'96+Short+Cookbook

NMEA '96 Short Cookbook


 * //NMEA//** **//Conference Cookbook Update//**
 * //from//**
 * //Making Connections Global Lessons from the Gulf of//** **//Maine//**
 * //August 1‑5, 1996, University of New Hampshire//** in **//Durham//**
 * //Submitted by: Jeanne Meggison, Conference Co‑Chair & Coordinator//**

NMEA 96 turned out to be a great success with a high profit (thanks to really good attendance) and participants leaving with much new knowledge and many new friends. I distinctly remember my own fear and that of the steering committee as we were planning this event that we would not make any money or worst of all, might loose money. This fear is healthy. It is a good reality check, makes you double check everything, and helps you keep your perspective which also allows you to focus on the most important thing ‑giving your participants new and important information that will advance knowledge concerning our world of water, both fresh and salt. Financial success is great, but not the whole picture.

If you are reading this and very much into conference planning, I empathize with you. It is a huge undertaking and time consuming, but also exciting and challenging ‑ equivalent to running a small business for two years or more. Perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give you is not to let it take over your whole life. It will intrude and very much so the fast eight months, but when you are six months past it as I now am, you will realize that it is just a space in time, important, but not worth personal disasters. As you embark on this journey, try to keep that perspective and remember that most people will not recognize, the work and dedication it takes to coordinate this event ‑ so if you need a shoulder or advice, turn to previous conference coordinators. We've been there and would be happy to offer quality "listening" time.

It also helps to keep in mind the diversity of each site and of each sponsoring chapter. "Doing your own thing" is important. Don't feel pressured by the conferences before you. Just use that information to help you plan, adapting it to your own site and circumstances. Every NMEA conference is different and that is a strength. Your particular ingenuity and creativity will build on the legacy of the past, creating a part of the rich tapestry that builds each year and //which// eventually becomes the future of NMEA.

Finally, keep in mind that you can set the stage, have everything in place, but the ultimate conference experience is what the participant himself makes of it. Each individual needs to chart their own course though conference week. Help where you can, but the ultimate responsibility is theirs.

The following bits and pieces of information are some of the things that we learned that we hope will supplement the basic NNEA cookbook already in place. It is not meant as a comprehensive guide, just a means to impart some of the knowledge that we gained as we journeyed down the conference path. Good luck with your venture. We look forward to it.


 * //On time????//** ‑ Only thirty‑five percent or so of people now do things in a timely manner. The majority will meet deadlines the 24 hours before or the first 48 hours after. This is irritating to say the least, but now the norm. So, don't panic when you need 120 presenters and you have 50 returned proposals one week before the deadline. This happened to us. Three days after the deadline we had 130. Go figure Another coping mechanism is to set deadlines ahead of when you actually need them. Give yourself a minimum of one 'extra week. Don't however, let anyone know you are doing it or they will come to expect this and the whole strategy will backfire.


 * //Human failing or human nature????//** //‑ People// tend to scan letters, only processing part of what you send them. Your defense? Bold, highlight, put in boxes the most pertinent facts (I would re‑write several of the ones we wrote). If you are working out of a supporting office, do a conference information sheet and update monthly., Pass it out to everyone so they can answer most questions when people call in for the information you sent them three weeks ago. This will cut down on the number of phone calls you have to return at the end of the day. This task can be very time consuming, so take the time to organize information and enlist the aid of all concerned.


 * //Data bases ‑ Of//** the utmost importance is the ability to track all details concerning a conference. Make sure you have good software with the capability of tracking many details and the‑ ability to spit out mailing labels at the drop of a hat. You will need many data bases: steering committee, subcommittees, resources, publicity, exhibitors, presenters, and last, but not least, participants. When you set them up make sure you add in some miscellaneous fields ‑ you will need them later and it is easier to rename then to set it up again. **Most important ‑ a trained, organized person** with the time and enthusiasm to enter all the data and keep it up to date. It is easier to have only one person be responsible for this. It gets confusing if many enter data and only one disk gets updated etc. Picking the right person and program here will make life bearable throughout conference planning. I can't emphasize this enough.


