Charter

1. Name and Mission

Established in 1984, the mission of the IEEE Symposia on Human-Centric Computing Languages and Environments (“HCC”) is to support the design, formalization, implementation, and evaluation of computing languages that are easier to learn, easier to use, and easier to understand by a broader group of people. This includes all research aimed at the above mission, regardless of whether they use entirely visual technology, text, or instead use sound, taste, virtual reality, the web, or any other technologies. Examples of research addressing this problem include but are not limited to language/environmental design aspects, theory that supports the many media used toward this goal, implementation aspects, empirical work, software comprehension aspects (including software visualization), and software modeling and/or software engineering aspects.

2. Sponsorship

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

2. Rules and Tax Status. HCC 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 HCC Steering Committee and the sponsors in the normal course of annual conference approval.

3. Steering Committee

1. Membership

   1. HCC will be managed by a Steering Committee of nine (9) 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 HCC 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 HCC 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 HCC’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 HCC’s sponsors. The General Chair’s additional responsibilities regarding ICSs are listed in Charter point 6.

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 HCC 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 vote of the combined Program Committees of the most recent two HCC conferences (whose last conference day has ended by the time of the votes), plus a vote of the current Steering Committee. To pass, all of the following must occur:

• At least 2/3 of all votes cast must be in favor, and
• At least 2/3 of all current SC members must vote in favor, and
• At least 10 days time must be allowed to cast a vote, and
• At least 50% of the PC members must vote.

An individual can vote only once, even if he/she is a member of more than one of the above committees.

6. Individual Contained Symposia

1. The conference will consist of “Individual Contained Symposia” (ICSs), each of which has a strong sub-theme, integrated with some common paper presentations, keynote presentations, and special events. Each ICS will have its own Program Chair and its own Program Committee, who will be coordinated by the General Chair, and who will follow the HCC conference standards and rules.

   The General Chair organizes the overall conference, and provides services to the ICS Chairs, including providing for a common proceedings, registration, management of the financial aspects, the social program, a paper submissions mechanism, a review tracking mechanism, local arrangements, tutorials, and publicity. The General Chair may appoint additional chairs as desired (such as a Finance Chair, Tutorials Chair, etc.) to assist in these matters.

   ICS Program Chairs’ responsibilities are to put together a Program Committee (to be approved by the Steering Committee), to put together an announcement of the particular ICS to be used for publicity, to encourage high-quality technical submissions, to manage the ICS Program Committee through its review process, and to attract program attendees. ICS Program Committees have an independent paper selection process and have primary responsibility for the organization of their program, subject to appropriate coordination with the General Chair over common events and general conference operation. ICS Program Chairs will suggest papers, keynote speakers, panels, special events, etc., to the General Chair, who will select from and coordinate such ICS suggestions as is appropriate for the general conference.

2. Over time, some ICSs will be eliminated and others will be added, as interest in subareas evolves. There is no prescribed limit to the number of ICSs that the conference will support, and hence, adding an ICS need not require elimination of another. Still, to continue to be present at HCC, an ICS must adhere to the HCC paper acceptance rates (see conference guidelines) and have enough paid attendees to pay for itself (computed as a fraction of total HCC conference expenses based on the ICS’s number of days) in one out of every two consecutive offerings of the ICS. In addition, any ICS that is not, in the opinion of the Steering Committee, contributing to the overall success of the conference may be cut regardless of current or prior performance; however, such occurrence should be rare if ICSs are chosen appropriately initially. When practical considerations limit the number of slots, for a continuing ICS to be selected to continue over other ICSs competing for its “spot”, it must be reasonably expected, based in part on its past history, to continue to attract at least as many paid attendees as proposed ICSs competing for its slot.

3. After HCC 2001, proposals for new ICSs must be submitted to the Steering Committee at least one year in advance of the first proposed occurrence of the ICS. Proposals should include the ICS’s planned strategy for fulfilling the above requirements.