ICLA Guidelines and Requirements for ICLC Organization and Aftermath

Aims of the guidelines and general advice

This information is provided for ICLC organizers. It is designed to follow on to the information contained in Proposals for Hosting the ICLC, giving more detail about the various aspects of organization and distilling the experience of numerous organizers and conference attendees over the years.

It will be helpful to review the link above at the various stages of conference preparation. Also periodically consult your original proposal, since that document is in essence a promissory note to the organization and conference attendees as to the features and amenities the conference will provide. And finally, you and your helpers should consult this document often during the preparations for the conference. It represents a lot of helpful experience, especially for those who have never been in charge of a large conference.

Attendees will be assessing your conference not only as to content, but also as to their comfort and costs, and the amenities provided to them, so do pay attention to these aspects to leave the best possible memories of your institution and locale, as well as your organizational skills.

We hope that the experience reflected in this document will make the organizers' task easier insofar as it makes it possible to anticipate some of the myriad organizational issues that will arise, and helps them to make informed decisions regarding such issues. Another purpose of this document is to help ensure that the conference participants' comfort and interests are taken account of, as well as the interests of the ICLA, the sponsoring organization.

The aim of the document is to provide guidance and at the same time flexibility; therefore, despite the level of detail provided, still many specifics of organization are not spelled out. The key to a successful conference is advance planning, so organizers should be sure to think proactively and anticipate still other issues that are likely to arise in their own organizational context. Many of the recommendations below may seem obvious and not worth mentioning, but in our experience it is often the most obvious things that get overlooked.

ICLC organizers, in our experience, have been extremely hard working and good at problem solving--two primary criteria for running a successful conference. However, the size and complexity of the conference, and the number of people involved in running it, means there is great potential for:

a) crossed lines of communication about who is doing what, and therefore a tendency for some crucial tasks to slip through the cracks (requiring massive problem-solving later); and

b) the higher-level organizers' focusing so much on larger issues that the lowest level organization tasks are simply not thought about in advance of the conference, perhaps with an expectation that on-the-ground details will be dealt with by the helpers at the conference as needed.

The result of this all-too-common phenomenon is that both organizers and helpers are placed under extraordinary but avoidable extra stress, and that conference attendees suffer needlessly. Thinking about all possible eventualities in advance is difficult, but necessary for a successful conference. We would all rather that an ICLC in a particular location evokes positive memories rather than a litany of horror stories.

Organizers need not follow every single recommendation in this document, but if they make different choices, it should only be after considering the possibilities suggested. The recommendations come from experience. Our aim here is not to dictate all choices, but to make sure that organizers recognize the issues involved in their choices and make them only after thinking through the options.

Running a conference for an organization the size of the ICLA is no small task, and the organization is supremely grateful to those willing to give their time to making an ICLC conference not only possible but highly successful scientifically and socially.

Contact with ICLA

Once an ICLC proposal is accepted, the ICLA will expect the organizers to remain in communication with the ICLA Governing Board during the organization process. The Board will make suggestions regarding issues of importance to ICLA members such as publicity, dates and scheduling, conference size, numbers of plenary speakers, and conference fees. A rough timeline for performing certain crucial organizational tasks is provided at the end of this document. The Board will request feedback on the progress of the conference at appropriate times.

Organization structure

Overall organzational structure

A clear organizational structure is necessary in which it is specified who is responsible for the various tasks/task areas of the conference. Clear communication among the organizers themselves is necessary to provide the required communication at all times with conference participants. The structure should not only be clear to the organizers themselves, but also to prospective conference participants who will need to locate the right person to help them if things go wrong or they have questions.

Head organizer

The Organizing Committee is generally headed by one person, although two co-organizers could also fill the head position. The head organizer will coordinate the work of the rest of the committee via a master task list, as well as be responsible for the 'macro' tasks: working out the budget for the conference; making conference fee projections; negotiating with providers for the largest expense items; providing the final conference report, etc.

Organizing committee

An Organizing Committee of five or six people, each willing to put in a fair amount of time, plus all the helpers they can enlist, is probably necessary for the amount of work that needs doing, to take pressure from the head organizer(s). It is usual to divide up the tasks such that individuals or pairs on the committee are responsible for some subset of the necessary tasks. For example: negotiations for conference facilities and hotels; publicity; excursions and other activities; abstracts reviewing process; scheduling; theme sessions; production of abstracts book; room assignments; audio-visual; registration procedure; sign language interpreting; organizing session chairs and instructions; organizing book exhibit (including selling table space and publisher ads); providing receipts to conference attendees and certificates of attendance where needed, etc. etc.

Ideally the committee will include several local people who are familiar with the university infrastructure and other aspects of the locale. One ICLC (7) was run entirely by non-local organizers working out the conference preparations at a distance, but this is not recommended. Regular face-to-face meetings can actually save a good deal of time compared with email or other remote communications.

(International) Advisory committee

In addition to the Organizing Committee, the organizers typically set up an Advisory Committee consisting of people who have run previous ICLCs and are willing to answer questions when particular issues come up. The Advisory Committee is generally composed of non-local members of ICLA, and should have some international representation.

Regarding choices for Advisory Committee members, sometimes organizers desire to have people on the committee who are well-known linguists, to add some scholarly gravitas to the committee, which is often beneficial from a local perspective (applying for grants, reporting to university authorities, etc.). It is a good idea to have one or two ICLA Governing Board members on the Advisory Committee, as such people are usually already committed to the success of the conferences and organization and are likely to be willing to give help where needed.

Task lists

A master task list and a good set of subordinate task lists for helpers, set up well in advance of the conference, will make the organization process run smoothly. The head organizer should continually keep track of progress on the master task list and the subordinate lists to ensure that crucial tasks are carried out at the appropriate time.

ICLA funds

Seed money

The ICLA will provide a small amount of seed money to the extent it can for the conference (in the past this has been around $2000-$3000), whose ultimate purpose is to help student members and members from low currency value countries to attend. It is expected that an ICLC will be self-sufficient and will collect enough in registration fees and institutional support to not only cover its expenses (including plenary speakers' expenses) but also to return to the organization at least the seed money.

Sign language interpreting

In 2001 the organization began to collect funds to help with expenses for sign language interpreting. It will release funds for this purpose to organizers who have a viable plan for providing some interpreting services. It is expected, however, that if possible these funds be returned after the conference with additional surplus to add to the Sign Language Interpreting fund, so that the fund will be replenished and gradually augmented. The ICLA encourages organizers to build some funds for interpretation into the registration fees for this purpose.

Other funds

When the ICLA has available additional surplus funds, it will make decisions about allocating them to future conference organizers for such purposes as registration waivers, travel stipends, and additional sign language interpreting funds. Organizers are encouraged to seek outside funding for these purposes as well so that these needs are met to the greatest extent possible.

