Planning for a district or regional meeting should begin no later than one year in advance. This amount of time is required since many speakers as well as meeting sites are not available unless contacted several months in advance.

A planning committee whose members are willing to make great contributions of time and effort is needed for the general coordination of a successful district or regional meeting. Members of the planning committee may be designated as chairpersons or local arrangements, accounting (treasurer), program, exhibits, registration, and publicity (newsletter editor). Their first activity is the selection of a time and place for the meeting.

Meeting Dates

Early selection of a date is important to avoid conflicts with AALAS sponsored meetings and other groups as well as conflicts with religious holidays. Once a tentative date has been selected, the publicity chairman should contact the AALAS office to check the appropriateness of the date and to include the selected date in Contemporary Topics meeting calendar for publication. District or regional meetings are generally one or two days long and are frequently scheduled for a weekend. The accounting and local arrangements chairpersons should research the effect of the chosen date and season on hotel room rates, airfare and travel, union regulation, and overtime labor in the exhibit hall.

Meeting Site

The site selected for the meeting should be convenient and experienced in hosting meetings of the anticipated size. A hotel or motel with capabilities for large meetings should have convenient transportation to and from the airport, good dining facilities nearby, adequate loading and unloading facilities for exhibits, adequate security system, audiovisual capabilities, sufficient meeting rooms, and reasonably priced rooms. The branch hosting the meeting may be providing information on the available site. The responsibility for negotiating prices, site visitation, and preparation of a bid falls on the local arrangements and accounting chairpersons.

Once the site and date have been selected, the planning committee should prepare an agenda and detail the responsibilities as follows:

Selecting and visiting the site, negotiating rates, reserving sleeping and meeting rooms, arranging food service at meetings, arranging social tours and activities, arranging all banquet details, ordering audiovisual equipment, preparing directional signs, submitting a budget to accounting.

Setting up accounts for the meeting, establishing a meeting budget, processing meeting income, disbursing funds for expenses, preparing and submitting a final financial report.

Selecting types of scientific program activities, contacting and booking speakers, submitting costs for any travel, accommodations, and equipment for program, preparing schedule for printed program, selecting rooms for program activities, ordering needed audiovisual equipment and supplies for program activities

Researching potential exhibitors and Allied Trade Association regulations, preparing an exhibitors' prospectus with contracts and fees for distribution to exhibitors, arranging for decorators and booth assignments in exhibit hall (and registration area), arranging receipt and storage or exhibit materials, establishing exhibit hall hours, submitting to publicity the list of exhibitors and sponsors, submitting to accounting the receipts and expenses.

Preparing and distributing forms for preregistration (with deadlines) and on-site registration, ordering and preparing name badges/ribbons, any program tickets for specific activities, tour and banquet tickets, and hotel/motel reservation cards, establishing procedures and setting up registration desk, handling on-site receipt of fees and submitting to accounting, preparing roster of attendees and exhibitors after meeting.

Arranging for printing and distribution of program, informing the AALAS office and participating facilities, providing all program information to the branch newsletter editor, submitting a budget to accounting.

Working closely with all members of the planning committee, the accounting chairman should prepare a budget of income and expenses for the meeting, in order to establish registration and exhibit fees. Items to consider are:

A) Registration fees for attendees, spouses and sponsors (those who wish to help promote the meeting but do not wish to exhibit), and exhibitors (usually includes registration for two representatives), and B) fees charged for exhibit booth space.

A) Rental fee for meeting/exhibit area, B) printing and mailing costs of program, registration forms, exhibitor prospectus/contracts, signs, C) decorator's fees for booths, registration area, and any other areas they drape, D) rental of audiovisual equipment, E) refreshments in meeting rooms, F) banquet and social tours (usually charged separately to the participants), G) transportation and accommodations for special guests/speakers, H) photographers, I) security guards.

A scientific program with subjects of interest to investigators and researchers, laboratory animal technicians and technologists, and commercial manufacturers and suppliers should be presented. District and regional meetings may consist of simultaneous scientific and technical sessions. Additional program choices include seminars, workshops or wet-lab sessions, posters, exhibits, and scientific tours.

The program chairman, working with publicity, registration and local arrangements, may follow the guidelines below:

1. Issue an initial call for papers/posters and make contact with potential speakers. Continue to correspond with speakers to provide details on schedules, rooms, transportation and accommodations.

2. Pursue financing possibilities to cover any special speakers or guests.

3. Prepare a special preregistration/abstracts form working with registration for program participants, with places to indicate needed supplies, audiovisual equipment, the type of presentation (paper/poster/workshop) and the complete title and names of presenters for the program listing.

4. Workout a schedule of times and locations for all scientific program activities, with assistance from local arrangements on rooms. Carefully examine schedule for potential conflicts on simultaneous activities.

5. Supply registration with the necessary information for preparing name badges and registration packets. Supply publicity with details for the program.

6. Order the appropriate audiovisual equipment and other supplies. Request tackboards needed for posters from the decorating firm or the hotel management. Plan seating arrangements of meeting rooms. Arrange for a room for slide preview and speaker rehearsal, if needed. Order certificates to recognize speaker participation.

