Guidelines for Presiding Officers and Chairs

If you propose a special session or agree to be a presiding officer for PAMLA’s entirely in-person conference in Seattle (November 12-15, 2026), and your session is approved, you will have some important duties, including:

  • Paying your required PAMLA membership and conference fees immediately.
  • Remaining in email contact with your potential and confirmed panelists, and with PAMLA Executive Director Craig Svonkin.
  • Working to help advertise your session so you will received sufficient strong proposals to form a good session.
  • Attending the conference in person and chairing your session in a thoughtful, kind, and engaged manner.
  • Let Craig Svonkin know immediately if someone cancels, or if you have any questions or problems.
  • Generally remain engaged, active, and communicative in a professional and kind way.

 

If you have been chosen to be a presiding officer for a PAMLA standing, special, or allied session, you will likely serve as chair of the session as well. However, we also have many members working as chairs who are not the presiding officers of their sessions. Whether you are a presiding officer/chair, or a presiding officer working with a chair, the chair duties are very important duties indeed. Chairs make sure every panelist is properly introduced and keeps to their allotted time, and sets a tone of politeness and collegiality. Chairs also moderate the discussion, likely asking thoughtful questions to get the discussion started).

For further information regarding presiding officer and chair duties, click here.

Primary Tasks:

As a presiding officer (PO), duties in chronological order might include:

  • POs should post CFPs and send out emails to encourage people to propose to their session; the more you do to advertise your session, the better off you will be when the time comes to review proposals.
  • POs are responsible for reading and reviewing the proposals, deciding which are strong enough to merit an invitation, and which are not.
  • Once the deadline for proposals has passed, POs can invite their top three or four proposals via our online system. POs can also decline the weakest proposals (the ones that they would not want to invite no matter what). You will also likely stall with some backup proposals (as some of your invitees may agreed to join other sessions rather than yours). And if any proposals are interesting, but not quite on topic, you can mark those as recommended for rerouting.
  • Should any PO receive enough strong proposals to merit a second session, they should communicate that desire for a second session to PAMLA Executive Director, Craig Svonkin (both via the online split session request button, and via an email).
  • POs need to stay in contact with Craig Svonkin, PAMLA Executive Director, responding to his emails. Also, if POs have a question or problem, PAMLA is here to help out: 626-354-7526 or director@pamla.org.
  • Please let PAMLA Executive Director Craig Svonkin know immediately if you need your session put on the extended deadline list (giving potential panelists more time to propose).
  • Should your invitees not immediately accept the invitation to join your session, you should send polite email invitation reminders;
  • Should one of your invitees not accept your invitation, then you can move to your waiting list and invite a strong proposal from that backup group; please do not, however, invite a weak or terribly flawed proposal just to fill a session (instead, speak to Executive Director Craig Svonkin about putting your session on the extended deadline list, so you can receive more strong proposals).
  • POs form a complete session (or two if an additional session is approved), and put the panelists into desired presentation order;
  • POs help with proofreading panelists’ titles, abstracts, and bios.
  • POs stay in communication contact with panelists, making sure they know what is expected of them, how much time they will have to present, etc.
  • POs must let PAMLA Executive Director Craig Svonkin know if anyone cancels at any time: this is very important! (director@pamla.org and/or 626-354-7526).
  • POs introduce the panelists briefly at the conference session, and help them to keep to their time limit. POs also help to make sure there is a productive and friendly discussion after all panelists have presented (moderating a thoughtful, productive discussion for at least 15 to 20 minutes at the conclusion of your session is a very important part of your job as a chair).
  • If a PO is in charge of a standing (general) session rather than a special session, they must conduct an election at the conclusion of the session for next year’s presiding officer (for our 2026 PAMLA conference in Seattle).
  • Following the conference, POs email PAMLA Executive Director Craig Svonkin a presiding officer’s report, with info about any last minute no-shows or cancellations, how many were there in total for each session, and, if your session is a standing session, who was elected to be the new presiding officer for 2026.

