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[polly_mer]

I read this discussion and wonder if we do it wrong.  The people who organize things usually fall into 3 categories:

(1) Person didn't say, "Not it!", fast enough.  Everyone loves to go to conferences and give talks, but no one wants to organize or chair a session.  Consequently, one of the main duties of someone who is head organizer this year is making sure that someone has been volunteered to be organizer two years from now as well as drafting everyone in sight to chair and/or organize a session.  I chaired sessions at international conferences as a very junior person because I responded to emails of "Please, somebody, anybody, we still need X chairs".  That's also how I ended up in charge of the regional association this year; I dared to say, "So, when are the meetings?", when I moved here, showed up to a couple meetings, and didn't say, "Not it", fast enough. 

(2) Person is all-fired-up about the topic that they are of course inviting everyone who could possibly be interested just to have the opportunity to spend all that time discussing the topic.  Of course, that person will be giving a talk since that person has the most enthusiasm.  This situation usually isn't a series of talks by a handful of people presented to an audience so much as a bunch of people who each take a turn on the formal presenting and have a great couple of days together discussing topics of mutual interest.  A graduate student usually isn't going to manage this, but assistant professors and equivalents do it all the time.

(3) Someone is drafted as the person who has the most knowledge and is the logical choice for a yep-it's-time session.  A protégé or long-time colleague is drafted to organize a session honoring a person and their life's work.  A rising star is drafted to organize a session on that topic and give the keynote talk.

Consequently, what goes on the CV is either a solid service contribution for organization or a presentation line.  We do consider it tacky to list both for the same conference unless someone was head organizer (30 sessions of 13 talks each as well as the two poster sessions at more than 100 posters each is typical) and gave a talk.  However, at some point, you must be doing organization.  Merely speaking isn't enough for an advanced junior person and all mid-career folks should have several lines of organization in the service category.

[oldfullprof]

I organized a panel without presenting once.  I even found an outside discussant.

[peitho]

As some of you may know, when you organize a panel, you always run the risk of presenting a paper if the panel doesn't make.  In this case, it is not self-serving, you're just the poor slob who got stuck with it. 

In my MLA subfield, organizers don't chair and present because that's seen as self-serving.  However, I've noticed at regional and national conferences that this is often the case, and I view it as self-serving.

Organizing can be a useful line on your cv, as it goes to service to the profession, but it is typically a thankless job.