Conferences as Organizations - Advising, Steering and Establishing Expectations Henning Schulzrinne Department of Computer Science Columbia University New York, NY hgs@cs.columbia.edu This article is an editorial note submitted to CCR. It has NOT been peer reviewed. Authors take full responsibility for this article s technical content. Comments can be posted through CCR Online. Categories and Subject Descriptors A.m [General Literature]: Miscellaneous conferences, steering committees General Terms Conferences in computer science, steering committees, conference organization 1. INTRODUCTION While most of us are involved in organizing conferences in some way, we probably do not pay too much attention to the organizational model of these events. This is somewhat surprising, given that conferences are probably the most visible activity of most professional societies, and also entail significant expenditures of money and volunteer labor. While the local square dance club with a $500 annual budget probably has bylaws and statutes, most conferences with hundred thousand dollar budgets operate more by oral tradition than by formal descriptions of responsibilities. In almost all cases, this works just ne, but this informality can lead to misunderstandings or problems when expectations di er among the volunteers or when there is a crisis. Thus, I believe that
/lp/association-for-computing-machinery/conferences-as-organizations-advising-steering-and-establishing-OcCagbmdk4