Steering
Committee Charter
Conference
on Software Engineering and Training
2023
I. Purpose of the Conference on Software
Engineering Education and Training
The objective of the Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T) is to offer educators and industry professionals the opportunity to share and expand their knowledge of software engineering education, training, and professional issues.
As software plays an increasingly dominant role in what we make and use, advances in software engineering education and training have become increasingly important to meet the need for well-qualified software engineers. In a field as rapidly changing as software engineering, the CSEE&T provides a forum through which industry professionals, academics, and industrial trainers can keep up with advances outside their specific areas of inquiry. The development of software engineering as a discipline has led to conference presentations on a variety of professional issues in the field.
Each CSEE&T offers a wide variety of activities, such as keynote speakers, technical papers, panel sessions, workshops, tutorials, and opportunities for informal discussion. These activities attract representatives from academia, industry, and government interested in software engineering education, training, and professional issues. Besides addressing concerns unique to their specialty areas, participants can learn about the concerns of related areas. Often these issues affect the state of education and professional practice throughout the field.
The conference is managed by a Steering Committee, an annual Organizing Committee, and a Program Committee. The functions of each committee are described in the following sections.
II.
Sponsorship
Normally, the professional society sponsoring CSEE&T is either the IEEE Computer Society, through the Technical Council on Software Engineering, or the IEEE Reliability Society. Upon agreement, and has happened on several occasions, the Steering Committee and the sponsoring IEEE Society may allow sponsorship to be divided between the sponsoring IEEE Society and another entity such as a university.
III.
The Steering Committee
A. Purpose
To oversee the long-term planning and success of the conference, a Steering Committee (SC) plans for future conferences, evaluates how well each conference has achieved the objective stated above, and implements improvements to better meet these objectives.
The Steering Committee is responsible for the general oversight of and setting policy for the Conference.
The Steering Committee is normally responsible for making the major strategic decisions, namely, the appointment of the general chair and program chair, selection of dates and locations, and major theme. In addition, the steering committee may review and approve the budget before it is sent to the sponsor.
More specifically the Steering Committee should
1. Select the sites and dates for future CSEE&T meetings,
2. Obtain feedback about CSEE&T for the purpose of improving the conference,
3. Approve the selection of General and Program Chairs of CSEE&T meetings,
4. Assist the organizing committee as needed.
The Steering Committee (SC) is composed of a chairperson and members approved by the Committee as described below. There is no limit on the number of steering committee members.
The Steering Committee Chairperson has responsibility for providing continuity for the conference. This may involve recruiting the Program Chair(s) and General Chair(s) for the conference, mentoring the Program Chair and General Chair, reporting status to the Steering Committee, and approving new Steering Committee candidates. Consensus of the SC should be sought for the Program Chair and General Chair. The term of office for the Steering Committee Chair is 5 years. In the year before the Chair's term is to expire, the Steering Committee has the option to elect a new Chair, who will have the title of Steering Committee Chair-Elect until taking office as Chair for a five-year term.
Mentoring duties: The SC Chair typically provides previous conference information and sponsorship information to the General and Program Chairs. The SC Chair also approves the budget, hotel arrangements, advertising, Program Committee membership, the Call, and Preliminary Program, as well as other key conference decisions. The SC Chair provides advice on what has been done before, what has worked and what hasn't. The SC Chair may suggest names for keynote speakers, committee members, etc.
Election of the next SC Chair: The next SC Chair is nominated and elected by the SC membership, using a democratic process, so as to provide overlap with the last year of the current SC Chair's tenure. This also allows planning for the next conference to start in a timely manner. The current SC Chair initiates this process, and checks on whether the candidates are able to put in the time and effort required. Although the next SC Chair is normally selected from the SC membership, this is not required.
Steering Committee Members: The typical term of an SC member is five years. Two members of each year’s organizing committee (generally the General Chair and Program Chair) become Steering Committee Members automatically at the time they are first chosen. The term of office can be extended or shortened by mutual agreement of the Steering Committee Chair. The Past Chair of the Steering Committee is also a Steering Committee Member, and is given a term of five years from the end of his or her term as Chair. Additional Steering Committee members who have been involved with the conference can be appointed so as to keep a broad constituency. All SC members must be approved by the Steering Committee and its Chair.
The current membership list is maintained on the conference website. https://conferences.computer.org/cseet/
This committee typically meets in conjunction with the CSEE&T conference, and uses videoconferencing and email correspondence otherwise. An in-person meeting at CSEE&T includes a working dinner which should be included in the budget section of the Technical Meeting Request Form (TMRF) – see Section IV.D. If necessary, interim meetings can be called by the Steering Committee Chair or by a majority of the members.
