For those planning to submit an initial proposal, we also have some short notes about what is expected and about the selection procedure.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.1. Conference Basics

1.2. ER Fellows

1.3. Peter P. Chen Award

2. Organization

2.1. Job Descriptions

• Steering Committee Chair
• Steering Committee Vice Chair
• Steering Committee Treasurer
• Steering Committee Conference Liaison
• Steering Committee Member
• Conference Chair
• Local Arrangements Chair

2.2. Steering Committee Membership and Leadership

2.3. Submission and Approval of Conference Proposals

2.4. Guidelines and Principles for ER Business and Conferences

3. Funds and Liability

3.1. Job Descriptions

• Registration Chair
• Conference Treasurer

3.2. Registration Costs

3.3. Profit and Loss

3.4. Bank Account

3.5. Liability

3.6. "In-Cooperation with ACM"

3.7. Student Travel Fellowship

4. Publicity

4.1. Job Descriptions

• Publicity Chair
• Conference Webmaster

4.2. Publicity Guidelines

4.3. Conference Web Site

5. Program

5.1. Job Descriptions

• Program Committee Chair
• Program Committee Member
• Tutorials Chair
• Workshops Chair
• Panels Chair
• Exhibits Chair

5.2. Technical Program

5.3. Program Committee

5.4. Proceedings Publication

5.5. Guidelines for Tutorials

5.6. Guidelines for Workshops

5.7. Guidelines for Panels

5.8. Guidelines for Exhibits

5.9. Guidelines for a PhD Symposium

5.10. Guidelines for a Symposium on Conceptual Modeling Education (SCME)

6. Hints for Running a Successful Conference

7. Action Checklist

1. The Conceptual-Modeling Community

Logo: The basic conference logo appears at the top of this document. When used for a specific conference the left box should contain the official conference abbreviation, the right box should contain a logo or statement designating the site of the conference, and the diamond should contain the dates of the conference. The logo can be modified slightly to add color, effects such as shadows, and a touch of local flavor for the conference site, but additions should be done tastefully. Any significant departure from the logo must be cleared with the steering committee chair before its appearance in print.

Language: The language of the conference is English.

Dates: The conference is annual. The dates of the conference should fall within six weeks of November 1st. Major holidays should be avoided as should direct conflicts with closely aligned conferences. Dates must be cleared by the steering committee before appearing in print.

Location: The conference site rotates successively among three parts of the world: (1) Europe, (2) the US and Canada, (3) Asia, Australia, Africa, and Oceana. Proposals from Mexico, the Caribbian, and Central and South America may be approved for any year; the cycle resumes where it left off after such a conference. The steering committee may approve exceptions to this rotation.

1.2. ER Fellows

To ensure oversight and continuity of the award, the SC chair chair should appoint one of the current ER fellows to chair the next year's selection committee, and six additional current ER fellows to serve on the selection committee. Each year, the committee should add at most two ER Fellows. The chair of the ER Fellows selection committee should call for nominations from the general community. A nominator and at least one supporter should make a nomination and submit material in support of the nomination to the selection-committee chair. Under the direction of the committee chair, the seven members of the committee make the final selection.

At the annual conceptual-modeling conference, the selection-committee chair (or an appointed ER Fellow in the absence of the chair) should recognize, honor, and give a plaque to each new ER Fellow. To give new ER Fellows the opportunity to attend the annual conference and be honored, the committee should complete the selection of new ER Fellows at least four months in advance of the annual ER conference, and the committee chair should send a congratulatory letter to the new inductees immediately after the selection process is complete.

1.3. Peter P. Chen Award

Criteria for the Award:

• Research: how well the nominee has helped advance the field of conceptual modeling with his/her intellectual contributions.
• Service: participation in the organization of conceptual-modeling-related meetings and conferences and participation in editorial boards of conceptual-modeling-related journals.
• Education: how effectively the nominee has mentored doctoral students in conceptual modeling, produced researchers from their labs, and helped mentor other young people in the field.
• Contribution to practice: the extent to which the nominee has contributed to technology transfer, commercialization, and industrial projects.
• International reputation: the extent to which the nominee's work is visible to and has diffused into the international community.

Selection committee members are not eligible for the award. If a member of the selection committee is nominated, the nominated person must withdraw from the selection committee or withdraw from the candidate pool. If two or more committee members withdraw, the remaining committee members should select replacement committee members from the SC, who will serve as ad-hoc committee members for the duration of the selection process.

