What do presiders do?
Presiding is a great way to participate in a session of interest to you and help the conference run smoothly. Presiders interact with each speaker and help manage the session, so it is an opportunity to meet all of the speakers in a specific session. We are currently looking for presiders for all of the Contributed Oral Sessions (listed as COS in the online program).
The primary responsibilities of presiders are to 1) introduce each speaker and 2) keep each speaker on schedule. A student volunteer will assist with A/V needs for each session. Presiders do not need to worry about any A/V troubleshooting. If you have not been a presider before, we do suggest you attend one of the 3 presider training sessions offered this year. Times and locations are listed below.
Presider and A/V training sessions
Although we recommend new presiders attend a training session, it is not required. The important details that you need to know will be included in an instruction packet we will send to all presiders by email closer to the conference. (Update: The packet contents are Presider Training slides (PPT), Presenter View instructions (DOC), and a helpful Ecology 101 article (PDF). If you do choose to attend one of these sessions, there’s no need to let us know in advance.
Presider Training Session 1
Sunday, August 6, 2017: 3:00 PM-3:30 PM
Portland Blrm 253, Oregon Convention Center
Presider Training Session 2
Monday, August 7, 2017: 11:30 AM-12:00 PM
B112, Oregon Convention Center
Presider Training Session 3
Tuesday, August 8, 2017: 11:30 AM-12:00 PM
E146, Oregon Convention Center
Sounds good! How do I sign up to preside?
Simply follow the link at the end of this section to sign up online. You will probably find it useful to browse the online program for topics first. Some other things to consider:
- Presiding is limited to the contributed oral sessions (COS). Other oral sessions have moderators instead. Moderators are recruited by session organizers.
- You may preside over the session you are presenting in if you wish to do so. Otherwise, be sure to check for conflicts with your own presentation time before signing up.
- Presiding is available on a first come, first serve basis. Certain topics are popular choices and will go quickly.
- We typically find the Friday morning sessions more difficult to assign. If you plan to attend Friday morning and could preside then, please consider doing so to help us fill the schedule.
- If you’re willing to preside over more than one session, please sign up for just one session right now. We’re hoping that each person will only need to cover one. If we do need to fill a few last slots, we’ll email again to let you know.
To sign up, simply open this Google spreadsheet and enter your name and email next an available session.
Students please read!
Student volunteering and presiding are two different things. The student volunteer application process is separate and different from presiding. You are welcome to participate in both, but please be aware that presiding will not count as student volunteer hours. If you sign up to preside and are also selected for a volunteer position, the time you spend presiding will not count toward your volunteer hours.
Feel free to contact us (jennifer@esa.org) if you have any questions or concerns. We appreciate our presiders, who help the meeting run smoothly. Thank you for your interest!
