Guidelines for Obtaining SIGSOFT Sponsorship Status

SIGSOFT seeks relationships with events that complement SIGSOFT's current sponsored events. Organizing your event with SIGSOFT brings numerous benefits to you and your event, the greatest of which is the prestige of having the imprimatur of ACM and SIGSOFT, which sponsor the most prestigious conferences in all of software engineering. There are two types of affiliation for events that can be obtained from SIGSOFT:

• sponsorship; and
• cooperation.

The primary difference between the two is that sponsorship implies financial risk and responsibility on the part of SIGSOFT, while cooperation implies none. Sponsorship may be joint with another organization, in which case the financial risk and responsibility are shared.

Benefits

Sponsorship by SIGSOFT provides a number of benefits to event organizers.

• SIGSOFT and ACM assume financial responsibility for the event.
  • Without SIGSOFT assuming such responsibility, any financial loss incurred by the conference -- whether due to low attendance or a liability law suit -- would be the responsibility of the individuals organizing the conference.
• SIGSOFT and ACM provide professional help and guidance in organizing the event, including negotiations with hotels.
• SIGSOFT-sponsored conferences may designate a number of accepted papers for ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award for the conference.
• A free advertisement for the event can appear in SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (SEN). The advertisement should be sent to the editor of SEN at least six weeks before the announcement is to appear in a non-conference issue.
• The event will appear in the SIGSOFT list of events.
• The event will be entered into the Call for papers and Professional Calendar sections of Communications of the ACM (CACM) and the ACM conference calendar web site.
• A special rate is available for purchase of an advertisement in Communications of the ACM (CACM). Discounts on ACM mailing lists are also available. Please contact the SIGSOFT Program Director for further information.
• Conference papers are eligible to appear in the ACM Digital Library.
• Minimization of calendar conflicts with other SIGSOFT-sponsored events. This includes both submission dates and event dates. See below for details.

Application

To apply for sponsorship status:

1. Familiarize yourself with the ACM Conference Manual and the ACM Criteria for Conference Approval.
2. For events not previously sponsored by SIGSOFT, please send a description of the event via email to the SIGSOFT Vice Chair, at least sixteen months prior to the event. The description must be in plain text and include the following information:
   1. name, place, and dates of the event
   2. the goals of the event
   3. names and affiliations of the principal organizers
   4. names and affiliations of the program/organizing committee members
   5. draft call for participation, including selection criteria for participants, if any
   6. plans for publicity
   7. plans for publication
   8. description of past versions of the event, if any, including dates, organizers, submission/acceptance counts, attendance, site, registration fees, and summary budget information
   9. URL of the event's web page
   The request will be circulated to all members of the SIGSOFT Executive Committee for review. A response to the request is usually given within two weeks.
3. Fill out the Preliminary Approval Form (PAF) for Sponsored Events form and return it to the SIGSOFT Program Director at least sixteen months prior to the event. In order to facilitate processing, electronic submission is required.
4. Fill out the Technical Meeting Request Form (TMRF) for Sponsored Events and return it to the SIGSOFT Program Director at least nine months prior to the event. In order to facilitate processing, electronic submission is required. Guidelines for completion of the TMRF are available here.

The SIGSOFT Executive Committee is available to provide advice and counseling to event organizers. In general, we are happy to establish continuing relationships with organizers of regularly held events.

Guidelines

For an event to be eligible for SIGSOFT sponsorship status, it must satisfy the following requirements. As part of our affiliation, SIGSOFT representitives will work to cooperatively fulfill them.

• A Technical Meeting Request Form (TMRF) must be completed and submitted for approval at least nine months prior to the event. The TMRF essentially establishes responsibilities and defines a budget for the event. (Examples of previous TMRF forms will be shared to help the process of bootstraping a new event.)
• The event must have an open call for participation. Events that limit attendance (e.g., a workshop) must select participants through an open call.
• Registration costs should be reasonable and SIGSOFT members must receive the same or better discount on registration fees offered to members of any other organization.
• The Program Committee must adhere to the SIGSOFT conflict of interest and confidentiality policy.
• SIGSOFT must be mentioned in any publicity (e.g., the call for participation) and publication (e.g., the proceedings) associated with the event. The SIGSOFT logo image must appear wherever other, relevant graphic images appear (e.g., on fliers, posters, web pages, and proceedings cover pages).
• Authors submitting to the even must be made aware of the ACM Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism, and must be asked to indicate their understanding and acceptance of the policy and procedures. This can normally be done as part of the electronic submission process, such as through a checkbox that must be checked in order for the submission to be recorded.

Again, SIGSOFT representatives will work with a conference to help ensure a successful event.

Choosing a Conference Date: One of the benefits of SIGSOFT sponsorship is that we will work with a conference to help determine the ideal date. This includes avoiding dates that would potentially conflict with similar SIGSOFT-Sponsored events, which might in turn lower the number of submissions and/or attendees to your event. To this end, a SIGSOFT representative, usually the SIGSOFT Vice Chair, will take part in the Steering Committee for the event to discuss potential dates and locations.

Note that SIGSOFT, as a sponsor of the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), adheres to the policy adopted by the Steering Committee that affiliation cannot be given to events that occur within a period beginning four weeks prior to the first day of ICSE and ending four weeks after the last day of ICSE. This policy is directed at all sponsors of ICSE. Exceptions to this policy are made only under rare and special circumstances.

SIGSOFT seeks to form long-lasting relationships with conferences and events that complement existing SIGSOFT events through their distinctiveness.