Conference dates

When to select the dates

The proposed dates of the conference are one of the earliest decisions the organizers will make. The dates should be selected by, at the latest, February of the year preceding the conference. Because prospective keynote speakers often need a large amount of advance notice for their busy schedules, it is ideal to propose the conference dates as early as two years before the conference.

As soon as dates are selected, the organizing committee should send the proposed dates to the Secretary and President for Governing Board approval, which may take some weeks. Organizers should plan to have their dates approved within about six weeks, sending reminders to the ICLA President if necessary, to allow them to proceed with crucial tasks such as booking blocks of hotel rooms and reserving classroom and auditorium space.

Considerations in selecting dates

When selecting conference dates, organizers should make themselves aware of large conferences that ICLA members often attend which fall in the same year (notably IPrA, ICHL, and ALT). While it is not entirely possible to avoid overlap, sometimes communication with the other conference organizers can make it possible to set mutually acceptable dates so that members can attend both. When the conferences are on the same continent, close temporal proximity is a plus. When on different continents, fewer members attend both conferences, but for those that do, keeping the conferences apart in time is better.

Large public events in the same country or area (Olympics etc.) should also be taken note of by the organizers, as they may make conference accommodation difficult to schedule. Also to be carefully noted are other campus events during the desired dates. A competing large conference or summer school might make it difficult to secure facilities for the conference venue and for dorm-type lodgings on the campus.

The proposal of conference dates interacts with the timing of invitations to the plenaries and featured speakers, cf. below.

Publicity

Responsibilities for publicity

The organizers are responsible for disseminating publicity about the conference, and must ensure that periodic announcements of the conference and its relevant due dates are made to all relevant lists, websites, bulletins, and other relevant publications, national and international.

The deadlines for general session abstracts, theme session proposals and abstracts, for preregistration and other deadlines, should all be announced at appropriate times.

It has been discovered that even what might seem to the organizers to be overkill with regard to publicity is not perceived as such in the outside world. It is difficult to overpublicize an event, since people often tune out announcements until they become relevant to their particular circumstances.

Announcements specific to conference attendees should be made directly to registrants, but it is also useful to post them on cogling-l, which is the organizational list of the ICLA. Wider publicity is not necessary for these.

Modes of Publicity

Conference website

A conference website should be set up and tested well in time for the abstract submission period, and periodic announcements and new information should be made available on the conference site. The conference website should be updated in a timely fashion during the pre-conference period, particularly in relation to which papers are accepted and scheduled, so that attendees can book their travel in good time. A line indicating when pages were last updated should be included on every page of the site.

Listserves

Organizers should not only post news items about the conference on their website, but should also send periodic updates about the conference, especially important deadlines, to the Cogling-l list and as many other relevant listserves as can be identified. Specific mailing lists should be set up for abstract submitters, accepted presenters, and conference pre-registrants that that all these groups receive timely information appropriate to their circumstances.

Other modes of publicity

Another important channel of publicity is The Linguist. The Linguist is an internationally known information source which has both a listserve component for immediate news and a website component for permanent display and searching capability. ICLC organizers should always announce the Calls for Papers on this site.

National lingusitics associations are also important as announcement venues, particularly when they cover a wide range of theoretical perspectives. Linguists and students who use other types of frameworks besides Cognitive Linguistics should hear about Cognitive Linguistics events as much as possible.

The largest and theoretically broadest of the national organizations is the Linguistic Society of America website at LSA . If the conference takes place in North America, it should certainly be entered on the LSA calendar of events, the LSA Bulletin (the 'latest news' arm of the LSA, now completely online), and the areas of the site for Calls for Papers and Conferences. Other large national organizations include the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft and the Linguistic Society of Japan. ICLC meetings in these countries should be announced on these sites.

Regional and specialized Cognitive Linguistics affiliate organizations should also be made aware of the parent organization's conference and Calls for Papers and Theme sessions posted accordingly. See the ICLA Affiliates part of this site for website and contact information. It is a good idea to simply place the relevant affiliate organization's Secretary on your mailling list for ICLC updates.

Sometimes a conference poster is made and sent to lists of departments via snailmail. In recent years this has been considered too costly, given the low-cost or free availability of email and web publicity. Thus a combination of periodic listserve announcements and a website has been preferred. But if enough local funding or sponsorship is secured, it is nice to have an attractive conference poster available so that those intending to go to the conference can put it on their doors/in their departments.

Timing and modes of early announcements and call for papers

Preliminary announcements of the conference typically begin 15 months to a year before the conference. These should include the conference dates, which must be set by then, and ideally also the plenary speakers, whose acceptance must be sought before publicizing their names. Announcements are generally made via email lists such as Cogling-l, Funknet, the Linguist List, and other relevant lists. Communication with the editor of Cognitive Linguistics to schedule an announcement in the journal should occur more than a year before the conference so that it can be fit into CL's publication schedule. Other venues as detailed in the preceding section should be fit into the timelines and task lists by the publicity organizer, and announcements prepared for them.

The announcements for the Call for Papers should be timed appropriately for the abstract reviewing process. Please give potential attendees plenty of time and notices so that they are not caught short before the abstracts deadline! General session abstracts are typically due about November 1 in order to give organizers time to run the reviewing process, which is complex and time consuming. Theme session proposals are sometimes due October 1 so that the organizing committee has time to deal with them separately and in advance of the general session reviewing process.

To allow participants to time their applications for travel grant funding appropriately, a date of notification of acceptance should be publicized along with the call for papers.

Schedules

A preliminary conference schedule with accepted abstracts for the various sessions should be posted on the conference website as far in advance as possible, so that people can check their time slot and make travel arrangements accordingly (if they cannot attend the whole conference, which is not unusual).

A complete conference schedule should be posted on the website at the latest six weeks before the conference. Speakers should be easily able to find their name on the schedule. If there is no search capability on the site, then a separate list of speakers and times should be posted.

It has been found useful to have two versions of the schedule, a Long schedule with talks laid out day by day and with full author and title information; and an Overview schedule with the parallel sessions in a table so that readers can quickly see everything that is happening during one particular time period. If more than one version of the schedule is posted, it is imperative that they both be updated simultaneously. Having two different versions of the schedule posted online, one more up-to-date than the other, caused a great deal of confusion before one ICLC.

Please do not change speakers' time slots without notifying them and confirming their agreement! This seems obvious, but somehow in the crush of the run-up to the conference, a few organizers have forgotten this basic rule and some speakers have missed their own talks, going by an earlier schedule in which their talk was later.

Note that during the conference it is important to include in the conference packet a paper version of the very latest update of the conference schedule(s), so that participants have something portable to refer to.

Coordinating with ICLA website and the journal Cognitive Linguistics

The ICLA website and journal are mentioned above under publicity, but since they are the organization's own publication venues, we will highlight them here. The Calls for Papers/Theme Session proposals and the conference website link should be sent to the ICLA webmaster as soon as the information and conference site, respectively, are ready, so that announcements and links can be posted in the Events section of the ICLA site. The organizers should also contact the editor of Cognitive Linguistics and submit an announcement to the journal well in advance of the conference.

