2026Q1 Minutes

Minutes from the Q1 exec meeting, 2026

Chair: Barbara Plank

Note-taker: Richard Johansson

Part 1: Event Affairs

Publicity infrastructure and social media (Sarvnaz Karimi)

We reviewed the ACL-wide social media setup across conference accounts and the ACL announcements mailing list. The mailing list is useful but underused, especially for workshop publicity.

Action points:

• Promote the ACL announcements channel more clearly, especially to workshop chairs.
• SK to check the Buffer cross-posting tool in more detail and come back with a concrete recommendation.
• There was support for paying for a shared posting tool if it works across ACL accounts.

China-facing publicity

We discussed the lack of an official ACL presence on Chinese platforms such as 小红书/Red Note or WeChat. Some members felt official posts would help counter rumors and reach the large China-based ACL community; others noted conference awareness is already high in China.

Action points:

• Find a reliable volunteer who can manage/translate official posts for a Chinese platform.
• Continue discussion collectively on Mattermost.

Publicity chair coordination

SK noted that conference publicity teams vary a lot in quality and coordination, and that some publicity chairs are not active or experienced with the platforms.

Action points:

• Consider adding clearer expectations/selection criteria for conference publicity chairs and possibly designating a lead within larger publicity teams.

Workload of publicity chair

Should SK have a deputy? Does not seem necessary at this point.

Industry visibility and promotion of ACL research (Anna Rumshisky)

Concern was raised that ACL is losing status relative to ML venues and attracting less industry attention/sponsorship. Ideas included stronger promotion of best papers, videos, blogs/podcasts, sponsor-facing recruiting activities, and better use of existing video assets.

Action points:

• Invest more in promoting ACL work, especially best papers and videos.
• Explore infrastructure improvements through the Anthology rather than large ongoing commitments right away.
• SK to look into YouTube/publicity options.
• JBG plans to revive a best video award with Underline support.

Workshops and tutorials (Zeerak Talat)

The split workshop call was seen as mostly positive, though many workshops still prefer ACL/EMNLP over AACL. There were also concerns about uneven engagement and responsiveness from some conference workshop chairs.

Action points:

• Recruit an ACL tutorial officer to provide continuity across conferences.
• Consider guidance for general chairs on selecting workshop chairs (with a preference for people who have time and are responsive).
• Continue multi-year planning for major recurring workshops where needed.

Part 2: Conferences/Chapters

ACL 2026 (Chengqing Zong & Philipp Koehn)

Planning is on track; registration is targeted for April 15. There was discussion about uncertain in-person attendance from mainland China because of visa concerns, passport retention, and entry anxiety.

Action points:

• Proceed with planning while assuming China in-person attendance may be lower and hard to estimate.

AACL 2026 (Xuanjing Huang)

Organizing committee, kickoff meeting, venue visit, and workshop/tutorial coordination are underway. The main unresolved issue is alignment with the ARR cycle, which is difficult to fit time-wise.

Action points:

• Wait for ARR’s final decision, but the group leaned toward using the May cycle.
• Issue the CFP once the submission path is confirmed.

EACL 2027 venue and organization (Preslav Nakov)

The conference has a general chair and two confirmed program chairs, with a third under consideration. Two options for location were compared; Location 1 appeared stronger on space and logistics, while location 2 had significant room constraints, especially for workshops.

Action points:

• Informal preference in the discussion favored location 1.
• This input will go back to the EACL board so the venue can ideally be announced at the EACL 2026 closing session.

Chapters / awards coordination

A future scheduling issue was noted for the KSJ award lecture, because there is no EACL in 2028 and ACL plenary time is already crowded.

Action points:

• Discuss with ECIR / the award stakeholders whether the lecture should be handled differently in that cycle, potentially with the award recognized at ACL but the lecture delivered elsewhere.

Virtual conference experience (Jordan Boyd-Graber)

Discussed making virtual participation more consistent and useful, including better support for virtual sessions, more active solicitation of virtual questions during oral sessions, and clearer success metrics.

Action points:

• Create a standing virtual infrastructure officer role.
• JBG will suggest candidates and help the person get started.
• Continue improving the current model incrementally rather than making a large structural change immediately.

Part 3: Other items

OpenReview / infrastructure (Luke Zettlemoyer)

OpenReview requested substantially more funding. Members were concerned both about cost and about whether ACL is getting enough responsiveness and functionality in return. But there are no obvious alternatives at this point.

Action points:

• Gather more evidence before deciding.
• LZ will check with ARR about current OpenReview support.

TACL editors and infrastructure (Barbara Plank)

TACL will soon issue a call to replace two editors at once. TACL is also likely to request infrastructure support because current systems are struggling with submission volume.

Action points:

• Expect an editor call this year and a future infrastructure-related request from TACL.

ACL nominations (Barbara Plank)

The ACL nominating committee is working on upcoming elections and also needs to find a new Secretary to replace YF next year.

Action points:

• Continue the nomination process for exec positions.

Support for diversity/student-focused workshops (Zeerak Talat)

Discussed adding an optional contribution during conference registration to support student participation and diversity-related workshop needs.

Action points:

• Explore adding an optional registration add-on/sponsorship-style contribution, being careful with the wording for accounting and reimbursement purposes.

Next exec meeting at ACL @ San Diego

The next in-person/hybrid exec meeting is planned for the tutorial day in San Diego.

Action points:

• Members should indicate as early as possible whether they expect to attend in person so scheduling can be finalized.