At the time APPAM was founded in the late 1970s, the plan was for the organization to be predominately an institutional membership association. APPAM would bring together the resources of public policy schools and policy research organizations to support a new conference and a new journal (JPAM). These activities were seen as important professional opportunities for an emerging field of policy and management research. At that time, institutional membership offered a way for the fledgling association to raise the financial resources necessary to launch. Within a few years, the growing body of individual members asked for and achieved a voice in APPAM’s governance, gaining the right to directly elect the Policy Council. Today APPAM continues to attract new institutional members who appreciate the conferences and the journal, lending their support to both. 

APPAM’s dues are dictated by a member's salary. In an effort to be sensitive to those members new to the public policy community, APPAM created three tiers of dues, all dependent on a member’s salary.

A person can remain a student member for 5 years. They must be enrolled at an accredited university in a program of public policy or public affairs to be a student member. A student membership is only $40 annually and includes a subscription to JPAM, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 

All APPAM individual members are eligible to vote in the Council election. Since 2004, the election is held online for one month beginning in the middle of November.

Among the three members selected by the general membership, one will be a self-identified practitioner and the other two slots filled by academic members. (In 2013, the membership voted to reduce the size of the Policy Council from 40 to 29 members by 2017.)

Furthermore, members of the Council often serve on the Fall Conference Program Committee. This means that APPAM members have significant representation on the Council, and the Council itself is involved in APPAM’s most important activities. For these reasons, participation in the Council election is a substantive opportunity for members to determine what the Association does.

The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM) is produced 4 times a year. It is available in print and online. Every member of APPAM receives issues of JPAM 4 times a year.

JPAM is produced through an editorial office by an editor and their team. The editors serve five year terms and apply through a proposal process for the position. The editors are chosen by APPAM’s Policy Council. Maureen Pirog, the current editor of JPAM, will maintain her editorship through June of 2014. 

JPAM is produced through an editorial office by an editor and their team. The editors serve five year terms and apply through a proposal process for the position. The editors are chosen by APPAM’s Policy Council. Erdal Tekin is the current Editor of JPAM

In 1985, APPAM created the Committee of Institutional Representatives and asked each member institution to appoint a representative to the committee. To date, the chairs of the Institutional Representatives have been the following:

Anita Summers, University of Pennsylvania (1985-1989)
Irwin Feller, Penn State University (1989-1991)
Charles Metcalf, Mathematica Policy Research (1991-1993)
Glen Hahn Cope, University of Illinois-Springfield (1993-1995)
Jack Krauskopf, New School (1995-1996)
Mark Kamlet, Carnegie Mellon University (1997-1999)
Susan Schwab, University of Maryland-College Park (1999-2001)
Eugenia Toma, University of Kentucky (2001-2003)
Michael Luger, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2003-2005)
Michael O’Hare, University of California-Berkeley (2005-2007)
Sandra Archibald, Univeristy of Washington (2007-2009)
Carolyn Heinrich, University of Wisconsin (2009-2011)
Joseph Cordes, George Washington University (2011-2013)
Michael Shires, Pepperdine University (2013 - 2015)
Juliet Musso, University of Southern California (2015 - 2017)
Patty Troppe, Westat (2017 - 2019)

Note: Affiliations listed were at time of service as chair.

The new chair is nominated by a three-person committee appointed by the outgoing chair from among the Institutional Representatives. The nominee is presented to the Institutional Representatives at their annual spring meeting, and, if approved, serves for two years as chair and as a member of the Executive Committee of the APPAM Policy Council. A person can serve multiple terms as chair.

The APPAM president-elect appoints the Program Committee each year. The 35 to 40 members of the committee are selected because of their expertise in the topic areas of the conference, and several people are often placed on the committee to review proposals in a large area like education or health. The APPAM president-elect often recruits many members of the Program Committee from among the APPAM Policy Council. This enhances the role of the Council in the management of APPAM’s most important annual event.

