Charter

1. Name and Mission

Established in 1984, the mission of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages (“VL”) is to be the premier international conference on visual language research and practice, including, but not restricted to visual language theory, visual programming, visual description languages, visual modeling, visual language support environments, and visual language applications.

2. Sponsorship

1. Sponsors. VL is sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society through its Technical Committee on Multimedia Computing.

2. Rules and Tax Status. VL will abide by the rules of its sponsors for the conduct of conference business operations and will act in compliance with the non-profit tax-exempt status of its sponsors.

3. Changes in Sponsorship. No permanent change to sponsorship percentages will be made without the formal informed consent of all sponsors. One-time temporary changes, such as the addition of another qualified organization as host and sponsor for a particular year, may be made by agreement between the VL Steering Committee and the sponsors in the normal course of annual conference approval.

3. Steering Committee

1. Membership.

   1. VL will be managed by a Steering Committee of seven (7) voting members. Members will serve a four (4) year term and may be re-elected.

   2. If a vacancy develops for any reason, the Steering Committee Chair may appoint a substitute with the consent of the remaining Steering Committee to serve out the original term.

   3. The current (upcoming) year’s General Chair will be an ex-officio non-voting member of the Steering Committee, if not otherwise a member of the committee. If there is more than one General Chair, the Steering Committee Chair will appoint one to this role.

   4. In addition, seven members of the Steering Committee at the time of development of this charter if not otherwise members shall remain non-voting members of the Steering Committee until such time as they resign.

2. Duties. The Steering Committee will:

   • oversee the VL conference operations and finances,
   • provide history and continuity for the conference,
   • select and confirm meeting locations, meeting dates, and the appointment of conference chairs, including any and all General Chairs and Program Chairs,
   • set the general direction and parameters of the upcoming conference,
   • approve the Program Committee for the upcoming conference, and
   • any other actions expected or allowed under the conference rules of its sponsors.

3. Election of Steering Committee. Each year at the time of the Symposium, the Steering Committee will nominate a slate of candidates for the open seats on the Steering Committee. Additional nominations may be made at the time of the ballot. Voting on the ballot will be the Program Committee of the most recent two VL conferences (including any conference that is on-going at the time of the ballot, but excluding the upcoming conference), plus the current Steering Committee Members. Each eligible voter will have exactly one vote per open seat. Those nominees receiving the most votes will be elected to the open seats.

4. Selection of Chair. Each year immediately following election of new members to replace expiring terms, the Steering Committee will elect a Chair and a Vice Chair, who will serve in the Chair’s absence. If a vacancy develops for any reason in the Chair, the Vice Chair will succeed to Chair, and the Steering Committee will elect a new Vice Chair. If a vacancy develops for any reason in the Vice Chair, the Steering Committee will elect a new Vice Chair.

4. Operational Roles

1. General Chair. The General Chair is responsible for the conference budget, local arrangements, nomination of the Program Committee subject to approval of the Steering Committee, conference operations, including the appointment of other conference positions and resolution of disputes on technical papers. The General Chair will ensure that VL’s Conference Guideline Procedures are followed and that any deviations are approved in advance by the Steering Committee. The General Chair is also responsible for compliance with conference rules of VL’s sponsors.

2. Program Chair or Chairs. The Program Chairs are responsible for:

   • the receipt, tracking, and refereeing of technical papers,
   • the structuring of the conference program along with the General Chair,
   • the editing of the VL Proceedings,
   • the conduct of the conference sessions, and
   • the assembly of post-conference results and summaries.

5. Amendments

This charter may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the combined Program Committees of the most recent two VL conferences (including any conference that is on-going at the time of the votes, but excluding the upcoming conference), plus a two-thirds vote of the current Steering Committee.