Steering Committee members are expected to attend the Steering Committee meeting (in person or electronically) at each CSEE&T. Members who miss two consecutive meetings at CSEE&T without giving sufficient cause are considered withdrawn from the Committee, subject to review by the Steering Committee. Members who do not attend CSEE&T for three consecutive years will also normally be asked to withdraw.
Minutes are kept by a member of the Steering Committee designated by the Chair. The Chair will maintain minutes of the past Steering Committee meetings and other Steering Committee documents in a repository.
During meetings of the Steering Committee, each member shall have one vote. A quorum both meetings (including face-to-face presence, virtual presence, and email votes) will be a majority (greater than 50%) of the number of current members of the Steering Committee. When an email vote is agreed, votes may be submitted to the chair of the Steering Committee, or some other designated member. Steering Committee members will be informed sufficiently in advance of any known motions to be voted on during a forthcoming meeting.
The chair has the deciding vote in cases of tied votes.
IV.
Constituting a Conference
The Steering Committee obtains, through open and informal solicitations, proposals for: conference locations, names of individuals who are suitable to serve as General Chair(s), individuals who are suitable to serve as Program Chair(s), and other organizational issues. Individuals or institutions interested in proposing and organizing a future CSEE&T should follow the steps listed below.
A. Written proposals for the conference should be sent to the Chair of the Steering Committee significantly before the proposed conference date. The decision on the conference will, where possible, be made at least 24 months before the proposed date. Planning for conferences three and four years in the future may also be undertaken.
B. Proposals shall list facilities, venue, proposed management, budgets and financial arrangements, a brief summary of the conference structure, a draft of a preliminary call for papers, and any other information required by the Steering Committee. In particular, the scheduling of any other potentially conflicting meetings within several months before or after the proposed meeting date must be evaluated as part of the proposal.
C. Those wishing to host a future CSEE&T should make their intentions known sufficiently in advance of the proposed date (e.g. 30 months) so that any information required by the Steering Committee can be obtained in a timely manner, and other activities can be integrated into a program of interest to all.
D. The Steering Committee reviews proposals, tentatively accepts the proposal, and the proposer(s) will be asked to prepare a detailed budget using the appropriate forms at least 15 months before the proposed conference date. After approval by the Steering Committee it will be passed to the Sponsor(s) for final approval.
V. Rules governing the CSEE&T Chair Positions
A. The General Chair(s) of the CSEE&T is selected by the Steering Committee and shall normally go to new individuals each time. It is especially important that these persons are active in the field, have extensive practical experience, and/or have published frequently in relevant journals and conferences. In addition, they should have experience in organizing other professional conferences.
B. The name(s) of the person(s) recommended as the General Chair(s) shall be part of the proposal (see Section IV). At least one of the General Chairs shall generally be from the country hosting the conference. If this is not the case, then a local arrangements chair should be appointed. The Steering Committee shall be free to accept or reject any recommended names for General Chair or Program Chair in order to best promote the conference.
C. Other organizing committee members, e.g. Local Arrangement Chair(s), are chosen by the General Chair(s) with the advice and consent of the Steering Committee. The Program Chair(s) select(s) the program committee members with the guidance of the General Chair(s).
VI.
General Chair(s) and the Organizing Committee
In each conference, the General Chair(s), the Program Chair(s), and explicitly identified other chairs (for example, Local Arrangements Chair) form the Conference Organizing Committee for that conference and are charged with the planning, running, and oversight of that conference to ensure that it meets the objectives stated in Section I.
The General Chair(s) are responsible for the overall running of the conference and serve as the Chair(s) of the Organizing Committee.
The Program Chair(s) are chosen by the General Chair(s) with the advice and consent of the Steering Committee. It is especially important that the Program Chair(s) be active in the field and have published frequently. The Program Chair selects the program committee vice-chairs and members with the guidance of the General Chair.
An ASEE&T Chair may be appointed to organize a special session called the Academy of Software Engineering and Training. This session will include invited guest presentations or tutorials. These may cover topics demonstrating how to best teach various aspects of software engineering, or other topics of broad interest, such as software engineering curriculum design or other professional issues. The conference does not provide honoraria. On occasion, the conference may reimburse travel expenses for keynote or ASEE&T speakers, but such expenses must be included in the conference budget and agreed to by the Steering Committee.
The Organizing Committee approves all major decisions concerning the conference. The General Chair(s) are responsible for the finances of the conference and for coordinating local arrangements. To these ends, the General Chair(s) will appoint a Treasurer and a Local Arrangements Chair. The General Chair(s) may also appoint a Publicity Chair, Publications Chair, Registration Chair and other positions as necessary.
