Corpora: Call for Bids to Host Human Language Technology 2003: 3rd Meeting of the NAACL

[Priscilla Rasmussen]

Call for Bidds to Host
Human Language Technology 2003: 3rd Meeting of the NAACL

The Human Language Technology -North American Chapter of the
Association for Computational Linguistics Advisory Board hereby invite
proposals to host Human Language Technology 2003: 3rd Meeting of the
NAACL.

The proposal submission process is incremental. First, draft proposals
are sought from prospective bidders. Based on the evaluation of the
draft proposals, promising bidders will be subsequently asked to
provide additional  information as needed.

Bids must specify a Local Arrangements Chair, who will be responsible
for the usual activities, such as arranging meeting rooms, equipment,
refreshments, housing, on-site registration, participant e-mail
access, security for equipment, the reception, the banquet, and
working with the General Chair, the HLT-NAACL Advisory Board and NAACL
to develop the budget and registration materials.

Bids for Local Arrangements Chair can include suggestions for General
Chair, which mustt be someone other than the Local Arrangements Chair
but could be at the same institution. However, the HLT-NAACL Advisory
Board will be responsible for selecting the General Chair.

The General Chair will be responsible for overseeing operations of the
conference, including working with the HLT-NAACL Advisory Board and
the Local Arrangements Chair to develop the budget and registration
materials; working with the Program and Local Arrangements Chairs to
develop the schedule and program; working witth the HTL-NAACL Advisory
Board to appoint supporting chairs to obtain outside funding,
publicize the conference, and organize workshops, tutorials, student
events, and demonstrations (none of these supporting nominations need
to be included in the proposal); and coordinating the activities of
the various chairs and their committees.

The HLT-NAACL Advisory Board will be responsible for selecting the
Program Committee Co-Chairs, who will oversee the processes of
soliciting, receiving, and reviewingg submissions; selecting the papers
to be presented at the conference; notifying authors of acceptance or
rejection; and developing the conference program.

Draft proposals are due on Wednesday, March 20, 2002. They will be
evaluated by the HLT-NAACL Advisory Board during HLT-2002 March 24-27.
Promising bidders will be contacted shortly afterwards and will be
asked to provide further information due to the Advisory Board on
Monday, April 22.  The final bid will be chosen by the HLT-NAACL
Advisory BBoard by Monday May 6, 2002.

The 1st and 2nd meetings of NAACL were highly successful, with
approximately 500 attendees at NAACL-01.  By merging with the HLT
conference, we hope to attract new attendees from areas such as the
speech and information retrieval communities.  The conference might,
therefore, draw over 600 people, depending on the venue.

The HLT/NAACL Advisory Board is a new group still being organized and
we apologize for the tight time frame. We thank proposers in advance
for theirr efforts.

Draft proposals should include information on:

* Location (accessibility; conference venue, e.g., hotel or
  university; accommodations, e.g., hotels, motels, student
  dorms). Note that bids must be for locations in North America.
* Local CL Community
* Proposed Dates
* Meeting Space (space for plenary sessions, tutorials, workshops,
  posters, exhibits, demos and small meetings)
* A/V Equipment
* Food/Entertainment/Banquet/Receptions
* Local Arrangements Team (chair/co-chair, commmittee, volunteer labor,
  registration handling)
* General Chair (optional)
* Sponsorships
* Budget Estimates
* Opportunities for Co-location with Other Meetings (if any)

Proposals will be evaluated in relation to a number of site selection
criteria (unordered):

* Experience of local arrangement team.
* Local CL community support.
* Any local government and industry support
* Accessibility and attractiveness of proposed site.
* Appropriateness of proposed dates.
* Adequacy of conference aand exhibit facilities for the anticipated
  number of registrants.
* Adequacy of residence accommodations and food services in a range of
  price categories and close to the conference facilities.
* Adequacy of budget projections and expected surplus.
* Geographical balance with regard to the previous conferences in
  Pittsburgh and Seattle, USA, but still limited to North America.

The HLT-NAACL Advisory Board seeks proposals for holding the meeting
during the first half of 2003.The HLT-NAACL Advvisory Board will look
especially favorably on proposals for the spring.

Please send draft proposals electronically to Lynette Hirschman, the
NAACL Executive Board member responsible for the Call for Bids:

Lynette Hirschman
MITRE MS K320
202 Burlington Rd.
Bedford, MA 01730
781-271-7789; fax: 781-271-2780
lynette at mitre.org

Important Dates:

March 20, 2002 	Draft proposals due
March 27, 2002	HLT-NAACL Advisory Board evaluates proposals and contacts promising bidders
April 22, 2002  Promiising bidders provide any requested information
May 6,    2002  Bid selected