2018Q3 Minutes (public version)

Minutes for the ACL Exec Meeting

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Room 209, Convention Center

Melbourne, Australia

Participants:

• ACL exec:
  • Marti Hearst, President (Meeting Chair)
  • Joakim Nivre, Past President (Meeting Secretaty)
  • David Yarowsky, Treasurer
  • Graeme Hirst, Past Treasurer
  • Ming Zhou, Vice-President
  • Priscilla Rasmussen, Business Manager
  • Jing-Shin Chen, Information Officer
  • Barbara Di Eugenio, Conference Officer
  • Jennifer Foster, SIG Chair (via Skype)
  • Julia Hockenmaier, NAACL Chair
  • Hwee Tou Ng, CL Editor

• Conference Organizers
  • Claire Cardie, General Chair ACL 2018
  • Iryna Gurevych, Program Co-Chair ACL 2018
  • Yusuke Miyao, Program Co-Chair ACL 2018
  • Karin Verspoor, Local Chair ACL 2018
  • Trevor Cohn, Local Chair ACL 2018
  • Tim Baldwin, Local Chair ACL 2018
  • Bernardo Magnini, Local Chair ACL 2019
  • Lluís Màrquez, General Chair ACL 2019
  • David Traum, Program Chair ACL 2019
• Other
  • Drago Radev, Chair ACL Anthology Advisory Board
  • Yusuke Miyao, standing in as AACL representative
  • Mark Johnson, co-editor of TACL

13:00 – 13:45 ACL 2018 and ACL 2019

• GC18:
  • No major issues; maybe we need "workflow chairs" like ICML
• PC18:
  • Many issues as reflected in the written report
  • Main innovations introduced this year: more hierarchical org, max papers per AC, structured review forms
  • Meta-reviews should be communicated to authors (but ACs need to know)
  • Automation: formatting checks, TPMS (worked better than last year), more is needed
  • Open call for reviewers: good but hard to check unknown people
  • START: helpful but tricky to work with (see details in report)
  • Program chair assistants locally (5 people), junior researchers who can learn
• LC18:
  • Many small issues concerning sponsors/exhibitors, growing in numbers
  • Coordination of student volunteers more challenging than expected
  • Setting the schedule was painful, coordination handbook, app, web, etc.
  • No childcare this year, little demand, hard to make cost effective
  • Coordination between LC, GC, PCO is always a challenge – hard to streamline
  • Student recruitment event has to compete with corporate events (1st vs. 2nd class?)
  • Finding a good solution for video-recordings was hard
• PC19:
  • Early days, strive for simplification
  • Maybe try senior PC members in addition to (or instead of) ACs
  • Tweaking and communicating preprint policy
  • Streamline and simplify review forms (keep the good, throw out the bad)
• GC19:
  • We are on schedule, coordinating with other conferences next year
• LC19:
  • All contracts have been signed, local team has been set up, video for closing session is ready

13:45 – 14:00 Test of Time Papers Policy

The Exec (a) is positive to having test of time awards but (b) thinks that conferences should only award their own papers. Whether ACL as an organization should have a broader award (also covering journal papers) will be discussed over email. Barbara will take the lead on the discussion.

14:00 – 14:30 Visa Policy / Conference Accessibility

Should we allow presentation at a later conference as an alternative to remote presentation when people are denied a visa?

There are arguments both for and against the proposal, but there is currently not enough support in the Exec for adopting a new policy. Barbara will respond to the proposer on behalf of the Exec.

14:30 – 15:00 Reviewer Training and Recruiting, Linguistics in ACL

Barbara presented issues and ideas concerning reviewer training, COI detection (in START), review forms and reviewing workload. This was discussed in Town Hall style during the business meeting, where more ideas were generated.

15:15 - 16:15 ACL Organization, Communication and Scaling

The Exec decided (a) to create a system of standing committees, and (b) to amend the constitution to enable the Exec to appoint (without membership vote) 3-5 Exec members with specific responsibilities. Formal resolutions will be worked out and voted on in the Exec later.

16:15 - 16:45 ACL Anthology, Web Site, Portal / IT Reform

Drago reported on the ACL Anthology committee who will put out a call for a new Anthology Editor. Marti will advertise this in her Presidential Address together with the call for a new Information Officer (the latter on behalf of the Nominating Committee).

Jing-Shin reported on the status of (and recent work on) the website/portal (including membership management), the wiki, and the fellowship nomination system. We decided in the winter meeting to move to professional software for nominations and elections in the future. We also need to improve the functionality for sending mass emails and set up a blog for announcements.

17:00 – 17:30 Legal Representation / Complaint Committee

Jennifer summarized the arguments in favor of going with Harmon, Curran, Spielberg and Eisenberg (experience from similar organizations, good references, somewhat less expensive). The Exec discussed various issues but were generally positive towards asking HCS&E to help us with the Anti-Harassment Policy and GDPR.

Graeme presented two proposed changes to the Anti-Harassment Policy (vexatious complaints, name of committee). The Exec voted to pass a resolution in accordance with this proposal. The committee should now be known as the Professional Conduct Committee.

Graeme and Priscilla reported from the first training course for (potential) members of the Professional Conduct Committee. Graeme then presented detailed proposed changes to the implementation of this policy. This is still a work in progress and the details will require scrutiny by legal counsel. Concerns over the need for more insurance for legal protection of Exec members and members of the Professional Conduct Committee were raised.

17:30 – 18:00 AACL Update

Ming described the background and process leading up to the creation of AACL. Yusuke Miyao presented the launch of AACL, including officers, website, mailing list, AACL documents, and conference schedule for ACL, AACL and IJCNLP (6-year cycle).

18:00 – 18:30 Journal Editors Update

• TACL:
  • Mark Johnson reported. Kristina Toutanova has been replaced by Brian Roark as EiC.
  • TACL is being moved to MIT Press, who takes care of indexing and post-acceptance. Mark noted that TACL will be indexed, which may trigger more people to submit papers, which may make the transition to MIT press a much bigger expense than it currently is. We need better support and maintenance for pre-acceptance (OJS).
• CL:
  • Paola Merlo has been replaced by Hwee Tou Ng as editor.
  • Hwee Tou Ng has been replaced by Iryna Gurevych as book review editor.
  • There are three special issues in process or planned.
  • Hwee Tou presented summary statistics for CL.

18:30 – 19:00 Regular Reports

• Office – Priscilla gave highlights from her report.
• Treasurer – David explained that our books are not closed until the end of July; in the future we may want to aim for May instead. We are doing well and have accumulated a surplus that can be used for a one-time investment in infrastructure. We need to be aware of increased costs for journals; currently, journals are covered by membership fees (i.e., not subsidized by conferences); it is an important policy decision for the future whether we want journals to be subsidized by conferences.
• SIG Officer – SIGSEMITIC has no activity and should become dormant. Jennifer also pointed out that we need to resolve the issues concerning the BIG, which have been left hanging. The Exec set as a goal to have the BIG up and functioning next year; the details need to work out by a subcommittee.
• ACL 2020 – Ming reported that ACL 2020 will be held in Seattle.