The following guidelines are provided to assist Area Chairs with organizing sessions at AAPT National Meetings:

Contributed Sessions

• When an Area Committee wants to encourage the submission of contributed papers on a specific topic, it may sponsor or co-sponsor a Contributed Session. The Area Committee Chair is responsible for submitting the Session Request Form by the appropriate deadline: May 1 for Winter Meetings and October 15 for Summer Meetings.
  
• A call for papers must be included on the Session Request Form at the time of submission. This will be published in the Announcer to inform members of the solicitation of contributed papers on this topic.
  
• Each presenter may give a maximum of one invited talk and one oral contributed talk. All other papers need to be presented in poster format. (Adopted by the Executive Board, January 1998)
  
• When papers include multiple authors, the name of the presenter(s) will be listed first for all oral and poster presentations (Adopted by the Executive Board, January 1998)

Invited Sessions

• Invited sessions identify the major themes in physics and physics education at our national meetings. Speakers for these sessions should be nationally recognized authorities. There is a two-speaker minimum per invited session.
  
• Invited sessions are sponsored or co-sponsored by Area Committees and one member is designated as the Session Organizer, and usually acts as the session presider. Other members may act as co-organizers. The Session Organizer and Area Chair are responsible for submitting the Session Request Form by the appropriate deadline: May 1 for Winter Meetings and October 15 for Summer Meetings.
  
• Invited papers are generally scheduled to last 30 minutes, including questions. Speakers should allow approximately five minutes at the end of their talks for questions. Shorter time limits can be allotted. Invited sessions are normally a maximum of 1.5 hours long. Longer sessions can be accommodated only with the approval of the Program Chair.
  
• A speaker may give only one invited talk per year unless granted an exemption by a majority vote of the Program Committee. (Adopted by the Executive Board, January 1999)
  
• The Area Chair is responsible for informing the Session Organizer of the procedures for inviting speakers. It should be made clear that AAPT does not provide travel or other expenses for the speaker. The Program Chair must approve any special requests for travel or other funds prior to issuing an invitation. AAPT extends the courtesy of complimentary meeting registrations to those invited speakers who are not members of AAPT.
  
• It is the responsibility of the Area Chair to notify all session organizers that their Request Forms have been submitted for the meeting and to give them the appropriate deadline dates that information is due to the Meetings Department.
  
• The Session Organizer is responsible for identifying (if this has not been done by the Committee) a list of potential speakers for the invited session. The Session Organizer contacts each potential speaker on behalf of the Area Committee to see if he or she is willing to give the talk. Formal invitations will be sent to all confirmed speakers by the Meetings Department under the signature of the Program Chair.
  
• No later than three weeks before the deadline for abstract submission, the Session Organizer must provide the AAPT Director of Meetings with a list of speakers in the order they will present. This list must contain complete contact information (telephone number, e-mail address, and postal address) for each speaker. Abstracts for invited speakers should be submitted via the usual channels before the deadline.
  
• Invited Sessions with fewer than three invited speakers may be converted to an Invited/Contributed session at the discretion of the Program Chair, and no invited session will be held with only one invited speaker.
  
• Organizers of invited and invited/contributed sessions may not invite themselves to give an invited talk. (Adopted by the Executive Board, January 1998)

Invited/Contributed Combined Sessions

• Invited/Contributed Sessions are intended to focus attention on a particular topic, but not to the extent of holding an Invited Session.
  
• There are to be at least two invited papers in invited/contributed sessions. (Adopted by the Programs Committee, August 1998)
  
• Please let the Program Chair know if your session would work in reverse; that is, if the contributed papers could go first to be followed by the invited papers. This reduces the potential conflicts for members who selectively choose to attend invited papers. Also, certain topics lend themselves to alternating invited and contributed papers.
  
• The guidelines for both the invited sessions and the contributed sessions apply to invited/contributed sessions.
  
• Organizers of invited and invited/contributed sessions may not invite themselves to give an invited talk. (Adopted by the Executive Board, January 1998)

Poster Sessions

• When an Area Committee wants to encourage the submission of poster papers on a specific topic, it may sponsor or co-sponsor a Poster Session. The Area Committee Chair is responsible for submitting the Session Request Form by the appropriate deadline: May 1 for Winter Meetings and October 15 for Summer Meetings.
  
• A call for papers must be included on the Session Request Form at the time of submission. This will be published in the Announcer to inform members of the solicitation of poster papers on this topic. The posters will then be displayed collectively at one of the regularly scheduled AAPT Poster Sessions during the meeting.
  
• There is no limit to the number of poster papers one presenter may give but nonmembers do require sponsorship by an AAPT member in good standing.
  
• Poster contributors must attend the meeting in order to present in poster format. A poster may not be submitted for display without the author in attendance. (Adopted by the Executive Board, January 1998)
  
• Poster presenters are only required to be present with their posters during two daily scheduled Exhibit Hall Break times. They may, however, choose to be present at other times as well.
  
• Each poster presenter will have a poster board area measuring 4'x4' on which to display their poster, plus a table area measuring 3'x15" beneath it for handouts. Push pins will be provide by AAPT. Any electrical needs must be conveyed to the AAPT Meeting Department at least one month prior to the meeting.

Session Log

For a complete listing of each Committee Session Log, please visit our website at http://www.aapt.org/sessionlog/.

Sample Session Log:

Apparatus
SUMMER 2003
1) OTHER: Laboratory Share-a-Thon - 2 hrs, any evening that does not conflict with HS Share-a-Thon or our committee meeting - Richard Flarend
2) WORKSHOP: (Co-sponsored by Laboratories): Introductory Instructional Laboratories - PM first day - Dean Hudek, Adam Beehler, Van Bistrow, Machele Cable, Brian Jones, Tony Papirio, Ken Silva, Steve Wonnell
3) WORKSHOP: (Co-sponsored by Physics in HS): CASTLE Advanced Curriculum Electricity Workshop - PM second day - Melvin Steinberg, Richard Feren, Robert Morse
4) WORKSHOP: (Co-sponsored by Laboratories): Advanced and Intermediate Instructional Laboratories - PM second day - Dean Hudek, Van Bistrow, Tony Papirio, Ken Silva, Ramon Torres-Isea, Steve Wonnell
5) OTHER: Poster Session on Instructional Laboratory Apparatus - in regular poster display on Mon, followed by poster display in apparatus room, Call for Papers - Dean Hudek, Richard Flarend
6) (Submitted Late) WORKSHOP: Lecture Demonstrations I - full day, first day - David Maiullo, Cliff Betts, Jerry Hester, Vacek Miglus, Zigmund Peacock, Sam Sampere, Gerald Zani
7) (Submitted Late) WORKSHOP: Lecture Demonstrations II - full day, second day - David Maiullo, Cliff Betts, Jerry Hester, Vacek Miglus, Zigmund Peacock, Sam Sampere, Gerald Zani
8) CRACKERBARREL: Instructional Laboratories - Tues, 1.5 hrs - Dean Hudek