Programs Committee Meetings

As the chair of an Area Committee, you are automatically a member of the Programs Committee, an AAPT advisory committee. As a member, you will assist the Program Chair in planning the two annual national meetings and ensuring coordination of the work of the Area Committees as it pertains to programs.

During each Winter and Summer Meeting, the Program Committee meets twice. Programs I is scheduled before any individual Area Committee meets, while Programs II is scheduled after all of the Area Committees have met.

You (or a designated representative) must attend both meetings of the Program Committee at each AAPT National Meeting.

Programs I

At Programs I, committee members will discuss ideas or concerns about the current meeting with the Program chair pointing out some of the highlights or particular events to watch. This is also a time for a preliminary discussion of themes and speakers for future meetings and a discussion of any new changes in procedures. The Program Chair (and others) will also bring up items that you may want to discuss during your Area Committee meeting.

At Programs I, you will receive the following:

• Schedule of Copy Deadlines for the Announcer (at January meeting only).

Programs II

Programs II serves as a review of the current meeting and a planning session for the program at the next annual meeting. It is very important for future meetings that the Program Committee receives feedback from the Area Committees concerning the arrangements and program of the current meeting. Questions to consider are:

• Were particular sessions or workshops so successful that they should be considered for repeating at future meetings?
• Were there some sessions or workshops that we've offered a number of times that we should consider dropping for a while?
• Were any changes in the program schedule worth repeating?
• What was the reaction to the plenary sessions and other special events?
• Should we consider returning to this location for a future meeting?

The largest fraction of the time in Programs II is spent discussing the next two national meetings. This is the time to finalize the list of plenary speakers for the next meeting and to propose names for future meetings. It is also a time to discuss the invited and invited/contributed sessions and the workshops to see if we will have a well-rounded program, if we have too many sessions or workshops, and if we can arrange joint sponsorship of sessions and workshops.

If there is time remaining, the Program chair may ask the Committee to do some long-range planning.