2008Q3 Reports: SIG Convener

SIG Convener's Report

Recent Activities

In the last 12 months, SIGANN has been formed (approved at the July 2007 meeting), and SIGMEDIA has been dissolved. The following SIGs have held workshops: SIGANN, SIGDAT, SIGdial, SIGGEN, SIGHAN, SIGMOL, SIGMORPHON, SIGNLL, SIGPARSE, SIGSemitic, SIGWAC. The following SIGs have held elections: SIGdial, SIGLEX, SIGMOL, SIGMORPHON, SIGNLL, SIGPARSE, SIGWAC.

Compliance

In 2007 the executive initiated a process of checking compliance with the ACL's guidelines for SIGs, posted on the ACL website at [1]. In brief, all SIGs must have: at least two elected officers; a statement of purpose; a constitution; a membership of at least 25 people; the name and email addresses of officers displayed prominently on the SIG's web page; responsiveness to requests from ACL officers (including requests for reports).

Bonnie Dorr (then VP) identified non-compliant SIGs and by December 31, 2007, eleven SIGs were compliant. The remaining non-compliant SIGs at that time were SIGDAT, SIGMOL, and SIGMEDIA. SIGMOL has held elections and is finalizing its constitution. SIGMEDIA has been dissolved. This leaves SIGDAT, with no elected officers, no statement of purpose, and no constitution. Many requests to the SIG organizers concerning these issues have been ignored.

A relatively minor issue is that SIGSEM and SIGLEX have elections on a 3-year cycle, not 2 years as stipulated in the guidelines. This is in accordance with their constitutions that were approved by the ACL. I recommend that we update clause 4 of the guidelines to permit elections to be held at least every three years.

Steven Bird (SIG Convener)