The exhibit chairman begins by researching potential exhibitors and the regulations of the Allied Trade Association (ATA) state that exhibit hours in the morning and two consecutive hours in the afternoon, with no conflicting events such as presentations, tours, or social events during these hours. AALAS prohibits the exhibit of live animals of any species. Exhibitors should be assured that the guidelines of the ATA will be followed, including the statement on social events that exhibitors will not be solicited for funds to cover the expense of social events such as cocktail hours, but that they may volunteer to sponsor social events and that privately sponsored social events of any kind will not be promoted in any branch, district, or national AALAS literature such as the meeting program.

The exhibits chairman may wish to follow the agenda below:

1. Contract for a decorator for the exhibit hall and related areas, or make decorating arrangements through the facility.

2. Prepare a floor plan indicating the layout with numbered booths for the exhibit hall. Be sure to have fire code approval. The decorator or hotel will usually prepare this plan.

3. Prepare an exhibitor's prospectus and appropriate contracts and mail to potential exhibitors.

4. As contracts are returned, assign booth exhibit space and notify exhibitor. The decorator will usually supply service contracts for booth furnishings, equipment receipt and storage, shipping and labor, etc. Work with program chairman to order items such as poster tackboards and registration chairman to set up the registration area.

5. Arrange for food concessions near the exhibit area with local arrangements.

Registration will involve the preparation of several types of forms, distribution of registration materials, processing of advance registration, and on-site registration. With the cooperation of the program chairman, design appropriate forms for registration, exhibitors, and sponsors. Distribute forms and process as required.

Preregistration Procedures:

1. Preregistration information should be mailed out at least 2 months prior to the meeting. This allows prospective attendees using institutional funds the time needed to process travel requests.

2. Cut off preregistration approximately 2 weeks prior to the meeting (indicate cutoff date on the preregistration form).

3. When the preregistration deadline is over, order the necessary name badges, ribbons, etc.

4. Prepare registration packets containing name badges, tickets, and programs for preregistered people.

5. Prepare an alphabetical listing of all preregistrants, including exhibitors. Be sure to include waived registrants, such as speakers, committee, etc.

6. Mail out a notice of registration.

On-site Registration Procedures:

1. Two separate registration booths work well:

a) "On-Site Registration"

b) "Preregistration" - divide this booth into 2 lines (A-M and N-Z). Separate the lines via a rope or chain to eliminate congestion.

2. Provide a table away from the other registration booths for walk-ins to leisurely fill out an on-site registration form. This form should be filled out completely before the registrant approaches the on-site booth. It is essential to make this area with a large sign detailing the completion of this procedure.

3. The completed form, along with payment, is presented at the on-site booth.

4. The badge is typed with reverse side stamped as a receipt.

5. Money transactions should be handled by cashiers at the on-site booth only. This allows preregistration lines to move quickly.

6. Information from on-site registration forms can be added to compiled preregistration list, so that a complete list of registrants is available at all times.

Additional Registration Hints:

1. A large bold type style is recommended for legibility on identification badges.

2. Committee or position ribbons attached in advance saves time.

3. Numbered banquet tickets provide a running total of tickets purchased at all times.

4. Registration forms can also serve such purposes as registering guests, listing specialty certification, etc.

5. Opening the registration area for a limited time the evening before the meeting helps eliminate long waiting lines the first morning.

Publicity for a district or regional meeting may begin as soon as the date and location are set. The publicity chairman should work closely with the branch newsletter editor and the registration chairman.

1. As soon as a date and place are known, notify the AALAS office and also extend an invitation to the AALAS president. Notify the branch newsletter editor or secretaries for all the branches within the district. As soon as registration forms are designed and the program chairman has prepared a call for topics, submit these items to the branch editors or secretaries. Prepare a plan of distribution with these branch officers for all relevant printed materials. Send copies of all printed materials to the AALAS office.

2. Obtain all scientific program information from the program chairman, exhibit information from the exhibits chairman, and social tours and activities information from the local arrangements chairman. Maps and floor plans may be included in the program, if space allows. A list of program participants may be prepared from this information. Other information to include in the program would be the committee rosters for the meeting, the names of the officers of the branch and the district trustees, the date and place for the next district meeting, and the schedule for business meeting or the caucus.

3. Decide on the method of production for the program (printing, photocopying, etc.) and locate the necessary services for this. Consider cover artwork or graphics and locate assistance. Prepare and submit a budget.

4. Prepare press materials for on-site distribution. Anticipate potential negative activities such as picket lines, and develop a handling procedure.

5. Prepare post-meeting publicity and distribute.

Most of the post-meeting responsibilities will fall to the accounting chairman or treasurer, who have to gather the receipts and pay the bills at the end of the meeting. The host branch may also wish to produce a directory of attendees, subdividing the participants, exhibitors, sponsors, etc. The publicity chairman may distribute some post-session publicity, especially concerning award recipients or the results of any meetings or elections.

Other items of interest:

ATA Guidelines: SUGGESTED GUIDELINES for LOCAL AALAS BRANCH & DISTRICT MEETINGS
that involve COMMERCIAL EXHIBITIONS, October, 2002