Selection Process:
The selection committee is to solicit nominations from the field. The award solicitation should be well advertised through ER-related mailing lists and various email list servers including DBWORLD and ISWORLD. The ER community, at large, should be encouraged to make nominations. Nominations should be sent to the chair of the selection committee. Each nomination should be accompanied by a summary statement about the nominee and a justification for the nomination. Based on the criteria for the award, the selection committee is to choose the best candidate among the nominees. The winner should be immediately announced after selection.

2. Organization

Steering Committee Chair:

Do what is necessary to make all ER conferences successful. This includes soliciting proposals for future conferences; making final decisions on proposal selections; and delegating tasks that need to be done to ensure successful conferences such as promoting the conference among industrial and academic groups, writing and revising conference guidelines, and keeping track of email lists of persons interested in ER-conference activities.

Steering Committee Vice Chair:

Perform the same duties as the steering committee chair as needed to make ER conferences successful or as requested by the steering committee chair.

Steering Committee Treasurer:

Manage the ER bank account under the direction of the SC chair. The SC chair must approve all expenditures. Cosigners on the account must receive notification (usually by e-mail) from the SC chair approving expenditures before cosigning checks. Annually, or upon request, the treasurer must provide a report on the account status.

Steering Committee Conference Liaison:

Act as the representative bridge between the conference organizers and the steering committee. This includes advising the conference organizers on all conference matters; working with the conference chair to set up all necessary procedures, particularly money management procedures and major milestones; and assuming additional responsibility for successful conference operation as agreed with the conference chair. The liaison should be a person knowledgeable about organizing a conference and about the steering committee's operation.

Steering Committee Member:

Perform agreed-to tasks assigned by the steering committee chair.

Conference Chair:

Take the general responsibility for the conference. This includes submitting a proposal for the conference to the steering committee chair; appointing conference officers; establishing a budget and seeing that it is followed; establishing specific milestones and seeing that they are followed; and staying in close contact with all conference officials. The conference chair is also responsible to report planning, progress, operation, and results of the conference to the steering committee.

Local Arrangements Chair:

Arrange all local matters to make the conference run smoothly. This includes being the point of contact with hotel(s); arranging for transportation; making all physical-facility and audio-visual arrangements; organizing the social program; and coordinating with the PC chairs and the chairs for tutorials, workshops, exhibits, and registration to see that their needs for local arrangements are satisfied. The local arrangements chair is also responsible for the overall day-to-day operation of the conference.

1. Normal case: The SC chair should extend an invitation to the general (co-)chairs and program (co-)chairs for the current conference who also satisfy all of the following conditions.
   1. Published at least two ER papers (familiar with the main impetus of the conference).
   2. In addition to being a conference or program (co-)chair for the current conference, has served in at least one or more significant organizing or program roles for some other ER conference, e.g., general (co-)chair, PC (co-)chair, workshop chair, workshop organizer, panel chair, local chair, demo chair, tutorial chair, keynote speaker, tutorial speaker (significant ER service).
   3. Attended at least two ER conferences in the past six years, including the current year (sustained active involvement).
   4. Expressed a desire, in writing (in email to the ERSC chair, or otherwise), to actively participate in ER activities (willingness to invest time and effort).
   5. Approved by the current ERSC members. Having checked (1) through (4), the SC chair should contact the SC members in advance of an SC meeting (usually by email about one month before an upcoming SC meeting). At least 2/3 of the SC members should vote (via email) in order to have a quorum and 3/4 of the members who vote must favor the new member.
   Those who are not admitted into the SC in the current year may be reconsidered in the next two years if they so desire and the ERSC chair concurs.

   New SC members will join the SC immediately at the SC meeting held during that conference. No vote should be taken at the SC meeting; rather, the new members should simply be welcomed.

2. Exceptional case: A prominent member of the conceptual modeling community may be nominated to become a SC member. The nomination must come from at least three SC members. At least 2/3 of SC members should vote in an SC meeting (or via email) in order to have a quorum and 3/4 of the members who vote must favor the new member.

   New exceptional-case members should be invited to the next SC meeting. No vote should be taken at the SC meeting with the proposed candidate present or waiting in the wings.

