Seminar committee chair responsibilities

The Seminar Committee chair is responsible for forming the committee that is charged with defining the seminar agenda.  The chair schedules all necessary meetings with the committee to discuss potential seminar topics and presenter(s).  The committee sets the agenda for the year.  The chair typically coordinates with the presenter(s) the topic, date and time of the seminar and then makes sure this information is included in the seminar scheduling and registration.  In addition, the chair hosts the seminars on the day/time they take place and follows up with evaluations/feedback after the seminar is over.

The chair can delegate any of these responsibilities to others as appropriate or necessary.

Note:  To find members who are interested in serving on the Seminar Committee search the ASURA membership for members who have indicated an interest to serve on this committee.  See the Find ASURA volunteer document for information on how to perform the search.

Coordination with the presenter(s) is a key component to insuring a successful seminar!  The following are suggestions for communicating with the seminar presenter(s) once the agenda has been set.

• Initial contact with the presenter(s) should be made at least 3-4 months prior to the seminar (if possible).
• Confirm with the presenter(s) that he/she is available on the day/time scheduled and the topic is within the presenter(s) expertise.
• Request a short bio and seminar blurb that will be used in the announcements for the seminar and the introduction the day of the seminar.
• At least 1 ½ months prior to the seminar, follow-up with the presenter(s) to confirm he/she is still available and able to present.  Discuss logistics of the seminar (in-person/virtual) and/or special needs.
• The week before the seminar, follow-up with the presenter to once again confirm he/she will be there the day of the seminar, pass on the Zoom link (if the seminar is virtual), directions to the Community Services Building (if the seminar is in-person) and confirm any other special needs.
• The day before the seminar, follow-up one last time to confirm everything is set.
• The day of the seminar, after the seminar has completed, send the presenter(s) a “thank you” note thanking the presenter(s) for his/her time.

The chair is free to delegate any or all of the responsibilities outlined above.  It would, however, be nice if the chair sent the "thank you" note to the presenter(s)

Seminar scheduling requires several different things to be taken into consideration.  A great resource for determining what is needed for scheduling a seminar can be found on the Event Process page of this site.  This page contains the information needed to prepare for the seminar along with instructions for creating an event on Wild Apricot.  The event creation on Wild Apricot may be delegated depending on the confidence level of the chair in working with Wild Apricot (see “Adding an event to Wild Apricot” under Event Process for more information.)

You will need to have the following information available before starting the event creation process:

• Seminar description.
• Date, time and location of the seminar.
• A graphic for the event (See “Getting started” of the event process instructions for more information on the graphic.).
• Virtual seminar – Zoom meeting link for the reminder emails

Virtual seminars will need to have a Zoom meeting defined so a link can be generated.  ASURA has their own Zoom account that is used for virtual seminars.  Login into Zoom using the ASURA Zoom credentials (See Passwords for shared technology accounts for the current Zoom login information.)

The chair, or the chair’s delegate, is the host for the seminar.  The day of the seminar the chair/host is responsible for the following:

• Virtual seminars – Start the Zoom session at least 15 minutes prior to the seminar starting time.  Start recording the Zoom session just prior to beginning the welcome/introductions for the seminar.  Instruct attendees to mute themselves during the seminar and post any questions in the chat area of the Zoom meeting. Stop the recording at the end of the seminar.
• In-Person seminars – Make sure any equipment that will be used is ready and available.
• Welcome the attendees and introduce the presenter(s).
• Virtual seminar – Monitor the chat for questions (This is a good task to delegate so the host can focus on the seminar.).
• Thank the presenter(s) when the seminar is over, as well as thank the attendees for participating.
• In-person seminar – Pass out and then collect the seminar evaluation forms.

[Information for this block is being developed]

There are a few items that need to be completed before the seminar can be closed out.

• Send a “thank you” email to the presenter(s)
• Virtual seminar *
  • Send an email to the people who registered with the link to submit an online seminar. evaluation. This is done using the “Email registrants” option within the Wild Apricot. events module. See “Seminar Evaluation” for instructions on how to create the online seminar evaluation.
  • Create the YouTube video from the Zoom recording.
• Create a past events  page on the ASURA website to document the event. See "Add-edit event report" for information on how to create this page. *
• Write-up an article on the seminar for PrimeTimes.

* These tasks can be delegated depending on your comfort level working with the technology tools.