2009Q3 Reports: SIG Convener

SIG Convener Report 2009-Q3

Ido Dagan

The number of ACL SIGs is currently 16, with two new SIGs established in 2009:

• SIGMT (Machine Translation)
• SIGFSM (Finite State Methods)

The proposals to establish these SIGs, along with their proposed constitutions, were reviewed by the SIG Convener and the ACL Exec, and were approved by the Exec after some discussion and interaction with the SIG initiators.

Details and links for all SIGs can be found at http://aclweb.org/adminwiki/index.php?title=SIG_Compliance

Another major activity in 2009 was the approval of a constitution for SIGDAT. Traditionally, SIGDAT operated by a structure that was not consistent with the ACL template constitution. The discrepancies were resolved after some discussion between ACL and SIGDAT, and a revised constitution was approved. The SIGDAT officers are expected to publish the approved constitution on SIGDAT’s website.

All SIGs, except for SIGDAT, have submitted their annual reports. Overall, the ACL SIGs seem healthy and very active, running many initiatives and events. Following Steven Bird’s effort in 2008, all SIGs have formed their constitution, most of them conducting elections in accordance with their constitutions.

SIGNLL and SIGHAN have proposed to conduct large SIG workshops in 2010.