Election of SC Chair and Vice_Chair: An SC Chair and an SC Vice-Chair are elected for two years. The Vice Chair automatically becomes the Chair after the SC Chair's term expires (or if the SC Chair resigns or becomes incapable of being the SC Chair). If the Vice-Chair (or someone else from the SC) takes over an unfinished term of the SC Chair, the total service can exceed two years, but not three years. Although the SC Chair can be re-elected as Vice-Chair, it is recommended that there be at least a two-year break between terms of service.

2.3. Submission and Approval of Conference Proposals

Proposal Contents: Initial and final proposals contain the same information, but initial proposals may be more tentative and need not be as detailed as final proposals. A proposal should contain:

1. Location of conference (airport and transportation, city map, local sites of interest, ...)
2. Tentative conference dates
3. Key conference officials (for proposed conference chair and PC chairs, include background experience and current affiliation)
4. Conference plan (program, tutorials, workshops, exhibits, ...) and milestones
5. Preliminary budget (including projected number of attendees and projected costs for participants)
6. Suggested hotel arrangements
7. Sponsors and supporters (committed or potential)
8. Banquet and other social activities
9. Any anticipated problems and possible solutions (e.g., travel restrictions, economic conditions, ...)

• Principles for efficiently addressing ERSC issues: (a) those that must be handled in the face-to-face yearly meeting and (b) those than can be handled and voted on (if required) by email.
  1. The ERSC decides what issues belong to group (a). Among them there are, at least:
     • a report on the conference of the current year,
     • approval of proposals for future conferences,
     • appointment of conference liasons,
     • approval of the yearly financial report, and
     • election of the SC chair, vicechair, and treasurer.
     (The ERSC may add issues to this group as desired.)
  2. By default, all other issues belong to group (b). However, the SC chair or (at least) two ERSC members may ask at any time to move an issue to group (a).
  3. The SC chair handles the issues of group (b) by email, normally at the time when they arise.
  
  
• Except for making their presentation and answering questions, key organizers of a conference proposal shall not be present in the Steering Committee meeting when their proposal, or their competitor's proposals, are discussed or voted upon.
  
  Key organizers are the General Chair, the PC co-chairs, and the chairs of major conference components such as tutorials or workshops. The general principle is that the decision should be based on the merit of the proposal, not on having many members of the SC on one particular organizing committee.
  
  
• The PC Co-Chairs and the General Chair shall not submit papers to their own conference. Chairs of major conference components (workshops, tutorials, ...) shall not submit to their own component of the conference (but may submit to the general conference or to other components of the conference).
  
  The general principle for reviewing and selecting papers or tutorial/workshop proposals is one of anonymity. Thus, people who will have access to the reviews should be prevented from submitting. People should not judge their own case, and they should not have access to the names of the reviewers of their own papers or proposals.
  
  
• PC members shall be selected from among active researchers in the ER field whose judgment and dependability is trusted.
  
  The general principle is that PC members should be knowledgeable about ER topics and should be people who can be trusted to handle reviews appropriately. It would be helpful if these people could also solicit quality papers from other researchers doing work of interest to the ER community.
  
  
• The PC Co-chairs should pay attention to the potential problems that may be cause by (1) accepting too many papers from one individual and (2) accepting an extremely high percentage of papers by PC members.
  
  The general principle for accepting papers is to ensure that the conference is open to a broad group of individuals doing quality ER research. In addition, we should make every reasonable effort to expand the base of quality ER research.
  
  
• We strongly recommend that the workshop proceedings be published in time to be distributed at the conference.
  
  This allows for timely publication of the official proceedings, obviates the need and cost for publication of a preliminary version of the proceedings, and saves mailing costs.

Registration Chair:

Coordinate both advance and on-site registration. This includes administering registration policies as prescribed by the organizing committee, preparing registration information and forms, processing and acknowledging advance registrations, providing regular registration reports to the organizing committee, handling inquiries concerning registration, overseeing on-site registration, and making a final financial report.

Conference Treasurer:

Manage all money matters. This includes receiving and disbursing conference funds, keeping records to satisfy any participant country's tax laws and any not-for-profit organization requirements, and preparing final conference accounting for final reports to the steering committee.

Registration Cancellation: The conference organizing committee is responsible to decide how to handle registration cancellations (i.e. full refund, partial refund, no refund). Every effort should be made to limit the penalty to a small handling fee, with the possibility of an additional penalty only as circumstances warrant.

