but arrangements must be rechecked and modified as required during the meeting.
Registration for tours should be included as one of the check-off options on the meeting registration form and online registration options. There needs to be a clear statement that after a certain date (often 72 hours before the start of the meeting) there can be no changes to tour registration and no refunds. Attendees should also be advised during pre-registration that space may still be available on tours at the meeting, but there is no guarantee that there will be any. The overall aim, obviously, is to insure that the L.A.C. is not left absorbing the cost of any tour space that has been booked but not purchased.
L.A.C.'s often like to show off a particularly noteworthy venue of their city by booking the Garrison Lecture and Reception there. This is strictly optional, however, and the desirability of using such a venue has to be balanced against the considerable cost and vexation of lining up transportation to move attendees from the meeting site to the venue.
K. AUDIOVISUAL REQUIREMENTS
In 2004, the A.A.H.M. Council determined that at all future meetings L.A.C. is required to provide only a slide projector, an overhead projector and an LCD video projector for regular and luncheon sessions. Requests for other equipment by speakers at those sessions will be honored at the discretion of the L.A.C., and speakers requesting such equipment may be asked to pay part or all of the costs entailed. The Program Committee should identify the audiovisual equipment needs of speakers (slides, video, overhead, and computer projectors) and communicate them to the L.A.C.
The L. A. C. has the responsibility for ensuring that necessary amplification and projection equipment is available in each meeting room, with knowledgeable people to operate the equipment. Lighted lecterns, microphones, and speakers must be available at the front of each session room. For panel discussions, several microphones will be needed at the speakers' table. Some hotels will move equipment as needed and take direcdt responsibility for seeing that it is in working order. The L.A.C. must insure that persons knowledgeable in the operation of A-V equipment are willing to attend each session, or can be located quickly should emergencies arise.
L. CEREMONIAL AND OTHER OFFICIAL EVENTS
Ceremonial and official events at the annual meeting are, for the most part, managed by the President. The L.A.C. and his/her Committee, however, are responsible for providing the necessary back-up and facilities for these events.
The Opening Session
The official opening session is normally scheduled for Friday morning, with the President presiding, and requires a large ballroom or the equivalent to accommodate all registrants. It often includes short welcoming remarks by an official of one of the host institutions and by the L.A.C and Program Committee designees. It may also be selected by the President as the occasion for delivery of his or her biennial Presidential address. In that event, the Opening Session continues until the mid-morning break. If there is no Presidential Address at this time, the Opening Session normally lasts around fifteen minutes only and is followed (with no break), by the first scholarly session, either plenary or parallel. Most recently, the first scholarly session has been plenary. But the P.C.C. and/or the President may chose to deviate from that pattern.
The Garrison Lecture
The A.A.H.M President also presides at this plenary session, which usually takes place on the afternoon of the first full day (Friday). For many meetings, it has been held in an elegant amphitheater away from the meeting hotel. By custom, the Garrison Lecture is not followed by questions from the audience. It is followed by a reception with refreshments, in an adjoining area.
Presidential Address
The President delivers an address to the Association during the course of the meeting at which his/her term of office terminates. Some take place immediately after the official Opening Session; others, at the Annual Banquet, although alternative times during the meeting may also be selected by the President. It is the responsibility of the L.A.C. to ascertain the President's preference in scheduling the President's Address.
M. THE BUSINESS MEETING
The annual business meeting of the Association is usually held on Saturday in the late afternoon (4:00 or 5:00 P.M.) preceding the annual banquet. The L.A.C. must provide a room equipped with a public address system, sufficiently large to seat all members registered at the meeting. The L.A.C. should arrange for microphones, not only at the table at the front of the room at which the President will chair the meeting, but also in the audience. Several standing microphones near the front and center of the audience in the center aisle will facilitate reports or announcements from committee chairs as well as audience interaction.
Approximately one-fourth of those who register at the annual meeting can be expected to attend the business meeting, which normally lasts thirty minutes to an hour-and-a-half. Many registrants are not members of the Association, but only members may vote in the business meeting.
The current bylaws stipulate that the President shall arrange the order of business and that one hundred members constitute a quorum (Article 5. Section 1).
