Dear friends and colleagues,
We are contacting you to recruit your support for an initiative to
create a new special interest group (SIG) for Machine Translation within
the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL). MT is already a
very active area of research within ACL, with significant representation
within the various ACL meetings and conferences in the form of
workshops, tutorials and tracks within the main conference research
programs. The WMT-08 workshop at ACL-08 in Columbus this year, for
example, attracted an attendance of around 150 people, and was by far
the most popular and highly attended satellite event at the conference.
The main rationale for establishing a new ACL SIG for MT is to create a
central focal point for planning and coordinating this growing set of MT
activities within ACL. A secondary objective is to create a central
entity within ACL that can explore opportunities for greater cooperation
and collaboration with various other MT organizations, such as the
regional MT associations in Europe (EAMT), Asia (AAMT) and North America
(AMTA), as well as the growing commercial MT industry. ACL SIGs that
organize large events have some additional privileges. One important
advantage is that such SIGs receive preference in requests for
scheduling SIG-sponsored annual workshops at specific ACL conferences.
This should help us coordinate and schedule future MT workshops at ACL
conferences. SIGs also have some financial privileges. They are
allowed to have a "shadow account" at ACL, which can provide the SIG
funds for special expenses at SIG-organized events, which are not
normally covered by the main ACL organization.
The organizational structure that we are proposing for the ACL SIG-MT
would consist of a SIG President, Secretary, and three Regional SIG
officers (one for each of the three ACL regional chapters). The primary
responsibilities of the regional officers would be to promote SIG-MT
activities in their region and to coordinate activities with the ACL
regional chapters and with the regional MT associations (EAMT, AAMT and
AMTA). Elections for the officer positions would be held every three
years. A founding board of officers will run the operations of the SIG
in the first year, until the first elections can be held. Philipp
Koehn, David Chiang and Chris Callison-Burch have agreed to serve in the
positions of President, Secretary and Regional Officer for North America
(respectively) during this period. We hope to select the other two
regional officers as soon as possible.
We have already floated the idea of establishing a SIG-MT for ACL with
several members of the ACL exec, and have received positive responses.
In order to follow the formal procedure for proposing a new SIG,
however, a formal proposal needs to be submitted to the ACL exec, with
expressed support from at least 25 ACL members. The proposal must also
contain a proposed SIG constitution, consistent with ACL's general SIG
guidelines. A draft of such a constitution (based on constitutions of
other ACL SIGs) is attached to this email message.
If you participated (and registered) in any ACL conference during 2008,
you are considered a member of ACL in good standing. To all such ACL
members - we would appreciate an explicit response of support (or
disapproval) from each of you, along with any comments or suggestions
regarding the above proposal. If possible, please respond within the
next week or so, as we would like to then proceed with formally
proposing the SIG to the ACL exec.
Thanks,
Philipp Koehn
David Chiang
Chris Callison-Burch
Alon Lavie
SIG-MT Constitution
I. Statement of Purpose
The purpose of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) Special
Interest
Group on Machine Translation (SIG-MT) shall be:
- To promote interest in the research area of Machine Translation (MT).
- To provide members of the ACL having a special interest in MT with a means for
exchanging news and views on recent research developments and other matters
of interest
to research in MT.
- To coordinate and facilitate the organization of annual research workshops
and meetings
in the area of MT.
- To coordinate and expand cooperation and collaboration of the ACL MT research
community
with other MT associations, organizations, such as the regional MT
associations AMTA,
EAMT and AAMT, and with commercial MT companies.
- To sponsor other meetings and workshops related to MT research that appear to
be timely
and worthwhile.
II. Membership
Membership is open to any ACL member who professes an interest in Machine
Translation.
Membership will be terminated on request, or automatically if no reply is
received within
six months of posting a membership list update request.
III. Elected Officers
The elected officers of the SIG shall consist of a President, a Secretary and
three
Regional Information Officers, one each for the geographical regions of Europe,
Asia
and the Americas. The term of all elected officers of the SIG shall be three
years.
The duties of the President shall be:
- To have primary executive authority over actions and activities of the SIG.
- To prepare a written report on the activities of the SIG for the Executive
Committee of the ACL, for presentation to the ACL at its Annual Business
Meeting.
- To designate such other officers as may be needed from time to time to
fulfill
the goals of the SIG, in particular a returning officer as specified in
Sections IV and VI below.
The duties of the Secretary shall be:
- To maintain a membership roster of the SIG.
- To monitor and keep track of any funds awarded to the SIG by the ACL; to
collect and
manage any dues that may be required by the organization; and to present a
written annual report on the SIG finances to the Executive Committee of the
ACL.
- To maintain, in consultation with the President and the Regional Information
Officers,
a document stating the aims of the group and the names and affiliations of
the
current officers, suitable for sending to prospective members and other
inquirers.
The duties of the Regional Information Officers shall be:
- To communicate with members of the SIG in their regional area.
- To answer inquiries about the SIG.
- To act as representatitives of the SIG in communications with other MT
organizations
in their region.
- Any additional agreed upon specific duties assigned to them by the SIG
President.
IV. Election of Officers
All officers of the SIG shall be elected by a vote of its membership. Elections
shall
normally take place at least one month before the expiration of current terms
of office.
In the event of a casual vacancy, an extraordinary election shall be held for
an officer
to complete the current term of office. Candidates must be nominated by two
members, must
accept nomination, and must be members in good standing of both ACL and SIG-MT.
Votes
may be entered by electronic or physical mail, and votes arriving by the
notified closing
date will be counted by a returning officer appointed by the President and
agreed to by
all candidates. Nominations shall be called at least three months prior to the
election,
and shall close two months prior to the election. All members shall be notified
of the
election date and the nominations at least four weeks prior to the close of
voting, and
results shall be notified to the members within four weeks after the close of
voting.
Notification is considered delivered when dispatched by the medium and to the
address
last notified by a member to the secretary.
V. Dues
SIG-MT membership is currently free of any membership dues. Subject to the
approval of
the Executive Committee of the ACL, the SIG may decide to levy annual
membership dues,
where the rate is determined by the SIG-MT Executive Committee.
VI. Referenda
A change to this constitution, or a motion on any other matter, may be
initiated by five
SIG members (petitioners) in writing or by agreement of the President and
Secretary (on
the suggestion of a member or otherwise). The motions will be put to a vote of
the
membership within six months of receipt of a petition, if the petitioners so
request.
Otherwise, constitutional amendments and other motions will be put to the vote
in
conjunction with regular elections. Members will be given notification at
least three
months in advance of any referendum, and further motions or amendments proposed
by two
members shall be accepted up to two months before the close of voting. Votes
may be
entered by electronic or physical mail, and votes arriving by the notified
closing date
will be counted by a returning officer appointed by the President and agreed to
by all
petitioners. All members shall be notified of the date of the referendum and
the
proposed motions and amendments at least four weeks prior to the close of
voting, and
results shall be notified to the members within four weeks of the close of
voting. Any
change to this constitution requires a two-thirds majority of the SIG-MT
membership and
is subject to approval by ACL. Any other matter requires a simple majority of
those
actually voting. Notification is considered delivered when dispatched by the
medium and
to the address last notified by a member to the secretary.
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