SIGHAN Constitution

I. Statement of Purpose

The purpose of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) Special Interest Group on Chinese Language Processing (SIGHAN) shall be:

• To promote interest in all aspects Chinese Language Processing (CLP), including but not limited to morphological analysis and segmentation, parsing, lexicons and semantic and pragmatic analysis, machine translation, and information retrieval and extraction;
• To promote coordination between organizations in academia and industry throughout the world performing research in CLP;
• To provide members of the ACL having a special interest in CLP with a means of exchanging news of recent research developments and other matters of interest in CLP;
• To sponsor meetings and workshops on CLP that appear to be timely and worthwhile.

SIGHAN will operate within the framework of the ACL's general guidelines for SIGs.

II. Membership

Membership in SIGHAN will be open to anyone who professes an interest in Chinese Language Processing. Membership will be terminated upon request, or automatically if no reply is received within six (6) months of posting an annual membership list update message.

The official language of SIGHAN will be English.

III. Elected Officers

The elected officers of the SIG shall consist of a Chair, a Vice-Chair, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and up to seven Information Officers (2 from China, 2 from Taiwan, 1 from Hong Kong, 1 from Singapore, and 1 from the United States).

The Chair, Vice-Chair, Treasurer and Secretary shall be members in good standing of the ACL.

The term of all elected officers of the SIG shall be two (2) years.

The duties of the Chair shall be:

• To have primary executive authority over actions and activities of the SIG.
• To prepare a written report on the activities of the SIG for the Executive Committee of the ACL, for presentation to the ACL at its Annual Business Meeting.
• To designate such other officers as may be needed from time to time to fulfill the goals of the SIG, in particular a returning officer as specified in Sections IV and VI below.

The duties of the Vice-Chair shall be:

• To have the primary responsibility of selecting workshop dates and venues, in consultation with the other officers and potential conference sites.
• To act as a liaison with conference organizers who are hosting SIGHAN workshops, and oversee workshop budgets.

The duties of the Treasurer shall be:

• To be responsible for any moneys awarded to the SIG by the ACL; to collect and manage any dues that may be required by the organization; and to present a written annual report on the SIG finances to the Executive Committee of the ACL.

The duties of the Secretary shall be:

• To maintain a membership roster of the SIG.
• To maintain, in consultation with the chair, Vice-Chair, and the Information Officers, a document stating the aims of the group and the names and affiliations of the current officers, suitable for sending to prospective members and other inquirers.
• To maintain the SIG's presence on the World Wide Web and to maintain mailing lists and similar communications mechanisms.

The duties of the Information Officers shall be:

• To communicate with members of the SIG from their region.
• To answer inquiries about the SIG from their region.
• To ensure that up-to-date information of relevance to the SIG members in their region is available from the SIGHAN website.
• To determine, in conjunction with the other officers, appropriate times and venues for workshops and meetings and other policy issues.

IV. Election of Officers

All officers of the SIG shall be elected by a vote of its membership. Elections shall take place at least two months before the expiration of current terms of office. In the event of an unexpected vacancy, an extraordinary election shall be held for an officer to complete the current term of office. Candidates must be nominated by two members, must accept nomination, and must be members in good standing of SIGHAN.

Votes arriving by the notified closing date will be counted by a returning officer appointed by the Chair and agreed to by all candidates. Nominations shall be called at least three months prior to the election, and shall close two months prior to the election. All members shall be notified of the election date and the nominations at least four weeks prior to the close of voting, and results shall be notified to the members within four weeks after the close of voting.

Notification of elections will be sent to the address last communicated to the Secretary.

V. Dues

The SIG shall not immediately levy membership dues. However, at the discretion of the Chair and the Secretary, the SIG may petition the Executive Committee of the ACL to levy annual membership dues, where the rate is determined by the Executive Committee. In certain circumstances, the Executive Committee may decide to waive the fee.

VI. Referenda

A change to this constitution, or a motion on any other matter, may be initiated by five members (petitioners) in writing or by agreement of the Chair and Secretary (on the suggestion of a member or otherwise). Constitutional amendments and other motions will be put to the vote in conjunction with the regular elections.

Members will be given notification at least three months in advance of any referendum, and further motions or amendments proposed by two members shall be accepted up to two months before the close of voting. Votes arriving by the notified closing date will be counted by a returning officer appointed by the Chair and agreed to by all petitioners. All members shall be notified of the date of the referendum and the proposed motions and amendments at least four weeks prior to the close of voting, and results shall be notified to the members within four weeks of the close of voting.

Any change to this constitution requires a two-thirds majority of the SIGHAN membership and is subject to approval by ACL. Any other matter requires a simple majority of those actually voting.

Notification of elections will be sent to the address last communicated to the Secretary.

This constitution was updated on 25 July 2003 to reflect changes ratified at the SIGHAN business meeting held during the 2nd SIGHAN Workshop. This constitution was modeled on the SIGLEX constitution, and was drafted January 2001.