Here are a list of items that the lead advocate for each conference should take care of:
- Before the Call For Papers is posted, confer with the PC chair about the posted policy for author-declared conflicts of interest. The principle behind the policy and sample wording can be found at http://safetoc.org/index.php/information-for-conference-organizers/ You may also be asked to double check such conflicts, so be sure to offer this service to the PC chair and explain the intent, as there can be misunderstandings the first few times. The checking can also be assigned to any of the advocates affiliated with the conference.
- Before the submission deadline, recruit at least two people to serve as advocates for the conference. A list of advocates and their conference affiliations can be found here http://safetoc.org/index.php/toc-advisors/. While typically this will be advocates affiliated with your conference, if someone cannot attend you are welcome to look for other advocates who are also likely to attend (i.e. they have an accepted paper). Inform the PC chair about who will be serving as advocates since these people will be assisting the PC chair by verifying author-declared conflicts of interest as needed.
- After the list of accepted papers is published, verify that the selected advocates will be attending the conference. Replacements can be selected as needed. It’s helpful to know the list of accepted papers since good candidates to ask are people who have accepted papers and are on the list of trained advocates. It’s a good idea to have at least two advocates attend the conference and perhaps more if there are many parallel sessions. A mix of gender and nationality is ideal.
- Remind local organizers (if an independent conference) to add a question to the registration asking that participants agree to the code of conduct. In addition, confirm with the PC, SC, or local organizers that the advocates attending the meeting will be introduced at the first session, as well as being given a short segment at the business meeting for any relevant discussion or updates. Generally speaking, SafeTOC advocates are also given a badge that indicates their status in case they are needed (such as a different color or visible icon).