Please note that the Worm Board has come up with a policy for selecting organizers for its meetings:

1) At the same time as the opening of the abstract submission, there will be a call for nominations to organize the next meeting. This call will be advertised on the meeting website and through other worm community contacts, such as WormBase and the worm community PI email list. Anonymous nominations will be confirmed with the individual nominee. Self-nominations are also welcome. The call for nominations will close with the closure of the abstract deadline.

2) The nomination form will include, but not be limited to, a series of short questions designated by Worm Board with the recommendation of the previous organizers. These questions will include brief information about the nominee and their previous experience organizing meetings and/or other related events. All nominees will be given the opportunity to suggest potential co-organizers, which will be taken into consideration (see below), but will not be binding.

3) Worm Board will designate a sub-committee of Worm Board members (termed the Worm Meeting Organizing Subcommittee) that will consider the nominees and create pairings of potential organizers based on, but not limited to: area of research, experience, diversity. Worm Board will determine the number of Worm Board members on the Worm Meeting Organizing Subcommittee. The Worm Meeting Organizing Subcommittee will have the right to refuse any nominee, for reason ranging from limited experience to unethical behavior. But any refused nominee will be notified of the reason their nomination has been rejected and have the right to appeal to the whole Worm Board. Such appeals will require greater than 2/3 majority to overturn the decision of the Worm Board Organizing Subcommittee.

4) Paired nominees (either 2 or 3 nominees based upon the discretion of the Worm Board subcommittee) will be notified of their pairing prior to the meeting and be given the opportunity to either confirm their interest in organizing the next meeting or withdraw their nomination. If a nominee objects to the pairing that has been designated by the Worm Meeting Organizing Subcommittee, the Worm Meeting Organizing Subcommittee will try to find a new pairing, but this is not guaranteed.

5) At the beginning of the current meeting, all paired nominees will be announced publicly at the meeting and a link to vote online for the next meeting organizers will be advertised amongst the attendees of the meeting. Voting will only be advertised to the current attendees because these attendees are considered to be the stake holders. However, nominees for organizing the next meeting need not be in attendance to be selected to organize the next meeting. Prior to the final day of the meeting, online voting will close and the winning paired nominees will be announced on the final day of the meeting. In the unlikely event of a tie, the current meeting organizers will collectively break the tie.

6) It is expected that the winning paired nominees will make efforts to include all nominees who were not selected in helping with aspects of organizing the next meeting, including but not limited to: selecting abstracts, sessions chairs, etc. Importantly, anyone agreeing to stand as a nominee to be organizer of the subsequent meeting will agree to help review abstracts for that meeting, regardless of whether or not they are selected to organize the next meeting.

–Worm Board