LATIN Latin American Theoretical Informatics Conference PC Program Committee SC Steering Committee
LATIN is a bi-annual conference.
The SC for LATIN consists of:
Each member of the SC serves for a period equal to three cycles of LATIN conferences. Members can only serve a subsequent term after a hiatus of at least one LATIN cycle.
The PC Chair members nominate at least three candidates for each member-at-large position open for election. Further write-in candidates may be added to the list in random order. SC members-at-large nominations should take place between 3 to 6 months prior to the date when the next LATIN conference starts. Write-in candidate nominations should be sent to the SC during the same period. The SC members-at-large choose among the list of candidates one to replace the opening member-at-large position. Replacement takes place at the end of the upcoming LATIN business meeting.
At the end of the business meeting, the Conference's Chair becomes a PC Chair member of the SC in substitution of the longest serving PC Chair member of the SC. In the case where the Conference's Chair is a serving SC member-at-large he/she must resign from his/her member-at-large position.
The SC chair is the longest serving SC member-at-large. He/she is responsible for conducting the business of the SC, including formal balloting on controversial points.
It is the SC's obligation to ensure that there is an appropriate location for holding LATIN conferences. Other SC responsibilities are:
Controversy amongst the SC members on how to best fulfill the SC's responsibilities may be resolved by formal balloting at the request of any of the SC members. The SC Chair's vote breaks ties.
- Collecting requests for holding LATIN conferences. The SC can request proposals. A site proposal must:
- Specify a city for conference location (no geographical location is a priori deemed inappropriate);
- Specify a Conference Chair or two Conference Co-Chairs. (In the case of two Co-Chairs, the proposal must specify which of the two Co-Chairs will become SC member or whether the term of service will be evenly divided amongst the Co-Chairs and in which order);
- List a Local Arrangements Chair or two Local Arrangements Co-Chairs.
- Announcing the next LATIN's location and Conference Chair (the announcement is expected to take place within the 6 months after the last LATIN conference was held). The announcement must be posted in the LatinTCS mailing list.
- Assisting the Local Arrangements Chair to find financial sponsorship for his/her LATIN.
- Appointing LATIN's Electronic Secretary at least once each 3 LATIN conference cycles.
- Appointing one of its members, by default the last Conference Chair, to oversee and provide guidance in the next LATIN meeting preparation once the new Conference Chair and Local Arrangement Chair are chosen. This member would act as liaison between the Conference Chair and Local Arrangement Chair and the SC and Electronic Secretary.
- Replacing vacant SC positions either due to resignation or unwillingness to fullfill SC responsabilities. The latter is to be determined by balloting amongst all other SC members. Unanimous agreement shall be required for removal. Replacements should be done in the same manner members-at-large are chosen. The chosen replacement serves for the remaining part of the service term, is entitled to the same privileges and has the same obligations as the SC member being replaced.
- Reporting during every Conference business meeting of all agreements it has reached (concerning past and future activities) since the last Conference business meeting took place.
SC members are entitled to:
- A waiver of their registration fee to all LATIN meetings they attend.
- Be listed as such at LATIN's SC Homepage, as well as being listed as past SC members in the same homepage.
Emeritus SC is an honorary title which does not imply SC membership. Nevertheless, they are entitled to being listed Emeritus SC at LATIN's SC Homepage. Emeritus SC are expected to be outstanding senior researchers of LATIN's community and to have performed significant work for the development of LATIN. Serving SC members are not eligible to be nominated as Emeritus SC member.
Nominations for Emeritus SC shall be through write-in request endorsed by twenty LATIN authors. A person can only endorse a single write-in candidate. Nominations should be sent to the SC one month prior to date when the next LATIN meeting starts. The SC decides whether to accept/reject nominations. In case of acceptance, announcement is made in the upcoming business meeting.
Emeritus SC members are not eligible as SC members-at-large. They are entitled to being informed and have voice priveleges in all SC business transactions, but do not have voting rights.
Starting LATIN'04, Imre Simon is an Emeritus SC member.
- The Conference Chair carries the overall responsibilities for the LATIN meeting. He/she has to either find a substitute or carry out the duties him/herself if a Local Arrangements Chair becomes incapable of performing the required work for the Conference.