General Policies:

  • Session types are listed here.
  • One can only chair two sessions total, or present one traditional paper and chair one session. Should you end up with more than one session, you will work with PAMLA Executive Director Craig Svonkin to find chairs for those additional sessions (while typically remaining as the presiding officer).
  • In addition to delivering one paper as part of a traditional panel, members may also present on a Roundtable, as part of a Workshop, or as part of a Creative session or Special Event. Conference participants may typically present twice, at most, at the conference (once in a traditional panel, and once in a creative format session; or twice in creative format sessions). To request an exception to this rule, please contact Executive Director Craig Svonkin.
  • Roundtables, workshops, and other alternative formats are available, and we encourage our members to explore these creative session formats: https://www.pamla.org/conference/session-formats/.
  • To access the call for papers, your sessions and submissions, please log into pamla.ballastacademic.com.
  • Once your session has been accepted, you must update (pay) your PAMLA membership.
  • Presiding Officers/Chairs typically may not present a paper in their own session. To request an exception to this rule, please contact Executive Director Craig Svonkin.
  • PAMLA policy is to not allow more than two people in a session from the same institution as the presiding. Contact Executive Director Svonkin to request an exception.
  • Presiding Officers and Chairs must remain in timely contact with Executive Director Craig Svonkin. So please check your email regularly;
  • We do not accept scheduling requests, except for religious reasons (please send religious schedule requests to Craig Svonkin far in advance of the conference). This means that panels might be scheduled for any time on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or on Sunday until approximately 3 pm. If you do have a religious scheduling need, please let Craig Svonkin know right away.
  • If you have a problem, please contact Executive Director Craig Svonkin right away: director@pamla.org or 626-354-7526 (texts or calls are the best way to get a quick response).
  • Presiding officers and chairs are responsible for ensuring that all scheduled panelists know where and when their session is and how much time they will have to present.
  • Chairs/presiding officers must attend the conference in-person, as must all panelists. Should you not be able to attend, please let Executive Director Craig Svonkin know right away. Should you have to cancel, the session, especially if it already has panelists or potential panelists, will go on with a new presiding officer.
  • Please use MLA formatting for all titles, abstracts and descriptions.

Publicizing Sessions:

  • To propose a paper, scholars will need to create a user account and then they’ll be able to submit a proposal via the PAMLA CFP page (proposing to your session there).
  • Last Call Paper Proposal Extended Deadline: First Come, First Served
  • If you have enough proposals as of May 16, please let Craig Svonkin know that you want your session closed/hidden from view: director@pamla.org.
  • If you still need more strong proposals, please let Craig Svonkin know right away, and email potential proposers to encourage them to propose, post calls on CFP pages and social media pages, etc. It sometimes takes some work to form a full session, but if you work at it, the session almost always is formed. There will be an extended deadline period for sessions in need of more strong proposals.
  • Note: When advertising your session, include the unique URL for your session so potential participants will know where to submit their abstract online (the unique URL can be found in your acceptance email for your session). Do not ask proposers to send you their proposal. They will need to propose via the PAMLA CFP system.

Reviewing Paper Submissions:

  • Log in to pamla.ballastacademic.com to review paper proposals.
  • To review submissions, click “Manage” next to your session’s title. You will then be able to see a list of all abstracts submitted to your session. By clicking on View next to a proposal, you will be able to read the proposal and then change the proposal’s Approval Status from Not Yet Reviewed to Invited, Declined, Recommended for Rerouting, or Under Consideration (remember to click save).
  • You may not invite more than three or four panelists to join your panel session, and no more than eight or nine to join a roundtable or Creative session or special event.
  • Should you wish to change your session format, please contact Executive Director Craig Svonkin at director@pamla.org.
  • If you’ve received enough strong paper proposals to request a split session (meaning you will preside over two separate sessions), mark your session as “requesting a split session.” Mark extra proposals as “Under Consideration” and contact Craig at director@pamla.org or 626-354-7526; should the Executive Director decide you have sufficient strong proposals to justify a second session, and should there be space for another session, your split session request will be approved.
  • Please do not invite weak proposals, even if you are worried about having enough proposals for a full session (at least three papers is a full session). As presiding officer, it is your job to make sure the quality of the papers in your session is high. While you might think that having one very weak paper might be acceptable, you won’t be doing anyone a favor to invite a proposal that isn’t grounded in the existing scholarship, isn’t interesting, or isn’t clear or well-written enough to be ready for prime time.
  • Should you not have enough strong proposals to create a full session, don’t panic. We will have an extended deadline period after May 15 for the sessions still in need of more strong proposals. Contact Craig Svonkin if you wish your session to be added to that extended deadline list.
  • When you’ve received enough papers to close your sessions, email Craig as soon as possible so he can close your session. Sessions will remain open to proposals until you let Craig know you’d like your session to be closed/hidden: director@pamla.org.

Finalizing Sessions:

  • Sessions are not finalized until all invited presenters have confirmed participation (changing their “invited” status to “accepted”), and the PO has chosen the presentation order for all of their confirmed panelists. A presiding officer’s PAMLA account will alert them to whether a presenter is already committed to another session of the same type (which is not allowed: PAMLA participants may only deliver one traditional paper, and then participate in one alternative-format session).
  • Please put panelists into your desired presentation order once you have all of your panelists marked as confirmed or declined (click on the order number in the box to the right of each confirmed panelist, and choose drop down number of choice).
  • Please wait until you have formed your session(s) to decline strong abstracts that you marked as “Under Consideration,” so as to retain proposals you may need for your session. You can also, should you really like a back-up proposal you cannot invite, mark it as “recommended for rerouting.”
  • If any of your extra proposals are quite strong, you can change their status to “Recommended for Rerouting,” and indicate some other possible place where the PAMLA team might be able to reroute that paper.

Changing/Canceling Sessions:

  • Requests to withdraw a session should be communicated promptly to Executive Director.
  • If you withdraw as presiding officer, your panel may continue without you with a new presiding officer.
  • Any requests to change a session format will be considered (for example, from a Paper Panel to a Creative session or a Roundtable or Workshop or Seminar). Please email Executive Director at director@pamla.org for any questions about session format changes or for format requests.
  • To find out more about PAMLA’s creative session formats, such as Workshops, Creative sessions, and Roundtables, see our Session Formats list.

Audiovisual Requests and Wireless Internet

  • Audiovisual equipment costs have skyrocketed. So, please encourage your panelists not to request AV unless they need it for their presentation.
  • Audiovisual equipment available for sessions includes projectors, projector screens, cables, audio cables, and audio speakers. The Golden Gate room will be a non-AV room, and thus will have no AV equipment.
  • Presenters must provide their own computers or other devices that can be connected to the projector. If you have a laptop or other device that requires an adapter, please bring that adapter to the conference with you.
  • Wireless internet will not be available at the annual conference in 2026. So, if you or a panelist needs wireless, it would be wise to download any pages or videos ahead of time to your computer.

Absenteeism

  • PAMLA does not allow papers to be read in absentia, whether it be virtually, online, or by other means;
  • Please email director@pamla.org as soon as possible should anyone cancel;
  • If presiding officers or chairs themselves are not able to attend, it is their responsibility to contact Craig Svonkin immediately (director@pamla.org or 626-354-7526 if not well before the conference), and, if needed or possible, help find someone else to chair the session. Should a presiding officer have to cancel, their session will continue on without their participation. We do not generally cancel sessions, as long as people have already committed to attending and presenting;
  • Conference registration fees may be refunded if the conference participant notifies PAMLA Executive Director at director@pamla.org of their need to withdraw from the program by September 15. Membership fees are non-refundable.

Questions?

If you have any questions, ideas, or concerns regarding presiding officer or session chair guidelines or the PAMLA conference in general, do not hesitate to contact PAMLA’s Executive Director Craig Svonkin (director@pamla.org or 626-354-7526).