Duties of the Vice President of the Teratology Society

The major responsibility of the vice president is to act as program chair during the year that he/she serves in this office. In order to ensure proper and timely program development, the following timetable is suggested:

One year prior to the meeting (summer)

1. Select the program committee
2. Begin to plan the format of the meeting, with special attention to symposia (see below)
3. Meet with NBTS representatives to coordinate activities
4. Contact Education Course director to coordinate activities
5. Check with publisher of the Birth Defects Research Journal regarding abstract publication deadlines.

In the Fall prior to the meeting

1. Plan symposia, select organizers and make sure speakers are invited
2. Select abstract receipt deadline
3. Notify newsletter editor of abstract deadline for publication in the fall/winter issue
4. Work with the Secretariat to ensure timely mailing of abstract forms
5. Check with Education Course director regarding progress toward establishing the course program and inviting speakers

In the Winter prior to the meeting

1. Receive submitted abstracts and work with the program committee and the president of the society to organize the abstracts according to designated sessions and poster versus platform presentations. Consideration of available space for posters and time set aside for social activities planned by the president is necessary
2. Notify student affairs committee chairman of students' abstract submissions
3. Work with the secretariat to get abstract assignment cards sent
4. Select platform session chairs
5. Acquire all titles for talks from invited speakers
6. Work with Secretariat to finalize the program for timely submission to the Birth Defects Research Journal
7. Work with the executive secretary to notify all invited participants of travel arrangements, housing considerations, reimbursements and honoraria

In the Spring prior to the meeting

1. Send necessary information to platform chairs
2. Deal with inevitable cancellations
3. Write an annual report detailing the activities of the program committee

Additionally, the vice president should be prepared to present to the Society, at the time of the meeting, information regarding the site that has been selected for the next year's meeting.

The function of the vice-president is planning the annual meeting. Planning should begin at least one year in advance.

Here are the steps to planning the meeting:

