1. Click the "Propose a Symposium" link from the Main Menu.
2. You will see a list of conferences for which symposia proposals are currently being accepted. Click on the conference to which you plan to submit a symposium proposal.
3. You will be presented with the Symposium Proposal Form. Complete this form in full. (Detailed instructions concerning what to include in each field are presented on the form.) You will note that some baseline information for the symposium is already in place (e.g., maximum abstract length, deadlines, presentation duration). This information, presented in red, represents the default standards that have been set for the entire conference.
4. If you are unsure as to how to complete a field, you may save the form and return at a later time to complete the remaining fields. You do this by clicking the "Save But Do Not Submit" button at the bottom of the Symposium Proposal Form. Saving the form in this way will help conference organizers know that a symposium is being planned on a particular subject, although a formal submission is still to come.
5. Once you have completed all of the form fields and are satisfied with the content, click on the "Submit This Symposium" button. This will formally initiate the symposium proposal review process.

1. An acknowledgement to you confirming your submission and recapping the essential elements of the symposium.
2. An e-mail to the programming and publication staff, thereby triggering initiation of the symposium and proceedings (if relevant) approval processes.
3. A notification of the symposium proposal being either accepted or rejected for inclusion in the meeting program. If the symposium proposal is
   • Accepted, the e-mail notification will provide you with a recap of the symposium details, inclusive of any changes that may have been made to your proposal as part of the approval process. Critical deadlines concerning the development of the symposium will be included as well. At the same time, ProgramMaster will be configured to begin accepting abstracts for this symposium as the session-building tool for the symposium will be enabled.
   • Rejected, the e-mail notification may contain additional information as to why the decision was made.

1. A notification every time that a new abstract is submitted.
2. A notification every time that an abstract is resubmitted if you had made acceptance contingent on modifications having been made.
3. A reminder of the deadline date by which all abstracts must be reviewed (if you do not designate an abstract as "accepted" by the deadline date, the abstract will automatically be designated as "rejected" and the authors notified accordingly).
4. A reminder to arrange the abstracts into sessions by a specific deadline.
5. A notification of the tentative times and locations of the scheduled sessions after the conference gridding is completed.

As a symposium organizer, one of your key tasks within ProgramMaster is to review the abstracts that are submitted to the symposium. The system offers a number of tools to help you perform this function in a timely manner. "Timely," of course, is an operative term in ProgramMaster as an array of date-based triggers will dictate how long you have to review the abstracts submitted for your symposium.

When you receive the e-mail notification concerning the approval of your symposium, the symposium will be opened for the collection of abstracts, you will have the ability to review abstracts, and the session-building tool will be enabled. The message will also indicate a number of critical dates as they pertain to abstract submissions. These dates include --

• Abstract Submission Deadline: After this date, the system will no longer accept new abstracts.
  
• Arrangement of Sessions Deadline: This is the last day available for you to complete the organization of abstracts into sessions; the session-building tool becomes available for you to use on the same day that the symposium is opened to collect abstracts. Available for arrangement into sessions are abstracts with the statuses of --
  
  • Submitted
  • Accepted
  • Accepted if Modified
    
  
  Once this date passes --
  
  
  • Any abstract with the status of "submitted" that you have placed into a session will be automatically be redesignated as "accepted" and the authors notified of acceptance.
  • Any abstract with the status of "submitted" that you have not placed into a session will be automatically be redesignated as "rejected" and the authors notified of rejection.
  • Any abstract with the status of "accepted if modified" that you have placed into a session will remain with the status of "accepted if modified".
  • Any abstract with the status of "accepted" or "accepted if modified" that you have not placed into a session will require direct follow up to the authors from you or staff with a notification as to why the abstract had been originally accepted and subsequently rejected.
    
• Modified Abstract Deadline: This is the last day available to an author to resubmit an abstract if you made acceptance of the abstract contingent on modifications being made.
  
• Review of Abstracts Completed Deadline: After this date, any abstract that still has the status of "accepted if modified" will automatically be redesignated as "accepted" if you have already placed it in a session.

Every time a new abstract is submitted to your symposium, you will receive an e-mail notification that contains a summary of the submission. At this point, you may choose to either allow the abstract to stand by for assignment during the session-building process, or you can choose to give it a new designation in ProgramMaster. Note that you should not accept many abstracts until after you have been notified as to how many sessions you will be allocated in order to avoid overbooking. To assign a new status to an abstract in ProgramMaster:

1. Log in.
2. Click the "Organizer/Editor Tools" link.
3. Find your symposium in the list presented and click the "Review Abstracts" link.
4. Click on the abstract that you wish to review; note that the column headings are alphabetically sortable by clicking on the blue triangles of the "Abstract No.," "Abstract Title," "Submitter," "Type of Paper" and "Status" headings.
5. Review the abstract and mark the abstract as either "Accepted," "Accepted if Modified" or "Rejected" based on the results of your review. Please note that you should provide the author constructive feedback on what changes you would require if you designate the abstract as "Accepted if Modified." The author and co-authors will receive an e-mail notification of your decision along with instructions on how to proceed.
6. Assign a paper type (e.g., "invited", "keynote", "poster") if different than "contributed" or "student".
7. Provide comments as appropriate back to the author in the field provided.
8. Formalize the new status by clicking "Set New Status." This will trigger an e-mail notification to the author.

