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Call for Papers - Guidelines and Procedures

These guidelines have been excerpted from the February 2010 PAMLA Newsletter. The 108th Annual PAMLA Conference will be held at Chaminade University in Honolulu, Hawai'i, on 13 and 14 November, 2010. The local site committee is chaired by Cheryl Edelson and co-chaired by Stanley Orr. We hope that you will propose a paper for this conference.

Attached to these guidelines is the call for papers for the sessions. Please check the website for updates and corrections.

Guidelines and Procedures:

Please adhere to the following rules and procedures pertaining to registering for and presenting papers at the conference.

Membership:

PAMLA is an organization for its members. All participants in the conference must maintain current membership, which runs from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010. Conference presenters and presiding officers should remit their dues by May 1, and must pay their conference fees by September 15, in order to be listed on the program.  PAMLA now offers a combined membership/conference fee option, to make paying for membership and the conference a single step.

Presenters who fail to pay their membership dues and conference fees by the appropriate deadlines will not be listed in the program and will not be allowed to deliver their papers at the conference.

Online membership payment is available at our website: www.pamla.org

Interested faculty, students, or others not presenting or participating in the conference may attend the conference without being members of PAMLA--although they are strongly encouraged to join PAMLA. They must, however, pay conference registration fees, unless they are students at the host institution, in which case conference attendance is free (unless they are presenting or presiding, in which case they must pay all appropriate fees).

Conference Registration:

Everyone listed in the program must pay the conference registration fee by September 15, 2010 at the very latest, in addition to having paid their 2010 PAMLA Membership.  Registration materials will be made available online.

  • Please note: conference registration fees are separate from membership dues (a combined membership/conference fee option is available). 

Students from the host institution who are not on the program may attend sessions and non-fee activities without paying the registration fee or membership dues (although they are invited to join PAMLA at our very reasonable student rate).

Paper Proposals and Presentations:

  • One does not have to be a member of PAMLA to propose a paper, but one must become a member by May 1 to be listed in the program.
     
  • In order to propose a paper, a paper title, an approximately 500-word proposal, and an approximately 40-word abstract should be submitted online at: http://www.pamla.org/2010/proposals by April 5, 2010 (you will first have to register--proposals submitted before the deadline are most welcome). 
     
  • The same paper may not be submitted to more than one session. However, you may submit different paper proposals to different sessions (as long as you let each session's Presiding Officer know that you have done so, and as long as you remember that you may only deliver a single paper at the conference).
     
  • A member may preside over only one session, and may not present more than one paper at a conference. The Executive Director and presiding officers shall resolve any conflicts that may arise.
     
  •  Please notify the Presiding Officer and Executive Director if you cannot be present at the conference so that the program can be updated and a replacement found, if possible. While we recognize that emergencies arise, please make your plans as early as possible to attend or not to attend the conference. PAMLA would like to uphold the highest professional standards for its members and participants. Last-minute cancellations in the program, especially those that could have been conveyed early, do not bode well for the organization and the conference. Papers may not be read in absentia.
     
  • Conference sessions are ninety-minutes long, with three to four papers in each session. Each paper should be 15-20 minutes to leave time for introductions and discussion (for sessions with four panelists, each panelist will have approximately 15 minutes; for sessions with three panelists, each panelist will have approximately 20 minutes--contact your Presiding Officer for the exact time details for your session). Please observe this time limit when writing your paper. All presenters who will need AV equipment are required to fill out the AV request field online, at the same time that they propose their paper (by April 5). Presenters who request equipment later than that date may not receive their requested AV equipment.
     
  • Please consider developing your paper into a publishable essay for Pacific Coast Philology (PCP), PAMLA's annual refereed journal. Guidelines for submission are available on the website and at the conference.

Duties of Presiding Officers:

  • Presiding Officers must be current in their PAMLA dues. 
  • The Presiding Officer reviews paper proposals submitted by April 5 and selects three or four papers for that session. If the choice of proposals is limited, the P. O. is responsible for soliciting additional proposals from among colleagues, from field-specific listservs, etc. The P. O. may not accept more than one paper from a colleague or a graduate student in his or her own institution. Consult the Executive Director for exceptions. 
  • A Presiding Officer may not read a paper in the same session over which he or she presides. 
  • The Presiding Officer notifies all who proposed papers of acceptance or regrets beginning on April 6 by updating the proposal status online and including a brief note explaining their decision.  When wishing to include a paper in the session, the Presiding invites the proposer, and if the proposer indicates that she or he is committed to attending the conference and presenting a paper in that session (the Presiding Officer should remind invited participants that they may only deliver a single paper during the conference), then the Presiding Officer marks that proposal "Accepted" online. 
  • The Presiding Officer must remind presenters to pay PAMLA dues by May 1, and that the conference registration fee is due by September 15 (there is now a combined PAMLA membership/conference payment option available). 
  • The Presiding Officer finalizes the status of proposals for his or her session online by April 20 at the very latest. Presenters who request special AV equipment later than this date may not have their requests met. 
  • At the conference, the Presiding Officer introduces the topic and the speakers, and moderates the session, controlling the time allotted to each speaker.  The Presiding Officer moderates discussion after all the speakers have finished speaking. 
  • At the conclusion of the session, the Presiding Officer of PAMLA standing sessions holds an election for a new P. O. for the following year, and then sends that information to the Executive Director by December 1 (the list of standing sessions is available at http://www.pamla.org/constitution_and_bylaw . Presiding Officers of special sessions need not hold an election, as these sessions must be proposed anew each year.).  Please observe that deadline carefully, as the Executive Director needs that information for the next Call for Papers. 
  • If the Presiding Officer is not able to attend the conference, he or she is responsible for notifying the Executive Director immediately and for helping the Executive Director to find a replacement. As with presenters, there will, of course, always be emergencies that prevent attendance. Please make plans as early as possible to attend or not to attend the conference. The Executive Director assumes that only the direst emergencies will keep the Presiding Officers and presenters who have agreed to participate in the conference from attending. 
  • The Presiding Officer should encourage all presenters to develop their papers into publishable essays for Pacific Coast Philology (PCP), PAMLA's annual refereed journal. Guidelines for PCP are available on the website and at the conference. 
  • If you have any questions concerning rules regarding the conference or any questions about your duties as Presiding Officer, please email PAMLA Executive Director Craig Svonkin: svonkin@netzero.com