1 Standing committee
1.1 The role of the standing committee is to ensure the continued success of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). It is responsible for the long term planning of future conferences and for ensuring that all the events are properly co-ordinated.
1.2 The standing committee should draw up a programme of ECIS conferences for at least three years, but possibly five years ahead. It should invite bids for holding the conference and from the bids select a programme. It should also be responsible for the final decision on the membership of the organising committee and programme committee.
1.3 The standing committee should draft a set of criteria for what makes an acceptable ECIS conference so that those bidding to hold these know what is expected of them.
1.4 The standing committee should be responsible for policy regarding the frequency and format of ECIS.
1.5 The standing committee should be responsible for determining publication policy and be able to negotiate with publishers for publishing the proceedings and selected papers in journals.
1.6 The standing committee should review each conference and produce a brief report describing the lessons that can be learned for future conferences.
1.7 The standing committee should have a designated officer responsible for liaison with ICIS, AIS and other relevant conferences and associations.
1.8 Members of the standing committee are the main conference officers of the previous, present and forthcoming ECIS. Extra members of the committee might include a representative from the international scientific information systems journals and the various international associations that support the conference. The membership of the standing committee should therefore be updated each year at the ECIS conference.
1.9 There should be representatives in the standing committee from at least 12 European countries. If this is not possible with the above membership, then there should be extra members from various European countries.
1.10 The chair of the standing committee is the conference chair of the previous conference, with the conference chair for the forthcoming conference as vice-chair.
1.11 The standing committee does not normally have funds available to support particular conferences and, similarly, does not expect to receive any share of the profits from the conference.
1.12 There will normally be two business meetings of the standing committee each year. One should be held, as necessary, during ICIS, the other during ECIS itself.
2 Conference officers
2.1 The conference officers are responsible mainly for the academic side of ECIS, which is responsible for promoting the conference, obtaining papers, reviewing them, scheduling the programme and publishing the proceedings. They are aided in the reviewing process by the programme committee and others.
2.2 The conference officers normally include:
Conference chair
Programme chair
Research papers organiser
Panels organiser
Research in progress organiser
Case study organiser
PhD consortium organiser (if appropriate)
Publication officer / editor
2.3 In order to provide a proper European focus, the academic team should ideally come from at least four different European countries. Not more than two conference officers should come from the same country.
2.4 For co-ordination purposes, the programme chair should come from the country that is organising the conference.
2.5 The conference officers will benefit from having served on the programme committee previously
2.6 The conference officers should meet at least once to finalise the programme of the conference.
2.7 Conference proceedings will be published in a book form prior to the conference. Copyright will be held with the conference proceedings publishers with the understanding that papers can be reprinted in the appropriate information systems journals after the conference.
3 Programme committee
3.1 The programme committee is responsible for attracting quality submissions and for reviewing the submissions.
3.2 The committee should have 40-60 members, from at least 20 European countries, with no more than five from the same country.
3.3 An individual can't serve on the programme committee more than three times in a row.
3.4 The programme committee should have representatives from each of the leading information systems journals that support the conference and which will publish a selection of the 'best' papers at a later date. The journals should co-ordinate this activity with the publication officer.
4 Organising committee
4.1 The organising committee deals with the administrative part of the conference and is responsible for all other practical arrangements including arranging the conference location, conference activities and receiving bookings etc.
4.2 The conference organisers should actively seek sponsorship to ensure that fees are kept to a minimum.
4.3 It is recommended that the organising committee chair be supported by a publicity organiser, a finance officer, a parallel events organiser and a local arrangements organiser.
4.4 It is advisable that the organising committee chair delegates many of the administrative tasks to professional conference organisers. They will be responsible for room bookings, invoicing etc.
4.5 The members of the organising committee should be locals and represent most parts of the local information systems community (thus, for example, they should not all come from the same university).
These people will be nominated by the local organisers.
4.6 The organising committee is entirely responsible for the financial viability of the conference.
4.7 The organising committee is responsible for ensuring that the conference is adequately advertised. There will normally be a call for papers five months before the submission deadline. This will be followed by a second call for papers three months before the submission deadline. A poster should be sent nine months before the conference date and an invitation programme sent three months before the conference. In addition, the conference should be promoted widely through electronic means, other related conferences and in the journals that support the conference.