 * Volunteers** ‑ We utilized over 75 wonderful people. In the beginning we had an enthusiastic group of about 20 on the steering committee. This group consisted of members of our board, sub‑committee chairs and representatives from some of the organizations that were conference partners or from sites we would later visit. A year away from the conference is the time to make sure that each committee is solid with a capable and long‑lasting chair. Make sure they know exactly what their job will be at this point and that they have clear time lines. All this should be written out and clearly understood by all. It is worth it to take some extra time at this point and cement these relationships. We required a written report from sub‑committee chairs at the monthly steering committee meetings. Someone from each‑ committee was required to be at these monthly meetings. It is important to make these gatherings as enjoyable as possible. Try to find a comfortable, easy access location, and keep the meeting at the same time and on the same day of the month if possible. People are less likely to forget if you do this, Food is also of the utmost importance. This is difficult as you are watching the budget. As time progressed, we tried to rotate this responsibility so that some sustenance is always available. About four months out from the conference try to pick one friendly, organized person from the entire group who will become your volunteer coordinator. This person needs to be an insider with all the information concerning what is going on. As you get closer to the conference, you will need many more generalized volunteers and this enthusiastic person can specify jobs, make calls, organize schedules, etc. The closer you get, the more important this position becomes.


 * The budget** ‑ There are many ways to put a budget together. I puzzled over this and changed the format a couple of times in the first year until I found what I thought would work. I ended up using a simple Works 3.0 spreadsheet. Costs are formulated in two ways: those that will be paid for with a certain number of attendees, and those that will be the same for each attendee no matter how many you have. The divider for the first was the difficult part, because you have no idea how many will attend. We wanted to offer the least expensive conference in a while, but at the same time not going into debt is very important. I finally decided on a 275 divider factor. Someone once told me that you can always count on 250 die‑hard NNEA supporters to attend the annual conference. We pushed that up with great trepidation to arrive at a registration fee that we thought most educators could afford. It is very important to keep double‑checking Your costs. Once you set the registration fee and print the registration brochure, there is no going back so be very careful here. I am enclosing a copy of our budget with explanations of how we arrived at a registration fee from it. As I look back at it, this system did work well, but feel free to do what is comfortable for you. I picked two good, reliable people to double check me every time I did a revision. This is a big responsibility, don't face it alone.

//Fundraising ‑ We// had a Fundraising committee that worked on this with suggestions and help from the steering committee. Still, three people ended up doing most of it. Try to find a person with lots of time to head this up. We had a teacher doing it and he found it a constant intrusion and extremely time consuming. He recommended that future conference committees try to find a retired business person with expertise in this Held. We were successful, raising over $15,000. **Anything you raise** needs to **be identified before the registration brochure goes to press, so it can be figured into the budget and help defray the registration** fee. Some of our funding came from a grant by a regional environmental foundation (you should be able to find a list of granting organizations and charitable trusts for your state in your local library). Lots of it came from private donations. Who you know helps here. Get together a list of possibilities and assign them to ' specific people so businesses do not get hit upon twice. They really don't like that. Again, good organization is important here, along with a good letter writer and someone who returns all phone calls.

//Guidelines for free airline ticket for the auction ‑ The// year before the conference you will want to arrange a conference airline. This is done through a travel agent. Ask them to approach the airline for a donation of a free ticket (tax deductible for them) for the auction when they make arrangements. Make sure the airline does not tack on a minimum number of seats sold for the ticket. If they insist, limit it to ten. You should be covered with that number. Figure in the free registration and housing for the auction in your budget (we did get the conference hotel to donate a room). Make sure that the air fare is auctioned off as the contiguous US unless you can make other arrangements. You don't want to end up paying for a ticket from New Zealand.

//Conference schedule// ‑ Be sure and schedule in 10 minutes each day to speak to all participants. A morning welcome session is best. This is important because you will have on‑going changes that you will need to communicate and it will be impossible to track everyone down that needs to know. We also thought that good closure was important. Make a complete package. At the first session recognize the board, new members, international members, etc. We also got special tags for the board so they would stand out and people would know who to go to with questions.

//NMEA Information// **Room** ‑ We found it very useful to have a room manned by volunteers where people could come for information, look for a package and just generally connect. It was also a central communications point for the committee. Have bulletin boards so messages can be left for people, a list of local drug stores, post office, restaurants, family places, maps etc. We also had a package service come in the last two days at specific hours that you post. This did not cost us anything. Most places will do this for the business. Ours stated it was well worth their time and conference attendees really appreciated it.