- The Conference Chair appoints a PC Chair and they jointly appoint a PC. These two chair offices may be held by the same person.
- The Conference Chair publishes a time table for the Conference. This time table includes the dates at which certain tasks are to be completed, and who is responsible for those tasks, such as preparing and publicizing the Call for Papers, raising external funds for the Conference, negotiating and signing a contract with the local facility, reviewing submitted papers and announcing decisions, preparing and publicizing the advance program, preparing the final program and the registration.
- The Conference Chair is responsable for providing the SC with copies of all public documents related to the Conference.
- If a Conference Chair becomes incapable of working on a meeting, the SC substitutes him/her with a new Conference Chair.
All changes to the customary LATIN format and procedures, which are outlined in this document, must be approved by the SC. The decision of the SC is binding.
LATIN is a three to five day conference to be held each even number year during either March or April. Religious holidays should be avoided as conference dates, as much as possible.
LATIN's subject matter covers Theoretical Computer Science in a broad sense, and the Conference Chair may choose an emphasis subject for a given meeting. LATIN solicits, reviews, and publishes papers describing original research which at the time of their submission to LATIN have not been submitted to any other conference or scientific journal. The papers are submitted about one half year before the Conference and reviewed by the PC. Submissions are reviewed by at least three specialists in the subject, possibly PC members; external reviewers are allowed. Both PC members and external reviewers should be notified that submissions are to be treated as confidential; its content (and even its existence) is not to be publicly revealed nor used in any way for their own research.
Conference Chair cannot submit papers on which they are authors or co-authors. Other PC members submissions are allowed.
Accepted papers are published in Proceedings that are available at the Conference. A publication of a special issue of a journal dedicated to the conference should be arranged.
The program must include at least three invited plenary speakers, who may publish their presentations as papers in the Proceedings. At least one of the invited plenary speakers should work in a research institution based in Latin America. The Conference Chair must request from the SC and PC a list of candidates for invited speakers. It is the Conference Chair's privilege and responsability to make the final choice amongst the candidates, but he/she must seek its formal approval by the SC.
The core program may be framed in adjacent days by tutorials, workshops, user meetings, and other events. The program must include a business meeting.
Conference Chair should appoint a Secretary to draw up a minute of business transactions. A copy of the minute should be sent by the Conference Chair to the SC within the following 30 days. Upon approval of the minute by the SC, Conference Chair should post the minute to the LatinTCS mailing list.
The Secretary should allocate time for the SC to report on the business it has transacted since the last Conference. The Secretary must insure that business meeting participants are given opportunity to voice their views concerning the reported SC agreements. SC members and business meeting participants should be given equal treatment (amount of time and order of interventions) for expressing their views. A yes/no raised hands vote must be conducted seeking to determine the community endorsement of the SC reported agreements. Any business meeting participant can request a similar type of yes/no validation of a specific item of the SC report. The result of any voting is non binding for the SC, but if in disagreement with the SC views, should weight on the SC activities and stance concerning the disagreed upon issue.
The Secretary announces the new SC member-at-large and closes the business meeting.
These bylaws can be amended by ballot at LATIN's business meeting. Any amendment needs 2/3 of the casted vote. LATIN authors of one or more of the three preceding LATIN Conferences are entitled to vote by mail within one month before the meeting at which the amendment is voted on. Votes are to be sent to the SC.
The SC should formally propose amendments two months in advance of the next conference's business meeting, publish the proposals on the conference website and post it to the LatinTCS mailing list in order to allow ample time for their discussion.
Proposals for amendments may be made to the SC four months before the next conference's business meeting. The SC may disregard an amendment proposal, but must mention it as part of the mandatory report of the business it has transacted since the last conference.
The LATIN conferences present two awards:
The "Imre Simon Test-of-Time Paper Award".
In honor of Imre Simon, the founder of the LATIN series of conferences. A Selection Committee chooses the recipient.
The "Alejandro López-Ortiz Best Paper Award"
In honor of Alejandro López-Ortiz, the recipient is chosen by the Program Committee.