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Deadline for special session proposals extended to Oct. 22

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Deadline for Special Sessions Extended

Due to several requests for additional time, submission of special session proposals has been extended to Monday, October 22nd. You can find more information on organizing a special session via the “Special Sessions” link at https://sfsannualmeeting.org/. We look forward to receiving your proposals.

Original announcement:

The Society for Freshwater Science (SFS) Annual Meeting Committee invites proposals for special sessions at the 2019 meeting in Salt Lake City UT (May 19-23). The 2019 meeting theme is "Translational ecology in freshwater science". In the face of continuing environmental change and the magnitude of its complex and interacting effects on global freshwater, Translational Ecology (TE) provides a potential roadmap for freshwater science to inform real-world decision-making. The foundational principles of TE include interdisciplinary collaboration, multi-directional engagement, long-term commitment, iterative communication, transparent and representative processes, and a decision context that leads to actionable outcomes. By proposing a special session, we hope you’ll share experiences, opportunities, and outcomes from TE in freshwater science. We hope that special sessions at SFS 2019 will highlight novel research partnerships, uses of the iterative process of co-production, and the challenges and benefits of user-inspired, translational research. With freshwater as our touchstone, we wish to foster conversations that will inform decision-making at the nexus of freshwater and environmental change and ultimately sustain the freshwater ecosystems of our future.   

By proposing a special session, you are expected to serve as session organizer, identify session moderators, and invite speakers and inform them of key dates for abstract submission and other program deadlines. The session organizer should consider opening or closing the session with an overview/summary presentation or inviting a speaker to do so. Special sessions should avoid overlap with regular sessions; they may represent areas of research that are of growing interest to SFS membership and highlight SFS community challenges and solutions that relate to the meeting theme. Note that sessions covering similar topics may be combined.  

Proposals should include a title, brief description of the session (<250 words), list of five keywords, and a list of at least five potential speakers with presentation topics/tentative titles. Commitments from speakers are not necessary at the time of proposal submission, but please indicate whether the speakers have been invited and if they have been tentatively confirmed. We ask that session organizers strive to build sessions that include a diversity of speakers by considering career stage, gender, race, ethnicity, geography, and other types of diversity when inviting speakers. SFS is dedicated to promoting diversity among its members and welcomes and encourages participation from all, regardless of ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, physical or mental difference, religion, age, or national origin. All special sessions are open to contributed presentations in addition to those invited by organizers; we expect that special sessions will include a mix of invited and self-nominated participants.  

Special Session proposals must be submitted to Laura Johnson and Denise Bruesewitz (Special Session Co-Chairs) at special.sessions@freshwater-science.org

Please help us make this an innovative and productive scientific program by submitting a proposal for a special session. Please contact Laura Johnson (ljohnson@heidelberg.edu ) or Denise Bruesewitz (dabruese@colby.edu) with any questions about hosting a special session. Proposals for special sessions will be reviewed by the Annual Meeting Program Committee; the committee may ask for changes and resubmission of proposals, if appropriate. Results of the review will be sent to chairs of proposed sessions by November 5, 2018.