//Exhibits ‑ Our// vendor exhibit experience went smoothly. Rates were: $25 ‑ non‑profit not selling merchandise (donation to auction suggested), $50 ‑ non‑profit selling (donation to auction required), and $ 100 for commercial vendors (donation required). These rates are low if you do some research with other (not NNEA) conferences, but we felt they were reasonable. Response was excellent. We were full with 45 vendor exhibits. We also ran a computer smorgasbord with technology exhibits. The room this was held in also had a presentation area where more technology oriented concurrent sessions were held. Finally we offered an arts and crafts exhibit (in support of the scholarship fund) in a more secluded area with music, etc. This was meant as a quieter place for participants to go. All of these experiments with different kinds of exhibits worked out well, but you need skilled, specialized chairs to pull it off. These people worked fairly independently, a project within a project, so to speak. We also cut the days of the exhibits down. This came from the San Diego crew and the evaluations they handed out to exhibitors. Most felt the timing was too long, so we cut it to the weekend when the participants were always on sight. We also invited them to the auction which was appreciated as they had to stay over that night. Food was pay‑as‑you‑eat, so it was not an additional expense to the conference, plus most of the vendors had given an article for the auction.


 * Field Trips** ‑ Brainstorm many, then narrow it down to 12 or less. Visit all sites before you confirm. Be firm about deadlines in the registration brochure or it gets very complicated. Usually you can cut it off, then at registration open one or two up that still have capacity and room on the bus.

//Conference schedule// ‑ Be sure and schedule in 10 minutes each day to speak to all participants. A morning welcome session is best. This is important because you will have on‑going changes that you will need to communicate and it will be impossible to track everyone down that needs to know. We also thought that good closure was important. Make a complete package. At the first session recognize the board, new members, international members, etc. We also got special tags for the board so they would stand out and people would know who to go to with questions.


 * //Working with a university conference service//** ‑ When I first started planning this conference, I heard many horror stories about working with a sponsoring university's conference office. I vowed that nothing like that would happen to us. We paid careful attention to this relationship and to this day, I still like everyone that worked there and I respect the effort they put into this conference, but we have our own horror story to tell. All the good laid plans started falling apart about twelve weeks before the conference when it became apparent they could not do what was promised. Frankly, I just don't think they were capable. Talk was good, but accomplishment was not. They failed to keep accurate records, their computer system was terrible, they didn't even keep up with, confirmation letters so that finally we had to take over. This was a terrible set back. From June on I was working 8 to 16 hours a day to make it happen. We took over confirmation letters and gathered data we needed for field trips, special events and other happenings. After two years of work this was a big disappointment. It put me forever two days behind no matter how hard I worked, and culminated in my finding out 10 days before the conference (when I called the steamship company about the menu) that they had the Mt. Washington cruise scheduled for the wrong time and place. Can you imagine waiting at a boat pier with 450 people for a ship that would never come? Thankfully, we averted this but it was a close call and made me check every other arrangement and resulted in my not being able to trust in anything they said they had completed successfully. All this prevented me from "polishing" the final conference which is what you should be doing the last two weeks. Thus it was frustrating when I had to ad lib introductions, etc. I still have nightmares. But remember, if you don't utilize a conference service you will want to hire someone to handle registrations as they come in. This is a huge undertaking and no one can be expected to do it for free. Bill Hastie has the name of someone who did it for them at a reasonable rate. We were required to use conference services by UNH. Here are a few things you can do if you have to utilize a university conference service:

Have a clear idea and time line of what they can and can't do. Be firm from the beginning‑ If you have a co‑chair, you. can alternate good cop/bad cap to get some things accomplished.

Insist on copies of all confirmation letters for all special events, etc.

Meet with food service personnel yourself at least three weeks before the conference to review all arrangements.