Invited speakers: Plenary and featured speakers

General considerations

The organizers are responsible for inviting a number of well-known researchers in Cognitive Linguistics and closely related fields of interest to ICLA members, whose presence and talks are expected to attract conference attendees. The names of these speakers are always placed in advertisements for the conference, and their talks are highlighted in the program by being longer than normal conference talks and by being held in plenary session (i.e., attended by all participants and without competing parallel sessions).

Invitations to potential plenary speakers (and featured speakers, cf. below) should be made early, indeed these invitations are one of the earliest tasks of the organizers. Well-known speakers may be booked up far in advance, so it is essential to secure their services 1.5 to 2 years before the conference. Obviously it helps if the conference dates are set by then, but even if they are not, plenary speakers should be asked in advance and notified as soon as the conference dates are set.

Choosing speakers

The organizers are free to choose their plenary speakers, but the following considerations apply. Plenary speakers do not have to be members of ICLA, but participation in ICLC conferences and general activity in cognitive linguistics are desirable for the majority of plenary speakers. Sometimes a speaker from an allied field like functional or historical linguistics is invited, even though the individual seldom attends the ICLC meetings. This practice can give the slate of plenaries some interesting breadth. Still, speakers who have never taken any interest or note of cognitive linguistics before, however potentially relevant their work to cognitive linguists, are probably best left to conferences in their fields.

The organizing committee should feel free to ask for advice from the ICLA Governing Board, especially if a speaker suggested among the organizers themselves is not well known to the organizers.

Speaker expenses

Plenary speakers generally get their hotel, travel, and registration costs covered by the conference budget. This means that the basic expenses of invited plenary speakers are covered out of the conference funds, not ICLA funds. Thus organizers must include these expenses in their budget and raise funds for them via funding applications and registration fees.

Additional invited speakers

Since funds are limited, some conference organizers have sometimes found it useful to have another category of speakers called "Featured Speakers", consisting of well-known cognitive linguists who are regular attendees of ICLC and therefore are likely to be at the conference anyway, without all of their expenses being covered. If this strategy is adopted by the organizers, they should be careful in the way they approach potential featured speakers, so that it is clear whether any expenses are included in the invitation to speak, and so that such speakers do not feel insulted in being asked to lend their names to the conference without their expenses being completely covered like the regular invited speakers. Organizers can offer partial expenses or other inducements for featured speakers, if the budget does not stretch to include full expenses for this category.

Numbers of invited speakers

Five invited plenary speakers paid for out of the conference budget is probably the maximum desirable, to avoid excessively high registration fees (cf. the section on Registration fees below). If extra funds are raised by the conference organizers, however, it might be possible to invite extra plenary speakers and dispense with the somewhat tricky category of Featured Speaker.

ICLA highly recommends limiting the total number of plenary speakers, including any featured speakers, to no more than two a day, since in general these talks are 45-50 minutes plus questions. Too many of such longer talks, or long talks not surrounded by sufficient breaks, can induce "speaker fatigue" in the participants. It is advisable to have a refreshment break after every long talk.

Skeleton schedule

Timing for the skeleton or outline schedule

The basic "skeleton" or outline schedule for the conference must be submitted to the ICLA Governing Board in the calendar year preceding the conference for comments and approval. This schedule should be blocked out early, and submitted to the Board at the latest by fall of the year before the conference so that the Board's feedback can be incorporated.

Information needed in skeleton schedule

The Skeleton Schedule shall include the following:

• the dates of the conference
• the daily start and end times for all sessions
• break times
• labeling of each session by its type (general, theme, plenary)
• times and numbers of plenary talks
• provisional numbers of parallel sessions planned
• excursion dates
• dates for optional other activities such as the conference dinner
• scheduled time periods for the two ICLA meetings:
  • the Governing Board meeting
  • the ICLA Business Meeting, in which the Assembly meets

The Skeleton Schedule does not include the names of any speakers; it is just a schematic overview designed to give the organizers and the ICLA a bird's eye view of the conference plan, and to allow potential difficulties to be noticed in advance of more specific planning.

It is highly recommended that the organizers obtain information on previous ICLC schedules and consider them in light of their own experience as conference-goers.

Scheduling of Governing Board Meeting

The ICLA Governing Board meeting should ideally be placed on the second full day of the conference, at a time that does not conflict with activities Board members are involved in. Since at the time of the establishment of the Skeleton Schedule it is not known what sessions board members will be speaking in, the Governing Board meeting should be scheduled so that it does not conflict with sessions. An evening time over the dinner period has been found to work well. A three-hour block should be reserved for this meeting. There is only one physical board meeting for an entire board term, so there will be a lot of organization business to get through.

Other needs for Governing Board Meeting

The conference organizers will be expected to reserve a conference room of the appropriate size for the Governing Board meeting and to coordinate with the Board about matters such as number of expected attendees (board members plus guests), refreshments for Board meeting participants, and other needs such as audio-visual equipment (some presidents or secretaries prefer to use Powerpoint) and/or blackboards/whiteboards.

Scheduling and requirements for the ICLA Business Meeting

The Business Meeting of the Assembly is a plenary meeting of the entire membership and so there must not be any sessions running in parallel with it. It normally occurs on the fourth day of the conference; 1 to 1.5 hours should be blocked out for it and a room of sufficient size reserved. Normally, only a portion of the membership attends, and so a room seating around 100 should be sufficient (as of 2007) although a larger auditorium would also be appropriate in case the meeting features items of great interest to many members.

Other scheduling issues

Other issues related to the skeleton schedule include the following:

1. whether to place talks in the evening and if so, how late they should run. This relates to the number of hours of talks each day. An evening session after a full day of talks has been found by members to be fatiguing.

2. number and positioning of breaks. This relates to the length of sessions. General sessions should probably go no longer than 2.5 hours without a break, with few if any exceptions. It is also important to have one overall break schedule, so that all conference participants become free to partake of refreshments at the appointed times. In other words, the break should be at the same time in general and theme sessions so that all participants are let out at the same time. Session chairs should be instructed to keep to the timetables as closely as possible. The greater the mismatch of talk times between sessions, the more palpable the feeling of chaos, as participants constantly arrive and depart at any point in the talks.

3. amount of time allotted between talks. Participants seem to always insist on switching sessions to attend the specific talks they want to hear. This means a few minutes for changing rooms at the end of each talk slot is necessary. The more distant the session rooms are from one another, the more time should be allotted. Leaving 5 minutes between the end of one talk (i.e. the end of the question period) and the start of the next has been found to work well. General session talks of 25 minutes total, including questions, are usual.

Conference size and sessions

Target size

Organizers should think carefully about the target size of the conference and set up the types and numbers of sessions accordingly. They should not simply wait and see how many abstracts they get and make the schedule around that. By the time of the abstracts deadline, the basic planning of facilities and skeleton schedule must already be finished and reported to the Governing Board.