N. SOCIAL EVENTS AND INTERMISSION REFRESHMENTS
Local Arrangements Committees are responsible for organizing a number of social events, some of which are traditional rather than official, others of which are at least partially official in nature and must be coordinated with the President. There is normally room, however, for one or more additional evening or post-meeting events at the sole discretion of the Committee. These usually depend upon the resources and initiative of local sponsors or members.
The First-Night Reception
In recent years, almost all Local Arrangements Committees have organized some kind of reception on Thursday evening, prior to the start of the scholarly program on the following morning. Scheduling of the reception should be arranged so that the members of Council will be able to attend and still have time for the Council meeting. The room should be sufficiently large to accommodate all anticipated registrants and guests. Frequently, the opening reception is funded as a cash bar (with nonalcoholic options), while the Local Arrangements Committee provides hors d'oeuvres, budgeted into the registration fee.
The Garrison Reception
For two decades or more, a reception has been held in connection with Garrison Lecture (which formerly also included the Honors and Awards). It is financed from registration fees, and is often as nice or almost as nice as the Thursday reception.
The Annual Banquet
The annual banquet is usually considered the principal social event of the meeting. The banquet originally included a variety of official, ceremonial and/or honorific features, such as awards and addresses. In the 1970s and 1980s these were scheduled as separate sessions in order to give them greater emphasis and dignity. In the early 1990s, however, the honors and awards (but not the speeches) returned to the banquet. The annual banquet is held on Saturday evening, and is usually preceded by a small reception and a cash bar scheduled to last no longer than an hour. The banquet can be held off-site, if the L.A.C. chooses to do so, but, as with the Garrison Lecture and reception, holding the banquet off-site introduces transportation problems. Moreover, scheduling the banquet in the lead hotel can influence the contract offered by the hote., since the banquet will be the largest single revenue source for the hotel during the meeting.
For many years, members have signed up for seats at specific tables on a chart provided early in the meeting near the Registration Desk. This practice can be off-putting to newcomers, but it facilitates renewal of long-time associations.
The hotel or banquet caterer will require a tentative estimate for the banquet in advance of the meeting, and also an updated count at the beginning of the meeting week. The hotel or caterer will specify the deadline for the final, guaranteed number of persons for the banquet and luncheons. The L.A.C. should insure that one of the meal options available to attendees at the banquet is vegetarian.
Since about 1993, the President has served as M.C. at the annual banquet, introducing the Chairs of the various medal committees to deliver the citations for medal recipients. The President presents the awards.
Post-banquet entertainment is optional. Until about 1987, speeches most frequently followed the dinner -- either the Presidential Address or a talk by a distinguished, local speaker. Presentations by musical groups, particularly those associated with the regional area of the meeting, can be attractive alternatives to after-dinner speeches. Dancing following the banquets in Madison and Baltimore will long be remembered by those in attendance. Entertainment costs must also be budgeted into the registration fee or into the price of the banquet ticket.
Buffet Breakfast
Somewhere lost in the mists of time, it became a standard practice for the L.A.C. to provide a buffet breakfast for attendees and those people accompanying them, offering breakfast on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings. At a minimum this has come to include juices, sweet rolls, coffee and tea, but sometimes includes a selection of fruits as well. The price of making this meal available is considerable, as the L.A.C. will discover, and every effort should be made not to enter into a competition with past or future meetings.
Estimating attendance at this buffet is particularly difficult and depends essentially on how easily attendees will be ble to find other breakfast options in the vicinity. The best attendance will be on Friday morning, and decline thereafter. Few people will be eager for the Sunday morning buffet. If possible, the food should be continuously available through to the end of the morning coffee break.
Intermission Refreshments at Scholarly Sessions
It is customary to provide refreshements during the morning and afternoon breaks between sessions on Friday and Saturday, and on Sunday morning. Coffee and tea are the principal items expected at the morning sessions, but in the afternoon there is considerably less demand for those drinks. Alternatives, such as carbonated water and fruit juices, should be provided. The cost of these breaks is normally budgeted into the registration fee, although sometimes the cost of refreshments has been covered by a donor. In such case, a poster expressing thanks to the provider should be displayed.
