Guidelines for organizing IAMG conferences
Approved by the Executive Committee on February 1995
Reviewed by Council June 7, 1999
Amended by Council, August 27, 2009
Amended by Council, February 17, 2010
Amendments approved by Council, July 15, 2013
Articles
I. General aspects
1. The annual conference is the most important event organized by the Association. The IAMG shall encourage all members and other quantitative geomodelers to attend the conference, particularly those in the host and neighboring countries.
2. The official name of the annual conference shall be “The n-th Annual Conference of the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences” or “IAMGyyyy” for short, where yyyy denotes the year. The conference shall normally be held in June−November. A separate annual meeting shall not be held in years of an International Geological Congress.
II. Proposals and site selection
3. The IAMG shall request proposals to host IAMG conferences via the IAMG newsletter and the IAMG website. Applications should be submitted to the IAMG Meetings Committee. The deadline for proposals shall be in January, February or March of two years preceding the year of the conference (e.g. January−March 2015 for a meeting to be held in 2017).
4. The proposal shall include the name of a Conference Chair who shall be the official representative of the conference organizers to the IAMG Council and shall serve as the head of the conference organizers.
5. The proposal shall identify any institutional partners. Any geosciences institute, association, university, or other conference center in the world may serve as an institutional partner hosting the Annual Conference. The International Association for Mathematical Geosciences along with the institutional partner(s) shall be the main sponsors of the conference.
6. The proposal shall include the name of members for an Organizing Committee consisting of the Conference Chair, a Local Organizing Subcommittee and a Scientific Subcommittee, all of whom must have agreed to serve. The Local Organizing Subcommittee shall make all decisions related to local arrangements for the conference. The Scientific Subcommittee shall advise the Organizing Committee in technical matters such as selection of sessions and review of abstracts for the purpose of acceptance or rejection of presentations for inclusion in the technical program.
7. Other important aspects of the proposal shall be: (a) general description of the site and hosting institutional partner(s), (b) the scientific program in as much detail as possible, (c) plans for publication of proceedings in digital and/or paper format, (d) dates for the conference, (e) descriptions and capacities of facilities to be used, (f) general information about accommodations, (g) letters of support, (h) a conference budget and (i) in case of a conference revenue surplus, a plan for subsequent distribution of that surplus between the IAMG’s general fund and a fund dedicated for use by the Organizing Committee.
8. The IAMG Council shall consider all proposals received before the published deadline and render its decision to the applicants within two (2) months of the deadline for receipt of proposals. Selection of the site for an annual conference shall be made based on recommendations from the Meetings Committee and a comparison of the overall quality of proposals, considering all of their elements. Before rendering a final decision, Council may ask for clarifications or amendments to proposals. The IAMG reserves the right to reject all proposals, or decide not to hold an annual meeting in a given year.
III. The Program
9. The organizers shall distribute a first circular of the conference at least 12 months prior to the opening day. The IAMG shall assist in promoting the event.
10. While the core of the program shall be the technical sessions of oral and poster presentations, the IAMG strongly encourages the Organizing Committee to include a series of workshops and short courses as a part of the conference. The technical program should also include field trips and plenary sessions by the major award winners in the year of the conference (Krumbein Medal and Griffiths Award in even years, or Chayes Prize and Vistelius Award) and the Matheron Lecturer.
11. It is expected that all members of the IAMG Executive Committee and the Newsletter Editor shall attend the conference. Based on available external financing and available IAMG funds, partial to full travel expenses (registration, travel, lodging, and meals) shall be reimbursed by the Association. In addition, the IAMG shall invite to the conference all major award recipients scheduled for presentation at the conference, with full expenses paid by the Association. In exchange, each awardee shall deliver a keynote lecture and submit a written version of it to the Organizing Committee. Similar responsibilities and reimbursement of expenses shall be provided to the Matheron Lecturer.
IV The Finances
12. The conference budget shall indicate, in as much detail as possible, sources of revenue and expenses. The budget must also account for tax liabilities, in accord with the host country tax laws. It should demonstrate efforts to control costs and make the conference a source of income for the Association. The budget shall be the basic document to regulate transactions between the Association’s general fund account and the bank account of the Organizing Committee. The Association shall commit to finance the conference according to the items listed in the budget and up to the amounts agreed upon as part of the expenses. Both the Organizing Committee and the IAMG shall make their best effort to secure sources of income through registration fees, donations, exhibition fees, additional sponsorships, and grants. The Organizing Committee shall not be liable for a shortage in revenue.
13. The Annual Conference should recognize the benefits of belonging to the IAMG and encourage new membership. Therefore, registration fees for nonmembers of the IAMG should be set higher than that for members. Nonmembers should be offered the option of joining the IAMG at the time of registration, and registering for the conference at the member rate.
14. Revenue, such as registration fees, shall be collected for the IAMG through the IAMG Office using procedures similar to those used for collection of member dues.
15. The Organizing Committee is responsible for funding all local expenses related to the conference. The IAMG Treasurer shall transfer funds to the Organizing Committee’s bank account as needed to cover expenses in the approved conference budget and shall pay for IAMG Office expenses directly.
16. Organizing Committee expenses in the budget may include but are not necessarily limited to: facility rentals, conference materials, meals (in particular, a conference dinner), special local activities/entertainment, technical support, honoraria, website development and maintenance, and general organizing expenses. Any unforeseen expenses or increases in prices of items appearing in the original budget subsequent to its approval must be submitted to the IAMG Council for approval before the Treasurer shall release funds to cover those expenses.
17. The Organizing Committee shall maintain a file of invoices and receipts for all bills and shall transmit copies of all receipts to the IAMG Treasurer as bills are paid. Twice a year between approval of the conference proposal and opening of the conference, on July 31 and January 31, the IAMG Treasurer and the Conference Chair shall submit a financial statement to Council.
18. Within three (3) months of the end of the conference, the Organizing Committee together with the IAMG Treasurer shall submit a final financial statement to Council for IAMG approval. Once all necessary tax forms and payments (if any) have been filed with the host country, the Organizing Committee shall close its account and the Chairperson shall transfer all files of invoices and receipts, along with all bank statements from the account, to the IAMG Treasurer. At the conclusion of conference business, any surplus funds remaining in the account of the Organizing Committee shall be transferred to the IAMG general funds.
19. If the final financial statement shows a net excess of income over expenses, the IAMG Treasurer shall set aside a share of the net revenue, at least as large as designated in the approved proposal, for use by the Organizing Committee in ways that are related to mathematical geosciences and consistent with the mission of IAMG. The Conference Chair, after consultation with the Organizing Committee, shall report the intended uses to the IAMG Treasurer. The Treasurer shall arrange with the Conference Chair for distribution of funds for the intended uses.
V. Amendments
20. A simple majority vote of the Council shall be necessary and sufficient to amend these guidelines.
VI. Transitory provisions
21. These guidelines shall be reviewed after the IAMG conference of 2018.