Program > Chairs

If you are interested in chairing a session, please contact one of the members of the program committee (the chair for the section/society that is of interest to you). Below, please find additional information for session chairs.

Participation Guidelines

In Advance

Advise presenters and discussants to follow the presentation guidelines posted above.
You should receive draft manuscripts from all presenting authors from your session by May 12, 2014.
Obtain a biographical sketch of all participants and prepare a brief introduction for each.
If you have changes to contact and address information of authors or additions or deletion of authors, you will need to contact the ASA Meetings Department at meetings@amstat.org to request these changes.

Session Room AV and Speaker Management System

At JSM

Before the Session Begins:

Check the JSM Cyber Center for any late messages about your session and/or presenters.
Be in the room 10 minutes before your session begins.
Check the condition of your meeting room, especially equipment and how/if the microphone(s) work. If assistance is needed, alert the AV technicians.
Check speakers' names (pronunciation), titles, and affiliations.
Check the Errata Sheet for any last minute changes.

During the Session:

Check the Program Changes Document provided at JSM Registration for any changes to the program and announce them at the beginning of the session.
Start on time. Timing and floor discussion are your responsibilities.
Keep the introductions very brief when changing speakers.
Insist that all speakers use the microphone.
Make sure that the presenters do not block the view of the screen.
Hold each speaker to the allotted time as printed in the program.
Remind speakers about their remaining time. For example, prepare flash cards for five (5) minutes and one (1) minute remaining. You must have a working watch. Tell each presenter the procedure you will use.
If a presenter ends early or does not attend, use that extra time for questions and comments from the audience, the panel, or yourself. DO NOT START the next paper early (this is JSM policy, not an option!).
NOTE: You are authorized and instructed to stop the presentation of any speakers who do not adhere to the statistical subject of their paper. Irrelevant or extraneous comments or handouts having nothing to do with the subject being presented are not permitted.
Keep the questions brief and relevant for floor discussions. Be assertive in enforcing this. Restate the question to be sure that they are heard by all of the audience.
End on time. Another session may be using your meeting room. Urge the audience to continue discussion elsewhere.
All Session Chairs must complete a Chair Report Form. The Session Chair Report form requests information on session attendees and the quality of presentations. The information collected is used by the next program committee to continually improve the quality of the JSM. Session chairs can complete the online report form (available at the Cyber Center and on the 2014 JSM website) or the paper form available in the meeting room and also at the Help Desk. Please note, you will need to reference the 6-digit Session ID (2XXXXX) when using the online chair report form.

After JSM

Session chairs are required to either complete the form online or complete and return the PDF form by August 29, 2014. Forms can be returned to the Help Desk at the JSM Registration area or faxed to the ASA Meetings Department following the meeting.