As a recognized 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, APPAM is permitted to engage in limited lobbying and cannot make lobbying one of its central missions. However, APPAM is an affiliated member of the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), which represents the views of the social science research community to the federal government to encourage public support for research. 

This is a complimentary service for institutional members.  Non-institutional members will be charged a fee of $250, which includes up to three job postings.

Institutional members may list as many positions as they have to fill.  Non-institutional members may list up to three positions per each $250 listing fee.

We have four dedicated interview rooms at the conference.  They can be reserved in one-hour increments by contacting info@appam.org. To utilize interview space, employers must have the position listed on APPAM's job board.

Yes, posting positions is a complimentary benefit of Institutional Members and non-Institutional Members may post for a fee. You can find more information here.

Profiles and CVs for candidates participating in the Positions in Policy program will be available via a Job Seeker Contact list. You can also browse the Career Connections resume bank once you've posted a position.

Positions can be posted at any time.

You will be sent a recurring Job Seeker Contact list. You should reach out to info@appam.org to reserve interview space at the conference. Space is limited and is on a first come, first served basis

No, as long as you are registered for the in-person 2021 APPAM Fall Research Conference you are welcome to participate. Unfortunately, we will not have a virtual component for Positions in Policy this year.

Yes, you must be registered for the in-person conference to participate in this program.

No, there is no additional cost to participate.

Within one week of registering for the conference, APPAM staff will reach out to  have you complete a brief questionnaire about your experience and position preferences.

No, we encourage students and professionals at all levels to participate!

The list of positions being interviewed for as part of the Positions in Policy program is available on our Career Connections page.

Yes, to participate you must be registered for the Fall Research Conference by March 18, 2022.

Your contact information, CV/resume, and responses to our Job Seeker Questionnaire will be provided to the hiring organizations.  They will reach out directly to coordinate their interview process.

You should apply for the Student Fellowship.

You should apply for the Student Fellowship.

 You should apply for the Student Fellowship.

You should apply for the Student Fellowship.

You should apply for the Young Professionals Fellowship.

APPAM Career Connections is available to all members and public.

Institutional Members can enjoy complimentary 30, 60, or 90 days postings.  Upgrades to featured posting will have a small fee.  Non-member institutions will be charged a fee for posting open jobs.

Job seekers do not have to be APPAM members and all functions of the job board are complimentary.

Basic posts on Career Connections are free of charge for APPAM Institutional Members though upgrades to featured jobs will have a small fee. Employers that are not institutional members will need to pay for a 30, 60, or 90 day posting. 

Job Seekers can use Career Connections for free.

You can control who sees your resume. 

When uploading your resume, you may select “Yes, add my resume to the Resume Bank” which means all employers with an active job posting will have access to your resume and could reach out to you.

Additionally, you may select “No, allow only this employer to view my resume.” and it will not be added to the Resume Bank.

To have a resume removed from the Resume Bank, please contact info@appam.org.

To apply for a position, please select 'Apply' on the top right part of the posting's page.  If the employer has added a Quick Apply option, you will be able to apply directly within Career Connections. If they have not added Quick Apply, please follow the employer's instructions as laid out in the posting description.

Career Connections is organizaed by the following industry types:

• Academic
• Government
• NGO/Non-Profit
• Non-Academic Research
• Other

Please email membership@appam.org to confirm whether or not your organization is a member.

Only the institutional representative's APPAM credentials will automatically waive the posting fee.  If you're part of an institutional member organization but not the institutional representative, please contact your representative and ask for the discount code to waive the fee.

Not sure who your institutional representative is?  Email membership@appam.org and we can point you in the right direction.

Only if you are employed by an organization that is also an institutional member.  Complimentary postings are a benefit of our institutional memberships and as such, the only organizations able to waive the posting fee.  Any organization that is not a member will be charged a posting fee.

