Programming the Summit: Alan Houser and Paul Mueller Talk About the Evaluation Process

Alan Houser, Conference Manager; Paul Mueller, Program Advisory Committee Chair; and Alan Porter, Program Advisory Committee Deputy Chair, visited STC headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, on 29 October for the always-tough task of winnowing the proposals for education sessions at the Summit down to the preliminary program. With them all day were Lloyd Tucker, STC’s Deputy Executive Director, and Elaine Gilliam, Meeting Manager. Prior to this meeting, track managers and volunteer reviewers evaluated all 240-plus proposals. Each proposal got at least three evaluations, and the reviewers graded the proposal on a number of criteria. Friday, then, was the hard task of narrowing down those 240 proposal into roughly 80 sessions for the preliminary program. (Tasks still to be done include reaching out and inviting presenters for specific topics in the advanced Institutes and evaluating where, if anywhere, gaps exist.) Alan and Paul sat down for the camera after the daylong meeting for a few minutes, expressing enthusiasm about the high quality of all the proposals. They’d also like to issue a special thanks to the track managers: Beth Bailey, Tommy Barker, Ant Davey, Alyssa Fox, Sarah O’Keefe, Alan Porter, and Will Sansbury; and a big thank-you to the volunteer reviewers: Robert Armstrong, David Caruso, Louellen Coker, Richard Hamilton, Peggy Harvey, Chris Hester, Paul Holland, Catherine Jantzen, Karen Lane, Karen Mardahl, Ed Marshall, Kathryn Poe, and Bill Swallow. See the video below for an inside look at the process from Alan and Paul!