[EL] [ElectionSciences] ESRA 2020 In-person Cancelled

[Carl Klarner]

Dear Election Sciences Colleagues:

It's unfortunate that the in-person 2020 UF ESRA conference has been canceled.

But we might also think of this as an opportunity.

I believe virtual conferences are better than in-person conferences.

We have an opportunity to demonstrate this now with how this virtual
conference is implemented.

-The volume of feedback many papers receive at conferences is low.
The ability to present one's own work could be made contingent on
commenting on the a number of papers that matches the number of people
who give comments on one's own paper.

-Networking is an important part of conferences.  However, the benefit
to a discipline of networking at in-person conferences can be limited
by known unconscious biases based on gender, race/ethnicity, physical
attractiveness, social skills and professional hierarchies.  Education
research that finds that randomization is the best way to create small
groups in classrooms over student self-selection is relevant here.  It
would be easy to create such virtual networking opportunities.

-Panels don't have to conflict at a virtual conference.

-Travel is bad for the environment.

-Resources required for travel and lodging might be better used on
other things, such as (I'll be bold here) paying a specialist to
compile datasets to be made publicly available for everyone to use.

-Feedback at conferences is limited by time constraints and problems
with in-person social interactions (strength of personality, etc., see
above).  Research on group decision making finds that in-person
meetings result in poor decision making than via written exchanges
(see J. Scott Armstrong's related research for example).  People
should also have the option to give anonymous feedback, as many people
wish to avoid angering others.

YES VIRTUAL CONFERENCES!

Who is with me?

Carl

On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 1:41 PM Michael McDonald
<dr.michael.p.mcdonald at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> We have received the directive from our administration to cancel all in-person meetings at the University of Florida through the summer. While not a surprise, this unfortunately means that we cannot hold the 2020 Election Sciences, Reform, and Administration conference in an in-person format at this time.
>
> We are considering our options, and would like to know how many people are interested in participating virtually, either as a presenter, discussant, or would just like to watch. If we decide to hold a virtual conference, we will open the call for proposals again and allow those who responded to our initial call the option of continuing or rescinding their proposal. We would plan to hold the virtual conference on the original conference date of June 22, and may extend to June 23 if there is sufficient interest.
>
> I created the Google form in the link below to collect information on the willingness of folks to proceed with a virtual conference format, so please respond if you wish to participate in some manner. We will collect responses through the end of next week and then make our decision on how to proceed.
>
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdv0Nyzev43dSsn_9O6bEFyc9ALwp3yz9lVrs65_3r3eFpdcw/viewform?usp=sf_link
>
> Another option is for us to hold the conference later in the year, but there is considerable uncertainty about the future. Rather than invest much time into preparations that may fail again, I prefer to hold a robust conference-in-a-conference on election science at the Southern Political Science Association meeting, which we have done for the past three years.
>
> We can have a separate discussion as to which institution may wish to host the 2021 ESRA conference. Our funds for the conference are largely fungible, so there is no urgency for the University of Florida to host the conference in 2021.
>
> ============
> Dr. Michael P. McDonald
> Associate Professor, University of Florida
> 703-772-1440 (c)
> 352-273-2371 (w)
> www.electproject.org
> @ElectProject
> _______________________________________________
> ElectionSciences mailing list
> ElectionSciences at mit.edu
> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/electionsciences



-- 
Dr. Carl Klarner
Klarnerpolitics.org
Former Associate Professor of Political Science
Academic & Consultant
Carl.Klarner at gmail.com
Cell: 812-514-9060