This page was developed by Mary Lacity and last modified on August 18, 1998 by Mary Lacity.

Tranistioning the Site

Public Placement pages:

1. index.htm: Current Placement homepage (after closing site from December to April)
2. indexold.html: Index page while site is active (May to December)
3. aistopic.htm:: Lists the primary research/teaching interests
4. aisappl.htm:: Example of a standardized applicant resume
5. aisuniv.htm: Example of a standardized university position listing
6. aispage.htm: Tips for creating web pages; needs updating as technology advances
7. handover.htm: This page used for transfer of learning from one Placement Chair to the next Placement Chair

Three web pages reside on the AIS Office Secured Web Server and not updated directly by the Placement Chair. The Placement Chair works with the AIS Office manager to modify these pages as needed, including adding routing information such as the email addresses of the Placement Chair and his/her student assistants:

1. ap_plmt.htm: Online applicant registration form
2. un_plmt.htm: Online university registration form
3. ind_plmt.htm: Online individual registration form

Six pages have confidential URLs that are to be given to applicants and universities only after they have registered for placement. Incumbent Placement Chairs should be sure to change the file name proper to these six pages:

1. Master index to all 5 listings (this is the only URL the Placement Chair needs to distribute to applicants and universities since all other listings are linked to this page)
2. Universities listed alphabetically
3. Universities listed by primary research/teaching interest
4. Universities listed by geograghic area
5. Applicants listed alphabetically
6. Applicants listed by primary research/teaching interest

The Registration Process from the Placement Chair's Perspective

1. Colleen Bauder of the AIS Office in Georgia for processing money
2. Mary Lacity, Placement Chair, in Missouri for coordinating update of the website
3. Denise Weinrich, Mary Lacity's student webmaster

Most applicants are easy to register because they know how to post their own web pages. Universities often take more time if the Dean or university administrator delegated the task of registration to a person who knows nothing about the WWW. You can imagine how frustrating it is for that person to carry out the task without the proper skills. I put a note on the index page to help these people convince their superiors to give them technical help, because Denise and I could obviously not teach people over the phone how to create and post a web page.

Also, I made people register online, even if they faxed things to the AIS office because Denise and I needed the email information to update the site. This also minimized the need to coordinate with the AIS Office Manager.

After the site opened on May 1, I'd say about 5 registrations on average arrived daily, plus an additional 10 to 15 emails with questions, requests, etc. Three weeks prior o AIS, about 10 registrations came in daily, plus 15-25 emails with questions, requests, etc. All told, plan to spend 2-5 hours a day before AIS on this job.

Placement Chair's Responsibility at the AIS and ICIS Conferences

At the AIS Conference
At the AIS conference, there are several rooms to accomodate placement:

• Placement Headquarters: Room 301 in the Convention Center. Mary Lacity and/or a student assistant will be on hand to assist placement users. This room will have a manual message board and a manual index card box to leave messages for applicants or universities, a hard copy of the applicant resumes, and a hardcopy of the university positions. This room has 16 tables with 4 chairs each for interviewing, but the room is rather small, 26' by 41'.

• Informal Meetings/Placement Room: Room 308 in the Convention Center. This room is reserved for informal meetings and placement interviewing. The room is larger than Placement Headquarter (43' by 81'). This room has 22 tables with 4 chairs each for interviewing.

• On Saturday, Ballroom I in the Convention Center will also be available for placement interviewing. 20 or more tables will be available for placement.

• There is an outdoor terrace with tables and chairs, although it may be too hot to conduct interviews there.

Reserving a Table for Interviewing

1. We will put blank name tents on the 16 tables in room 301 and 22 tables in room 308.

2. If the name tent is blank on a table and you would like to reserve a table, write in your university name on the name tent and leave it on the table. First come, first serve.

3. If tables in rooms 301 and 308 are already reserved; come get a blank name tent from room 301 and feel free to claim any of the tables throughout our available convention rooms, terraces, lobbies, and suites.

4. Reguardless of where you stake a claim, please place a message on the message board in Room 301 to inform candidates where you are interviewing--Room 301, Room 308, elsewhere in the convention center, or in your Hotel (please indicate hotel and hotel room).

Please keep in mind that I (Mary Lacity) am in St. Louis and will arrive in Baltimore Thursday night, so I may not be able to answer all your questions about the convention facilities for placement prior to the conference. But feel free to email me with any questions: smclaci@ umslvma.umsl.edu

Please note that placement services at the conference are only for people who have registered for the placement service.

Please note that the registration deadline to be included on the placement website is August 1st. After this date, we will do our best to accomodate late comers, be we cannot guarantee service. If you are added after August 1st and would like your listing included in the hardcopy that will be available in room 301, please 3 hole-punch a hardcopy of your listing and bring it to room 301 upon arrival.

AIS Hindsight

• We needed more than 28 tables. We could have easily used 40 tables for placement. Some universities kindly shared tables, others found tables smattered throughout the convention center, others opted to interview from their hotel rooms. Thanks to all people who graciously adapted to the resources, but again I strongly recommend more 4-top tables.
• The message box did not work. Instead ask the local arrangements chair to have three message boards onsite: 1 board for universities to indicate where they will conduct interviews; 2 boards for applicants and universities to post messages to each other. I think the boxes were too innocuous to warrant trust. People like to post big messages on a widely visible board.

• 1 printed copy of applicant resumes
• 1 printed copy of university listings
• 1 printed sign-in sheet for universities
• blank name tents, scotch tape, and markers for universities to claim tables
• 3 message boards
• 2 boxes of push pins for the message board
• three-hole punch to add late comers to printed applicant resumes and university listing books.

I had a volunteer (Phil Johnson) help on site. He and I were only both needed the morning of the first day of the conference. After that, we traded off so we could both attend some sessions.

Other Bits and Bobs