3.3. Profit and Loss

Start-up Cash: To aid with cash-flow during the start-up phase of a conference, the ERI/SC (ER Institute / Steering Committee) will loan seed money to conference officials, up to $5,000 US. A typical amount is $4,000. (This amount may vary in different circumstances and as times change.) This loan must always be repaid in full, even if the conference suffers a loss. A formal letter agreeing to this condition must accompany a request for seed money.

Grants from Sponsors: The conference organizers should try to raise money from other sources, preferably in the form of grants from both profit and non-profit organizations so as to keep the registration fee as low as possible. Grants that come too late to aid in lowering the registration fee should be used to improve amenities (better lunches, banquet, ...); any excess of late grant funds should be returned to the ERI/SC.

Distribution of Conference Funds: Income from conference registration, loans, and other sources (e.g., sales of proceedings, sales of guest tickets to social events, ...) should be used in the following order of priority:

1. Repayment of seed money.
2. Operating expenses.
3. Repayment of forgivable loans.
4. Payment of expenses of conference officials.
5. Surplus distribution.

Deficit: If the conference runs into a deficit, liabilities within a priority will have to be negotiated between the various parties before distribution. However, it is recommended that the deficit be shared among the parties at a priority according to the amount of their commitment.

Surplus: The ERI/SC receives 50% of any surplus. The remaining 50% should be split among sponsoring non-profit organizations proportional to the amount of their commitment. Should the ERI/SC have funds in excess of $15,000 US, the committee should use it to provide grants (rather than loans) to help lower the cost of registration. The steering committee has the right and the responsibility to decide how much a grant for a particular conference should be.

3.4. Bank Account

Credit-Card Accounts: A credit-card account (i.e., MasterCard, Visa, AmericanExpress) should be established so that participants can pay registration fees with credit cards.

Caution: Care should be taken to ensure central control of money flow. Conference organizers should make sure that central authority for budget and financial control including proper reporting has been established.

3.5. Liability

Disclaimer: The following disclaimer should be included in all conference publications: "The Organizing Committee of the ER conference is not liable for any loss or damage arising from the activities of this particular conference as exercised by its agents: conference organizers, carriers, proceedings, publications and program committee. Neither can the ER Steering Committee be held liable."

Liability Insurance: Officials must make sure that liability insurance is available to them to cover the remaining risks, and in particular to persons who are authorized to issue conference funds. This insurance should be purchased unless it can be provided by the local computer society.

3.6. "In-Cooperation with ACM"

Purpose of ACM In-Cooperation Status: There are three main reasons to obtain in-cooperation status. (1) Insurance: ACM will not grant in-cooperation status without proof of insurance coverage. (2) "Seal of Approval": ACM's logo can only be used after obtaining in-cooperation status. (3) SIG Awareness: A SIG must approve the conference. Both SIGMOD and SIGMIS should approve an ER conference.

Obtaining ACM Cooperation Status: Section 1 of the "ACM SIG Conference Manual" (http://www.acm.org/sig_volunteer_info/conference_manual/) explains in detail how to obtain ACM in-cooperation status. Within all the details in Section 1 is the contact information, which is found by clicking on "In-Cooperation Conference Information" and then on "ACM Office of SIG Services." The name next to SIGMOD or SIGMIS is the ACM contact person. Make contact and find out precisely what is wanted -- typically, just the standard in-cooperation application form, called a TMRF form (Technical Meeting Request Form). To obtain the TMRF form along with the guidelines for filling out the form, click on Section 1.6.4, "ACM In-cooperation TMRF Guidelines and Form."

Filling out the TMRF Form: Print a copy of the form. The first page of the form requests general information about the conference and is self-explanatory. The second (and last) page requires some signatures. The sponsoring organization should be the ER Institute, whose address is P.O. Box 80813, Baton Rouge, LA 70898, USA. If the general chair of the ER conference is a member of the steering committee, the chair can sign in behalf of the ER Institute; otherwise contact the president of the steering committee for instructions about who should sign the TMRF form.

Obtaining Insurance for ACM Cooperation Status: Along with the TMRF form, a certification of insurance must be submitted. The Novick Group has worked with ACM and knows what is required to obtain a certificate of insurance. The coverage they sell is called "Convention Cancellation Coverage." Contact information for the Novick Group: 11300 Rockville Pike, Suite 907, Rockville, MD 20852, USA, 301-770-6675 (voice), 301-770-6675 (fax). Request an insurance application form and a statement of coverage. The insurance application form is self-explanatory and can be filled out and signed by the general chair.

