|
I was honored to be a member
of the National Organizing Committee for the IUPS Meeting held in San Diego,
2005. We had approximately five years to discuss submitted plans for this
meeting. Our major tasks were to review a vast array of reports of hard
working committees necessary in planning a meeting the size of IUPS with its
many constituencies, to oversee the development of the scientific programs
and to have input on the social activities that would accompany the
scientific sessions. I believe the committee did an outstanding job in
overseeing all aspects of this meeting.
The IUPS was five years in the making and a wonderful program resulted from
the many planning sessions by several levels of scientific programming
committees. My thoughts and memories of the IUPS meeting (which are fading
fast) are centered around scientific programming. No matter how far in
advance we plan, there are always unpredictable changes in the scientific
program by virtue of unanticipated emergencies or other circumstances that
result in speakers, who had previously committed to attending the meeting
and presenting, are suddenly drawn away.
While this is inevitable in any meeting of this size, my memories were of
panic when I discovered that three of the four speakers in one of the
symposia on the topic of my interest had medical emergencies or other
unforeseen problems to tend to and would not be able to make the meeting. A
colleague of mine who organized the symposium called me for “help” and with
relatively short notice, I agreed to step in and give one of the talks. With
his help we were able to identify two substitute speakers and a substitute
chair of the session. The symposium went on as scheduled with only one of
the chosen speakers, and with three new speakers and a new chair. The
speakers did a superb job of pinch-hitting and the morning was saved. My
stress levels were 10 on a score of 10.
In talking to other participants of the IUPS meeting, I learned of a
situation that occurred in another section. In this case, a symposium that
was sponsored by one of the sections turned out to have the original
organizer, but the rest of the scientific session was stacked entirely with
the organizer, a spouse who worked in the lab and current or past trainees
all working in the same laboratory. This was not what was originally
proposed although the audience may not have recognized this.
Maybe there are lessons to be learned from being showered every weekend in
the autumn with Ohio State University Football. The “Buckeyes” cannot
predict when a player will be injured, but you can bet that in the event
that happens, football Coach Jim Tressel has a game plan with a substitute.
For certain, you can predict there will be “no shows” at meetings, but you
cannot predict where breaches in the scientific program will be. Some
mechanism for identifying alternates for the speakers at the scientific
planning sessions might be a good thing. That way, when the roster of
speakers is approved they could also approve a potential list of alternates
who might be contacted in the event speakers have dropped out. These people
would be contacted only if drop outs occurred prior to the meeting. Several
members of one of the scientific planning committees might serve as a
subcommittee that would screen and approve the substitution when there was a
cancellation.
Coach Tressel, faced with making a substitution for an injured player, might
not agree to “passing the buck” to a subcommittee of his staff , but if
speakers drop out the day of the meeting because of medical or other
emergencies, then I would suggest the organizers of the meeting do what the
“Buckeyes” do best – PUNT.
|