O. PLANNING, STAFFING AND OPERATING THE REGISTRATION DESK
Registration Desk handles all registrations, receipts, refunds, distribution of conference materials and it is a source of infomration about the hotel, the program, and the community (restaurants, bookstores, local libraries, other hotels, museums, transportation, etc.). Signs for sessions can be stored there. It will also function as an informal lost-and-found desk, rendezvous site, and message center.
Registration Staff
In many cases, the meetings service or office that the L.A.C. has used to handle online registration for the meeting will also provide registration at the meeting as well, either as part of the standard service package or for an additional fee. The L.A.C. would be well advised to use this service if it is available. Staffing a registration desk with local volunteers (such as students who agree to work at the desk in return for free registration) can save money, but this approach can also cause problems with misplaced receipts and mishandled money. The L.A.C. needs to understand that things get extremely hectic on thursday afternoon and Friday morning, when the majority of meeting attendees will be arriving, and the people working at the Registration Desk need to be fully informed about the proper procedures for use in refunds, payments, and so forth. Registration staff should be knowledgeable about the program, the hotel, and the community.
An orientation session for registration desk staff should be held at the hotel, prior to the opening day to explain the registration forms and categories, the events, and the policies regarding refunds and late ticket purchases, etc. The desk staff must also have toured the hotel to locate the respective meeting rooms, book exhibit rooms, lavatories, hotel tour desk, etc., so they can provide answers as needed.
At least four to five persons (including a member of the L.A.C.) should staff the Registration Desk on Thursday afternoon and evening, and a minimum of four persons on Friday morning. It is advisable that the desk be opened by mid-afternoon on Thursday, and that this be arranged with the hotel far in advance of the meeting date. By mid-day Friday the crush of registrants will have slowed to a trickle, but the desk should remain staffed by one or two people who are in contact with a representative of the L.A.C., to answer questions and solve problems as they arise.
Equipping the Registration Desk
The hotel will provide several long tables with drapes and chairs for the registration staff. The hotel should also be asked to furnish several message boards on easels, and a board and easel for the annual banquet seating chart.
Signs may be kept or stored at the registration desk. Three or four weeks before the meeting, the L.A.C. should order signs that clearly identify
The Registration Desk staff should also have rolls of adhesive tape, for the use of Session Chairs who may have post last-minute changes, on the doors of their meeting rooms.
It is important to have copies of the Association's brochure (which contains an application form) set out prominently and conveniently on or near the registration table for any individuals wishing to apply for membership. The Secretary-Treasurer is responsible for sending or bringing to the L.A.C. a supply of these brochures (75 or 100 should probably be adequate).
One of the more vexing difficulties of handling onsite registrations is the question of processing credit card payments. In some cases, the meeting service will be able to set telephone credit-card certification at the Registration Desk, but in other cases the numbers may have to be written down and later entered for payment. In the latter case, extreme care must be taken to insure that those numbers not be lost or stolen. They represent arguably the most valuable personal information a person has, and the loss of those numbers could be serious for the individual and deeply embarassing for the L.A.C.
Among the most useful things to have at the Registration Desk are:
The hotel should be asked to supply four or five pitchers of ice water, to be refilled twice a day, and an ample supply of cups at the Registration Desk. A table to hold various types of advertising material, not included in the registration packet, is also desirable.
Who Should Register?
In principal, everyone attending the meeting should be required to register and pay a registration fee, with the exception of invited guests and speakers (Garrison Lecturer, if not a member, banquet speaker, etc.), and people who have agreed to perform particular kinds of work for the meeting in return for free registration. In those cases, the L.A.C. should arrange for the preparation of registration badges/packets without a fee. In some circumstances it may be appropriate to consider a graduated registration fee structure (including group rates) to attract local college or high school students for special sessions, etc.
The delicate question of whether members of the L.A.C. should receive free registration has often been decided in favor of agreeing that the L.A.C. should pay along with other participants. Needless to say, the collective conscience of the L.A.C. must rule here.
