For Moderators
Thank you for agreeing to moderate an oral session for SCCUR 2012!
Your role as moderator is extremely important to the success of this conference. We thank you for taking this responsibility seriously and the service you render our next generation of scholars.
For many of the presenters, and for a good portion of the audience, your session represents their first exposure to scholarly presentations in the context of a regional conference. Therefore one main goal of a session moderator is to provide a professional atmosphere and training for undergraduate and high school presenters. To realize this goal, moderators should adopt the following:
- Remind the audience that all presentations will be kept on schedule as posted in the abstract book and on the session door. This will allow each presentation to be synchronized across some 30 concurrent sessions. Thus, if for some reason a presenter cancels at the last minute, each session will maintain the published scheduled time and associated presentation.
- Remind presenters that 15 minutes are allowed for each talk followed by 3 minutes for questions. Two minutes are provided for transition to the next talk.
- Ask the audience to please adhere to conference etiquette by keeping their questions to the very end of each talk and minimizing movement between sessions and rooms. If participants must move to another room, they should do so prior to the beginning, or at the very end, of each talk, in correspondence to the times listed in the schedule.
- Note: most topics for oral sessions are clustered in the same building and floor so movement between rooms is possible, although not encouraged. One problem that arises, because SCCUR conferences are multidisciplinary, is that some participants may want to move among widely differing topics.
- Arrive 15 minutes prior to the beginning of your session. Introduce yourself to the student volunteer(s) who should already be present in the room. They will assist you in making certain PowerPoint presentations are uploaded in advance; LCD projectors and computers are operational, room lights are regulated, and finding the location of laser pointers. Ask how to operate the laser pointer and how to advance the LCD projector, so you can explain to presenters.
- Informally introduce yourself to presenters, in advance of the session's beginning, and ask how best to pronounce their names, co-author's names, and faculty mentor's name at the time of introduction. If titles look challenging, ask for clarification in advance.
- Bring an accurate watch or timepiece to keep accurate time.
- If needed, demonstrate to presenters, at the very beginning of each session, how to use the laser pointer and remote advance on the PowerPoint computer.
- Large cards with times of 5 min, 3 min, and 1 min printed on them will be available in the room so that you can display them to presenters to assist them in finishing on time. It is a good policy to physically stand up at the 1 min warning to let the presenter know, you are serious, and they must conclude.
- It is a good idea to read the abstract submitted by each presenter in your session, well in advance of the session's beginning. In the process, formulate one or two questions, as a back-up, should there be a lull at the end of the talk, with no question from the audience. Please use your questions as a back up so that the moderator does not dominate, but facilitates interaction with the audience. Note: submitted abstracts "should be available" on line, at the SCCUR 2012 website, at least two days in advance of the conference. Thus you can read the abstracts in advance of the conference date, November 17th.