Announcing the first Millennium Conference:
Water-Ecosystem Services, Drought, and Environmental Justice
November 9-12, 2009
Athens, Georgia
In 2007, the ESA Governing Board announced the new Millennium Conference Series, which provides ESA members the opportunity to organize special conferences highlighting emerging, exciting ideas in ecology with the endorsement and support of the Society. The Series is intended to address high-visibility issues of wide interest in the science community. Organizers are encouraged to work across disciplinary boundaries, to engage compelling speakers, and to produce high-quality publications.
Millennium Conferences will typically last 3 to 5 days and may include plenary sessions, parallel presentation sessions, posters, and workshop style discussions. The target number of participants should be 60 to 100, including 15 to 20 graduate students. Each conference will be expected to produce at least one peer-reviewed publication, and additional products intended for policy or educational use should be strongly considered. Approved conferences will receive logistical support from ESA Headquarters, and the Governing Board committed $50,000 from the Millennium Fund to support the first conference.
Every other year, a Call for Proposals will be distributed widely among ESA membership. The current President of the Society will appoint a committee to review and choose a proposal for the next Millennium Conference. The target date for the Conference will be approximately 15 months after the proposal is selected.
The location of the selected conference will be decided by the Conference Organizing Committee in consultation with ESA staff. All negotiations and contracts regarding final site arrangements, meeting space, hotel blocks, etc. will be the responsibility of ESA staff. ESA staff will be responsible for all meeting logistics such as publicity, abstract submission process, preparation of conference program, conference registration, etc. ESA will be fully responsible for conference finances, and ESA staff will work with the Conference Organizing Committee to develop a budget and identify potential sources of funding.
The Conference Organizing Committee will develop the conference agenda, identify invitees, and determine invitees’ willingness to participate. The Organizing Committee will also determine plenary speakers, session chairs, etc. and will be responsible for reviewing abstracts.
Each conference will be expected to produce one or more papers for publication in an ESA journal; for example, a synthesis article in Frontiers and/or a feature or supplement in Ecology or Ecological Applications. Additional products should strongly be considered, depending on the subject matter and format of the given conference. The Conference Organizing Committee will lead the development of conference products, with support from ESA staff as needed.
The first ESA Millennium Conference will be held in the fall of 2009 on “Water-Ecosystem Services, Drought, and Environmental Justice”. A Call for Proposals for the second ESA Millennium Conference will be announced also in the fall of 2009.
For further information, please contact Aleta Wiley, Science Programs Assistant at ESA Headquarters, 202-833-8773 ext. 218, email aleta@esa.org.
The Millennium Conference Series is made possible by the contributions of ESA members to the Millennium Fund. For more information, or to contribute, go to www.esa.org/member_services/support.php.
