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Annual Meetings Board (AMB)

• Mission
• General Responsibilities
• Organizational Structure
• General Responsibilities of the Director
• Branches of AMB
• Annual Meeting Planning Committee
• Short Courses and Workshop Planning
• Annual Meeting Handbook
• APS Symposium Funding
• Policies and Procedures on Use of APS Annual Meeting Program Funds
• Policies and Procedures on Use of External Funds in Support of Special Sessions
• Publication of Special Sessions Presented at APS Annual Meetings

The mission of the Annual Meetings Board is to coordinate the planning of scientific programs offered by APS, including meetings, short courses and workshops from APS Committees, the APSnet Education Center, and other APS entities, and to plan and coordinate the technical sessions of the Annual Meeting.

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1. Pro-actively consider and propose innovative scientific programs (meetings, sessions, workshops, etc) to (a) support and promote the achievement of APS’s strategic goals; (b) provide members with the most current and accurate information on topics of timely importance; and (c) meet the needs of APS members while appealing to new audiences.
2. Explore new meeting- and course-related opportunities for continuing education, professional development, outreach, and collaboration within APS.
3. In the case of meetings held jointly with other professional scientific societies, collaborate in the development of common objectives and joint activities.
4. Coordinate with APS Committees in the development of their meeting-associated sessions, and provide assistance in the development of new venues/platforms for those programs. APS staff associated with the short course program should be utilized as a valuable resource for APS Committees as they plan workshops.
5. APS Committees, which typically have as their members or associates the most knowledgeable scientists in the subject area, should be utilized as an important resource to APS staff in identifying and planning workshops or short courses.
6. Enhance continuity and coordination with meeting and course-related activities (whether traditional or electronic) of the APSnet Education Center.
7. Handle requests from individuals and groups fairly and equitably through the proposal process.
8. Help coordinate the meeting- and course-related activities and objectives of various branches of APS governance.

To carry out its responsibilities, the AMB shall be comprised of the following:

• Director
  

• Immediate past director, for one year term immediately following director term (ex officio, non voting)

• APS President-Elect

• APS Vice-President

• APS Senior Councilor-at-Large (advisory role only, ex-officio, non-voting)
  

• Six section chairs representative of the following areas: Biology of Plant Pathogens, Diseases of Plants,Epidemiology/Ecology/Environmental Biology, Molecular/Cellular Plant-Microbe Interactions,
  Plant Disease Management, Professional​ism/ Outreach /Service

• Editor-in-Chief, APSnet Education Center (advisory role only, ex-officio, non-voting)
  

• ​Chair, Short Courses and Workshops Planning
  

The director shall be an APS member who has experience and interest in scientific programs, including short courses and workshops, meeting planning, and education. The director is appointed by Council for a three-year term and may serve two terms consecutively. Section chairs and the chair of Short Courses and Workshops Planning Committee must be APS members, are appointed for three-year terms, and may serve two terms consecutively.

The members of the AMB, including the current and outgoing section chairs and chair, Short Courses and Workshops Planning Committee, will name and rank nominees to fill these positions. Members will be formally appointed by a majority vote of the board and will serve a three-year term but may not serve more than two consecutive terms.​

1. Facilitate communication and coordination among the three functional branches of the Annual Meetings Board (Annual Meeting Committees, Short Courses and Workshops Planning Committee, and APSnet Education Center) and APS staff.
2. Consider issues and recommend policies related to identification, planning, coordination, implementation and financial aspects of meetings, workshops and short courses.
3. Develop ideas for supporting and promoting APS’ key strategic goals through scientific programming.
4. Inform APS Council of board activities.
5. Coordinate with APS Press regarding publication issues, including the “first right of refusal” policy for Annual Meeting symposia.
6. Coordinate the appointment of the section chairs.
7. Coordinate planning of the I.E. Melhus Graduate Student Symposium in cooperation with.
8. The director shall appoint an official note taker at each meeting of the AMB.That individual will provide their draft to the director to be disseminated, approved, and archived.​​

To carry out its mission and responsibilities AMB maintains various governing branches including the Annual Meeting Planning Committee, the Short Courses and Workshops Planning, and APSnet Education Center, and may form committees as needs dictate.​

The Annual Meeting Planning Committee is composed of the president-elect as program chair, vice president as vice chair, AMB director, senior councilor-at-large, six section chairs, the APS director of meetings as ex officio and has input from the chairs and vice chairs of the subject matter and general policy committees. This committee will assure optimum balance between subjects in the program and equitable distribution of financial support for the program as it develops the format and schedule of events for the annual meeting. Normally, Council approves funding. These funds can be used for publication of the symposia in APS publications and for travel of non-APS members invited as speakers. A budget is to be developed for each approved symposium and the session organizer for each symposium is responsible for review, approval, and reporting to appropriate staff of symposium expenditures (see Policies: APS Symposium Funding).