Of course initial projections do require revision. Still, we make the point above because organizers have sometimes let the conference grow to the practically size of the number of abstracts and/or theme session proposals received, creating late planning difficulties and also considerable dilution of the quality of the sessions.

There are generally three types of sessions: General Session, Poster Session, and Theme Sessions. Each has its own special considerations in the organization process.

General Session

The General Session is typically composed of a number of parallel sessions, ideally 5 or 6. When the number of parallel sessions goes beyond this, the conference begins to become overwhelming and hence less attractive for many participants. (There have been as many as 11 parallel sessions at once. This number did not make the conference seem more exciting, but rather more fatiguing as low-quality presentations were frequently encountered.)

Organizers must pay special attention to setting up a schedule in which the desired number of general session talks can be fit. The start and end times of the talks and the sessions is also relevant here. The number of abstract acceptances for the general session must be coordinated with this total number of slots available in the session.

The length of talks is an important consideration. It has been found that 25 minutes total for a talk slot in the general session is optimal, to allow for people to change rooms between talks. Speakers should therefore be notified that they have 25 minutes total including questions. The usual time division is 20 minutes for the talk and 5 minutes for questions. But see Timekeeping, below.

A reasonably long waiting list is desirable for the general session (ca. 20-25), because there are typically many withdrawals from the program through the summer, as participants become more aware of the costs and of their access (or lack of it) to travel funds.

Poster Session

The Poster Session has often served as a way of allowing participants who did not get their abstract accepted to the general session to still make a "poster presentation" at the conference.

Poster sessions are also useful in that they allow viewing participants to be exposed to a large number of research topics in an efficient way. Viewers can concentrate on topics that interest them and control the time they spend at each station.

Facilities required are rows of portable bulletin or mounting boards, and if possible, some tables and electrical connections for laptop setup, where requested. Typically, a special two-hour session is reserved (without competition from other sessions) in which poster presenters can be on hand to make small presentations and to interact with viewers of their posters. It has been suggested that a larger and perhaps rotating poster session, accessible near the other session rooms and with good display facilities, can be a considerable attraction in itself and need not be a 'second choice' session.

The organization of general and poster sessions interact, in that often at least a part of the waiting list for general session presenters are initially assigned poster presentation slots if they wish it. (For this reason, abstract submission categories such as 'general session only', 'general or poster session', or 'poster session only' are useful.)

Organizers should keep an eye on presentation numbers and waiting lists so that the poster session does not dwindle away to nothing as slots become available in the general session. A successful poster session requires some promotion and publicity. If, as is ideal, the organizers wish to develop the poster session in the direction suggested in the last-but-one preceding paragraph, they should pay special attention to numbers and modes of publicity for this session.

Theme Sessions

The Theme Sessions allow for various types of organization. The organizers should decide early on the number of theme sessions to be accepted and how many speakers each will have, in order to integrate the theme sessions with the general session. Some issues to take into consideration when planning theme sessions are

• the balance between general session and theme sessions. Theme sessions should not completely overshadow the General Session, yet there should be enough of them to be attractive to conference attendees. Theme sessions are a popular feature of the conference.

• procedure for selecting theme sessions and the papers in theme sessions. This interacts with the next item.

• how to ensure quality papers. Theme session papers should not be allowed to bypass the reviewing process. It is important to have adequate reviewing so to forestall leaving participants with a bad impression of session quality, a complaint that has arisen a number of times with theme sessions. Organizers sometimes focus more on topics they are interested in including in the session, or on individuals they wish to present in their session, than the actual quality of the abstracts submitted to them.

• length of theme sessions. Will session organizers be able to opt for either full-day and half-day theme sessions? Or will all theme sessions be of one duration? And if so, which?

• whether the theme sessions will run in parallel to general sessions (i.e. simultaneously with general sessions). Some ICLCs set up the two kinds of session to run parallel, but if this is done there must be special attention paid to timetables. Theme sessions that start and stop at random times with respect to the general session make it more difficult for attendees to move from one session to another, and in general make the sessions more distracting. One way to get around this problem is to have time periods for theme sessions that do not run in parallel with any general sessions, e.g. particular mornings or afternoons that are devoted entirely to theme sessions. Another way is to set individual skeleton schedules for theme sessions, such that their talk and break times are in parallel with those of the general session.

• scheduling of theme sessions with respect to each other. Ideally, theme sessions appealing to similar groups of people should be scheduled at different times rather than in parallel.

• rooms for theme sessions. Some account should be taken of expected attendance at the various theme sessions. Assuming that the room size should be the same for all of them is generally unrealistic and can lead to discomfort if there is an extreme mismatch between the popularity of a theme session and the room it takes place in.

Abstract reviewing process

The abstract review process needs to be thoroughly thought through before it is begun, so that organizers are prepared for the complexity and time involved in the process.

Communication with ICLA

The ICLA expects to receive information on the process from the organizers at various stages. In the year before the conference, the organizers should report the numbers of abstracts in the various session types that they plan to accept (in conjunction with providing the Skeleton Schedule). After the conference, they will be expected to report on the numbers of abstracts of various types submitted and numbers accepted, waitlisted, and rejected.

Considerations for number of accepted abstracts

It is expected that organizers, in setting a target for numbers of abstracts accepted, will attempt to strike a balance between inclusiveness, quality, and target size of the conference, so that although many members will be able to present papers, the acceptance rate is not so high as to include poor quality abstracts, and the conference does not become too huge to be attractive to its core membership (i.e. long-term members and repeat attendees).

Policies for multiple submissions

Organizers should also think about the issue of multiple submissions from the same individual. It is reasonable to restrict the number of papers by one individual, for example to one sole-authored abstract and one co-authored abstract, or alternatively, two presentations total, regardless of author position: one general and one theme session presentation.

Since there are a limited number of presentation slots, multiple presentations by the same author seem to conference-goers to be concentrating the opportunities to speak to fewer individuals than desirable. Some organizers have allowed any number of submissions from an individual, but restricted the number of abstracts by one author that are accepted. Some reasonable policy should be adopted by the organizers that balances fairness with authors' desires.

Reviewers

Organizers should locate a stable of reviewers sufficient to handle a large volume of submissions. There are various lists of reviewers that previous organizers have used, so one way of getting sufficient reviewers is to ask around to find who has such a list. Or, build your own, starting with your local people and adding more as needed with your own contact and the help of your international advisory committee.

Ideally abstracts should be reviewed by at least three reviewers each. The organizers in charge of the reviewing process should try to match abstracts with reviewers appropriate to the topic of the abstract, based on their knowledge of the reviewers. If 300 or more abstracts are received for the general session, and each is reviewed by three people, then there will be at least 900 reviewing events. For this reason some ICLCs have used about 100 reviewers.

Activity in the ICLA is not strictly required for reviewers, but it makes sense to use such reviewers where possible, as they might be expected to know something about cognitive linguistics and to have more commitment to the organization than those who never come to the meetings.

