Convener Guidelines

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Session Convener Overview/Expectations

Session conveners are expected to monitor their session during the submission period specifically for abstracts that clearly do not belong in your session.

Conveners are allowed to submit abstracts to their own session, but are NOT allowed to be invited authors to their own session. 

At least ONE of the convener must be available in late February/early March for the scheduling of your session. Please note, at the discretion of your Scientific Organizing Committee representative, you may be asked to merge with another session in late February. More information on scheduling is available in the “After Abstracts” tab above. 

Abstract notifications and notification of your sessions’ official scheduled day and time will be sent out in late March 2018. After this date, please monitor your session to note withdrawals. More information on scheduling is available in the “After Abstract Deadline” tab above. 

Invited Authors 

Each session will be able to invite three invited authors during the abstract submission period to give an invited presentation. Invited presentations cannot exceed one half of the total session time. Objectives for allowing invited authors include: 1) raising the profile of a session; and 2) enticing authors who would not otherwise submit an abstract to a session in an effort to, for example, enhance diversity or interdisciplinary perspectives or feature early career scientists.

Session conveners will not be allowed to present an invited abstract in a session they are convening. However, conveners may submit a contributed abstract to a session they are convening.

Invited authors do not receive waived or discounted abstract fees, registration fees, or travel reimbursement.

FIRST AUTHOR POLICY

Please keep in mind the TESS First Author policy as you consider Invited Authors for your session.

  • There is no limit to the number of contributed abstracts a First Author can submit.
  • First authors are limited to one invited abstract.

INVITED AUTHOR INSTRUCTIONS

  • Conveners may access the online invitation management system to enter the name of the individual they wish to invite to submit to their poster session.
  • Conveners are asked to manage and send formal invitations to Invited Authors via the online program management system by Tuesday, 13 February 2018. However, conveners still have access to the system to send formal invitations up until the deadline if needed.  Please send invitations as soon as possible so that your invited author will have enough time to accept and submit their abstract before the 20 February abstract deadline. There will be no exceptions to the submission deadline.
  • Invited Authors must not submit their abstract until they receive an email from the online invitation system with detailed instructions. Invited Authors must accept their invitation via the online abstract submission system in order to submit their abstract directly to your session by the deadline of Tuesday, 20 February 2018. This is a firm deadline and late submissions will not be accepted.

Chairs must invite follow the process below to invite authors.

  1. To begin, log in using your AGU universal log-in credentials.
  2. Once logged in to the abstract management system, conveners will see the TESS Meeting ‘User Portal’ page. Select the ‘My Account’ link on the left menu bar.
  3. The session title will be listed in the center of the page. Select the title of your session.
  4. On the Session Proposal Control Panel on the left-hand side, select the ‘Invited Author Tool’ link.
  5. Enter the name of your Invited Author in the ‘Person Search’ field.
  6. From the search results, select the name of the Invited Author. If an Invited Author record is not located in the search, you may create a new record by entering the email address.
  7. At the bottom of the page select the grey ‘Send Email Invite’ button to send a formal invitation to the invited author.
  8. Invited Authors must not submit their abstract until they receive an email from the online invitation system with detailed instructions. Otherwise, their abstract will NOT be noted as “invited”.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

  • Invited Authors are not guaranteed an oral presentation.
  • An individual may not accept invitations to submit an abstract to more than one (1) session.
  • Session Conveners may not be the First Author or Presenter on an invited abstract in the session they are convening. However, Conveners may submit a contributed abstract to a session they are convening.
  • The Scientific Organizing Committee recommends (though does not require) that if a convener submits a contributed abstract to their own session that they request a poster presentation; if a convener wants to be considered for an oral presentation, it is preferred that they submit the abstract to a different session
  • All abstract submission fees are non-refundable; refunds will not be issued if policies are violated or an abstract is rejected.
  • Invited Authors do not receive waived or discounted abstract submission fees and registration fees.
  • No travel reimbursements are provided to Invited Authors.

Monitoring Abstracts

Abstract Submissions are open from 2 January – 20 February 2018. You may invite up to three authors to submit to your session as invited authors though invited authors can still accept and submit up to the 20 February 2018 deadline.

