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History: The landscape of holding large, in-person, professional meetings has changed dramatically over recent years. Since the arrival of COVID-19, the AAS has been forced to break with its traditional meeting structure. We have conducted three fully virtual meetings, two hybrid meetings, and one outright cancelation. If the pandemic has a silver lining, it’s that the AAS has been forced to re-assess the way we conduct our meetings, and how to improve them to better serve the needs and interests of our members.
The previous Task Force Report from April 2016 did not anticipate the meeting landscape we are now in. Widespread use and familiarity with tools like Zoom, Slack, and GatherTown have opened up the option space for what it means to hold a scientific meeting. The Task Force must take an entirely fresh look at both our objectives and the landscape. There has been debate, sometimes very passionate, in our membership on the merits and problems with in-person, fully-virtual, and hybrid formats. From the distinct lack of consensus, it is clear that there is no simple ‘best’ solution for our meetings.
Objective: To define guidelines for the planning of future AAS Meetings for use by the Vice Presidents and by the Meetings Staff.
Charge: The Task Force will provide recommendations to the Board for approval and adoption by the Vice Presidents and the Meetings Staff for planning of future AAS Meetings, including the following:
- Provide recommendations for future policies regarding COVID-19, masking, and vaccines, along with metrics that may be used in the decision process.
- Provide recommendations and mitigation strategies for future meeting locations concerning the health and safety of members.
- Provide recommendations for the cadence of in-person, hybrid, and remote meetings.
- Provide recommendations for enhancing the sustainability of meetings.
- Provide recommendations on Meeting planning, structure, content, and cost
- Document the considerations included and their priority in the discussion of recommendations
- Include findings and recommendations that the Task Force deems relevant for planning future meetings
Committee Members
Grant Tremblay (He/Him)
Term: May 2023 – Oct 2024