Mode of submission

Abstracts in PDF format can be sent to reviewers via email or, more efficiently, posted to a password-protected part of the conference website for online reviewing. To make this work, good technical assistance is required and any costs for this must be budgeted. Additionally, testing of the abstract submissions software (and registration software if using an online process) should be done well in advance and--crucially--with different browsers. It should be noted that in many parts of the world other browsers are used instead of Internet Explorer. The latter is considered an insecure and outmoded browser and it has been replaced by Firefox, Opera, and other modern browsers in academia in the U.S. and other areas. We do not wish to suffer a repeat of the chaos that ensued when ICLC organizers chose to use an online registration process that only worked with Internet Explorer.

Presenter issues

Membership and registration for presenters

Presenters are not currently required to be members of the ICLA, either to submit an abstract, to present a paper, or to be a non-presenting co-author. However, all authors who attend the conference will be expected to pay the appropriate registration fee for their category of registration, like any other conference attendee. The exception is plenary and featured speakers, who are generally guests of the conference and have their registration fees waived or paid by the organizers. The conference organizers should have some mechanism in place for ensuring that all attending speakers, other than invited speakers, have paid the appropriate registration fee.

Those whose fees are waived or paid for them should be informed of this in advance of the conference and asked for any registration information needed so that packets can be made up for them. (Generally this information consists of confirmation of attendance, name and current affiliation, and all contact information valid for the period leading up to and immediately following the conference.)

Communication with participants

Organizers should make sure they have made arrangements for troubleshooting and for communicating with participants who have specific issues or questions. Again, we emphasize that interactive websites should be thoroughly tested before being placed into service.

Communication with presenters

In general, organizers should make sure to have some communication with accepted presenters so that they can have an idea of whether all the presenters will indeed attend the conference. Some authors of single-authored papers have been known to only get around to notifying organizers just before the conference, leaving unexpected gaps in the schedule that organizers have to decide whether to fill. Occasionally there are even presenters who simply do not show up at the conference, leaving attendees sitting and waiting for a speaker.

Proactive organizers can help to forestall some of these undesirable situations in two ways. First, they should announce on the conference website a deadline by which presenters should confirm their attendance at the conference. Second, organizers can use email communication at various points to search out presenters who have decided after acceptance not to attend the conference, but have not gotten around to notifying the organizers of their withdrawal. Messages to accepted presenters who have not preregistered by the preregistration deadline is a useful preliminary way of checking on attendance of presenters, and a followup after the announced deadline for confirming acceptance of the presentation slot will also catch some more withdrawing presenters. The remainder can be emailed again just before the conference to ask whether they do intend to come and give their presentation.

Attenders' listserve

For the convenience of presenters and other attendees, organizers sometimes set up a listserve so that those going to the conference can find roommates, rides, etc. This is especially useful if the conference is in an expensive locale.

Conference fees

Conference proposals typically include an estimate of the registration fees for ICLC participants. Such estimates may change as new information comes in about venue costs and other costs. However, organizers must keep within a reasonable range of their original proposal. As soon as possible after the preceding conference, the organizers should update their estimates and keep the Governing Board informed of their preliminary decisions on the fee structure for the conference and the amounts to be charged. The Board may feel it necessary to provide input on these issues.

Fee structure

The fee structure selected is very important to the financial solvency of the conference. The following are some considerations that we hope will help in this important set of decisions.

Registration categories

The usual fee structure for ICLA includes a distinction between Preregistration (sometimes called Early-Bird Registration or Advance Registration) and Walk-on Registration (sometimes called At-the-Door Registration or just Conference Registration). Offering a reduced Preregistration price by some cut-off date (often 5 or 6 weeks or so before the conference, when travelers have largely made their plans) is a good way to encourage people to sign up in advance so that organizers have advance notice about likely attendance numbers. The cost difference between Preregistration and At-the-Door Registration should be substantial enough to make it worth the trouble to preregister.

Cross-cutting distinctions in prices are those distinguishing ICLA Members from Non-members, and Students from Non-Students. Both these distinctions are well-motivated. ICLA Members should get a substantial discount on conference registration, as advertised on the ICLA website. Students should also get a substantial discount, recognizing their more limited resources and encouraging their attendance.

A fully elaborated fee structure along these lines, then, would have eight prices as follows:

	Preregistration	At-the-Door Registration
Regular Members
Student Members
Regular Non-Members
Student Non-Members

The difference between the prices offered to ICLA Members vs. Non-members should be minimally the price of membership in the ICLA. For example, if regular membership in the ICLA costs 68 Euros, then the Regular Member preregistration price should be at least 68 Euros less than the conference price for Regular Non-Members. This is to ensure that ICLA members get a discount on the conference at least equal to the cost of their membership, thus providing a desirable membership benefit. By making such a differentiation, organizers would ensure tha in effect, non-ICLA members would be subsidizing members somewhat at the conference. We want to encourage membership as much as possible and hope that some conference attendees who have not been members would have an incentive to join. If the membership is worthwhile to them, they may remain members.

It is possible to collapse some of the distinctions in the table above where they are less relevant, to simplify the structure. For example, a single price can be set for Non-Members, not distinguishing students from non-students. Doing so might encourage students to simply join the organization instead of paying a high non-membership fee not discounted for students. The distinction between Preregistration vs. At-the-Door Registration might also be less relevant for Non-Members, for example, if organizers have reason to think that most Non-members registering will be local non-cognitive linguists opportunistically attending the conference due to its location.

More considerations for setting an appropriate fee structure

Organizers should think the various issues through carefully when setting the fees. They must carefully balance considerations like the following:

1. their need to know in advance roughly how many people will come to the conference
2. the need to make registration as affordable as possible for two preferred categories, Students and ICLA Members (and especially, ICLA student members
3. the desirability of encouraging membership in the organization
4. whether or not lunches will be included in the conference fee, optionally or obligatorily (see Facilities, Refreshments and Amenities below)
5. most importantly, the anticipated costs of the conference and a projection of how much of this cost must be covered by registration fees.

It is recommended that the organizers run various projections with varying assumptions about attendance in various categories, using a spreadsheet or calculator, so that estimates for required attendence for the conference to at least break even can be arrived at and appropriate fees set.

Other special registration categories

Special prices for non-employed participants, married couple participants, participants for currency-challenged countries, etc. are also possible. If the conference is held concurrently with another linguistic event, such as the LSA Institute, is it a good idea to offer a special price for attendees of that event (publicized to those attendees). For example, in 1999, a special $30 walk-on conference price was offered to registrants of the Linguistic Society of America Institute, and the ICLC gained a significant extra attendance of people present at the venue for another reason, for no additional outlay. In general it is a good idea to set a price for a single-day attendance at the conference, because there are often local people who just want to hear a single keynote lecturer.

