SIGGEN: Constitution
The ACL requires all ACL SIGs to have a formal constitution and statement of purpose.
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STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The purpose of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) Special Interest Group on Natural Language Generation (SIGGEN) shall be to promote interest in Natural Language Generation; to provide members of the ACL with a special interest in Natural Language Generation with a means of exchanging news of recent research developments and other matters of interest in Natural Language Generation; and to sponsor meetings and workshops in Natural Language Generation that appear to be timely and worthwhile, operating within the framework of the ACL's general guidelines for SIGs. |
There are also some supporting documents:
CONSTITUTION OF THE ACL SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON NATURAL LANGUAGE GENERATION Version 3 (10-Dec-2007)
I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The purpose of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) Special Interest Group on Natural Language Generation (SIGGEN) shall be to promote interest in Natural Language Generation; to provide members of the ACL with a special interest in Natural Language Generation with a means of exchanging news of recent research developments and other matters of interest in Natural Language Generation; and to sponsor meetings and workshops in Natural Language Generation that appear to be timely and worthwile, operating within the framework of the ACL's general guidelines for SIGs.
II. ELECTED OFFICERS
The elected officers of SIGGEN shall consist of four non-student Board members and one student Board member. These shall be members in good standing of the ACL.
Non-student board members will serve for four years, and student members will serve for two years.
The elected officers will assign named posts by agreement among themselves. The named posts and corresponding duties will be:
The post of chair and treasurer will normally be held by non-student members of the board. III. ELECTION OF OFFICERS All officers of the SIG shall be elected by a vote of the membership. This vote shall take place at least 4 weeks before the expiration of the terms of the officers to be elected, with at least 4 weeks' notice of nominations to SIG members. Elections will be electronic, using either electronic mail or the Web. Elections shall take place every two years. Non-student members who have only served for two years automatically continue as board members, and are not included in the election. Terms of office will normally be aligned to the calendar year. If an officer leaves their post prematurely, a replacement may be elected to complete their term of office. Normally the periods of service of the non-student board members are staggered, with two board members who have served for four years retiring at every election and being replaced by new board members, and two board members who have served for two years continuing as board members. The student board member is elected at every election. To be eligible to stand for election as a student board member, candidates should be expected to complete at least one year of their term of office before their Ph.D. defense would reasonably be scheduled. IV. CHANGES TO THE CONSTITUTION Changes to the SIGGEN constitution may be proposed by the SIGGEN board or by ten SIGGEN members. They will first be posted on the SIGGEN Web page, with SIGGEN members invited to comment on the changes. Afterwards the proposed change will be circulated to the SIGGEN membership, and a ratification vote will be held. The amendment will be adopted if a majority of those voting approve it. The ACL Executive Committee may veto proposed constitution changes if they are incompatible with the ACL Constitution or SIG guidelines.
CONSTITUTION OF THE ACL SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON NATURAL LANGUAGE GENERATION Version 2 (27-May-2002)
I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The purpose of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) Special Interest Group on Natural Language Generation (SIGGEN) shall be to promote interest in Natural Language Generation; to provide members of the ACL with a special interest in Natural Language Generation with a means of exchanging news of recent research developments and other matters of interest in Natural Language Generation; and to sponsor meetings and workshops in Natural Language Generation that appear to be timely and worthwile, operating within the framework of the ACL's general guidelines for SIGs.
II. ELECTED OFFICERS
The elected officers of SIGGEN shall consist of four non-student Board members and one student Board member. These shall be members in good standing of the ACL.
Non-student board members will serve for four years, and student members will serve for two years.
The duties of the SIGGEN board include (1) To have primary executive authority over actions and activities of SIGGEN. (2) To prepare a written report on the activities of SIGGEN for the Executive Committee of the ACL, for presentation to the ACL at its Annual Business Meeting. (3) To designate a Liaison Representative for SIGGEN, who shall be primarily responsible for communication with members of SIGGEN, answering inquiries about SIGGEN, and communication with the Executive Committee of the ACL. (4) To maintain a membership roster of SIGGEN. (5) To be responsible for any moneys awarded to SIGGEN by the ACL; to collect and manage any dues that may be required by the organization; and to present a written annual report on SIGGEN finances to the Executive Committee of the ACL.
