NCJ Number
183481
Journal
Criminal Justice Review Volume: 24 Issue: 1 Dated: Spring 1999 Pages: 27-49
Date Published
1999
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article discusses attendance and participation at annual meetings of professional organizations.
Abstract
Over the years, the Executive Board of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) has discussed the problem of “no-shows,” individuals who have papers accepted for presentation at the ACJS annual meeting but do not show up to present their papers. To test several assumptions regarding attendance and participation, a short survey was administered to panel chairs at the 1997 ACJS annual meeting. The most notable finding involved the effect of the day of the panel on preconference cancellations, no-shows, and attendance. Saturday attendance averaged slightly less than half that of the other three days. Saturday was also the day that panel chairs were most likely to be absent and, along with Wednesday, was the most likely day for preconference cancellation by chairs. Cancellation by presenters was also most likely on Saturday, which was, next to Wednesday, the day that presenters were most likely to be a no-show. Fewer than 20 percent of panel discussants reported receiving advance copies of papers from all presenters and almost 30 percent of chairs reported at least one presenter having no formal paper. In addition, chairs reported that only 11 percent of all presenters had handouts or made available copies of their papers. The article discusses possible explanations for these phenomena and recommends ways to deal with them. Notes, tables, references, appendixes