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General Information Regarding Meetings & Conferences of the AMS

Speakers and Organizers:

The Council has decreed that no paper, whether invited or contributed, may be listed in the program of a meeting of the Society unless an abstract of the paper has been received in Providence prior to the deadline.

Special Sessions:

The number of Special Sessions at AMS meetings is limited. Special Sessions at annual meetings are held under the supervision of the Program Committee for National Meetings and, for sectional meetings, under the supervision of each Section Program Committee. They are administered by the Associate Secretary in charge of that meeting with staff assistance from the Meetings and Conferences Department in Providence.

Each person selected to give an Invited Address is also invited to generate a Special Session, either by personally organizing one or by having it organized by others on their behalf. Proposals to organize a Special Session are sometimes solicited either by a program committee or by the Associate Secretary. Other proposals should be submitted to the Associate Secretary in charge of that meeting (who is an ex officio member of the program committee). These proposals must be in the hands of the Associate Secretary at least seven months (for sectional meetings) or nine months (for national meetings) prior to the meeting at which the Special Session is to be held, in order that the committee may consider all the proposals for Special Sessions simultaneously. Special Sessions must be announced in the Notices in a timely fashion so that any Society member who so wishes may submit an abstract for consideration for presentation in the Special Session.

Talks in Special Sessions are usually limited to twenty minutes; however, organizers who wish to allocate more time to individual speakers may do so within certain limits. A great many of the papers presented in Special Sessions at meetings of the Society are invited papers, but any member of the Society who wishes to do so may submit an abstract for consideration for presentation in a Special Session. Contributors should know that there is a limit to the size of a single Special Session, so sometimes all places are filled by invitation. An author may speak in more than one Special Session at the same meeting. However, multiple talks given by the same author at a meeting must be distinct and have distinct abstracts. Papers submitted for consideration for inclusion in Special Sessions but not accepted will receive consideration for a Contributed Paper Session, unless specific instructions to the contrary are given.

The Society reserves the right of first refusal for the publication of proceedings of any Special Session. If published by the AMS, these proceedings appear in the book series Contemporary Mathematics.

More detailed information on organizing a Special Session is available here.

Contributed Papers:

The Society also accepts abstracts for ten-minute contributed papers. These abstracts will be grouped by related Mathematical Reviews Subject Classifications into sessions to the extent possible. The title and author of each paper accepted and the time of presentation will be listed in the program of the meeting. Although an individual may present only one ten-minute contributed paper at a meeting, any combination of joint authorship may be accepted, provided no individual speaks more than once.

Other Sessions:

In accordance with policy established by the AMS Committee on Meetings and Conferences, mathematicians interested in organizing a session (for either an annual or a sectional meeting) on employment opportunities inside or outside academia for young mathematicians should contact the Associate Secretary for the meeting with a proposal by the stated deadline. Also, potential organizers for Poster Sessions (for an annual meeting) on a topic of choice should contact the Associate Secretary before the deadline.

Abstracts:

Abstracts for all papers must be received by a conference coordinator in Providence by the stated deadline. Unfortunately, late papers cannot be accommodated. Submission Procedures: Visit the Meetings and Conferences homepage and select Submit Abstracts.

Site Selection for Sectional Meetings:

Sectional meeting sites are recommended by the Associate Secretary for the section and approved by the Secretariat. Recommendations are usually made eighteen to twenty-four months in advance. Host departments supply local information, twenty-five to thirty rooms equipped with computer projection systems and chalkboards or whiteboards for Contributed Paper Sessions and Special Sessions, a large auditorium equipped with a computer projection system and microphones for the Invited Addresses, space for registration activities, membership table, and an AMS book exhibit, and registration clerks. The Society will partially reimburse for expenses needed to run these meetings successfully.

For more information, contact the Associate Secretary for the section.