1. Read the contract with the meeting facility. The contract will give information concerning audiovisual and food/beverage functions and may contain information important restrictions or allowances that will affect your planning. Find out who the contract person is at the hotel. Call him or her and introduce yourself. You and he/she should become good buddies.
2. Identify the number of symposia you want to have. The traditional symposia in our society have been as follows:
   1. March of Dimes Symposium - planned in conjunction with Michael Katz (katzmi@.pipeline.com, 914-997-4555 (fax 914-997-4560). This symposium is not restricted as to subject, but Dr. Katz should be consulted early in the planning process.
   2. Wiley-Liss Symposium- planned in conjunction with the Publications Committee. This symposium has traditionally involved a single organ-system.
   3. Public Affairs Committee symposium - planned in conjunction with the Public Affairs Committee. The subject often is run by Council for information purposes although formal by Council is not required. In addition to these symposia, recent meetings have featured a symposium put on by NIEHS or NICHD. At this meeting, these NIH symposia have not become a fixture, but you may want to maintain or promote a tradition along these lines. NIEHS contact has been Jerry Heindel (heindelj@niehs.nih.com, 919-541-0781, (fax 919-541-2843); MOCHD contact has been Allan Lock (alock@hd01.nichd.nig.gov, 301-4965541, fax 301-402-4083).
3. When you know the symposia you want to have, recruit an individual to organize each symposium. Symposium organizers should get commitments from speakers early. The final program, including speaker abstracts will be due at the publisher in early April.
4. You need to appoint a program committee. Select four to six people with whom you can work. You can assign members of the program committee to take care of different parts of the program or you can use them to bounce off your own ideas about the program. The program committee members are also used to review abstracts (discussed below). The program committee should be in place by late August so their names can appear in the September newsletter.
5. Make a schedule of the meeting, putting in the times you are allowing for symposia, platform sessions, and other activities. Circulate this schedule to Program Committee members are to the people who have been charged with different parts of the program. Some people have an aversion to being on certain days of the meeting (for example, the last day) so it is a good idea to find out early if one of your participants is going to be upset by his/her assigned time in the program.
6. Remember to schedule the following events:
   1. Education course: Typically the two days prior to the opening day of the meeting. Make sure the Chair of the Education Committee and you have the same ideas about when the course will be held.
   2. Council I: Typically the two days prior to the opening day of the meeting.
   3. President's reception: typically the evening prior to the opening day of the meeting.
   4. Warkany lecture: Typically the first item on the regular program.
   5. Student presentation sessions: One of the platform sessions has been used for student presentations. Make sure that the Chair of the Student Affairs Committee is on board.
   6. Attended poster session: Usually one of the evenings
   7. Banquet: Usually the next to the last night of the meeting.
   8. Wilson lunch: Usually the last day of the meeting; in any case, needs to be after the student presentation session.
   9. Past President's luncheon: Usually just before the banquet
   10. President's Circle reception: Usually just before the banquet
   11. Joint sessions with other groups: Keep in mind that NBTS usually meets with us and OTIS sometimes meets with us. If there are to be joint symposia or platform sessions, find out the dates of the other group's meeting to be sure the joint sessions are at a time that members ofthe other group will be present.
   12. Annual business meeting
   13. Council II: On the last afternoon or evening of the meeting.
7. Get a plan of the conference facilities, including the number of square feet and the seating and dining capacity of each available room. You will need to coordinate where each event will occur. Keep in mind the needs of groups like NBTS or OTIS that may be meeting at the same time.
8. Social events and meals are generally planned by the President. Communicate with the president about which functions he/she is planning. Find out what these functions will cost because you will need to consider the social function costs in calculating the registration fee.
9. Abstracts will need to be received in time for you and the Program Committee to evaluate them and to decide which to accept as Platform presentation, which to accept as Poster presentations, and which to reject. The publisher will need the program in final, camera-ready form by April, and the secretariat will need some time prior to the Publisher due date to type the program and to lay out the abstract pages. Plan to have your abstract decisions made by early March. The due date for the abstracts to be received from the membership will depend on how much time you will need to evaluate the abstracts. Allow for at least a month, more if you anticipate that the deliberations will be lengthy or the Program committee slow.
10. The mailing of the preliminary program, registration fee information, and abstract forms is in November, so you need to give the secretariat a program, your decision about the registration fee, and your decision about the abstract due date by late October or early November.
11. Plan to present your program and any problems you are having to the Council at the interim meeting in the fall.
12. Calculation of the registration fee should be done in collaboration with the Treasurer of the Society and with the Secretariat. Here are the expenses that should be covered by the registration fee:
    Site selection: Did you or other officers spend money visiting the site?
    Site fees: Are you being charged for meeting rooms?
    Travel: The airfare, hotel rooms, and meals for staff and for any officers who are travelling as guests of the society. Council may change the policy, but at this writing, officers are expected to pay their own way.
    Speakers: The Society has paid for the airfare, hotel stay, and meals for two nights/three days for speakers who are not Society members. In addition, an honorarium of $200 is paid to these speakers. For Society members, two nights hotel has been paid in the past. You should consider, however, whether you are getting free nights from the hotel; some hotel agreements will allow a certain number of free nights based on room usage (e.g., 2000 room nights might earn 40 free room nights), permitting the Society to offer free nights to speakers at no cost to the Society. If the Society is going to have to pay for the speaker rooms, it may be less costly to reimburse speakers in some other way. For example by waiving the registration fee.
    Audiovisual: You will have to pay for projection equipment and other AV equipment. Check with the hotel concerning costs. Remember to count all equipment you will want to use. Consider that showing a 10-minute video may require a day's rental charge for a projection video player, which may cost you $200 or more.
    Poster board: The boards on which the posters are hung will need to be rented. These may be rented by the hotel or by a private vendor. Costs can be from $20 to $75 per board per day, depending on the site.
    Staff material and equipment: Check with the staff on what they will be bringing and what they will need at the site. Registration materials may need to be shipped to the site. Badges need to be bought. The staff may need to rent a computer and printer.
    Food and average: This item will be a large contributor to registration fees. Although the President will select the menu, there should be an understanding on the amount of money that will be spent on each function.
    If you budget a $30/plate banquet and the President selects a $100/plate menu, you likely will have a problem.
    Exhibitors: It is customary to have a local exposition company set up the exhibit hall, including partitions, curtains, electrical connections, and so on. You will need to anticipate this expense, although the expense should be covered by the exhibitor fees rather than registration fees.
13. Office costs: About 18% of the cost of running the Teratology Society office should be assigned to the meeting. This cost includes such things as staff time preparing the program and mailing the announcements. The operating cost at this writing is about $200,000, yielding $36,000 that should be charged to the meeting.
    Extras: Plan a contingency fund of at least $10,000 for things that will come up that you haven't considered. After you have added up all the anticipated costs, divide the cost by the number of people you anticipate paying registration fees. This cost per registrant is the lowest amount you will need to break even. You and the Treasurer should then decide how much additional money you believe should be added to support operation of the Society. Historically, this additional amount has been $50 to $100 per registrant.
14. Exhibitor relations:
    The secretariat typically send invitations to past exhibitors and to likely prospects, but you should double-check that the invitations have been sent. Also, it is a good idea to contact the exhibitor liaison to find out what exhibitors like or dislike about the meeting. Plan to hold a meeting with exhibitors who are in attendance so that you can find out how things are going. You and the vice-president-elect should visit the booths and make the exhibitors feel welcome and appreciated.
15. The President's gift:
    At the end of the banquet, you will become President. Your first duty will be to give he President a gift on behalf of the Society. Discuss with the secretariat and Council members what gift you would like to give. The Society has a tradition of an engraved silver bowl.
16. Your first Council meeting:
    On the last day of the annual meeting, you will hold your first Council meeting, generally to consider any business that has come up since Council I. In order to have an effective Council II. Speak to the Committee chairs during the meeting and make notes at the Business meeting of things that require Council's attention prior to going home.