Overview
InterActivity is the Association of Children’s Museums’ (ACM) annual conference—the world’s largest convening of children’s museum professionals. Programming includes content-rich professional development sessions, inspirational keynote speakers, insightful museum study tours, multiple networking opportunities, and the ACM MarketPlace—an exhibit hall of creative product and service solutions.
The InterActivity Program Committee is a service opportunity for ACM members to play a key role in shaping content for the annual conference. The Program Committee is an all-volunteer, field review body charged with evaluating and selecting session proposals for the Concurrent Professional Development Sessions at InterActivity, a significant part of the conference program.
The Committee is composed of twenty-four members, including two co-chairs and two business members. As a field review body, its composition includes individuals with a variety of job functions, expertise, experience, ages, etc., to represent the geographic, institutional, and personal demographics of the children’s museum community.
Note: Program Committee members who submit a session proposal will receive no preferential rating because of their service on the committee and will recuse themselves from its review.
Term Limits
InterActivity Program Committee members will serve an initial one-year term, renewable at the invitation of ACM. Term limit is four years.
Eligibility
To achieve the greatest representation of perspectives on the Committee, ACM encourages all members to apply—from those new in field or just beginning their careers, to those with years of experience. A member is anyone with a current ACM membership whether it be Individual, Museum Institution, Institution Staff, Business Member, or Business Member Staff.
Program Committee individuals are required to:
Review and rate approximately 30 session proposals between August 8-29, 2025.
Attend the in-person Program Committee Selection Meeting, Thursday-Friday, September 11-12, 2025 at The New Children’s Museum in San Diego, CA. See Essential Information about the meeting.
Work with two to four session chairs of accepted proposals (September 15 through InterActivity 2026).
Register for InterActivity by the Early Bird deadline and attend the full InterActivity conference, April 21–23.
Attend the Program Committee Debrief on Saturday, April 24.
Pay one’s own travel to and from the selection meeting, the conference, and conference registration fee (usually funded by the individual’s institution).
Meet all deadlines set by ACM.
Scope of Work
The work of the all-volunteer InterActivity Program Committee requires collaborative decision making and a commitment to make InterActivity a success.
Reviewing and rating session proposals: Program Committee members will be assigned a subset of proposals available for download from the ACM Box site. Instructions and a rating sheet will be provided.
Proposal Selection Meeting: Day 1) Program Committee members work in small groups to discuss, in-depth, the subset of submitted proposals they rated (further instructions will be provided at the meeting). During the discussion process, groups may make recommendations to strengthen a proposal or flag the need for a new session as well as accepting/rejecting proposals for inclusion as a current professional development session at InterActivity 2026. Day 2) Full Program Committee reviews proposals selected on Day 1 and considers what the program looks like as a whole. Selection adjustments can be made on Day 2. Program Committee members volunteer to shepherd two to four sessions of those selected for inclusion in the program.
Shepherding: After the meeting, Program Committee Shepherds communicate with the session chairs and presenters of accepted proposals and ongoing throughout the year leading up to InterActivity 2026. Shepherding includes scheduled check-ins to offer support and ensure the session will deliver what was proposed.
The Program Committee Debrief: Program Committee members meet on the morning after the conference concludes to provide feedback on the current sessions and committee processes. The feedback is used by the next Program Committee, ACM, and the next host museum to improve InterActivity and its planning processes.
Recognition
In appreciation for their volunteer work, InterActivity Program Committee members are recognized in the InterActivity Preliminary and Final Programs and onsite at InterActivity during a Plenary Session.
Application Process
Eligible candidates should complete the online application via SurveyMonkey. Application deadline: Friday, June 27, 2025. Note: Incomplete or nonmember applications will not be considered. The Selection Committee includes the ACM Executive Director and Senior Director of Professional Development and the Program Committee Co-Chairs. As part of the selection process, ACM will contact an individual’s supervisor to confirm of support (including financial) of service. Decisions notices will be sent by Friday, July 25, 2025.
Questions? Contact Victoria Garvin, Senior Director, Professional Development: Victoria.Garvin@ChildrensMuseums.org.