In-absentia presenters

It is also a good idea to have a firm policy set in advance for accepted presenters who are unable to attend the conference but wish their paper to be presented in absentia. The problem this issue presents to organizers is that speakers may discover that presenting a paper in absentia is a cheaper way of getting their paper presented than attending the conference, and may therefore be more likely to drop out as the conference nears. Further, allowing in absentia readings might interfere with the waiting lists for provisionally accepted presenters who want to attend the conference, and it might even affect conference finances since authors are expected attendees and thus included in projected finances. Some organizers have charged half fees for such speakers, some have charged the whole registration fee. Organizers should figure out a fair policy and apply it consistently when people make special requests of this type.

Other presenter charging issues

Organizers should be sure to cross-check the registration lists (preregistration and at-the-door registration) with the lists of scheduled conference authors/co-authors for the various sessions, for various reasons. Presenters are a significant proportion of the conference attendees. It is a good idea to communicate electronically before the conference with scheduled authors who do not preregister (including invited speakers), so that their intention of coming to the conference can be verified. Doing this will help increase the accuracy of the projected attendance at the conference, as well as reduce the potential problem of no-shows, i.e. accepted presenters who forget to report that they are unable to attend the conference.

It is also worth noting that conference presenters sometimes apparently believe that attendance is free at the conference for presenters, or is free if they attend only a portion of the conference. Occasionally presenters who have not registered have to be pursued and reminded that a registration fee is required. Non-paying presenters can collectively seriously affect the income from registration needed to cover costs. If organizers have carefully projected attendance including numbers of presenter-attendees, their numbers can be seriously thrown off by non-paying presenters, leading to a loss.

These factors suggest a second reason for communication with accepted authors before the conference, aside from identifying accepted presenters who do not arrive: to ensure that all attending authors know that they are expected to pay to attend the conference, like all other attendees.

Refund policies

Organizers should have a consistent policy for refunds of conference fees. Sometimes participants have to withdraw, with notice, but have already paid for registration. Organizers must decide whether the can make complete refunds after particular dates, and make sure that the policies on refunds are clear. If it is necessary to have penalties for withdrawal after pre-registration, e.g. because of bank fees, it should be indicated in advance on the website.

Reduced fees

Another type of special request organizers might receive is for reduced fees for attending only part of the conference. A per day charge for partial conference attendance is reasonable, but it should be set up in advance to cover such requests fairly and consistently.

Changes from the proposal re: registration fees

Conference organizers should provide the Governing Board with information on funds secured or denied from outside bodies as such information becomes available. Any relevant changes that are brought about by changes in funding or fees set should be communicated to the Board.

Participants' needs before and during the conference

The success of the conference will depend not only on academic interest and quality, but also on the degree to which the organizers have taken into account the needs and comfort of their attendees. The following are the most obvious areas in which thought about participants' needs is necessary.

Accommodation

A range of hotels, hostels and/or dorm rooms with special conference rates at different levels of affordability, including sufficient rooms affordable by students and other currency-challenged participants, should be negotiated by the organizers. Arranging for blocks of hotel rooms a reduced rates for conference goers is a task that should be performed as early as possible in relation to hotel requirements.

If a conference service is hired to carry out some of the organization tasks, organizers should be sure that the tasks assigned to the service are appropriate and that the participants get good value for them--since they are paying through registration fees. One thing that has upset attendees at some of our conferences is arranging for conference hotel rooms via the conference website (or associated conference service website) and then discovering upon arrival that the hotel rate is more than it would have been if they had simply made arrangements directly through the hotel website.

Attendees rightly object to paying extra for effectively no extra service. In the cases mentioned above, the conference service took a commission simply for having the attendees book their accommodations themselves but through the service's website, which the organizers effectively routed them through. Organizers should make certain there is value added before routing hotel bookings through a for-profit conference service. If there is not, participants should simply be given a list of a selection of nearby hotels and prices accompanied by hotel website URLs that they can use to book their rooms directly.

Travel information

Clear information on how to get to the conference locale should be made available on the conference website at least a week in advance of the conference. Information on various modes of travel to the venue and hotels from airports, train stations, etc. must be available. Downloadable maps with directions from hotels to the conference site are a good idea. To the extent possible, prices for taxi and modes of public transport should be listed and checked for up-to-dateness.

Registration and sign-in processes

The mechanics of the registration and sign-in (for preregistrants) processes should be designed carefully. Organizers should take care that participants will not have to wait in long lines to either sign in as preregistrants to get their materials, or to register and pay as at-the-door participants. Materials should be prepared in advance and put into packets/bags ready for pickup by preregistrants and walk-on registrants as they arrive. Conference presenters should have special packets with information for presenters included.

These are simple and seemingly obvious expecations, yet we had a conference in which the packets were put together by conference attendants for each registrant as their registration was processed, leading to famously lengthy waits.

Registration attendants

Sufficient conference helpers should be available to process registrations. Separate lines for preregistrants, whose processing takes less time, and walk-on registrants, who have to pay during the process, are advisable. It is useful where there are many registrants to have the walk-on registrants in different lines based on their last initial. Conference helpers should know the process in advance, and know how to be speedy and efficient in processing the hundreds of registrants that typically attend the conference.

Packet contents

The conference packet should include at least

• an up-to-date schedule
• a nametag
• a registration receipt for registration
• tickets for prepaid meals and excursions
• a list of participants
• a list of local restaurants/refreshments spots
• instructions for getting to special locales like the conference dinner
• information on local public transport
• a venue map (conference buildings and conference rooms)
• information on the book exhibit
• information on the excursions
• and any other information conference goers are likely to need.

Publishers can also arrange with the conference organizers, for a fee, to have the packets stuffed with flyers or other ad materials.

Pre-registrants should receive preprinted nametags with their names and affiliations. A frequent problem is that names are printed out on labels in print too small for anyone to read. Organizers should make sure that nametags are readable minimally from a normal conversational distance. The preferred type of nametag is worn around the neck on a lanyard, or clipped to clothing. Pins are dispreferred because they damage clothing. Walk-in registrants should also be able to get nametags, either handwritten on the spot or printed in batches as registration progresses.

A typical way of making meal and/or excursion tickets available and handy to carry is to place them inside the plastic nametag sheath. Packets can be personalized with the appropriate tickets ordered.

Lanyard-nametags are ideal but can get expensive. One way to defray the cost is to get a publisher or other advertiser to sponsor them, and possibly even print their name or logo on the background of nametags OR on the lanyard. At the end of the conference, organizers can put out receptacles for lanyard-nametags and announce that they will be recycled for future conferences.

Each participant should receive a separate alphabetical list of participants with all of their contact information: name, address, and email address. If a protected conference website area is maintained, invulnerable to web crawlers, then conference-goers could access the participant list and download it for their own use before or after the conference.

Facilities, refreshments and amenities

Taking into account conference size and climate

Organizers should make sure that the facilities they intend to secure are appropriate and sufficient for the target size of the conference. If the conference venue is in a hot climate, air conditioned facilities should be provided. Even in northern climates, summer heat is a factor that should be taken carefully into consideration. Discussion with facilities providers regarding air conditioning, ventilation, humidity control, etc. should form part of general discussions about practical issues such building opening times, custodial support, etc.