There will be just over 300 sessions at the conference this year, plus a number of special events including policy area super sessions, receptions, lunches, and networking mixers.

Online registration for the Fall Research Conference opened August 9, 2021. Onsite registration is also available.

All registrations in advance must be completed at APPAM.org. Registrations can be made using Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express cards. Domestic checks can be mailed to the APPAM office at 1100 Vermont Ave NW, Suite #650, Washington, DC 20005. We cannot accept foreign money orders or bank transfers from individuals. Please note that during the registration process, you will be given the opportunity to print an invoice for your registration. You must send that invoice, along with your payment, to the APPAM office. 

No. APPAM members are very active in our conference, with 75% of attendees fulfilling at least one role as a participant. As such, we do not offer participant discounts.

APPAM offers a 15% registration discount for all government employees. To take advantage of this rate, you must have a .gov email address. Contact Ryan Martz, rmartz@appam.org, for a special registration code and further information. 

There will be four session types available to accommodate as many session participants and attendees as possible:

• In-Person Sessions – This is the traditional APPAM session format that will take place in an Austin meeting room and will only be available to participants and audience members in Austin.
• Live Streamed Sessions – The APPAM Membership Breakfast and Awards, the Presidential Address and Awards, and all 11 Super Sessions will take place in Austin and live streamed out to the remote audience so both in-person and virtual attendees can enjoy these events.
• Hybrid Sessions – These sessions will consist of 50% or more in-person speakers with a select number of virtual speakers. These sessions will have a dedicated meeting room in Austin for our in-person participants and audience, and they’ll also live streamed for our virtual speakers and audience.
• Virtual Sessions – All session participants will be virtual and presenting from a location of their choosing. This format will be available to the in-person audience in a dedicated meeting room in Austin, as well as the at-home audience.

In short, all session types will be available for our in-person attendees that join us in Austin, Texas. A select number of sessions will be live streamed to the virtual audience. All session times will be in US Central Time.

We asked presenters to notify us by July 30th with any presentation changes and we heard from many of you.  To accommodate as many participants as possible, we added 11 more hybrid sessions to the 2021 APPAM Fall Research Conference. This means we will offer 22 hybrid sessions, 26 virtual sessions and 11 in-person Super Sessions will be streamed live, as well as the Membership & Awards Breakfast and the Presidential Address & Awards. In short, more than 60 sessions (about 20% of the total content) will be accessible by a virtual registrant.

As such, we’re no longer accepting presentation change requests. If you are scheduled to present in person but are unable or unwilling to travel to Austin, we ask that you let us know as soon as you can, and we will remove your work from the program. The session participant cancellation deadline is September 15.

 We look forward to seeing you in Austin—but only if you’re vaccinated. We will ask during the registration process about your vaccination status, but we will not require presentation of vaccine information. We trust our members and attendees to be truthful and to adhere to public health safety guidelines. If you are not vaccinated, we encourage you to attend #2021APPAM virtually, for everyone’s safety. If you haven’t gotten vaccinated yet – please do so! We want to see you in person.

Because we are only welcoming vaccinated attendees, we are not requiring masks right now. But that might change. We will be monitoring conditions in Austin and will adjust these guidelines as necessary.

We are committed to being as creative as we can to ensure safety at #2021APPAM.  We’re considering limiting the capacity of session rooms, setting rooms for 75% or 50% of their capacity and beyond, encouraging traffic in one direction, adjusting meals/receptions to discourage using communal condiments and serving utensils, etc. Whatever we can reasonably do to make the conference itself a safe one, we will do.  

We're sure some of you are asking this question and it's a valid one.  A few reasons:

1) Overwhelmingly, our members and attendees have said they are ready to attend an in-person conference.  We know in-person conferences are far more valuable for our attendees and we want to do everything we can to make this happen. We are confident that we can adopt safety protocols to keep all attendees as safe as possible. We’ll continue to monitor the situation and will keep everyone apprised to changes no later than October 1.