The General Chair(s) and the appointed Publicity Chair are responsible for the publicity of the conference. All notices requesting papers, panels, tutorials and tool demonstrations as well as the advance program announcement and registration material shall be widely distributed in a timely manner. This should include announcements in professional and research journals, the trade press, electronic bulletin boards, the World Wide Web, and mailings to individuals on (electronic and postal) mailing lists of interested or participating organizations. The goal is to allow full participation in all facets of the conference by a worldwide audience.
The General Chair(s) are responsible for obtaining all necessary approvals and financial support from the conference sponsor(s).
The General Chair(s) are responsible for soliciting proposals from local facilities (such as hotels and universities) to host the conference. The Sponsor or Sponsor’s designee must execute hotel contracts.
Special efforts should be made by the General and Program Committee chairs to get organizers of future CSEE&T conferences involved in the organizing and program committees of the present conference.
VII.
Program Chair(s) and the Program Committee
The Program Chair(s) are responsible for planning the technical program of the conference. If they submit papers or proposals to their conference, those will be handled outside the normal review process, under the direction of the General Chair.
The Program Chair(s) will appoint individuals to serve in the program committee, with the advice and consent of the General Chair(s).
The Program Committee should be diversified in terms of expertise, geographical distribution, race, and gender. Program Committee members shall be chosen on the basis of their technical qualifications and experience. The Program Chair(s) should promote continuity by keeping some committee members from the previous conferences (e.g., members from past Organizing and Program Committees).
The Program Committee is responsible for review of all submitted papers. Decisions will be made with the support of online software. All committee members are expected to not only write reviews, but also actively discuss reviews with other members who have reviewed the same papers.
The Program Chair(s) will prepare the Call For Papers and circulate it widely with the assistance of the Publicity Chair, if one is appointed. The Program Chair(s) will also send out notification of acceptance and rejection of submitted papers, and instructions to authors for submitting their final papers. The call for papers as well as actions by the individuals on the Program Committee shall encourage the submission of high quality papers that have not been previously published or are currently submitted elsewhere.
It is CSEE&T policy to require that all presenters (with the exception of the keynote speakers) pay registration in full for the conference, and this should be made clear in the Call for Papers and reiterated at the time of acceptance. Authors who do not register will generally have their papers withdrawn.
D. Reviews of Submitted Papers
The conference shall require full papers for review.
The Program Committee shall be responsible for reviewing all submitted papers, for submitting timely, informative reviews that provide authors with feedback about their papers. The Program Chair(s) will determine the procedures for reviewing and accepting papers for the program. For a number of years, EasyChair has been used for this purpose. The Program Chair(s) shall distribute the papers for review and arrange information so the papers can be discussed by knowledgeable reviewers. Program committee members can seek expert advice from external reviewers, but they shall be responsible for having reviewed the papers themselves. Paper shall normally be reviewed by at least three reviewers, but the possibility of desk-rejection for irrelevance or length is retained by the Program Chair(s). Online discussion of each paper provides other committee members familiar with the work an opportunity to contribute useful information that might affect the outcome of the review process. If consensus cannot be formed or there are additional concerns raised about a paper, additional information or reviews should be obtained.
Usually those papers that have received very poor reviews or very strong reviews can be discussed briefly, but an open discussion of all papers is required. It is important that the Program Committee considers all papers fairly.
If a committee chair or member (Organizing, or Steering Committee) of the forthcoming CSEE&T submits papers, care must be taken that his/her papers be reviewed at least as stringently as other submitted papers. Such Committee chairs or members shall be carefully excluded from discussion of their submitted papers or for any paper where he/she might have a conflict of interest.
All discussion about a paper shall remain in confidence. The names of reviewers are not to be revealed to authors.
It is recognized that English may not be the native language of many of the authors of contributed papers. It is still expected, however, that all papers will be reasonably presented and written in acceptable English. It is strongly recommended that authors whose native language is not English seek professional help in polishing the writings in their papers.
Peer-reviewed papers are the cornerstone of the CSEE&T; these may be organized into short and long papers or into various tracks. The proceedings will include all peer-reviewed contributions along with panel or workshop statements and invited papers from keynote and ASEE&T speakers. Keynote and ASEE&T speakers, at their option, may have only an abstract of their talk included.
VIII.
Awards
CSEE&T has been presenting the The Nancy Mead Award For Excellence in Software Engineering Education since 2010. The award is named in honor of Nancy Mead, the founding Steering Committee Chair of the Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training.