Review their computer program to make sure it can handle the task of tracking participants and all the other pertinent information

Ask for a written plan of how they will handle registration day

Call pertinent university offices (media services, transportation, police, building maintenance, etc.) to verify that plans are in place and everyone is aware of the influx of participants on campus

Inspect dorms and apartments one year before and the week before the conference

Let them know early on your time frame and stay firm ‑ give them early deadlines so you will be able to drop back 20 and punt if it doesn't work out

Get approval rights to all letters and mass mailings they will be sending out

Make sure the contract spells out compensation if they do not do their job (we negotiated after ‑ it was a pain, but we were successful) ++ stay professional, no matter what ‑ the temptation will be there to act otherwise


 * Auction** ‑ This is a huge task and one that used to be headed up by the NMEA board. In recent years it has fallen to the sponsoring chapter. Good auction co‑chairs are important here. Detail oriented people with computer skills and the ability to tal k anyone into anything. Set aside a large room on site for this committee to work during the conference. They need tables and chairs (comfortable ones) and lots of help conference week. They also need their computer on site and a phone and restrooms nearby. Bring them treats and hugs and smile a lot. This event is a fun one that all conference chairs used to think we needed to provide free liquor for (figured into the registration fee or donated). We followed suit until three days before the conference when conference services told us that this would not be allowed so, it was a pay‑as‑you‑drink night and, guess what, no one seemed to mind; and we hit an all time high for auction profit. A new precedent. It had always bothered me to think that all participants would be paying for drinks hidden in their fee when many don't drink. I much prefer the new system. We also had a food bazaar that night where local restaurants set up tables and sold their specialties. This helped to keep the registration fee down, and lowered the risk factor. Comments were that people enjoyed the diversity of food and the fact that you could eat as much or as little as you like. Most popular ‑ the sinful desert booth. This event did cause us many problems the last week though. Conference services had given us a firm list of eight participating and diverse restaurants; however, unbeknownst to us, they had not confirmed these business and four dropped out the week before the conference. We had to pitch in and search. It took up many, many hours when we needed to be doing other things; We finally found one more and ended up buying lobster for rolls, making them ourselves, and ordering pizza. All this in the last two days before the event (someone had to make the arrangements, pick up the materials, set up, money for change, volunteers, etc.), lesson again learned about dealing with conference services. Sometimes, it is just easier to do it yourself from the beginning.

//Timeline ‑// This is meant as a general guideline to highlight some of the most important events. Many things go on that are not mentioned here and each conference is different, so adapt to your own experience.


 * (Fundraising and budget work are ongoing from the beginning)**

1. Two years out, decide on theme, mission, place and time. Try to decide on a theme that your site will easily enhance. The dates should be over a Saturday for participants so they can arrange less expensive air fare. If I had it to do again, I would end the conference on a Saturday night or Sunday morning. It just makes everything easier for attendees and they are much more likely to come.

2. Choose a conference title and a logo. This is more difficult than it appears. Think ahead to advertising, letterhead, etc. This will have to be a committee decision. We went round and round until one night I barred the door so they couldn't leave until we decided. Try writing suggestions on a board and then casting written ballots. This avoids most hurt feelings.

3. Choose a site (investigate all possibilities) as conference headquarters. Brainstorm schedule of events.

4. Meet with site administrators and start planning. Don't be timid about asking for special considerations. You won't know unless you ask. Also start visiting probable field trip sights.

5. Finalize schedule of events at least 2 months prior to the conference before yours. Contact all keynote and general session speakers. Get a written signed contract. Make sure you spell out clearly what expenses they will be reimbursed for and when (verify with conference services). Get a needs list from them (AV, special hotel arrangements or other considerations, etc.).

6. May, June ‑ Prepare call for papers and a publicity brochure to have at that year's annual conference. Prepare exhibit for that year's conference and make sure you are well represented in the concurrent sessions with educators from your area who will spark interest in your conference.

7. September ‑ Prepare a task sheet with time lines for all sub‑committees. Recruit more volunteers and make sure your chairs will stick it out to the end and that they have a clear idea of what is expected of them. Now is the time to make changes. Remember to give them early deadlines so that you have room to mend arrangements if something doesn't work out. Again, never let them know you are doing this or the strategy falls apart.

8. October ‑ Do a mailing to all board and chapter reps with CFP and a one page publicity insertion for newsletters. Ask for Fundraising help. Time to plan a January publicity campaign. Who and where should be determined now. Assemble mailing lists, start writing letters. Meet with conference services and tour all dorms, apartments, meeting rooms, etc. Ask to meet food service people, etc.