During the abstract submission process, session conveners are expected to monitor the abstracts submitted to their session via the online system, using your AGU universal email and password. Once you log in, select the session title and then “My Account” from the left-hand side control panel.

Session conveners should be looking for the following:

  • Abstracts that clearly do not belong in your session. Please notify abstracts@agu.org by 20 February and we will contact the author with the concern and move the abstract to a more appropriate session. This may be due to author oversight or a misunderstanding of the session’s intent.
    • Remember that an abstract cannot be transferred after the program is finalized, so each author is counting on you as a convener to make sure that all abstracts submitted and accepted to your session are appropriate to the topic.
  • Invited authors who have not accepted the invitation to submit or have not submitted their abstract. Please follow up to ensure your invited authors have received the invitation and intend to submit the abstract. Late submissions will not be accepted. If an invited author has declined the invitation, you can invite another author in their place. You can do this up until 13 February.
  • Other sessions with which your session can be merged based on abstract submissions. Please notify your program committee representative if you have any suggestions on merges.

Please contact abstracts@agu.org or your scientific organizing committee representative if you have any concerns while monitoring your session during the abstract submission period.

After Abstract Deadline

Session Scheduling

Session scheduling is now open for conveners. Please review the tutorial for specific instructions on organizing your abstracts.

The convener(s) will have from Wednesday, 28 February through Wednesday, 7 March 2018 to organize the abstracts submitted to their sessions by assigning the presentation order and duration, if an oral session is allotted. Conveners must also designate two (2) session conveners for each allocated session during this time.

At least one of the convener must be available during the scheduling period; during this time, the conveners will be notified of the number of oral and/or poster sessions they will receive, based on the total number of accepted abstracts submitted. Due to content overlap and number of abstracts submitted, the Scientific Organizing Committee may also require some sessions to be merged at this time. If you have any questions regarding your allocated sessions, please contact the appropriate Scientific Organizing Committee representative.

Session scheduling must be completed in the online abstract system by 7 March, prior to the Scientific Organizing Committee scheduling. Session conveners will no longer have access to their sessions once the Scientific Organizing Committee scheduling begins. The Scientific Organizing Committee will assign days, times, and meeting rooms for each approved session.

Session Formats

There are two main session formats held during the TESS Meeting–oral and poster. The Scientific Organizing Committee is responsible for the allocation of oral and poster sessions. Information regarding whether a session has been assigned an oral or poster session or a combination of oral and poster will be available to session chairs in the scheduling system in late-February and notified via email when this system opens, after the abstract submission deadline.

  • Poster Sessions: Each poster session will be displayed for a full day during the meeting. Posters presenters are encouraged to submit an online ePoster (electronic version) in addition to presenting at the meeting.
  • Oral Sessions: Oral sessions will receive a 1.5-hour time slot. The standard oral session format for the TESS Meeting is six 15-minute presentations. To encourage more oral presentations at the meeting, conveners may schedule their oral sessions with durations other than 15 minutes. For example, conveners may elect to schedule nine 10-minute presentations. The program committee recommends that presentations do not fall below 8 minutes and do not exceed 20 minutes.

Final Program

In late March 2018, abstract acceptance notices will be distributed electronically, and the final program will be available online.

After the program has been published in late March, please note that authors will be required to accept or decline their presentation. If the author declines, the abstract will be withdrawn from your session. Please note, if you are convening multiple sessions and also submitted abstracts to the scientific program the Scientific Organizing Committee CANNOT guarantee that you will be free of scheduling conflicts at the meeting due to the size of the program. Please ensure the co-conveners of the session are available to step in to moderate a session if the need arises.

Replacing an empty oral presentation: If the withdrawal is from an oral session, the session conveners can request that a poster presentation from the accompanying poster session be moved to replace the withdrawn oral presentation. This can only be done to and from accompanying sessions and only with the authors’ explicit consent. Please send an email to abstracts@agu.org with the details of the withdrawn abstract, the details of the abstract that will be moved into the oral presentation slot, and the email or message where the author gave consent to being moved.

Note: New abstracts CANNOT be added to fill empty slots in either oral or poster session. Also, after the program has been finalized, poster presentations CANNOT be moved to different poster sessions due to the logistical layout of the poster hall.