Lunches

There must either be a lunchroom at the conference site, or a range of close-by commercial establishments where lunch can be quickly and inexpensively obtained (ideally both). If there is an on-site lunchroom or cafeteria, a lunch ticket system might be a good choice to make sure that the lines flow quickly and the conference goers can get and eat their lunch in the allotted period between sessions. Many organizers negotiate for discount lunches en masse at such facilities and include the lunch price in the registration fee (often as an optional extra if purchased lunches are otherwise readily available). Vegetarian and other dietary options should be readily available if meals are to be taken in a dining hall; similarly for dinners.

Dinners

There should be sufficient nearby establishments available for participants to get dinner, as well as lunch if there is no on-site catering facility such as a dining hall. Maps to nearby restaurants, cafes, and bars should be provided with registration materials, and an indication of which establishments have vegetarian and other dietary options.

Scheduling dinner times

The conference schedule should take into account that one of the chief values of the conference is the chance for participants to engage in professional discussions over meals. Therefore sufficient evening hours should be left for an evening out. Holding plenary, regular, or theme sessions after 6:00 is therefore not desirable unless the conference is set up to allow for dinner before an evening session or keynote talk. At least one conference had a dinner break 6:00-8:00 p.m and one or more plenary talks at 8:00 p.m., but reactions from the participants were mixed. Festive evenings out when attending the ICLC are highly valued by many of its participants.

Water

Access to water must be available in the public areas. Water coolers, kept constantly replenished, or cool bottled water should be available. Large quantities of water will be necessary in the summer heat in most places. This basic need should be provided for without extra charge. Some large conventions have taken to arranging for a commercial 'water sponsor' who provides bottled water in ice basins free, in return for the privilege of placing their own label on the water bottles. Water must also be available in the presentation rooms for the speakers.

Break refreshments

Break refreshments should be made available at each coffee break. Coffee and tea are expected in the mornings before the conference. In the subsequent breaks, coffee and tea and/or cool drinks should be available (particularly in hot weather). Additionally, some tasty food items such as small sandwiches should be made available in the breaks in the middle of the morning and mid-afternoon. Particularly if the registration fee is high, the participants will expect some nice refreshments.

Conference dinner

The conference dinner should be a social, affordable event. The main idea is to provide a forum for people to interact dynamically. A formal dinner with pre-assigned seating is not ideal. A better (and cheaper) solution is a buffet with flexible seating options.

Restrooms

Restrooms in adequate numbers of for the target conference size, and in which cleanliness and supplies are maintained during the entire conference, including weekends, are essential to the comfort of participants. Failure on this point can contribute to unpleasant memories of the conference despite excellent content.

Rooms needed and room sizes

Conference facilities should include a single large auditorium seating about 500 for the full plenary sessions. (ICLC 8 had about 540 participants; ICLC 9, 410; ICLC 10, ca. 520) Attendance at general session presentations often runs around 60, so an appropriate number of rooms of this size for the parallel general sessions should be secured. Popular theme sessions can attract 100 or more participants, so this size room is also required for the more popular sessions. A large open room for the Poster Session should be found, of a size appropriate to fit the number of posters to be accepted. Scaffolds or large portable bulletin boards should be available in appropriate numbers for the accepted posters.

Other rooms needed, as mentioned above, include meeting rooms for Governing Board meeting and ICLA Business meeting, Poster Session, and for the Book Exhibit. (Some of the rooms, with appropriate scheduling, might be dual-purpose.) One or two small seminar rooms with conference tables would be very useful for ad hoc meetings of small groups of conference participants engaging in intellectual exchange, editorial, or other business.

Other spaces

There should be easy access to quiet, comfortable, flexible spaces for discussion. Outside spaces with seating are highly valued.

Smoke-free areas

Every effort should be made to provide smoke-free areas, especially for meals and snacks. No-smoking areas in public spaces at the conference venue should be created if they do not already exist.

Equipment

Presentation rooms need to be supplied with chalkboards/whiteboards and associated writing implements. At the very least, a writing scaffold or easel with a large pad should be supplied. Audio-visual equipment should be readily available, including such machines as overhead projectors, VCRs, and audio speakers. Other needed equipment includes laser pointers and microphones. Sometimes presenters even request tape recorders or real slide projectors (rather than overheads or powerpoint).

Modern standards now also require a data projector (also called LCD projector or beamer) with cables compatible with IBM-compatible and Macintosh laptops. A large number of presenters use Powerpoint and similar programs and expect these facilities to be available, so this need must be taken into account.

One of the organizers should be responsible for scheduling such equipment if it is not permanently installed in the rooms, and must make sure the equipment requested by presenters is supplied in the correct room at the right time. An A/V person should be onsite and available by cellphone during the sessions for troubleshooting problems with equipment.

Timekeeping

The organizers should find volunteers to chair sessions, ideally well in advance of the conference. They should make a brief set of Guidelines for Chairing Sessions which impresses on the chairs the need for keeping to the schedule.

The usual division of a general session time slot for timing purposes is (in a 25-minute total talk slot) is 20 minutes for a talk and 5 minutes for questions. But the speaker can request a 15-10 minute split instead. The timekeeper should make sure to ask before the start of a talk when the speaker intends to finish the main part of the talk (after 20 minutes; or after only 15 minutes) and time should then be kept accordingly.

Time cards must be available in each presentation room for the session chairs. There must also be water and cups or glasses at the table for speakers and session chairs. Such details have occasionally been forgotten by organizers. A conference looks poorly organized if a hapless student helper or session chair is left scrambling for these things just before the session starts.

The session chair should position him or herself wherever the speaker can best see the timecards and acknowledge them.

Excursions, conference dinner and other events

Extra events are typically planned to help attract participants to the conference venue, and to break up the long periods of intense intellectual engagement. The organizational structure for such events should be well thought-through. A day or a half-day, at least, should be set aside for conference participants to make excursions to nearby sites of interest.

Organized excursions

A choice of organized excursions should be arranged for this break period. Especially where such excursions are run by commercial concerns or others distinct from the organizers, some accountability should be preserved and back-up and contact arrangements should be made so that participants do not find themselves stranded or otherwise left without the services they paid for. (This has actually happened! It should never happen again.) Someone from the organizing committee must be delegated to be responsible for troubleshooting the excursions beforehand and when in progress.

Conference dinner

A conference dinner that is optional for registrants is traditionally arranged by the organizers. It has ranged from an elaborate banquet to a beach barbecue. Organizers should recognize the desirability of making the dinner affordable so that the maximum number of participants can attend, including students and those from countries with low currency and salaries.

Other events

Additional organized events such as boat rides, concerts or other musical entertainment, tours of museums, castles or temples, etc., are attractive ways to make the conference enjoyable and memorable.

