At the Rubin Community Workshop (Rubin 2024), the chairs for the breakout (parallel) sessions are responsible for organizing the session in advance, and then running the breakout session on the day.
This is a considerably different style of chairing compared to other meetings where chairing a session typically means only to introduce speakers and ensure they keep to time.
Each 1.5 hour breakout session will likely have a few contributed talks pre-assigned by the Science Organizing Committee (SOC). Session chairs are free to fill the rest of the session with invited/volunteer speakers, a panel, group discussion, hack time, or some combination. Chairs should let the SOC know if they would like Rubin staff with particular expertise to attend or present. All speakers should be given at least 7 minutes to speak and 3 for questions. It is recommended to prioritize time for Q&A and interaction.
How session chairs are identified.
The Rubin 2024 SOC takes in all of the suggestions for breakout session topics and all of the contributed abstracts, and accommodates as many as possible in the workshop agenda. The SOC then reaches out to people who have volunteered to chair or who the SOC thinks might be interested in chairing. Ideally, two chairs are identified per session to share the duties. The SOC then supports the volunteer session chairs in every step of their preparations, to ensure a smooth and successful event. If you volunteer, you will have help!
If you have any questions about chairing a Rubin 2024 breakout session, please feel free to post a reply in this thread or send a direct message to @MelissaGraham.