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• 2025 Symposium
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• Session Chairs

GRS Session Chairs

We welcome A&S faculty to serve as session chairs for sessions, and A&S graduate students to serve as room proctors. To volunteer, please contact [[grs]].

Duties of the session chair prior to the session:

1. Pick up your folder from the registration table in Sadler Center (at the top of the spiral stairs) about 15 minutes before the start of your session.
2. Both the session chair and room proctor should be present at least 10 minutes before the start of the session and should introduce themselves to presenters.
3. Verify that the PC laptop, projector, and microphone are in working order. Verify that each speaker is present.
4. Presentations will be pre-loaded onto the PC laptop. However, if presenters have made last minute changes, please have them upload the new version onto the laptop before the session begins.
5.  Tell the presenters that you and the room proctor will be monitoring the time of their presentation:
   1. Natural & Computational Scientific Presentations: 12 minutes with 3 minutes for questions.
   2. Humanities & Social Sciences Presentations: 15 minutes with 5 minutes for questions.
6. No presenter will be allowed to go over their allotted time. It is important that the session stays on track. This is one of your most important roles. Explain to presenters that when there are two minutes left to the allotted time, the room proctor will raise a card that says "2 minutes." There will also be a card that reads "30 seconds" and one that reads "STOP."

Duties of the session chair during the session:

1. Bring the session to order on time, encouraging the audience to take seats at the front of the room.
2. Welcome presenters and guests to the event. Announce the title of the session and introduce yourself as the session chair. 
3. Introduce each presenter (reading bio from program).
4. Moderate the Q&A session. You may either encourage questions following each presentation or you may save time at the end of the session after all talks have been given for questions for all presenters.
5. Conclude the session by thanking all of the presenters and guests. 

Your room proctor will be available to assist and answer any questions you may have. The proctor will ensure the room is set up and clean and record the number of people in attendance.  Audio-visual personnel will be at the registration table to assist you with equipment issues should you have any.

In case of an Emergency:

Know where the exits are in the room and direct people to them in case of an emergency.

Thank you very much for your devoting your time and energy to help provide everyone with a truly professional conference experience.