III. ELECTION OF OFFICERS
All officers of the SIG shall be elected by a vote of the membership. This vote shall take place at least 4 weeks before the expiration of the terms of the officers to be elected, with at least 4 weeks' notice of nominations to SIG members. Elections will be electronic, using either electronic mail or the Web.
Elections shall take place every two years. Non-student members who have only served for two years automatically continue as board members, and are not included in the election.
Normally the periods of service of the non-student board members are staggered, with two board members who have served for four years retiring at every election and being replaced by new board members, and two board members who have served for two years continuing as board members. The student board member is elected at every election.
IV. CHANGES TO THE CONSTITUTION
Changes to the SIGGEN constitution may be proposed by the SIGGEN board or by ten SIGGEN members. They will first be posted on the SIGGEN Web page, with SIGGEN members invited to comment on the changes. Afterwards the proposed change will be circulated to the SIGGEN membership, and a ratification vote will be held. The amendment will be adopted if a majority of those voting approve it.
The ACL Executive Committee may veto proposed constitution changes if they are incompatible with the ACL Constitution or SIG guidelines.
CONSTITUTION OF THE ACL SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON NATURAL LANGUAGE GENERATION Version 1 (11-December-2001)
From the perspective of SIGGEN, we believe the most important issues are: 1) The structure of the SIGGEN board and how they are elected. 2) Whether INLG financing is handled through SIGGEN and ACL 3) "Support in name" for NLG workshops 4) Changes to the constitution
We welcome comments from SIGGEN members about these issues, and indeed any other issues related to a SIGGEN constitution.
(1) SIGGEN BOARD
Board composition
SIGGEN practice: 1 student member and 4 non-student members. The members decide among themselves how to divide up responsibilities.
ACL recommendation:Named officers elected as such, including a Chair and a Secretary.
Term of office
SIGGEN practice:2 years for student member, 4 years for non-student member
ACL recommendation: 2 years maximum for everyone
Election procedure
SIGGEN practice: Held every two years, by email. All SIGGEN members (which in practice is interpreted as all members of the SIGGEN mailing list) are eligible to vote. Each election is for the student member and 2 of the 4 non-student members (so, non-student members serve staggered 4-year terms).
ACL recommendation: hold every 2 years
Note: SIGGEN has a somewhat vague rule that when possible the board should contain one member from each of the three ACL regions (Americas, Europe, Asia/Pacific). This has not been spelled out in detail, but presumably means that a candidate from an unrepresented region would "win" an election against a candidate from an already-represented region who got more votes.
(2) INLG Financing
SIGGEN practice: SIGGEN has no involvement in the financial side of the INLG series. Profits from one INLG are generally passed on to the next INLG, but this is done informally from organiser to organiser.
ACL: ACL has raised the possibility of the funds (accumulated profits) from INLG being placed in a special "shadow account" for SIGGEN which would be held by ACL. This has the advantage of regularising INLG finances, and also giving SIGGEN access to funds (eg, to purchase a URL). However, it has the disadvantage that ACL would insist that INLG attendees be ACL members if ACL was involved in any way (including shadow accounts) with the financing of INLG.
(3) Support in name for NLG workshops
SIGGEN practice: The SIGGEN board occasionally gives "support in name" to worthy NLG workshops. This can be used by workshop organisers when advertising their workshop or when applying to funding bodies for financial support.
ACL: ACL says that ACL SIG's cannot give any kind of support to non-ACL events unless this is approved by the ACL executive,
(4) Changes to constitution
SIGGEN practice: Changes to SIGGEN are discussed and voted on at SIGGEN business meetings during INLG.
ACL: ACL has no recommendations for this, but ACL itself has moved to a system where constitution changes are announced to the membership and voted on by email.
Our Current Position
The current SIGGEN board's position on the above issues is
SIGGEN BOARD: The board has no strong opinion on this, but it does tend to the opinion that the current structure seems to work reasonably well.
INLG Financing: This was discussed by the SIGGEN community in 1999, and the community preferred not to involve ACL because it felt that we should encourage people from outside NLP to attend INLG, and that requiring ACL membership might discourage such people. The board suspects that this is still the opinion of the community.
SUPPORT IN NAME: The board believes that getting permission from ACL is OK provided that such permission is granted quickly and without hassle for respectable workshops.
CONSTITUTION CHANGE: The board does not have any opinion on this.