9. November ‑ Start planning exhibits and putting contact lists together. Previous conferences should have exhibitor lists. Supplement in your area. Contact all general session speakers again with a reminder. Send them a publicity brochure and any other information that will help them feel connected and help advertise the conference.

10. December ‑ Get info to Nora for the winter issue of Current. Take a break, enjoy your family. It will be the last bulk of time for awhile.

11. January ‑ Do a mass publicity mailing in your area and to //NNEA// board. Send out exhibit letters. Final push for responses to the call for papers. Registration brochure is now serious business and will take up lots of your time. Everything has to be in place before this goes to print and you will want to have it at mid‑year. Always allow an extra week for printing beyond the dates they give you. There are inevitable foul‑ups. Identify mailing lists for registration brochure and the format the they need to be in where they will be mailed from (ours went out from university mail and they required it on disk in a special format). Don't forget NMEA membership and your local chapter. Most likely these will have to be converted and that takes extra time.

12. February ‑ Compose letter in response to call for papers. Send out exhibit invitations. Finalize registration brochure and get it to print. Set up a system to respond to inquiries. Do a site review with conference services. Identify presenter rooms. Try to have a full set of //AV// in each room. It will make life easier and far less complicated later. We were able to get ‑the Maine State Library to donate the AV for concurrent sessions. We paid a tech his salary and expenses to come down and saved over $6000 in rental fees. This worked very well. For general session AV we went through the university media services, paid top dollar to make sure it would be great and they really messed it up. Go figure ........

13. March ‑ Prepare for mid‑year board meeting. Give a good presentation here and pass out some registration brochures. Program committee needs to make decisions on presenters. Get acceptance letters out. Start charting concurrent sessions (see later discussion of this). Pick a detail person to re‑write abstracts and get the program started. Meet a minimum of monthly with conference services. Call once a week for an update. You should now have a confirmation letter from all special event sites in hand.

14. April ‑ All registration brochure mailings should be complete. Prepare for a few early registrations. Be sure and reply with a confirmation letter including travel directions etc. The early registrations are a good test of how your confermation letter is working. If you are getting a lot of phone messages, you need to look at it again and revise. Continue program work and do another exhibit invitation letter if you do not have enough responses. Send out reminders to NMEA board about registration, exhibits and start pushing the auction. Include publicity sheet for newsletters. Continue to ask for Fundraising help. Meet with all sub‑committee chairs for personal updates and appreciation time. Meet with conference services and do a walk‑though from the viewpoint of a participant, then a volunteer, then staff. Make sure it works for everyone. Recruit more volunteers and make sure you have a volunteer coordinator at this point. Have a sip‑up sheet for specific jobs (don't forget concurrent session monitors and building assistants) with the times they are needed. Always ask for a few smiling gophers. They will I be indispensable. Make sure a few have strong backs.

15. May ‑ Review all arrangements. Keep a notepad by the bed. It is handy When you wake up from a dream and think of things you forgot or new items to attend to. Charting concurrent sessions should be complete. Start composing the layout for the program etc. Assist exhibit, field trip and auction chairs where needed. They need more support now. Confirm again all special session speakers. Work on auction and exhibit room layouts. Keep after conference services.

16. June ‑ From now on it will be at least 40 hours a week. Try to keep weekends free and pamper yourself whenever possible. Finish program, hold until July to print because of last minute changes. Final publicity push. Finish layouts and keep closely connected to your subcommittees. Send out final letter to concurrent session presenters. Make sure they know where and when, arrangements for mailing equipment and hand‑outs early, etc. Check registration list to make sure they have registered, if not call and confirm them. Some will register at the last minute and this is a good reminder. Others will have decided not to come and neglected to call or write you about that, so make sure you confirm all. This tends to be an on‑going process and important as we had a waiting list of people who wanted to present. This also changes your chart and program. Start keeping an accurate change list for session presenters. This is where the wall chart (later in this document) comes in very handy because it gives you the whole picture.