The L.A.C. will be confronted by local attendees who wish to attend only for a day or "just one paper." Some large professional societies have daily registration fees, but for a small society, one-day registration fees make financial planning difficult. Therefore, in practice people will be able to walk in and out of the meeting pretty much at will. Some attempt should be made to police attendance at the more expensive receptions, but for normal session sit is probably not worth the effort to prevent anyone from just walking into a session. In fact, an open door policy has the benefit of permitting those unfamiliar with our discipline to learn something about it.
Refunds
A clearly defined policy on refunds for registration and ticket fees must be established at the outset of preparation for the meeting. It must be specified at the bottom of the registration forms with a notification deadline, e.g., at least two weeks before the start of the meeting. Some refunds will also be necessary at the meeting.
P. FOLLOW-UP STEPS
The Sunday post-mortem meeing
It has become standard for the L.A.C. to celebrate the end of the meeting and hold a discussion of it on Sunday morning, with a "post-mortem" breakfast. The President invites the other officers, the current and future chairs of Local Arrangements and Program Committees, and the Chair of the Committee on Meetings to compare notes and identify problems and "lessons learned."
Reporting and Accounting
The L.A.C. must write a fiscal and narrative report covering the activities of the Committee for the annual meeting. The narrative report need only indicate general highlights, except where the guidelines may be have been modified or improved.
Final fiscal reporting by the L.A.C. is essential. It should include number of registrants, broken down by category, list of sources and amount of income, list of sources and amount of expenditures, and net profit or loss. Two to three months may pass before all the bills are processed and checks cleared. Copies of financial and narrative reports should be mailed to the Secretary-Treasurer, who will arrange for their timely distribution to the President, Vice-President, the L.A.C., Program Committee chairs of the succeeding year's A.A.H.M. meeting, and to the Chair of the Committee on Meetings. Copies of these reports should also be made available to the Council in the course of normal Council mailings. The L.A.C. should include two copies of all forms, notices or other documents made available to the membership at the meeting, as well as the report of the Book Exhibit Coordinator for the meeting
Q. CHRONOLOGICAL Summary of Duties of the L.A.C.
Months before meeting (at the latest)
| 36 mos. | L.A.C. appointed by the President |
| 36 mos. | reserves hotel and other sites for sessions and ceremonies |
| 24-36 mos. | begins fundraising efforts |
| 24 mos. | members of committee are appointed by President with help of L.A.C. |
| 12-24 mos. | delegates special functions to committee members (see section B) |
| 12 mos. | with committee explores rates for services, such as transportation, catering, printing, bag manufacture |
| 12 mos. | meets with P.C.C. to discuss schedule and plans |
| 6 mos. | communicates with P.C.C. about meeting room needs (e.g., 3 or 4 parallel sessions, audiovisual needs etc.) |
| 6 mos. | communicates with B.E.C. re book exhibit needs |
| 6 mos. | begins plans for staffing of registration desk |
| 5 mos. | has final program prepared, C.M.E. credits finalized |
| 4 mos. | has program proofed and printed |
| 4 mos. | mails program to all AAHM members |
| 4 mos. | has registration form and tickets prepared and printed |
| 4 mos. | places order for meeting bag |
| 3-4 mos. | has abstract book printed |
| 2-3 mos. | has pre-registration package mailed |
| 2 - 0 mos. | receives registrations, estimates of numbers for banquets, luncheons, other functions, ensures guests have gratis registration packets and/or tickets |
| 1 mo. | prepares preliminary report for Council |
| 0 | speaks at opening session, attend functions, oversees registration desk, receives slings and arrows |
| 0 | attends postmortem meeting |
| +0-1 mos. | reviews this section of these Guidelines, recommends changes if necessary to the Chair of the Committee on Meetings and the Secretary Treasurer |
| +0-6 mos. | pays bills, closes accounts and prepares both final reports (fiscal and narrative) for Secretary-Treasurer and distributes reports to successor(s) and Chair of Committee on Meetings to update Appendix III. |
| +12 mos. | Recognize or arrange to have recognized the work of successor at the Business Meeting of the following year. Like the rest these guidelines, this task is a custom not a duty; however, minutes reveal that it has been honored more in the practice than in the breach. |