Secretary's Report for 2002
-----------------------

The ACL Board met on February 2, 2002 in Brighton, England. Minutes are
posted on the web site in the ACL archive.

A Constitutional amendment to change the timing of officer elections
was submitted to the membership and approved. The revised section
of the Constitution now reads:

7. Elections shall be conducted as follows:

1. The Nominating Committee shall nominate (normally two) people who
   are willing to serve in each position to be filled at an annual
   election.
   
2. The Secretary shall announce these nominees at the annual
   meeting (normally held during the summer), post their names on
   the Association web site, and invite the membership to submit
   additional nominations.
   
3. Additional nominations will be accepted by email, starting
   immediately after the conference and ending one month later,
   provided that two members of the association second each such
   nomination and provided that evidence is presented that such a
   nominee will serve if elected.
   
4. Nominees will be given at least two weeks to provide
   a statement of their vision for ACL; these vision statements will
   be posted on the web site for viewing by the membership.
   
5. After the nomination and posting of vision statements, the
   Secretary will mail a ballot containing the final list of nominees
   for each position, along with information about the URL containing
   the vision statements, to the membership. Voting will be performed
   in a manner specified in the ballot, which manner will be open to
   all members of the Association, secret, verifiable, and overseen by
   an executive committee member (normally the Secretary) who is not
   running for office, and who is acceptable to all nominees. Any
   nominee receiving the most votes cast will be declared elected and
   the the results will be posted on the Association's web site. Should
   no candidate receive a majority of the votes cast, subsequent ballots
   will be held until one candidate receives a majority. Those elected
   shall take office on the first of January following the vote
   and serve until succeeded.
   
6. In the event that the annual meeting is not held during the
   summer, the Executive Board may vote to alter the timing of the
   election for that year.
   

A newsletter containing news about the organization was mailed to
all members in January, 2002.

In order to facilitate better documentation of ACL policies, practices,
and procedures, a policies web page has been established at
www.cis.udel.edu/~carberry/ACL. In addition, the following efforts
are underway:

1. Conference Handbook:
   The conference handbook is being updated to include suggestions
   and practices from ACL-02. It will also include a link to
   software for electronic submission that is being used at this
   year's conference.
   
2. ACL officer duties:
   To help new ACL officers benefit from the insight of former officers,
   a template is being constructed to help each officer compile a list
   of his or her duties, along with strategic dates, standard procedures,
   and recommendations.
   

We are investigating how best to facilitate the dissemination of
information through the ACL web site, electronic conference registration,
and electronic elections. Results will be implemented in fall, 2002.