Book exhibit

The organizers are expected to arrange with publishers for a Book Exhibit, at which the latest titles in Cognitive Linguistics and related fields can be perused and/or purchased. The Book Exhibit typically runs for most of the time of the conference.

ICLA-associated publishers

Benjamins and Mouton should be offered opportunities to sponsor various aspects of the conference such as receptions, conference bags or other supplies, etc. Organizers should be aware of the supportive role in cognitive linguistics of these publishers and our organizations special relations with them. Thus, their needs should be taken into account.

Coordination of Book Exhibit

The conference organizers should designate a local person to coordinate the exhibit space and tables/chairs, the receipt of shipped exhibit materials, securing the exhibit books after hours, and other aspects of the book exhibit.

Location of Exhibit: The exhibit space is ideally in a large room near to the conference rooms, rather than in hallways or open public spaces where it might be too cramped and noisy for conversation, and where security cannot be adequately provided. An exception might be a very large public lobby in which the tables can be lined up for exhibiting in part of it without much interference from non-conference traffic or noise (the arrangements in Seoul and Krakow were like this, for example, and worked reasonably well).

There should be enough space in the exhibit area for conference-goers to gather and chat, and ideally, some visitor seating for this purpose. The exhibit area should be reasonably near the talks so that participants can drop into it easily. The publishers will not appreciate an out-of-the-way room that few participants find their way to.

Donation of publisher's display books

It is usual for publishers exhibiting materials at the conference to donate their unsold exhibit books to the ICLA through the local organizing committee, in part as a good will gesture and in part to save themselves the cost of return shipping of unsold display copies. Expectation of donation of left-over display copies should be specified in the invitation to exhibit, so that there is no misunderstanding with publishers unaware of arrangements at previous ICLCs, or with publishers from countries with a different tradition, or from smaller, local publishers who cannot afford to dispose of their conference books this way. If a publisher is unable to donate books, this should be clear on both sides well before the conference.

The retail value of books left behind for donation by the publishers can be very high. Conference organizers may wish to organize a book sale or a silent auction of donated exhibit books at reduced prices at the conference to help raise money to help defray conference expenses, add to the Sign Language Interpreting Fund, or (if expenses are already covered) to provide some compensation to the hard-working conference helpers.

Participant feedback

Organizers should make some arrangement for getting participant feedback about their experience at the conference. A sheet included in the conference pack is one way, as long it is publicized that the sheets are there and should be filled out and returned in designated receptacles. Another mode of collecting feedback is via a web form. The URL for submitting feedback should in this case be included in the conference packet.

Organizers should ask for feedback about aspects of organization such as the registration process and facilities. They should also ask about the content and quality of the conference to make sure attendees' interests are being served.

Organizer's report on the conference

The organizer or representative of the current conference is expected to present to the Governing Board an overview of the conference including the number of registrants of various categories and a financial overview. This presentation will be on the agenda of the Governing Board meeting at the conference in question. The organizer should bring a handout, powerpoint, or overhead materials to show the Board. If the information is not all in yet, then the organizer will show an overview, indicating the general financial condition of the conference (e.g. whether it is likely to break even or otherwise) and then by September submit to the President and Secretary a final report with full data.

The financial statement will contain such information as funds raised from various sources including registration, ICLA funds, and other fund-raising activities of the conference organizers; and funds disbursed in various categories of expenditure. This final report should be sent via electronic mail so that it can be posted on the website. The Governing Board will examine and approve the final report, requesting more information if necessary.

APPENDIX

Basic Timeline for ICLA organization

Proposal with preliminary budget - latest, 2 years preceding conference

Propose conference dates to Governing Board - during Fall after last conference; absolute latest by January of year preceding the conference

Finalize conference dates with Board's feedback - before December holidays after last conference

Announce conference dates to cogling-l and other lists - as soon as dates are finalized

Construct basic budget with more informed estimates (must include budget for plenaries) - before plenaries are invited

Begin negotiations for lodging arrangements --18 months to one year before the conference; 2 years if conference is in a busy conference venue. Lodging includes on-campus or other dormitory space, as well as hotels

Arrange for meeting rooms and auditorium - as above

Line up food service providers and start negotiations for lunches, refreshments, conference dinner - begin 18-15 months before conference

Select plenary speakers (with featured speakers if desired, depending on budget) - ca. 20 months preceding conference

Invite plenary speakers, making clear what expenses will be covered - latest 18 months before conference

Block out Skeleton Schedule - latest one year before the conference

Design conference website - latest one year before the conference. It must be tested and ready in time for abstract submissions. Calls for papers after the first preliminary announcement must refer to website

Design reviewing database, ideally with capability for direct submission of abstracts online and online reviewing capability, and test it--well in time for abstract submission

Start sequence of announcements (with plenaries as publicity draw):

1. Preliminary announcement of conference - as soon as dates are firm
2. Call for theme session proposals - latest one year before conference
3. First Call for Papers, with general session abstract deadline specified - must be 10-12 weeks before abstract submission deadline
4. Abstracts deadline (general and poster session): ca 9 months before conference
5. Second call for papers - ca. 6 weeks before deadline
6. Final call for papers - ca. 2-3 weeks before deadline

Line up sufficient reviewers and backups (for reviewers who agree to provide reviews but then do not) - start ca. one year before conference

Abstract reviewing process for general session - from about Nov. 1 to about Jan 15. (Abstract deadline should be LATEST Nov. 15, due to winter holidays. Organizers should send or post abstracts for review before the holidays so that reviewers can have a chance to look at them before the end of the holidays.)

Theme session proposal reviewing - begin ca. 9 months before conference.

Acceptance notifications - 4-5 months before conference - minimally 2 months before conference. Keep in mind that participants need to apply for conference funding from their home institutions.

Book Exhibit - Initiate contact with publishers and market exhibit tables, conference book ads, packet inserts. Negotiation of sponsorships (conference bags, receptions etc.) - start latest 1 year before conference. Keep in mind that publishers will have to arrange their travel schedule to accommodate ICLC.

Finalize Book Exhibit logistics - space, tables etc. 5-6 months before conference.

Document History
--First draft finished by SK 2/25/03 based on ICLC 7 Santa Barbara organizational experiences
--Sent to organizers of ICLC 8 in Logroño Feb. 2003
--Updated 9/7/03 with extensive input from ICLC Board based on ICLC 8 conference in Logroño
--Distributed to Governing Board Sept. 2003
--Updated 9/21/03 with more feedback from ICLC Board members
--Updated 6/22/04 and sent to ICLC 9 organizers of Seoul conference
--Distributed at ICLC 9 Governing Board meeting July 2005
--Updated after ICLC 9 and sent to President and ICLC 10 organizers for ICLC in Krakow, August 2005
--Updated after ICLC 10 and sent to Board and ICLC 11 Berkeley organizer December 2007
--Posted on ICLA website May 2008

Updated 17 Feb 2010

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