Guidelines for Conference/Workshop Steering Committees

All conferences and workshops that are sponsored by SIGPLAN and occur on a regular basis (every X years) must be organized by a steering committee. The steering committee, working in partnership with the SIGPLAN Executive Committee (EC), is responsible for the overall organization and financial plan of each conference/workshop instantiation.

Responsibilities of the steering committee are:

  1. to appoint the conference/workshop chair and conference program chair, after approval by the SIGPLAN chair and vice-chair.
  2. to provide help and guidance to the conference/workshop chair in the site and date selection and the budget preparation as he/she works with SIGPLAN's liasison at ACM. Also to provide help and guidance with the overall technical organization of the conference/workshop.
  3. to request approval from the SIGPLAN chair and vice chair whenever a major change is planned for the conference/workshop.
  4. to notify the SIGPLAN chair and vice chair when the membership of the steering committee changes.
  5. to have a representative attend SIGPLAN Executive Committee meetings when issues relevant to the conference are under consideration.

The steering committee operates under a set of rules, which must be established by the initial steering committee and approved by SIGPLAN EC.  The rules must include the following:

  1. the composition of the steering committee. The composition includes the number of members serving and the structure of the committee. For example, the steering committee could be made up of the current and previous two conference/workshop organizers.
  2. the way that members are rotated on and off the steering committee (e.g., how often, how many, and in what order).
  3. how the chair of the steering committee is determined.
  4. the schedule for the conference/workshop; that is how often and what time of the year.

Important email addresses:

SIGPLAN Chair: chair_sigplan@acm.org

SIGPLAN Vice Chair: vc_sigplan@acm.org

ACM director for SIGPLAN: Julie Goetz - goetz@acm.org