INFORMS' NEW COLLOQUIA STRUCTURE

 

INFORMS has a tradition of offering enriching and stimulating special interest colloquia in conjunction with its regular conferences. The Doctoral Student Colloquium, organized by the Student Affairs Committee, was introduced in 1982 and traditionally transpires on the Friday and Saturday prior to INFORMS' fall conference. This colloquium, comprised of sessions and workshops designed to prepare doctoral students for the early years of their professional careers, averages forty attendees and fifteen presenters. The Education Committee introduced the Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium, a concentrated series of workshops and presentations on pedagogical issues, in 1999. This colloquium, which is targeted at INFORMS members at all stages of their academic careers, traditionally takes place on the Friday and Saturday prior to INFORMS' spring conference. The Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium has averaged thirty-five attendees (equally divided between regular members and student members) and fifteen presenters. Finally, the Industry Colloquium, which is comprised of sessions designed specifically to prepare graduate students for positions in industry and government, has been held sporadically over the past few years. This colloquium is also the responsibility of the Student Affairs Committee.

The implementation of INFORMS' new schedule of one annual conference has necessitated changes in our colloquia structure. However, simply holding all three colloquia independently on the Friday and Saturday prior to the one annual INFORMS conference is problematic. Firstly, the target audiences overlap greatly. If we conduct these colloquia simultaneously without making any adaptations, we would divide their overlapping target audiences risk diminishing the success of one or more of these colloquia. Secondly, three separate colloquia would occupy a great deal of physical space, particularly for separate meal facilities. Finding a suitable a venue (or venues) may be impractical, and venue organization and management would be logistically challenging.

Early in 2000 a small task force representing the Student Affairs Committee and the Education Committee was created to find a colloquia structure that would mitigate these problems. The task force (Jim Cochran of Louisiana Tech University, Janny Leung of Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Donna Llewellyn of The Georgia Institute of Technology) has developed an integrated colloquia structure that will be implemented at the upcoming conference in Miami Beach this November.

Under the new structure all three colloquia will meet together on Friday evening for dinner, welcoming remarks, and a presentation by INFORMS' President. After a continental breakfast on Saturday morning, registrants of the three colloquia will attend separate narrowly focused sessions. A common lunch follows, after which two tracks of sessions will run throughout the remainder of Saturday. One of these tracks will be pedagogically oriented and will be offered for registrants of the Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium, while the other will be directed toward industry and government employment and will be offered for registrants of the Industry Colloquium.

Those registered for the Doctoral Colloquium will be free to attend sessions in either of the Saturday afternoon tracks, and then will attend the traditional Saturday evening Doctoral Colloquium dinner. By allowing the Doctoral Colloquium registrants to attend either track we hope to better address the needs of the growing proportion of doctoral student members who aspire to careers outside of academia. Additionally, the new format should make more efficient use of INFORMS' resources.

COMBINED COLLOQUIA STRUCTURE

After developing an acceptable combined colloquia structure, the task force formed the new Combined Colloquia Committee. This committee will organize and direct these three colloquia for the INFORMS 2001 Conference. Each of the five members of this committee has distinct responsibilities. The committee consists of the Committee Chair, the Chairs of the three colloquia, and a Publicity Chair/Web Master. Jim Cochran has been selected to chair this committee. The following University of Miami faculty members have filled the four remaining committee positions:

1. Karen Chinander (kchinander@miami.edu, (305) 284-4200) - Doctoral Colloquium Chair
2. Ken Doerr (kdoerr@exchange.sba.miami.edu, (305) 284- 1333) - Teaching Effectiveness Colloquium Chair
3. Tali Freed (talifreed@aol.com, (305) 278-8629) - Industry Colloquium Chair
4. Tom Sloan (tsloan@sba.miami.edu, (305) 284-1086) - Publicity Chair/Web Master

The committee is currently assembling the various programs and making the other necessary arrangements for the three colloquia. We expect to have preliminary programs finalized by March 30, and we will update our web site (http://www.bus.miami.edu/~tsloan/INFORMS/) as we progress. Information on registration processes and fees will also be posted at this site. Additionally, published calls for registration for each of the three colloquia will follow soon after.

Please contact one of the Combined Colloquia Committee members if you have questions, comments, or suggestions regarding the new combined colloquia format or any of the individual colloquia.