Tropos

A publication of the graduate students of the department of French, Classics and Italian and the department of Spanish and Portuguese at Michigan State University

Handbook
Click here to download a pdf version of the handbook.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

I. General Dates and Tasks of Tropos Editorial Board and Graduate Student Representatives.

II. Specific Times and Dates for the 2006 Bake Sale, Conference and Journal.

III. Tasks of Faculty Advisors.

IV. Templates for the Call for Papers for the conference

V. Forms to Request Money from COGS/ CLACS

VI. Examples of Propaganda for Book Sale, Baked Goods Request Sheet.


 

TROPOS HANDBOOK

Role of Faculty Advisor(s):

  • The editors of Tropos would like to meet with the faculty advisors once a semester and suggest that there be one professor from FCI and another from SPP. 

 

Currently, the faculty advisors for Tropos are Professor Ahmed from the Department of French and Classical Languages and Professor Grubbs from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.  After meeting with the student representatives for Tropos, it has been decided that the role of these advisors will consist of the following tasks:

  • Act as a link between the student representatives of Tropos and the faculty, other graduate students and academic institutions;
  • Promote student participation in the annual Tropos conference and journal;
  • Act as representatives of Tropos in monthly faculty meetings.
  • Guide the editors in fund-raising activities;
  • Suggest possible candidates for the keynote speaker for the conference;
  • Also, at this time, the faculty advisor should help Tropos obtain an office in OHB for use as a center of operations.

 

Role of graduate student representatives:

Annual Book Sale:

  • Collect books for sale and store them in Tropos office;
  • Request baked goods for the sale;
  • Reserve 255 OHB for book and bake sale;
  • Make and post flyers (approximately 70 or more copies);
  • Post ad with information pertinent to the sale in the internal university newspaper;
  • Set up 255: Place books on tables, sell books, repack the books into boxes at the end of each day of sale

 

Annual Journal:

  • Prepare Call for Papers for the conference and journal
  • Send calls to PMLA;
  • Request articles from graduate students within the department as well as from other universities;
  • Update evaluation forms for received articles;
  • Distribute articles to be considered for publication amongst readers;
  • Make sure that readers return evaluated articles in a timely manner;
  • Tropos editors will thoroughly read the evaluations written by the readers and decide which articles to publish;
  • Accredit all readers at the beginning of the journal;
  • Email acceptance and rejection letters of articles;
  • Mail papers to be corrected by authors;
  • Receive corrected articles;
  • Write the opening statement of the journal;
  • Include call for papers for next journal in the current number;
  • Format and mount the journal in the program of choice (Word/ Pagemaker);
  • Journal must be proofread twice, once before bringing the first version to the printers, and once after before final version is printed;
  • Bring journal to printers;
  • Distribute journal among students, writers, collaborators, and professors internally in the Departments of French and Classical Languages as well as the Department of Spanish and Portuguese during the first fall meeting with the chairs of both departments;
  • Distribute journal to “interchange” universities in the spring so that the call for papers and the call for the journal will be circulated;

 

Annual Conference

  • Set date;
  • Send Calls for Papers;
  • Encourage classmates to present papers;
  • Find a keynote speaker (suggestions from professors are welcome);
  • Find moderators;
  • Organize program sessions;
  • Circulate invitation to conference among other departments (history, linguistics, English, etc.)
  • Send conference information to CLACS so that we can take advantage of their extensive mailing list;
  • Send program to professors at least 3 weeks before actual conference date;
  • Look for possible caterers for the luncheon and ask restaurant of choice to include the tip in the bill so that the organizers will not have to pay for it;
  • Buy office supplies if needed (paper for diplomas and programs, tags, pens and folders for participants in the conference);
  • Fill out the paper work for the payment for the keynote speaker and the restaurant;
  • Make out and print diplomas for the participants;
  • Make out and print name tags for organizers, moderators and participants;
  • Buy breakfast (usually around $120 that is usually covered by the registration fee of conference participants);
  • Set up the rooms for the panels early in the morning; put up flyers to guide participants; Conference clean up;
  • Set up requested equipment for participants

 

EXTRAS: COGS /Printing
*Keep the dates to profit from COGS money for the publication in mind.  Currently there are two: one for submission of requests or closing days, and another for their own meetings.

  • Update prices from the printers, keeping in mind that it is usually necessary to print 200 copies per year to cover the distribution to graduate students and professors in both departments as well as the authors, students that attend the conference and other universities that belong to the interchange program.
  • Update web page

TASKS/EVENTS                                                               DATES

BOOK SALE


Reserve room for book sale

February 6

Request baked goods to accompany books

February 13

Send add with information about sale to internal university newspaper

March 1

Make and post flyers (70 or more copies)
Leave copies in mailboxes

March 16

Pick-up of collected books (to be left in main offices of both SPP and RCL)
Set-up of sale-room: empty boxes with books on tables (5 pm).

March 21

Book Sale

March 22 (9:30-5 pm)
March 23 (9:30-4 pm)

Re-pack books into boxes/ Clean room

March 23 (4 pm)

 

 

 

CONFERENCE


Send Call for papers

March 15

Find Keynote Speaker

Professors send suggestions to TROPOS by April 15th

Deadline for Submission of Abstracts

August 15 (date extendable to September 15)

Request for Moderators
Complete programs and circulate amongst professors and other faculty members
Circulate invitation to conference to other departments (History, Linguistics, English, CLACS (take advantage of big mailing list of CLACS etc.)

(starting/ by) September 15th (if Deadline extended – turn programs in by October 15th)

Catering for conference lunch

By September 30

Buy office supplied (as needed)
Print diplomas for applicants, make name tags for organizers/participants/moderators

October 1st (and October 20th)

COGS – ask for financial aide to pay the keynote speaker and restaurant

Wednesdays (Sept., Oct., )

Purchase food for breakfast

October 27

Room set-up/ post flyers to guide participants

October 27??

DATE OF CONFERENCE

October 28, 2006

Clean up

October 28, 2006 – after conference

Recruit new members for Conference and Journal Board in Fall

Official meeting: A week after the conference

 

JOURNAL


Prepare Call for Papers for Conference and Journal

February 13

Send Call for Papers to PMLA

February ?

Request articles: Send Call for Papers to various universities

February ?

Distribute articles to graduate students

February 17 (not sure)

Deadline to return evaluated articles

February 28

Re-check evaluations by readers and decide which articles to publish

March 1st, 5 pm at the editors’ meeting

Send acceptance emails with suggestions of corrections to be made before publication

March 2nd

Send rejection email to articles that will not be published

March 3rd

Receive corrected articles for publication

March 15th – (Same day that we will send the Call for Papers for the conference

Write introductory words of journal

By March 17

Format the journal in program of choice (Pagemaker, Word ,etc.)

By March 24

Proofread journal

4 days necessary – this year, final day is March 28

Print journal

Tentative: first week in April (takes anywhere between 10 days and 3 weeks)

Re-proofread first version of published version

Last week in April

Print final version

First week in May

Include Call for papers for next years journal/conference in current edition

 

Distribute journal among students/writers/faculty/etc. in SPP and RCL

First meeting with both Chairs and Graduate Students in the Fall

Distribute journal among various universities involved in the “interchange” with MSU

Beginning the 2nd week in May

Update web page

Starting in February, updating in May

  • The journal needs to be in print before April 15-20 always (COGS deadlines).