DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: Sept. 4, 2012

Dear DCMP Members:

Please help make the 2013 March Meeting a success by submitting nominations for invited DCMP Symposia.

To submit a nomination of an Invited Symposium for the March Meeting, go to:

Submit a nomination of an Invited Symposium for the March Meeting

A major role of DCMP is to organize Invited Symposia (about 35 of them). According to DCMP bylaws, the speakers are drawn exclusively from member nominations.

Please create your symposium nomination, then go to the link above to enter it into the database.  It requires some effort, but this work on the part of our members is essential for a first-rate program.

You must notify your speaker and session chair nominees beforehand and verify their willingness to participate, if chosen, before you submit.

Once you have completed the nomination -- and will not make any more changes or additions -- please click on "Complete Nomination." This will initiate a notification email to the speakers and the chair of your nominated session to reconfirm their willingness to participate. They must respond before Sept. 17 for your nomination to be given full consideration.

You will also receive a confirmation of your session nomination.

Thank you very much.

Best Regards,

Barbara Jones
Chair, DCMP

Suggestions for Creating a Successful Proposal

1. Propose a symposium on a timely topic with five excellent talks. Generally the Executive Committee favors symposia (preferably with five talks, rather than fewer) over individual invited talks. There are very few of the latter.

2. Choose an appropriate title and provide a clear justification. This will aid the committee in making its decision.

3. Choose titles of individual talks carefully. The speaker can revise the title later, but it is important to have the topic of the presentation stated clearly.

4. Provide an informative abstract for each talk. This will underpin the central theme of the symposium and aid the committee in reaching a decision. Speakers who are invited will be asked to submit their own abstracts later.

5. Provide references to publications. This will aid the committee in determining whether the work is current and whether it has some level of acceptance by the scientific community. Electronically posted preprints are useful, though they do not have the same status as refereed publications.

6. Include an alternate speaker. It is important to provide a substitute in the event that someone becomes unavailable. Please ask the alternate (like the main choices) to confirm availability.

7. Enter the proposed symposium under a relevant sorting category. This will ensure that the correct subcommittee examines the proposal. Multiple submissions of a proposal are counterproductive and ineffective.