Headquarters staff provides assistance to the Annual Meeting Planning Committee and its chair as follows:

• Receives, acknowledges, and prepares book of abstracts, and processes payments and invoices as necessary.
• Prepares a draft program of the technical and poster sessions for critique, amendment, and approval by the annual meeting planning committee chair.
• Prepares the registration brochure and final meeting program.
• Handles physical arrangements with hotels and convention centers.

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The mission is to review and approve proposals for short courses and workshops and assist in their development.

General responsibilities:

• Develop and implement a proposal application process.
• Review and approve proposals for short courses and workshops from APS committees and other sources.
• Develop and/or assist APS groups in the development of short courses and workshops.

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The Annual Meeting Handbook is a resource for an overview of the meeting, related processes, and historical documentation. A copy of this handbook is given to the newly elected vice president each year for reference. The handbook is updated whenever necessary and is available upon request for reference by any APS leader.

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1. Funding and complimentary registration are restricted to NON-MEMBERS of APS. To qualify as a "non- member", the participant must not have been an APS member at any time during the 3-year period preceding the current meeting. Organizers should check the current online member directory to make a preliminary determination of the membership status of a proposed speaker and then confirm this with APS staff.
2. Funding is restricted to non-member speakers only. It cannot be used to support non-member session organizers.
3. Funds are provided on a per-session, not a per-person, basis. The session organizers (not the sponsoring committee chairs) are responsible for determining how the funds received are distributed and for staying within their budgets.
4. Funding may be used to defray all reasonable costs of transportation, housing (see 1e, below), and meals; and/or to cover publishing costs of the proceedings. Meeting program funds cannot be used to pay for other items such as honoraria or for refreshments.
5. Funds used for accommodations cover housing at APS-designated hotels only. The speaker is responsible for making his/her own reservations.
6. Budget and reimbursement forms should be submitted promptly (instructions and forms provided by staff); all disbursements will be made within 3 months of the meeting.

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Policies and Procedures on Use of External Funds in Support of Special Sessions

1. Session organizers who wish to raise outside funding are encouraged to do so.
2. Except as noted below, funds raised externally are not subject to the above restrictions, i.e., they may be used in any appropriate way to support the session, including payment of expenses of APS member or non-member speakers or organizers, refreshments, or publication of the proceedings.
3. Organizers should forward a copy of the financial support request letter (provided by APS staff) to the sponsor with the highlighted sections updated. The sponsor must include a copy of the letter when submitting the sponsorship funds, payable to APS, to the appropriate staff. Additionally, the sponsor should send a copy of the completed form to the organizer for their records. The organizer is responsible to communicate this information to the sponsoring committee(s) chair(s) and to indicate on the overall budget sheet for the session how the internal (if any) and external funds will be used.
4. All funding must be spent within 6 months of the meeting.

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Publication of Special Sessions Presented at APS Annual Meetings:

1. After the special sessions for the upcoming APS annual meeting have been finalized, the chair of the Annual Meeting Board sends to the chair of the Publications Board all of the special session titles with the names and e-mail addresses of the organizer(s), the titles of the presentations, and the names of the presenters. The suggested time for this communication is on or before January 1 of the year in which the sessions will be presented.
2. Any APS publication is a potential avenue for publishing special sessions. The chair of the Publications Board forwards the information to the EICs of APS Press, MPMI, Phytopathology, Plant Disease, Plant Health Progress, and Plant Health Instructor and the PMN director. 
3. The EICs decide which, if any, of the special sessions they would like to invite for publication and correspond directly with the organizer of the special session with a copy to all other EICs and the chairs of the Publications Board and the Annual Meeting Board. The suggested time for this communication is on or before February 1.
4. If more than one EIC is interested in publishing the same special session, the decision on where to publish will be made by the two EICs and the organizer of the special session.
5. The decision on the number of manuscripts to be published for a special session will be made by the EIC. There is no guarantee that each presenter will be asked to write a separate manuscript. At the discretion of the EIC, presenters may be asked to combine presentations into co-authored manuscripts. The organizer of the special session will communicate publication requirements to the presenters.
6. In order to ensure timely publication and relevance of the final product, all manuscripts from a special session must be submitted for publication within 3 months after the date on which the special session was presented. Additional ​time will be allowed for books at the discretion of the EIC of APS Press.
7. Organizers of APS special sessions (or any other symposium, workshop, or event) who wish to reach practitioners or an audience outside plant pathology with non-refereed proceedings may seek publication through the Plant Management Network, www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/proceedings. Information about publication and hosting fees is available by contacting editorialoffice@plantmanagementnetwork.org.

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