The award is presented to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding contributions to software engineering education and training, as well as to the related area of software engineering professionalism. Contributions may include, but are not limited to: service to the community, papers, reports, books, tools, techniques and media for software engineering education, and outstanding practice of teaching that has been witnessed by the community at large. Contributions should have had an influence over an extended period of time at the international level. The winner may also have made contributions to software engineering itself (peer-reviewed research or practice), but having made such contributions is not necessary in order to receive this award.
CSEE&T Steering Committee members are not eligible to receive the award while they remain members of the Steering Committee.
The award is jointly chosen by a Selection Committee consisting of the CSEE&T Steering Committee and the previous winners. Nominations and voting will be managed electronically, with votes being sent to a designated member of the Selection Committee, who will be designated the Returning Officer.
The SC determines whether there will be an award in a given year. When an award is to be give, 9 to 11 months before that year’s conference, the Returning Officer will call for nominations. The call may be circulated to the program committee and to others. The nomination period will last about a month, and will terminate at an announced deadline. Following this the returning officer will allow a period of electronic discussion by email, and will then call for a vote, with an announced deadline.
Voters will rank the candidates from most to least preferred, with multiple rounds being conducted by successively eliminating candidates that have the lowest number of votes, and transferring second-place votes from the voters whose first choices are eliminated (with this being repeated in subsequent rounds). In the event that this process results in a tie, then tie-breaking will be performed in the same manner by considering only the votes of the previous winners.
Nominations received in any given year that are not selected as the winner that year may be kept for further consideration in subsequent years. If a nomination is to be considered in a subsequent year, the nominator will be offered the opportunity to update the nomination.
The recipient will be given the opportunity to deliver a keynote at CSEE&T, either in the year they are presented the award, or the following year. The decision of which year will be made by the Steering Committee and Organizing Committee, in consultation with the winner. It is understood that budgetary constraints may further constrain this.
The list of winners is maintained online at the CSEE&T website https://conferences.computer.org/cseet/ .
CSEE&T has been presenting a best paper award since 2014. There is no financial element to this award, only a token of appreciation. A list of awardees will be maintained on the CSEE&T website. Award selection criteria and templates may be found in the conference repository.
C.
Most Influential Paper Award
An award may be given for the most influential paper from the conference taking place 10 years ago. Award selection criteria and templates may be found in the conference repository.
A. The CSEE&T budget will be finalized (from
the accepted proposal for the conference) by the Organizing Committee of each
conference and approved by the Steering Committee. The general co-chairs and finance chair will
then submit the budget for approval by the Sponsor(s) no later than nine months
prior to the conference. Budget
approval will be handled by the Sponsor(s).
The budget must be approved by the Sponsor(s) prior to the distribution
of any publication of registration fees.
B. Conference accounts shall be closed within
120 days following the completion of a CSEE&T. At that time, all surplus funds shall be
distributed to the Sponsor(s). A final
report and the closing bank statement must be submitted to the Sponsor(s) no later than 120 days after a CSEE&T
by the general co-chairs and finance chair.
The Sponsor(s) will receive a list of CSEE&T attendees with names
and full address information no later than 120 days after a CSEE&T. The Sponsor(s) may use the attendee mailing
lists at its sole discretion.
C. Contracts which require Sponsor(s) to review
and approval are: all hotel and exhibit facility
contracts and all conference service or management contracts. Members of the Steering or Organizing
Committees are not authorized to sign these contracts, unless specifically
authorized in writing by the Sponsor(s).
X. Intellectual Property
The proceedings shall carry the names, logos, and addresses of the IEEE and the sponsoring IEEE Society. The disposition of rights and permissions, and the maintenance of the authors’ copyright assignments, rests solely with the copyright holder. The revenue from the dispensation of rights and permission shall be the sole property of the rights owner. Requests for reprint or re-use from third-party material will be handled according to the existing reprint policies of the copyright holder.
X1. Termination
of the Conference
The
termination of the CSEE&T may be proposed by the Steering Committee or the
Sponsor and will be approved by the Sponsor.
In the event of a termination, the Sponsor will work together to dispose
of any assets and liabilities of CSEE&T.
XII.
Amendments
Amendments to this charter of the Steering Committee of the CSEE&T require the approval by two thirds of the Steering Committee members. Amendments should be submitted in writing to the Steering Committee Chair at least two weeks before (and distributed to the SC by the chair by at least one week before) the Steering Committee meeting that will consider its passage.
Document History: Originally submitted to IEEE-CS headquarters by Donald J. Bagert on 1 December 2000; most recently submitted by him on 14 April 2005. Revised 2023.