1. The IMS Program Secretary appoints a Program Chair for each IMS sponsored meeting. Program chair duties and other details are as follows:
2. Detailed instructions for Program chairs for each particular meeting can be found on the Program Chairs Help Page.
3. Program Chairs should prepare all advertising materials for the meeting.  As a general rule of thumb, meetings should be advertised at least 3 times in the Bulletin (having an ad appear 3 times is a general marketing principle)  Therefore, advertisements should be submitted at least 8-9 months prior to the meeting.  For more details on advertising see the Program Chairs Help Page.
4. The Program chair may appoint a contributed papers chair.  If the meeting is a JSM Program Chairs need to appoint a contributed papers chair as both serve on the JSM program committee.  If the meeting is with another group it is the program chair’s decision.  It can be very helpful to have a contributed papers chair.
5. The Program Chair must contact the main organizer of the meeting and have the registration form mailed to any speakers who are not members of one of the organizing groups.
6. Money for speakers:

	In general there is no IMS money regardless of the circumstances.   When the meetings are joint sometimes the joint partnership has money.  -- It does not hurt to ask.  At JSM's nonstatistician speakers can get complementary registration.  The same holds for the meetings with ENAR. JSM has had some money available for travel for non-USA invited speakers--talk to JSM program chair.
	All speakers are required to register for the meeting.
	IMS prepays the registration for all Medallion, Wald, Neyman, LeCam and Rietz - a letter is sent about this from the IMS President.  If one of these speakers really has dire circumstances you can get me to make a plea on this person's behalf to the IMS exec board.
	IMS pays the expenses of the Wald lecturer.
	The LeCam endowment (via IMS) pays the travel expenses of the LeCam Lecturer.

7. Program chairs must find a chair for these medallion and named sessions + optional 5-10 minute introduction by expert.  It is recommend requesting suggestions from the speakers for these people. It is also suggested to put 2 Medallion lectures per session. You can have one session with 2 Medallion lectures but no more than 2 Medallion lectures per session.
8. If the meeting is joint with another society which is the primary organizer (ENAR or JSM or SSC) then the program chair must get their abstract and publishing deadlines for the preliminary and final programs.
9. Scheduling:  Try to work with the other societies' program chair in the scheduling of the invited sessions.   If there is are two sessions which compete heavily for the same audience it is a mess!
10. If the meeting is a JSM or joint with ENAR then be aware of the PARTICIPANT GUIDELINES: The main rule you need to be aware of here is the one paper, one chair rule.  Most importantly, an individual can do only ONE of the following: Present an invited paper;  Present a contributed paper or poster; Serve as a discussant, panelist or other special participant in one invited OR one special contributed session.

Duties include:

1. Provide the meeting program chair with a blurb about tourist info and any www connections to hotel/city--this will go in the IMS Bulletin.  It is always good to see how this was done in old IMS Bulletins.

2. To coordinate with the other host group's  local chairs in terms of student staffing of registration, and staffing of the  information desk.

3. To appoint a faculty/student to each IMS sponsored session (both invited and contributed sessions)  This person shows up at the session—

	introduces himself/herself to the chair,
	knows how to secure an additional transparency projector (or LCD panel at JSM) if the available equipment in the room does not work,
	is prepared to chair the session if the session chair does not show,
	brings some transparencies and transparency pens so that if a speaker/discussant needs them they are available.
	ask if chair needs help in filling out attendance sheet.

4. Works with  the other host. group's local chair to get list of nice restaurants and any sights which are great.  In general work with the other host. group's local chair. Sometimes it is helpful to contact last year's local chair to get the inside track.
5. Try to get maximum attendance by students at local universities.

Duties include:

1. Work with IMS program chair
2. Put the contributed papers into IMS contributed paper sessions.
3. Find session chairs for each IMS contributed paper session.
4. work with contributed paper chair of the other societies running the  meeting.
5. work with the IMS local chair  especially with regards to session help (see duties of local chair).

It is the policy of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics that all its meetings shall be held on a complete nonsegregated basis. In particular, prior to determining the place of a forthcoming meeting, the Secretary of the IMS shall ascertain that meeting halls, eating facilities and housing accommodations adequate for the expected attendance will be available on a nonsegregated basis, and that all social events connected with the meetings shall be nonsegregated.

The IMS should hold no meetings in locations where discrimination against any of its members is likely to occur. In cases of doubt, IMS should seek assurances from the government(s) concerned. Further, IMS should consult related organizations (ISI, AMI, ASA, etc.) concerning their experiences in locations being considered for meetings. In any case, exclusion of a country (or city) from consideration as a meeting site, should be based not on punishment for past events, but in the best interests of IMS and its membership.

Because the Institute of Mathematical Statistics is responsible to an international membership, the Council adopts the following resolutions regarding the location and accessibility of its meetings.

1. In arranging its meeting, the IMS and the organizing committee for the meeting shall take all measures within their power to ensure each IMS member and invited speaker the fundamental right of participation.
2. If at any time prior to or during a meeting, it is the judgment of the IMS President that the host country has denied any IMS member or invited speaker free access to the meeting by failing to grant a visa or by any other discriminatory act, he or she shall withdraw IMS sponsorship of the meeting and shall so notify the organizing committee of the meeting and all IMS members.
3. In the event of a meeting where possible access problems are anticipated, the IMS President shall request the organizing committee to inform the appropriate representatives of the host country of the policies stated in items 1 and 2 above.

IMS numbers all of its sponsored meetings. This is the responsibility of the Program Secretary.