Evolution of a scientific meeting: Eighty Annual Meetings of the American Society of Mammalogists, 1919-2000

The American Society of Mammalogists has held 80 annual meetings between 19 19 and 2000. These meetings have been held in 32 states, the District of Co lumbia, Canada, and Mexico. At least 86 people have served as the chair or co-chair of the Local Committee planning the meetings. The number of techni cal presentations has grown from a low of 17 in 1921 to 340 in 1994. Sympos ia were an early feature of annual meetings but did not become a regular fe ature until 1971. Poster presentations were introduced in 1979 and reached a high of 195 posters at the 1994 annual meeting. Two trends are evident in thr analyses of presentation data from annual meetings. There has been a m ajor increase in the number of presentations, especially since 1968, when t he number of presentations first exceeded 100. The other trend is the signi ficant increase of participation of women scientists in the annual meetings of the Society. This trend had its origins in the late 1960s and was signi ficantly aided by the addition of poster sessions, which have been popular venues for women scientists to present their research results. However wome n are not as well represented as organizers or invited participants in symp osia.