2) Virtual meetings are fine if there is no other option. But they are not the same as in-person meetings for networking, making connections, and sharing research with peers. We are committed to trying to hold #2021APPAM in-person because it's a better way to meet, particularly for young scholars looking for a job.

3) While we were able to have about 20% of sessions offered virtually, some sessions could not be shifted to virtual because of logistical and technology limitations. We accommodated as many changes as we could but we unfortunately cannot make all sessions virtual at this point. We understand not everyone is comfortable with an in-person event but we want to make sure we can welcome as many attendees as possible, in whichever format that may be.  APPAM staff is doing their best to ensure everyone feels safe participating however they are able to do so.

4) A month ago, covid metrics were good and vaccinated individuals were encouraged to resume life as it was, pre-pandemic. The delta variant has changed that. But vaccination rates have increased in the last two weeks, and we hope they continue in that direction.  It's a fluid situation and there really is no telling what the COVID-19 infection rate will be like in three months.  We’re actively monitoring the situation and will provide updates no later than October 1.

5) Finally,  the health of our members and attendees is our first and foremost priority but we also can’t ignore the costs associated with going 100% virtual now.  We have a contractual obligation to hold the meeting in-person and breaking this contract will have significant, and detrimental, financial impacts on the organization. Unfortunately, event insurance policies no longer include coverage for COVID-19 concerns and APPAM, as a nonprofit organization, is unable to absorb the financial implications of cancelling the event given the current pandemic status.

Access to all hybrid sessions, all virtual sessions, all streamed sessions (Super Sessions, Presidential Address and Membership Meeting), as well as recordings of all these sessions afterwards. Hybrid and virtual sessions will be held as Zoom Meetings so virtual attendees can interact directly with the presenters.  All streamed sessions (Super Sessions and special events) will be held as Zoom Webinars so virtual attendees may submit their questions via the Q&A feature but will not be able to speak directly to the presenters. 

Probably not. As public health recommendations change, we will adapt this advice. But we wanted to be proactive and let you know where APPAM leadership stands right now, in early August, so you can plan accordingly. We will let you know by October 1 of any changes to the conference.    

We take our staff and attendee's safety very seriously. We have worked hard to make the conference as COVID safe as possible. Please see our page that details all the precautions we have taken. Additionally, there is a virtual option for attendees who don't feel safe in person. 

Attendees are required to be fully vaccinated by March 12, 2022. Masks are required indoors at the conference as well. At this time, Texas does not require masks indoors so we can only control our meeting space, not the hotel.

Regarding social distancing, we encourage attendees to avoid social gatherings that make them uncomfortable. Switching to a less populated session or a virtual session are always options if a room is full.

Yes. We have 48 sessions that are virtual or hybrid. 

We cannot accept additional format change requests. You will receive a separate email shortly with your presentation details and instructions on how to withdraw, change presenting authors, and make other submission revisions. If you have questions about your submission, please email conferencesupport@appam.org.

Submissions for the November 2022 conference in Washington D.C. open in early February, so if you must withdraw, we hope you resubmit for the fall and join us there.

In addition to requiring vaccinations and masks, we will have sanitizing stations set up throughout the conference area. Masks will be available at the registration desk as well. 

We will reduce the amount of self-serve buffet stations at food & beverage events. Coffee will remain self-serve and snacks will be individually wrapped.

Because we know that things can change quickly these days, we are removing our registration cancellation fees and hotel deposit fees.

To cancel registration, please contact registration@appam.org. To cancel your hotel room, please call 512-474-4777.

We know that many of you are upset about this law and wondered why we wouldn't move the conference. For a conference APPAM's size, we contract 5 years out from the date of the conference. Breaking a hotel contract would mean paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties and would also mean we would lose a place to have a face-to-face conference. Moving a conference like this is virtually impossible given the time frame.

No. The 2022 conference will take place as scheduled November 17 - 19, 2022 at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC.