Technical Symposium Steering Committee Membership and Terms of Reference

Membership

4 general members, 5 voting members in total.

• At least 1 of the members must have been a prior TS program chair
• At least 1 of the members must have been a prior TS symposium chair
• At least 1 of the members is from the global community (outside the US)
• Current SIGCSE Board Liaison to Technical Symposium (SIGCSE Board Member)

Terms of service

The general members of the Steering Committee serve a term of three years, with a maximum of two terms. Terms should be offset so that no more than two general members rotate off of the committee at the same time. Initial terms may need to be adjusted to accommodate this requirement. Please see the end of this document for initial membership terms. Terms will begin and end with a TS conference. Term will commence at the TS conference of the starting year and end at the TS conference of the ending year (e.g., term 2021-2024 starts at TS 2021 and ends at the end of TS 2024).

Members can be reappointed to the committee after a period of 3 years of not being on the committee.

Roles within the steering committee

• Chair — to be chosen by the committee after each TS conference and communicated by April 1 to the SIGCSE Board. The SIGCSE Board liaison cannot serve as TS Steering Committee chair.

• Secretary — to be chosen by the committee after each TS conference and communicated by April 1 to the SIGCSE Board. The SIGCSE Board liaison cannot serve as TS Steering Committee secretary. All minutes of TS Steering Committee meetings (after approval) should be sent to the SIGCSE Board.

• Site visit team liaison — to be chosen by the committee after each TS conference and communicated by April 1 to the SIGCSE Board. The SIGCSE Board liaison cannot serve as the TS site visit team liaison. This person will interface with the site visit team, work to ensure that the team is in place (i.e. chair and jr chair and additional members) and facilitate communication between the site visit team and the SC.

• Meeting planner/exhibits planner liaison - this role will be filled by the SIGCSE Board liaison and will facilitate issues around the business relationship with the meeting and exhibit planner including contracts, addendum, and scope of work.

The Role of the Steering Committee is:

• The main role of the steering committee is to define the scope and vision of the conference.
• To approve the format of the conference. This includes the length of the conference, types of sessions, possible related activities, as well as any virtual components.
• To ensure consistent, high quality conference content, for example by setting guidelines for the review process and minimum standards for acceptance of content.
• To monitor the quality of conference content and the conference experience for attendees, and make adjustments where necessary.
• The SC will determine the general geographic locations of the upcoming conferences and work with the site visit team as well as ACM on bids and site visits.
• It is expected that the Steering Committee will review bids from appropriate locations and reports from the site visit team and select future locations to propose to the SIGCSE board for approval. It is typical at this point due to the size of the event that sites are contracted at least 4 years before the event.
• To conduct an open call for program chairs, symposium chairs, and all other conference committee members, forwarding appropriate candidates to the board for approval as needed.
• To nominate individuals to the board for symposium chairs, program chairs, registration team members, site selection committee chair, site selection pool members, exhibitor liaisons, registrar, submission/database team members.
• To collaborate with and support conference committees. This includes guidance for the organization and program of the conference, and putting in place mechanisms to accumulate and transfer experience between conferences.
• To propose significant changes to the structure of the conference or steering committee to the SIGCSE board.
• To coordinate with current chairs to ensure the current offering of the Technical Symposium adheres to SIGCSE Board policies and guidelines from the Steering Committee.

Working

The Steering Committee should meet as needed, typically at least three times a year via phone/teleconference and once a year face-to-face at the Technical Symposium conference. More teleconference meetings are encouraged, especially within these first few years to ensure that items are moving forward in appropriate timelines.

The agenda and minutes of the Steering Committee meetings are circulated to committee members, and to the SIGCSE Board.

Expenses and Expectations

Steering committee members are expected to attend the conference at their own expense (travel and accommodation). In recognition of the work they put into the conference, they will be given discounted registration.

Proposal of initial membership

Initial members and terms:

• Member 1 — 2022-2023 [could renew for one additional 3-year term]
• Member 2 — 2022-2024 [could renew for one additional 3-year term]
• Member 3 — 2022-2025 [could renew for one additional 3-year term]
• Member 4 — 2022-2026 [not eligible to renew]

 

• Member 5 — 2023-2026
• Member 6 — 2024-2027
• Member 7 — 2025-2028
• Member 8 — 2026-2029