Infants and children are welcome at the AOS Annual Meeting. To request accommodations relating to pregnancy or infant care, email meeting@americanornithology.org.
Caregiver Grants
Childcare
Lactation Room
Local Activities
Caregiver Grants
Caregiver grant applications are now closed and recipients have been notified.
New this year, AOS is offering grants to offset the extra costs incurred by caregivers (such as parents of young children) to attend the annual meeting. Any conference registrant is eligible, although priority will be given to presenters and early career researchers. Applicants can apply for travel awards as well as caregiver awards.
Funds may be used in any manner to support dependent care—to cover the cost of travel to the conference venue for an accompanying adult caregiver, the cost of dependent care at the conference venue, the cost of additional dependent care at home during the conference, etc. Applicants may also request AOS caregiver grants to cover the Companion/Guest registration fee, which would allow the caregiver to attend all regular events at the conference (see Registration page for details), or funds to cover specific ticketed events for caregivers and dependents (e.g., tickets for the closing event at the Alaska Museum). Funds cannot be used for conference registration or travel for the applicant.
You do not need to register for the annual meeting before submitting an abstract; however, you are required to register within 30 days of receiving notification of your award. Awardees will be notified ahead of the March 15 Early Bird registration deadline to ensure that applicants can take advantage of the discounted rate.
Childcare
The following resources may be helpful for finding short-term childcare providers in the Anchorage area:
https://www.care.com/babysitters/anchorage-ak
https://sitter.com/sitters/anchorage,alaska
Lactation Room
A Mamava pod was recently installed in the Egan Center. Inquire at the registration desk for more information.
Local Activities
The Keynote Lecture on Tuesday evening at the opening reception at the Dena’ina Center will be a wonderful tale of adventure of a young woman (Caroline Van Hemert) and her husband on their extraordinary 4000-mile journey from the coast of northwestern Washington to the coast of the Bering Sea in northwestern Alaska, all under their own power. They rowed up the inside passage of British Columbia and southeastern Alaska, skied over coastal glaciers and icefields, canoed down the Yukon River, hiked over and across the Brooks Range along the entire Arctic slope, and finally rafted down a river to the shore of the Bering Sea. This lecture is free and open to the public and should be of interest to families with school-aged children.
The closing event at the Alaska Museum on Friday evening should also be a great event for families with children of all ages. There will be food and music, and the hands-on Discovery Center and Spark!Lab will be open for fun and exploration. Fascinating exhibits in the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center will also be open, displaying cultural artifacts from all across Alaska. Tickets for the closing event cost only $10 for children aged 6-12; $35 for guests 13 and older; the closing event is free for children under 6.
Several of the pre- and post-conference field trips are also family-friendly; check the Field Trip page for more information.
Guide to Anchorage-area summer camps (including some day camps that will run during the meeting): https://www.adn.com/summer-camps/day-camp/