3.7. Student Travel Fellowship

Publicity Chair:

Publicize the conference. This includes preparing and submitting advertisements to journals (e.g., Communications of the ACM, SIGMOD Record, and Data & Knowledge Engineering); preparing the Call-for-Papers and distributing it to related conferences, applicable newsgroups and electronic mailing lists, and key personnel such as PC members and others on the organizing and steering committee; coordinating with workshops and tutorials chairs to see that their advertising needs are met; and working with the conference Webmaster to see that all advertising material is available on the conference Web site.

Conference Webmaster:

Place material relevant to the conference on the Web. This includes all items of interest for the conference (e.g., Call-for-Papers, advertisements, registration forms for the conference and hotels), links to information about past conferences, and links to local tourist information. It also includes developing/adapting/adopting a system for handling papers—storing and disbursing paper abstracts and the papers themselves, receiving and summarizing reviews, and processing author notifications.

Sponsors, Supporters, and In-Cooperation With: Profit and Nonprofit organizations who sponsor, support, or work in cooperation with a conference should be recognized in all official advertisements. The designation "Sponsor" should be reserved to those who contribute significantly, financially or otherwise. The designation "Supporter" should be assigned to all organizations supporting the conference in a lesser role, financial or otherwise. The designation "In-Cooperation With" is for a professional organization that agrees to let the conference use its name but accepts no financial involvement.

4.3. Conference Web Site

Mirrored Site: The steering committee may require the site to be mirrored at a second site. In this case, the steering committee will provide the second site.

5. Program

Program Committee Chair:

Be generally responsible for the technical program of the conference, including plenary sessions, technical paper sessions, panels, tutorials, workshops, and exhibits. The program committee may have at most three co-chairs. Co-chairs should be from different countries. At least one of the co-chairs should have a CS orientation, and at least one should have an MIS orientation. Co-chairs work together to accomplish the necessary tasks. These tasks include appointing PC members and obtaining their pledges to perform their duties, soliciting and processing papers, supervising the review and selection process, helping to find and invite keynote speakers, establishing the general structure of the conference program (e.g., number of sessions, papers, and panels), seeing that the panels are organized, setting up the final program in consultation with the general conference chairperson and other appropriate chairpersons, preparing and the conference proceedings for publication, and selecting and processing papers for subsequent journal publication.

Program Committee Member:

Help PC chairs make the technical program successful. The main task of a PC member is to review technical papers and make recommendations about which papers should be accepted/rejected. Generally, the task can be broader including playing a significant role in the PC meeting; helping review proposals for panels, tutorials, and workshops; encouraging colleagues to submit papers and proposals for panels, tutorials, and workshops; and promoting attendance at the conference.

Tutorials Chair:

Ensure quality tutorials. Solicit quality tutorial proposals, (along with the PC and conference chair) select the best tutorials from among the proposals, (along with the conference treasurer) ensure that financial arrangements for presenters are clearly settled, (along with the publicity chair) promote attendance, and (along with the local-arrangements chair) ensure that physical facilities and amenities meet the needs of attendees and presenters.

Workshops Chair:

Ensure quality workshops. Solicit quality workshop proposals, (along with the PC and conference chair) select the best workshops, work with workshop organizers on proceedings publications, (along with the publicity chair) promote paper submission and attendance, and (along with the local-arrangements chair) ensure that physical facilities and amenities meet the needs of attendees and presenters.

Panels Chair:

Ensure quality panels. Solicit proposals for panel topics. In cooperation with the program chairs, select one or more proposals (usually one). Work with panel organizers to ensure high quality panel participants and ample opportunity for audience participation.

Exhibits Chair:

Ensure quality exhibits. Solicit quality exhibits, screen exhibits for appropriateness for the conference, (along the conference chair) set a price for selling space to exhibitors, provide information about exhibits for attendees, and (along with the local-arrangements chair) ensure that physical facilities meet the needs of exhibitors.

Papers: Except for invited papers, each paper must be refereed by at least three persons (PC members or qualified external referees selected by PC members). Papers should be selected primarily on the basis of quality, although a balance of topics should be taken into consideration. PC members may submit papers, but no authors or associates of authors of PC papers may influence the decision about a PC-member paper.

