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Sound
Perepectivee
Administrative
Committee Report:
Committee on Meetings
Clark Penrod The Committee on Meetings is charged with proposing sites and dates for future
Address-_ meetings and meeting exhibits, subject to Executive Council approval; providing :1
Applied Research Laboramrm forum for exchanging information on meeting arrangements among local meeting
The University offixas 3‘ Austin c-hairs; andpmposing changes in the meetingfinmatfor consideration by the Execu-
PO Box 8029 tive Council.
Austin, Texas 78713 For virtually its entire history, the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) has held
USA spring and fall meetings each year, with the exception of the WWII years when
Ema“: only one meeting was held each year. The meetings are usually in cities where
there is a local community of acousticians centered around a university, acoustics-
penrod@arlut.utexas.edu _ _ _ _ _ _
oriented businesses, or activities such as music or health. Many ASA members
share the opinion that the semiannual meetings are a part of the essential char-
acter of the Society, affording frequent opportunities to meet with colleagues and
hear about recent advances in the field of acoustics and supporting a sense of com-
munity among acousticians.
The general purpose of the Committee on Meetings (COM) is to support the plan-
ning of future meetings of the Society. Of course, there are a variety of different
facets associated with that general goal, and this article provides some insight into
how meeting locations are selected, how general chairs and local committees are
assembled, and how the Society supports the local committee and chairs in or-
ganizing the meeting. In addition to supporting the local chairs and committees,
the COM serves as a forum to discuss a variety of topics concerning how the ASA
organizes meetings, including where meetings are held, joint meetings with other
societies, and international meetings. Some of those elements are also discussed
in this article.
The regular (some would say inexorable) drumbeat of semiannual meetings means
that a central focus of the COM is to identify suitable locations for future meet-
ings and individuals who are willing to organize a local committee and serve as
the local chair for a meeting. Decisions about future meeting sites must be made
well in advance because in many cities that we may want to visit, there are only
a few hotels that have sufficient facilities to host the meeting. Necessary facili-
ties include not only enough sleeping rooms but also meeting rooms for up to 13
technical sessions running in parallel as well as the variety of administrative and
technical committee meetings that occur during an ASA meeting. In consider-
ing a city as a potential meeting site, at least one suitable hotel must be identified,
meeting dates when the hotel facilities and rooms are awilable must be identified,
and guest room rates and other terms must be negotiated with the hotel before
signing a contract. Although much of the hotel negotiation is handled by the ASA
executive director and meeting planner, it is customary for the local chair to also
be involved to provide a local perspective.
In general, we try to plan meetings three years or more in advance to make sure
that a suitable hotel is available and that acceptable rates can be negotiated. We
52 1 Acuultlcl Tbday 1 Fall 2013 1 1/0lume14,issue3 @Zl718Acousrical Society ofAmerica. All nghrs reserved.