I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The purpose of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) Special Interest Group on Language Technologies for the Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities (the SIG) shall be:
- to promote interest in language technologies and CL applications in the socio-economic sciences and the humanities (henceforth SSH);
- to bring together CL researchers interested in NLP applications in SSH;
- to promote collaboration between SSH researchers and ACL members with a special interest in the SSH;
- to promote the exchange and propagation of research results with respect to language resources and technologies for the SSH;
- to provide means and venues for exchanging news of recent research developments and other matters of interest in CL applications for the SSH;
- to endorse meetings and workshops in CL research for SSH that appear to be timely and worthwhile, operating within the framework of the ACL’s general guidelines for SIGs.
II. ELECTED OFFICERS
The elected officers of the SIG shall consist of a President, a Secretary and a Liaison Representative. All elected officers of the SIG shall be members in good standing of the ACL.
The term of all elected officers of the SIG shall be 2 years, starting from September 2012.
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.
The duties of the Secretary shall be:
- To maintain a membership roster of the SIG.
- To be responsible for the financial management of the SIG (if required) and collaborate with the ACL Treasurer to ensure proper handling of the SIG finances; to collect and manage any amounts (e.g. via sponsors or from the SIG “shadow” account) that may be required by the organization; and to present a written annual report on the SIG finances (if any) to the Executive Committee of the ACL.
The duties of the Liaison Representative shall be:
- To be responsible for communication with members of the SIG, answering inquiries about the SIG, and communication with the Executive Committee of the ACL.
- To administer the nomination and election procedures.
All three elected officers shall be responsible for:
- ensuring that up-to-date information of relevance to the SIG members (e.g., information about conferences, or language resources) is available from the SIG website.
- determining appropriate times and venues for workshops and meetings and other policy issues.
- establishing collaborations between the SIG and other groups related to humanities research and applications
III. ELECTION OF OFFICERS
All officers of the SIG shall be elected by a vote of the membership. The vote shall take place electronically (either by e-mail or via a dedicated web service) at least three months before the expiration of the terms of the officers to be elected, with at least four weeks’ notice of nominations to SIG members.
The nomination and election procedure shall be administered by the Liaison Representative who shall initiate the process by issuing a call for nomination to SIG members two months before the election and approximately six months before the expiration of the terms of the officers to be elected. The deadline for nominations shall be four weeks after the issue of the first call for nominations. Subsequently, the elections shall begin a week after the deadline for nominations at the latest. SIG members may then vote electronically at any time within a four weeks period. The names of the candidates and the exact start and end dates of the election shall be announced to all SIG members by the Liaison Representative.
IV. MEETINGS
The SIG shall hold an annual workshop. This shall provide a forum for the presentation of peer-reviewed research in all aspects of CL research related to the humanities. The workshop shall be collocated with the annual meeting of the ACL, or at one of its chapters. If this is not feasible, the SIG may decide to collocate the workshop with some other conference.
An annual business meeting of the SIG shall also take place at the workshop venue.
V. AMENDMENTS
Amendments to the constitution of the SIG may be proposed by any SIG member. These must be communicated to the Liaison Representative who shall in turn announce them to the SIG members for discussion at the SIG website. Suggested amendments must obtain the initial support of at least three SIG members and should be proposed at least a month prior to their consideration at the annual SIG business meeting. The minutes of the discussion related to the proposed amendments shall be publicized at the SIG website and the respective amendments shall be ratified by a simple majority vote by all SIG members. The vote shall take place electronically (either by e-mail, or via a dedicated web service) within a month, at the latest, after the SIG business meeting. Once ratified, the amendments shall be of immediate effect.
VI. DUES
The SIG will not charge dues.
SIGHUM 