Selecting a date for the PDS should involve some thinking about weather, conflicts with ACM and other organizational endeavors, holidays, major sporting events (local and national), tax time, etc. Spring and Fall are generally good times for a PDS as travel conditions are generally good.
In the summer, many people are away on vacation. In temperate climates, the Winter months are good from mid-January through March. Saturday is a popular day for PDS's. Experience has shown that Monday and Friday should be avoided.
For evening seminars, a good plan used successfully is for meetings to be held on a series of successive Tuesdays or Thursdays. In fact, multiple PD seminars can be offered with two non-conflicting subjects each on three different nights of the week, thus maximizing the available audience.
A teaching day is usually six hours long, with a break at least every 90 minutes. Typically, registration activity can be scheduled to start at 8:00 am, with the seminar starting at 9:00 am. the first break would occur at 10:30-10:45 am, lunch at 12:15-1:15 pm, and the afternoon break at 2:45-3:00 pm. The seminar can then finish at 4:30 pm. Some speakers prefer to finish the day with a Question and answers period, which could take place after 4.-30 pm, understanding that some of the attendees may need to leave the classroom because of the late hour.
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