17. July ‑ Print program. Keep careful notes as the final changes come in for the errata sheet. Go over all arrangements and verify. Pay special attention to food and transportation. Write introductions and any other events you will be hosting. Have a dress rehearsal with volunteers. You can combine this with a pot luck supper and registration bag stuffing party. Everyone needs to know where rooms are, who to call for help, etc. Run through the conference with all the major players. Do final polishing. Relax, enjoy the final product!

Publicity ‑

Much depends on your publicity and marketing strategy. Getting people to come is a focal point. If you want to make a profit, this is where it will happen; and, what is the sense of doing all this brilliant work if no one is there to benefit from it. So here is some of what we did for you to consider. We hope it inspires new and better ideas.

We begged, borrowed, bartered wherever we could for discounts, gifts, etc. We also did press releases. Sea Grant Maine handled this and paid for the mailings. Few were picked up by papers, so if you have to pay, I'd probably cut here.


 * //Call for Papers, Presenters, etc.//**

The only change I would make in the call for papers (take to copy center for inexpensive first copies, then reproduce in office) is to shorten the abstract to 50 words or less. Otherwise, you end up shortening them because the program is too long and too expensive to print (we printed 600 spiral bound with a color cover for $1300). Presenters can be very fussy about their abstracts, so if you can avoid altering them, it will save you a big hassle.

Another awkward problem is the presenter who does not want to pay a registration fee. We had many arguments about this in committee. There are very few organizations who don't require presenters to register. NMEA has gotten to be a large conference. We had over 120 presenters. You can not let them all in for free. They need to understand that if they are given a break, it pushes the registration fee up for the educator that is **trying to attend as a participant and** this just basically is not fair. We stood firm, except in cases of financial hardship or when it was a local presenter who was basically just coming to do their presentation and leave (sponsoring university professors, etc.), especially if the presentation was an important one that we felt benefited the conference overall. We pretty much took it on a case by case basis and the committee left it up to the co‑chairs to make the final decision.

Sorting out all the presenter and concurrent session information into an organized program can be very confusing to say the least. I think we finally came up with an innovative system:

1. Put all data on a data base. Have the names, addresses, titles, AV, level, etc. Everything off the call for papers except the abstract. Add fields ‑for day, time, session, place (you won't be able to fill those in until later).

2. Take two sheets of flip chart paper and tape them together horizontally. Divide into squares the size of 3X3 post‑it notes. Down the left hand side list your sessions and time. Across the top label all the rooms you are using with their capacity, set‑up and the AV equipment in each one.

3. Make up mailing labels from your data base with the name, title, AV, level, capacity, etc. You will not need the address. Paste each one on the top of a post‑it.

4. Start sorting the way it makes the most sense to you‑ By category, then level or however you want to do ft. The post‑it note allows you to change their placement easily, and there will be many changes.

5. Find a clear section of wall and tape the chart up. Start putting these presenters in rooms. Remember not to have ail the aquaria elementary at the same time, etc. We had a diverse offering at each session. One science, one aquaria, one **//government, etc//.** Then make sure the levels are diverse. Match up the AV needs and space requirements to, the room. It is a grand puzzle and can actually be fun once you get going. The bottom half of the post‑it is for notes on the session or presenter that you need to remember or changes they want if possible. This project takes some re‑working over time. Once the sticky starts to wear off use small pieces of masking tape to tape them in place. This procedure allows you to change them when needed. If someone cancels, the whole thing frequently shuffles. This arrangement also allows you to see //the// whole picture. Very useful in planning.

6. When you have them in place, copy rooms and times into data base. This will allow you to sort on the data base and come up with lists by session, room or whatever you currently need.


 * Summary** ‑

All of us are proud of NMEA 96. We strove to present diversity and new knowledge. It was important to us to emphasize the connections between fresh and salt water through the watershed concept, and to also highlight our own diversity and the value of our relationships to each other through knowledge and tolerance. We took participants from a mountain path at the top of a watershed to a city street near a beautiful salt-water gulf. They discovered new handson outdoor environmental activities, practiced old stand‑bys with new themes, listened to dedicated scientists and explorers, found many new resources, explored new places, made new friends, shared their own knowledge, ate, sang, danced and were renewed.

We wish you well in your journey, and hope that the knowledge we have acquired somehow helps you navigate your own path. Peace ….