4.8 There should be at least three local organisers that cover the local information systems community and are actively involved with information systems (i.e. universities, local information systems associations, local informatics/computer associations etc.). One of the local organisers should be a practitioner member (vendor, consultant or association).
5 PhD consortium
5.1 Attached are details of the arrangement between AIS and ECIS with regard to the PhD consortium.
MEMORANDUM TO: ECIS Standing Committee and AIS Council
FROM: Bob Galliers and Ron Weber
RE: AIS Support for ECIS Doctoral Consortium
DATE: 31 October 1997
Background
The Association for Information Systems (AIS) currently provides $4000 U.S. to assist the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) hold a Doctoral Consortium. In addition, AIS provides contributions in kind (e.g., assistance with organizing and conducting the Consortium). Both ECIS and AIS agree that the nature of AIS's participation in the doctoral consortium held in conjunction with ECIS now needs to be formalized so that both parties can plan their involvement in the Consortium appropriately.
Parties to the Agreement
The parties to the agreement are the Standing Committee of the European Conference on Information Systems and the Council of the Association for Information Systems.
Duration of the Agreement
This agreement relates to the Doctoral Consortium held in conjunction with ECIS and takes effect on 1 January 1998 and terminates at the conclusion of the European Conference on Information Systems in 2000.
It can also be terminated by either the Chair of the ECIS Standing Committee or the President of AIS giving notice in writing of intent to terminate the agreement at least four months before the commencement of the European Conference on Information Systems in any year. It is anticipated that a new agreement will take effect upon the termination of this agreement at the conclusion of the European Conference on Information Systems in 2000.
Definitions
The AIS Council consists of its officers, the immediate Past President, and from 6-12 members elected to serve on Council. The number of members to serve on the Council shall be determined by Council. The officers of AIS shall be a President, a President-Elect, one of more functional Vice-Presidents as specified by Council, a Treasurer, and a Secretary.
AIS has two Regional Councillors who represent Region 2--Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Each Regional Councillor serves for a two-year term. Their terms are staggered so that only one new Councillor is elected each year. Henceforth the Regional Councillor who was first elected to Council will be called the Senior Regional Councillor, and the Regional
Councillor who was most recently elected to Council will be called the Junior Regional Councillor.
The ECIS Standing Committee comprises the main conference officers of the previous, present, and forthcoming ECIS. Extra members of the Standing Committee may include a representative from the international scientific information systems journals and the various international associations that support the conference. Members of the ECIS Standing Committee should come from at least 12 European countries. To achieve this objective, from
time to time extra members from various European countries will be invited to join the Standing Committee. The Chair of the Standing Committee is the Conference Chair of the previous conference. The Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee is the Conference Chair for the forthcoming conference.
Name of the Doctoral Consortium
The name of the Consortium will be the ECIS-AIS Doctoral Consortium. This name will be used in all materials associated with the Consortium.
Responsibilities under the Agreement
AIS agrees to undertake the following:
1. Advertise the ECIS-AIS Doctoral Consortium and ECIS Conference on its Web pages, and each year provide a hotlink to the Consortium and Conference Web pages.
2. Provide $4000 U.S. towards the cost of the Consortium on presentation of an invoice from the co-chairs of the Consortium no earlier than six months before ECIS.
3. Have the Senior Regional Councillor perform the duties normally performed by an ECIS-AIS Doctoral Consortium Co-Chair. These duties can be determined by reference to the activities carried out by Consortium Co-Chairs in previous years.
4. Have the Senior Regional Councillor and the Junior Regional Councillor use their best efforts to raise additional funding to support the ECIS-AIS Doctoral Consortium.
5. Have the Junior Regional Councillor assist the Senior Regional Councillor discharge her/his duties in relation to their position as Doctoral Consortium Co-Chair.
ECIS agrees to undertake the following:
1. Acknowledge that AIS supports the Doctoral Consortium in its Conference promotional materials, and each year provide a hotlink to the AIS Web pages from the ECIS Conference Web page.
2. Allow the Senior Regional AIS Councillor to be ex officio a member of the ECIS Standing Committee.
3. Allow AIS promotional material and membership application forms to be distributed at ECIS.
4. Provide a co-chair for the Consortium.
Frank Land, Georgios Doukidis, Edgar Whitley
March 1995, First draft
June 1995, Second draft
November 1995, Third draft
March 1998, Fourth version