(updated September 2003; also available as .PDF file)

All Chairs of Professional Branches and Subject Commissions are voting members of the IAML Council.

Elections

The Chair, Vice-Chairs and Secretaries of the Professional Branches and Subject Commissions are elected for a term of three years, the year after the triennial Congress year. Elections are held at one of the Branch or Commission sessions, and are supervised by a member of the Board. The election should be listed as one of the items of the professional programme for each Branch and Commission, in that particular year. Chairs and their Vice Chairs and Secretaries are responsible for finding sufficient candidates for each office, when the elections are held.

Conference sessions & deadlines

Each Professional Branch, Subject Commission and Working Group is entitled to one session during the IAML conference. If they wish to organise a second session, the details of this should be submitted to the Programme Committee for its consideration. Joint sessions with another Branch, Commission or Group may be arranged. At each conference, the Secretary General will give each Chair the deadlines for submitting session details for the next conference.

Programme details

Details of the programme should be sent to the Programme Committee and the Secretary General as soon as possible. It is not necessary to have all the speakers confirmed before this is done, however, it is advisable to have the names and titles of presentations secured by the time the preliminary programme is sent out with the conference information (approximately six months before the conference in question). It is important to know as soon as possible who the confirmed or prospective speakers are, to enable the scheduling of sessions.

If a potential speaker is from a country where institutions may be unable to give financial support for attendance, e.g. a developing country, it may be possible to obtain outreach funding for at least part of the costs. Officers should contact the host organisers of the conference or a member if the Outreach Committee for guidance.

Papers and presentations

The officers of the Branches and Commissions are responsible for the quality and variety of papers that are presented. It can be useful to select a theme/title for each session, also to take advantage of local speakers from the host country. The members of the local organising committee can probably provide suggestions for speakers on various topics. If a suggested speaker is unknown to you, try to find out, if possible, if they are a "good" speaker, i.e. do they make a good presentation, from the point of view of both content and speaking style, do they stick to their allocated time.

The titles of papers must be given in the programme in the language in which the paper is going to be presented, and the speakers must be listed in the order in which they will be speaking.

Abstracts

Abstracts of all papers (or as many as possible), in as many of IAML's three official languages as possible, should be sent to the local organising committee in advance of the conference, for distribution with the registration package or at the conference itself.

Sessions

It is important that all sessions should begin and end promptly, and that participants have the full allotted time for coffee and lunch breaks, to meet other participants, prepare for the next session, or take a break. Do not include too many papers in one session. It is better to finish a bit early than a bit late. Include only as many presentations as can be comfortably accommodated in the hour and a half time slot, which is normally three papers of about twenty minutes each. There should be time allowed for questions and discussion either after each paper, or at the end of the session. Remember to inform your speakers that they can only speak for their allotted time. If they exceed it, you must be prepared to stop them. If you are conducting a "round table" or discussion type session, do not include too many participants, and be prepared to interrupt anyone who looks like monopolising a session.

If you are asked to include an additional paper, or even a short report, after your programme has been finalised, you should explain that this can only be done if there is time available at the end of the session. All scheduled papers and any ensuing discussion must be presented first; then, if there is time, additional matter may be included, but the session must still finish on time.

Closing session report

Each Professional Branch, Subject Commission and Working Group Chair is required to give a brief report of their sessions at the Closing Session. This report should be no longer than five minutes maximum. The reports should then be submitted to the Editor of Fontes for inclusion in the issue devoted to reports from that conference. It is best to send them as soon as possible after the conference, so that they do not get forgotten.

Absences

If you are unable to attend a IAML conference, please let the Secretary General know as soon as possible. It is your responsibility to find someone to chair the sessions in your absence (usually this will be the Vice-Chair, or the Secretary). If you have difficulty arranging this for any reason, please inform the Secretary General.

Working Groups

Working Groups are normally created to undertake a specific project that is viewed to be finite. The Group should come under one of the Branches or Commissions, and is created for an initial term of three years, unless circumstances dictate a different term. Proposals to create a Working Group should be put to the Board, and then to Council for approval. If the Group has not completed its task by the end of the three-year term, it must ask Council for an extension, and justify its request. Chairs of the Working Groups and of the Branch or Commission to which they belong, should keep track of when their time for renewal is coming up.