Invited Papers: Invited papers may be accepted without going through the normal refereeing process. These, however, should be rare. At least one PC member should read any invited paper and suggest modifications, if needed. Invited speakers should be informed that this will be done and that they are expected to cooperate. If an invited paper is low in quality, it is the responsibility of the PC chairs to ensure that the quality be improved or to reject the paper. This should occur rarely as extreme care should be used in inviting papers. (A keynote speaker may be requested to submit an abstract, or short summary for the proceedings. These abstracts are not invited papers; they may be edited, but should not be refereed.)

Implications of Paper Submission: PC chairs should ensure that authors understand the implications of paper submission, which are: (1) the paper has not been published elsewhere, (2) the paper is not and will not be submitted for publication elsewhere while under review, and (3) accepted papers will be presented at the conference by an author of the paper.

Best Student Paper Award: The following should appear in the call for papers.

A student paper must satisfy all of the following conditions:
a. The paper's first author is a student.
b. Students have done a majority of the research for the paper.
c. Students have written a majority of the paper.
[ ] Check here if the paper should be considered for the Best Student Paper Award.

• capable of providing a high quality review,
• willing and able to provide reviews on schedule,
• geographically diverse,
• technically diverse (CS/MIS, a variety of conceptual-modeling specialties),
• in a position to solicit or encourage good papers to be submitted, and
• not just always the "same old faces", but can bring "new life and blood" to the conference.

Review Reports: The PC shall use the standard review form adopted by the Steering committee.

PC Meeting: The primary objective of the PC meeting is to help select the best papers for the conference. The PC meeting should be held on-line so that all PC members can participate. Discussion of a PC-member's paper, however, should exclude that PC member. PC chairs should direct the discussion.

Selection of Best Papers: (1) PC co-chairs nominate candidate papers (perhaps by reviewing PC-committee recommendations). They also identify which of the nominees are student papers, ensuring that there are at least two student papers among the nominees. (2) PC co-chairs choose a committee (possibly themselves) to select the overall best paper and a committee (possibly the same committee) to select the best student paper. (3) The best overall paper is selected from among all papers. The best student paper is selected from the remaining student-paper candidates. (4) Committees should strive to identify just one "best." If there is an n-way tie, there is an n-way split of any prizes.

5.4. Proceedings Publication

Author Responsibilities: Authors are responsible to provide PC chairs with all requested material for publication. In this changing world of publication, this may include camera-ready copies and electronic copies in specific file formats.

Working Agreement: The steering committee currently has a working agreement with Springer-Verlag for publishing conference proceedings. It is the responsibility of the steering committee to maintain this relationship with Springer or to provide for another outlet.

Further Publication of Selected Papers: The steering committee, with the help of the organizing committee, should provide a means for further publication of selected conference papers. This may be in a special issue or special section of a journal, or, possibly, as a book. Currently, Data & Knowledge Engineering provides the conference with the opportunity for publishing a special issue devoted to the conference. The PC chairs should take the responsibility to become guest editors. This entails selecting papers (perhaps with the aid of the PC), seeing that authors expand their papers appropriately, and working with authors and editors to see that needed material is provided for timely publication. Guest editors should aim to have subsequent publications available by the date of the following annual ER conference.

5.5. Guidelines for Tutorials

Selection of Tutorials: The tutorials chair, PC, and conference chair are responsible to ensure that the tutorial program meets the standards of the conference. The tutorials chair should solicit high-quality proposals, and the PC should review them and, along with the tutorials chair, make recommendations. The tutorials chair, PC chairs, and conference chair should all agree on the tutorials to be presented at the conference.

Tutorials and the Conference Program: The tutorials may either be part of the regular conference program, offered free to all conference participants, or they may be separate, with a separate fee for participation. If there is a fee, the fee structure should be such that tutorials are self supporting. Tutorial attendees should also pay the conference fee, making them full participants in the conference, as well as in the tutorials. Both tutorial presenters and potential attendees should understand that a separate tutorial with a fee may be canceled if there is not sufficient registration to warrant its being part of the program.

5.6. Guidelines for Workshops

Selection of Workshops: The workshops chairs, PC chairs, and conference chair are responsible to ensure that every workshop meets the standards of the conference. The workshops chair should solicit high-quality proposals, and the PC should review them and, along with the workshops chair, make recommendations. The workshops chairs, PC chairs, and conference chair should all agree on the workshops to be held at the conference.

