Call for Sessions

The American Fisheries Society, President April Croxton, and the Michigan Chapter are excited to host the 153rd AFS Annual Meeting, August 20-24, 2023. Home to the iconic Blue Bridge and Grand River, AFS is thrilled to return to the city of Grand Rapids following a successful Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting held earlier this year. As we continue to address the various stressors impacting fisheries and their ecosystems, we hope that this year’s theme, “Adaptive approaches to understand and manage changes in fisheries,” will stimulate a wide range of sessions as we bring together professionals from across North America and countries throughout the world.  

The Grand Rapids Program Committee invites proposals for symposia, pre-conference workshops and continuing education courses, and innovative sessions that support the theme and look to advance the fisheries profession. We are expecting that scientific sessions will take place in-person in Grand Rapids. We anticipate there will be options for self-funded hybrid sessions, but do not anticipate hosting virtual ‘only sessions’.  

Symposium proposals

An organized symposia will contain a series of integrated presentations organized around a single topic or theme. The goal of these symposia is to provide a forum for focused discussions on new and emerging topics or innovative applications of established approaches. Symposia are unique in that they should be explicitly integrated and should address an overall synthesis of a topic yet should be sufficiently broad as to appeal to large audiences during the meeting. Symposia proposals are encouraged to address the meeting theme, Adaptive Approaches to Understand and Manage Changes in Fisheries, though this is not mandatory. We also welcome proposals which explore other innovative presentation methods, including lighting talks and organized panel discussions on selected topics. 

Organizers should coordinate with the program committee during program development, and are responsible for soliciting presentations for each session, abstract selection and denial, communication with selected speakers, and securing moderators for the live session. 

Submission of symposium proposals

Symposium Proposal Platform

Symposium proposals should be submitted to the Grand Rapids symposium submission portal. The final symposium submission deadline is February 7, 2023. Please contact the Program and Symposia Chair, Jennifer Johnson, [email protected] for questions related to symposium topics and special requests. 

Workshop/Continuing Education proposals

Pre-conference continuing education courses will be offered onsite as half-day, full-day, or two-day sessions. Courses should be designed to offer in-depth professional development that is of interest to a variety of participants, ranging from students to professionals. It is also acceptable to propose sessions for specific audiences.  Please use the Workshop/Continuing Education Submission Form to submit proposals. Contact Lauren Maza, [email protected], for questions related to workshop and CE Proposal topics.