Technical Procedure: Schedule and Moderate a Mini Symposium
The Mini Symposia are a vital part of ISSS operations.
They typically take place once a week, bypassing major holidays and the summer break. The ISSS President decides on the day and time. Some Presidents choose to organize repetitions over the same week to allow Members in different continents to attend, or they schedule some at a time more convenient for the USA-Europe and some for Australia-Asia.
One should take care of the time change during the summer months. For example, the United Kingdom uses Greenwich Mean Time (also known as Western European Time, UTC+00:00), but between the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October shifts to British Summer Time (UTC+01:00, also known as Western European Summer Time).
It is advisable to report online only a single time zone, i.e., UTC, on all ISSS pages and calendars, and leave the responsibility for determining local time to the participants.
Steps to Schedule a Mini Symposium
- Use the ISSS Zoom account to log in to Zoom.
- Have the ISSS_Zoom email credentials handy, in case Zoom asks for verification.
- Schedule the meeting. If it is the first in a season, set it to repeat the end of the season.
- Note that when you start the Zoom recording, it uploads and publishes it automatically to Vimeo.
- Share screen with the ISSS Mini Symposium Cover slide.
Inform Members and Friends about the Mini Symposium
Note that the Mini Symposium is mentioned in different places throughout ISSS's media.
The ISSS Newsletter invites people to join, and the ISSS Administrator sends email alerts to an extensive list via email.
Note that Mini Symposia might be mentioned at:
- The Mini Symposia section of the isss.org website
- The Events page of the isss.org website
- The Calendar section of the isss.org website
- The News section of the isss.org website
Starting and Moderating a Mini Symposium
- Log in to Zoom at least 10-15 minutes ahead. Let people in the Waiting Room enter, because this is a time when Members enjoy informal talking.
- Welcome everybody, mentioning the date, and terms like "mini symposium" and "ISSS".
- Test your own screen sharing, as well as the main speaker's.
- Introducing the speaker (in detail) and reminding everyone of the purpose and rules of Mini Symposia (using the second slide of the ISSS Mini Symposium Cover slide).
- If you need to leave before the end of the session, make someone else "host" so the recording does not stop.