The intent of the International Field Directors and Technologies Conference (IFD&TC) is to provide a forum for informal communication between field director, field technology, and survey management personnel of a type not usually available in professional conventions or through professional journals. The sessions shall be informal and focus on work in progress or recently completed, and on exchanges of information, practices, and opinions on relevant subjects of common interest. Finished papers ready for publication, public distribution, or production in official formal proceedings are not required.
It is also the intent of the IFD&TC to arrange an annual conference program that includes opportunities for separate sessions on the more specialized interests of its predecessor organizations, specifically on: 1) field direction, supervision, and management; and 2) the technological aspects of survey data collection. The conference program shall also have sessions on topics of common, shared, and mutual interest.
The members of the IFD&TC shall be persons involved in survey research who have responsibility for field direction, technological aspects, or management of survey data collection, and who are associated with academic institutions, government agencies, or other research organizations. While founded in the United States of America, membership is open to eligible persons from all nations.
The active membership of the IFD&TC during a conference shall consist of all those eligible persons who registered for and are in attendance at that conference. The active membership between conferences of the IFD&TC shall consist of all those eligible persons who attended the most recent annual conference plus any others already registered for the next conference. A mailing list consisting of a minimum of all eligible individuals who have attended either of the two most recent annual conferences of the IFD&TC will be maintained.
The IFD&TC plans to have a relatively small and homogeneous membership. Restrictions on membership and attendance are intended to foster intensive interaction and an informal, collegial atmosphere. To achieve this the membership may establish bylaws limiting attendance. The IFD&TC Governing Board may limit attendance by rules consistent with this charter and any bylaws adopted by the membership.
The order to limit overall conference attendance, and to assure representation from a greater number of organizations, the maximum number of registrants from any organization is sixteen. Further, at least half of all representatives from organizations sending more than one representative are expected to participate on the program. In other words, the ratio of participants to attendees from any one organization sending two or more representatives is expected to be at least one to one. Conference program participation may include: program or site chair, session chair or facilitator, presenter, discussion leader, panelist, and such other responsibilities as established by bylaws or in the absence of bylaws by the IFD&TC Governing Board.
Persons from organizations not eligible for IFD&TC attendance may be invited to attend by the IFD&TC Governing Board when deemed in the best interest of the IFD&TC.
Continued membership is allowed if a person who has been an IFD&TC attendee for at least five (5) years leaves an eligible organization (typically because of retirement) and does not become a full-time employee of an ineligible organization. In addition, registration costs would be reduced to one-half for emeritus members. Emeritus status is granted by the organizers of the conference upon request of an eligible member.
The conference registration fees shall be set by the Governing Board and shall reflect only: a) direct conference costs; b) group meal functions at the conference; c) mailing and office expenses of planning and announcing a conference and of maintaining a mailing list; and d) any other function established by bylaws.
