Procedures and Guidelines-Meeting Location and Time

This committee annually recommends a meeting site and location for the Branch Meeting 4 years in advance, i.e., the 1992 Committee will consider location and meeting dates for the 1996 meeting. The duties of this committee can be conducted by mail or telephone. One approach that can be used is for the committee to review the recent record of Branch meetings to identify those member states that have not recently had the opportunity to host the annual meeting. One or more states are then selected and local entomologists contacted regarding their willingness to assume responsibility for organizing local arrangements and proposing suitable meeting locations. The Committee Chair submits a report about the sites selected to the Executive Committee prior to the Branch meeting. These states are then invited to submit invitations to be acted upon by the Executive Committee at the upcoming Annual Branch Meeting. The selection of the time and place for the NCB meeting is subject to the approval of the members at the Annual Business meeting.

The principal consideration in selecting the host city probably should be accessibility by air. Responsibility for proposing specific convention centers can be left to the prospective hosts, but the Chair of this committee should make sure that it is understood that our organization poses a somewhat unusual demand on facilities. The past Local Arrangements Chair should be consulted on specific needs for a group of our size. We must have sufficient rooms of reasonable size, preferably accommodating at least 100 persons each, for 6-7 concurrent meeting sessions. That requirement eliminates many otherwise suitable convention centers. Branch meetings should, if at all possible, be scheduled for the last week of March, Sunday evening - Wednesday noon. The NCB-ESA Location and Time Committee, in establishing meeting dates, must seek to minimize meeting conflicts with related organizations such as the American Mosquito Control Association. Meeting dates of other ESA Branches should be considered so that the National ESA officers might attend the NCB meeting.

The Meeting Location and Time Committee should contact prospective hosts early to allow sufficient time for invitations to be developed. It may be advisable, although not mandatory, that more than one invitation be solicited. The three most immediate past Chairs of the Local Arrangements Committee will serve on the committee. The Chair of the committee is the person who is in the final year on the committee once a rotational system has been established.