2026Q3 Reports: Member at-large - America

Based on the action item from our last meeting, I worked on finding someone for the “big picture” strategy of ACL virtual conference infrastructure.

At present, ACL conferences typically appoint virtual infrastructure chairs on a per-conference basis. While this model has enabled conferences to operate effectively in the short term, there is limited continuity across years in terms of infrastructure vision, metrics, and design principles. As a result, much of the consistency in current systems emerges from external tooling providers rather than from an ACL's needs or goals.

I reached out to mid-career candidates with relevant experience in conference infrastructure design, virtual conference implementation, and/or critical perspectives on scholarly communication. The pitch to the candidates is that they would: - help define metrics for what ACL virtual infrastructure should optimize for, - provide continuity and guidance to conference-specific virtual infrastructure chairs, - stay loosely engaged with major infrastructure and platform decisions as they arise, - and support post-conference evaluation against shared goals.

The next step will be to evaluate incoming feedback and present one or more nominations for consideration by the ACL Executive Board.