Member-Organized Sessions
Proposing a Member-Organized Session
What is a Member-Organized Session?
As the name suggests, a member-organized session is initiated by an ACCUTE member who proposes a session (deadline the preceding August 15) for the annual ACCUTE conference. Member-organized sessions are not invitational: you pick the topic but do not pre-select the participants. As with all submissions to the ACCUTE conference, the proposals and papers you receive will get two peer assessments, with the organizer acting as the first vettor. The participants will be selected in consultation between the organizer and the ACCUTE office, depending on the vetting results. You are expected to be present at the ACCUTE conference in May to chair your session.
What Makes a Good Member-Organized CFP?
Some CFPs attract many submissions; some, few or none. A successful CFP is neither too general (Munro’s fiction) nor too specific (Jungian approaches to The Great Gatsby). It identifies an interesting or timely topic or critical problem, or an under-represented area, and reflects current scholarship in that field. Think of your eventual audience as well as the submitters: try to pick a topic that is not over-specialized and that has a general or cross-field appeal. Craft the CFP carefully, without issuing too many directives, and let your submitters show what they can do with it. And spend some time publicizing your CFP to the sorts of people you’d like to see in your session.
Procedures for Submitting a Member-Organized Session Proposal.
By August 15 send your CFP to the ACCUTE office (accute@accute.ca) using the following format:
Title of session
Name and institution of organizer(s)
Text of the CFP to a maximum of 200 words
Email address(es) for submissions
Note that any texts of more than 200 words will be edited by the ACCUTE office. Otherwise, CFPs will be posted as sent: please double-check for accuracy.
What Happens Next?
If your CFP is accepted, it will be publicized to the ACCUTE membership in early or mid-September with a deadline for submissions of November 15. Once the submissions have been received, you are responsible for making sure they conform to the posted guidelines and contain the following:
• An electronic copy of the paper or proposal
• A separate file with a 100-word abstract and a 50-word biographical statement
• A copy of the Proposal Submitter’s Information Sheet.
Submitters must be ACCUTE members in good standing: please remind your submitters of this fact and check with the ACCUTE office if you are unsure of their status. You will then act as the first vettor for all of the proposals/papers you receive.
After you have vetted your papers, you will forward all the materials you received to the ACCUTE office, and papers/proposals will be sent to a second external assessor. Any papers not selected for your session will go into the “pool” of submissions and will still be considered for the conference program.
Some Member-Organizer FAQs:
May any member propose a CFP?
Yes – but in a year where there are more proposals than reasonably could be accommodated, the ACCUTE executive may need to reject some proposals.
May I submit more than one proposal?
Members are allowed two proposals, but may be restricted, for reasons mentioned above.
Do I qualify for travel funds as an organizer-chair?
While you might be able to apply to your own institution for travel funds, the SSHRC money distributed by ACCUTE is for presenters only. As a result, many organizers of member-organized sessions submit a paper of their own to another CFP or to ACCUTE’s general call for papers (or even, to another association meeting at the same time at the Congress).
Can I contact the ACCUTE office in advance to discuss my proposal?
By all means, feel free to get in touch in advance to discuss your idea, or with any procedural questions.
Procedures for Vetting Submissions to a Member-Organized Session:
- Member-organizers must perform the initial vetting of the papers and proposals they receive. Following the Vetting Guidelines provided in the general procedures and using the on-line Vettor's Report Form, organizers must vet each submission assessing its strengths and weaknesses, and giving each an evaluation of Highly Recommended, Recommended, Provisionally Recommended, or Not Recommended regardless of whether the organizer intends to include the proposed work on the panel. In order to ensure blind vetting, members are not permitted to submit to their own sessions.
- Member-organizers must then forward all submissions they received, complete with proposals, abstracts, and bio-blurbs, along with their vettings (submitted on line), to the ACCUTE office by 5 December. Organizers must also email ACCUTE with a covering letter indicating which proposals/papers they wish to include on their panel and which they do not. ACCUTE will then arrange for a second vettor to assess the submissions.Please note that member-organizers should not inform any of their submitters whether they are included on the proposed panel or not, until the hear back from ACCUTE.
Submissions that have not been included on the proposed panel will be treated as submissions to the general call, and may very well end up on the programme.
Please note that each vettor should recommend a maximum of three or four proposals, enough to fill a single panel on a given topic. If both vettors determine independently that all submitted papers are of such outstanding quality as to warrant the addition of a second panel on the same topic, and if they support their recommendations with a convincing statement of the exceptional qualities that make such a course of action desirable, ACCUTE may, very exceptionally, agree to a second panel.
- After receiving notification from ACCUTE on the fate of the proposed panel, member-organizers will contact the approved panelists only and apprise them of ACCUTE’s final decision. ACCUTE will contact the submitters who were not included on the panel and inform them of their inclusion in/exclusion from the programme.
- Member-organizers should be available to chair their sessions, or find an alternate to do so, at the date and time when ACCUTE so designates on its programme.
Procedure for Submitting to a Member-Organized Session
If you are responding to the organizer of a proposed special session, please follow the same guidelines as submitting for the general call (OPTION I), but send your material directly to the organizer by the same date. The organizer will forward copies of the proposals or papers received to the ACCUTE office by 5 December together with assessments of each submission. Regardless of the member-organizer's evaluation of your submission, your work will be sent to a second vettor, who will not be told that your submission was for a member-organized session.
If your proposal/paper is not selected for the member-organized session, it will be put into the general pool of submissions and considered for inclusion elsewhere on the conference program.
Click here to view some FAQs about paper/proposal submission.