PROPOSAL AND ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

Abstracts for contributed oral and poster presentations are now being called. For indivudals interested in presenting a contributed oral or poster, please read the guidelines below carefully. Proposals for symposia, organized oral sessions, special sessions, and workshops are no longer being called.

Abstracts for contributed oral and poster presentations:

• The deadline for submission of abstracts for oral and poster presentations is 4 March 2009.
  
• Abstracts will need to be sent via the electronic submission form that is now available on-line (please see link below).
• Abstracts will need to address the themes of the conference (see Scientific Program).
  
• Abstracts should briefly introduce the study topic, outline the major findings and the conclusions.
  
• Abstracts will need to be included inside the box of the electronic submission form and will conform to the preset format. To avoid any text loss, we recommend that you create your abstract in a word processing program such as Word, and once complete, please copy and paste into the abstract box.
  
• Abstracts will be limited to 250 words.
  
• Abstracts will be reviewed by the Program Chair and Organizing Committee.
  
• Abstracts not conforming to instructions will be rejected.
  
• Once abstracts are reviewed, authors will be notified of the status of acceptance by 1 April 2009.
  
• The Chair and Committee reserves the right to limit the number of presentations and change the presentation type from oral to poster presentation.
  
• More than one abstract can be submitted. To ensure maximum participation, each individual is allowed to present only one oral presentation, however, an individual may be a co-author on several abstracts for oral presentations. There will be no limit on the number of poster presentations that the main author can present. Please use the electronic submission form for each submission by sending the proposed abstracts independently.
  
• Before submitting an abstract, authors should be confident that they will be attending the meeting and making the presentation. If circumstances prevent attendance, the author should attempt to find another individual to make the presentation. If cancellation is unavoidable, the author should notify seri2009@bgpa.wa.gov.au as soon as possible.

Please, submit abstracts using the electronic submission form. Should you have any abstract queries, please e-mail seri2009@bgpa.wa.gov.au

Proposals for symposia, organized oral sessions, special sessions, and workshops:

• The submission of proposals for four session types: symposia, organized oral sessions, special sessions and workshops closed on 17 October 2008.
  
• Proposals needed to be prepared in a word document and follow the format provided in the Call for Proposals.
  
• Within the description of the session, proposals were to include background information, goals, objectives, importance, and interest of the session to the membership of SER in 300-400 words. Proposals had to address the evaluation criteria. Please refer to the Call for Proposals.
  
• Queries on proposals should be sent to seri2009@bgpa.wa.gov.au.
  
• Proposals have been reviewed and selected by the Program Chair and the Organizing Committee.
  
• Organizers of proposals have been notified.
  
• Prior to proposal submission, organizers needed to be confident that they will be attending the meeting and fulfilling on their obligation to organize and conduct their session.
  
• Prior to proposal submission, organizers should have obtained firm commitments from their invited speakers, minimizing the number listed as tentative or suggested.
  
• For symposia only: organizer/s must submit a final symposium summary description by 31 January 2009. Please refer to the Call for Proposals.
  Latest news - However, all session organizers are now being invited to submit a final session summary description, if any details have changed since the proposal submission.
  
• For symposia and organized oral sessions only: organizer/s are responsible for ensuring that each session speaker submits an abstract of his/her talk by means of the Abstract Submission site (available now) by 4 March 2009.
  Latest News - However, all session organizers are now being invited to request their speakers to submit an abstract, if the nature of the session presentations is formal and warrants this.
  
• An individual is allowed to be an organizer (either a principal organizer or a co-organizer) for only one symposium or organized oral session.
  
• Persons agreeing to present papers in a symposium, can also present a paper in an organized oral, contributed oral or poster session.
  
• A moderator for any session cannot serve as a speaker in that session.

Please refer to the Call for Proposals for full description and information to assist you in developing your session proposal. Should you have any proposal queries, please email bhalvors@ag.arizona.edu or seri2009@bgpa.wa.gov.au.