In reviewing the abstract, make sure the author plans to make a presentation that is both technically solid (solicit opinions from others if necessary) and compatible with the planned content of the symposium. Also, do not accept an abstract unless you are certain you will include it in a session; it is much easier (and fairer) to reject an abstract that still has the status of "submitted" as opposed to explaining to an "accepted" author why the opinion on the presentation has changed.

If you accept an abstract contingent on modifications being made, you will receive notification when the new version of the abstract is submitted. Review it prior to the final abstract deadline passing.

Note that until the session-building deadline passes or you mark an abstract as either "accepted" or "rejected," the submitter of the abstract has the opportunity to make additional changes to it. Therefore, do not use the e-mail notification of an abstract submission as your main reference point for the content of the submission. Rather, use ProgramMaster to view the most current version of the abstract.

• Creating sessions to accommodate the accepted presentations.
• Giving each session a title.
• Assigning at least one session chair to each session.
• Scheduling additional session elements (e.g., breaks, introductory comments, panel discussions).
• Assigning a duration to each presentation.
• Arranging presentations into a sequence within a 3-½ hour session. (You can extend the sessions up to 4 hours to compensate for possible cancellations.)

1. Menu: During session building, the normal navigational menu that appears to the left of all ProgramMaster windows is replaced with a set of links that facilitate the creation of your session. When you exit the session-building site, the normal navigational menu will reappear.
2. A Text Field to Name Your Session: Please give the session a descriptive title. If you add nothing, the generic designation of "Session I," "Session II," etc. will be employed, but it is not preferable.
3. A Facility to Add Session Chairs: Click the "Add Chair" link to designate one or more individuals as session chair. Use the "Delete" link to remove a session chair. Use the pull-down menus to change the order of the chairs to be credited in program materials.
4. A Generic Set of Session Elements: These are items that can be used to fill out your session beyond the presentations (e.g., breaks, question-and-answer periods and introductory comments). To add one of these items to the session, highlight the item, highlight a duration (shown in the scrolling menu in minutes), and click the "Add Item(s) into Session" button in the left-side menu.
5. A List of Presentations Available for Scheduling: In a blue box is an inventory of every eligible presentation that has yet to be scheduled into a session. The presentations are listed alphabetically by paper title. Also shown are authors, paper type (e.g., contributed) and duration (in minutes). You can readjust the duration of the presentation by using the pull-down menu.
6. The Session That You Are Building: In a red box, the items that you add to the session will appear. To add an item or multiple items, click the check box next to the presentation(s) in the blue list of available presentations, and click the "Add Item(s) into Session" link. The items will automatically appear in the red session box and disappear from the blue unscheduled inventory box. Removing an item from the red session box and returning it to the blue unscheduled inventory box can be accomplished by checking the box next to the subject presentation and clicking the "Remove Item(s) from Session" link. The same process can be used to remove individual or multiple session items (e.g. breaks, panel discussions).

Notes on the use of the session-building tool:

• Within the red session box, use the pull-down menu on the left to resequence the flow of presentations and the pull-down menu on the right to assign different durations to individual items within the session.
• As you add and subtract items from the session, a "recommended duration" counter will keep you apprised of how much time is customarily available for a session and how much time remains based on what you have scheduled. If you make a change in time but do not see the calculations automatically refresh themselves, click the "Refresh Calculations" button.
• When you create a general session element (e.g., panel discussion or break), click on the "Details" link in the red session box to see a pop-up window with information about this item. Within the pop-up window, click the "Edit" button to enter greater detail about this session element.
• If you elect to remove a general session element from the red session box, any detail that you have entered for this item will be lost. Therefore, it is best to delay adding details about general session elements until you are ready to finalize the composition of the session.
• ProgramMaster does not automatically send an e-mail notification to session chairs that you identify during the course of building your sessions. You can, however, send them your own personalized notification by using the "Contact Authors" tool.

In addition to the auto-generated e-mails that ProgramMaster sends to authors and co-authors within a symposium, the system also allows organizers to engage in self-initiated contact with authors and co-authors on an as-required basis. To do this:

• Log in.
• Click the "Organizer/Editor Tools" link.
• Find your symposium in the list presented, and click the "Contact Authors" link.
• Complete the form presented. It will allow you to compose a plain-text message that can be directed to individual authors, all authors in a session (if the session has been built) or all authors in the symposium.
• When sending a message by use of this interface, you will receive a copy of the message as will the Programming Department.
• You may also use this interface to send a mass message to session chairs.