Workshops and the Conference Program: The workshops may either be part of the regular conference program, offered free to all conference participants, or they may be separate, with a separate fee for participation. If a workshop has a proceedings and is free to all conference participants, the proceedings should be provided for all participants. If workshops are separate, the fee structure should be such that workshops are self supporting and such that any proceedings to be published and distributed are covered by the fees. Workshop attendees should also pay the conference fee, making them full participants in the conference, as well as in the workshops. Both workshop organizers and potential attendees should understand that a separate workshop with a fee may be canceled if there is not sufficient registration to warrant its being part of the program.

Editors for Workshop Proceedings: When several ER workshops together publish a single proceedings, the editor names should include the names of the ER workshop co-chairs plus one representative for each workshop. (This avoids having a potentially lengthy list of editors for the proceedings.)

Proceedings Content: The proceedings should include regular papers, full keynote papers (or abstracts, if requests for a full paper are not honored), and demo descriptions (if any). The proceedings should not include poster papers, poster abstracts, panel abstracts, tutorial abstracts, industry papers, and industry abstracts. Additional publication of items not included in the regular proceedings are at the discretion of the organizing committee.

5.7. Guidelines for Panels

Caution: Panel moderators should ensure that panel members do not monopolize time unreasonably or promote commercial products or companies.

5.8. Guidelines for Exhibits

Inclusion/Exclusion of Exhibits: Exhibits are optional and should be part of the program only if the organizing committee and the steering committee determine that they will benefit attendees, conference organizers, and exhibitors.

5.9. Guidelines for a PhD Symposium

Organization: The PhD Symposium has the same structure and rules as the ER Workshops, with two differences: (a) The chair and committee organizing the PhD Symposium is to be proposed by the ER conference organizers and approved by the ERSC. (b) The papers submitted for the symposium, must be papers whose only authors are PhD students.

Publication: The publication of the PhD Symposium papers will be according to the rules of the ER Workshops.

5.10. Guidelines for a Symposium on Conceptual Modeling Education (SCME)

Organization: The SCME has the same structure and rules as the ER Workshops, with two differences: (a) The SCME is a normal part of the structure of an ER Conference, like the ER PhD Symposium (b) The SCME chair is proposed by the ER conference organizers, and approved by the ERSC.

Publication: The publication of the SCME papers will be according to the rules of the ER Workshops.

6. Hints for Running a Successful Conference

Juggling Jobs: Depending on the circumstances, the conference chair may wish to combine jobs or create new jobs. Example 1: the chair may wish to also be the treasurer, or the local arrangements chair may be split into sub assignments with a chair for social events and a chair for physical facilities and arrangements. Example 2: professional secretarial help, provided by the organizing committee's organization, is extremely useful.

Ad Placement: Here are some suggestions about where to place ads.

• Place Call-For-Papers and Call-For-Attendance flyers on tables at related conferences. Particularly target highly visible conferences such as VLDB, SIGMOD, and Data Engineering as well as other database conferences.
• Have PC members and organizing-committee members put flyers in the hands of potential attendees or post them for colleagues to see. Where possible, cut costs by making these flyers downloadable from the Web.
• Place ads in conference-related journals, newsletters, and magazines where the advertisement is free. Data and Knowledge Engineering, SIGMOD Record, and Data Base have provided this free service in the past.
• Post notices in DBWORLD and ISWORLD and any other related on-line mailing lists.
• Post notices on electronic bulletin boards with subject areas related to conceptual modeling or management of data.
• Place ads in widely distributed journals or magazines such as Communications of the ACM. These ads can have significant cost, but tend to show potential attendees that the conference is first class. It may be possible to cut costs by gaining cooperation status from the organizations that provide these publications.
• Send email directly to prior ER-conference attendees. The steering committee keeps these email addresses.

Optional Program Components: Tutorials, workshops, and exhibits are optional. Use them to best enhance the conference. There has been a long-standing tradition for tutorials. Workshops aligned with conferences have become more popular both for ER conferences and conferences in general. Exhibits have not typically been emphasized. Conference chairs should decide each case individually with help from the steering committee.

Resolving Referee Discrepancies: Papers sometimes receive widely differing reviews. One possible way to resolve these discrepancies is to have an email discussion among the PC members who reviewed the paper. For this to be successful, all reviews must be in a week to ten days before the on-line PC meeting, an email discussion must be initiated, and reviewers must be able to alter their reviews. All this should be supported by the electronic review system.

7. Action Checklist