Technical Community (TC) Chair Resources

Congratulations on being elected as Chair, Vice Chair, or Chair-Elect of your Technical Community, Council, or Task Force!  We hope this reference page will assist you in your leadership role.  If at any time you have additional questions, please feel free to contact Brian Kirk or Brookes Little, Communities & Technical Activities staff.

This handbook outlines the policies and procedures for the Computer Society Technical & Conference Activities Board and Technical Community: Download here (pdf)

This handbook provides both advice and policy procedures for running successful Computer Society conferences. Policy statements are indicated by italics or referenced in the form of web links. The Technical Meeting Handbook is currently under review. Please check back for updates.

A list of Computer Society Conference Planners assigned by Technical Council, Community, Consortia, and Task Force.

Computer Society broadening participation statements for inclusion on Technical Community and conference websites

IEEE Event Safety and Conduct statement for inclusion on conference websites.

Resources for reporting code of conduct violations to the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Legal and Compliance team.

Computer Society technical conferences are a forum for top minds to come together to develop, validate and disseminate leading edge information.

These documents provide the basis for the leadership activities of the Computer Society, including publications, conferences, and governance.

A list of the TC Statement of Benefits questions for consideration while endorsing a conference for technical co-sponsorship (TCS).

The IEEE Computer Society Committee to Assist in Reporting Ethics and Conduct Violations.

Even though the IEEE Computer Society does not have a position on conference ranking systems, we were interested in understanding how these are perceived by the community. To this effect, members of the T&C ExCom conducted a small scale study via a survey with our Technical Communities and received responses from the Chairs of 17 of our Technical Communities (TCs) and Task Forces (TFs). Find the summary of results of this survey here.

The IEEE Computer Society is committed to broadening participation across all its communities, programs, and activities. IEEE Computer Society Technical Communities (TCs) are encouraged to spend at least 20% of their annual budget on broadening participation activities. The list below contains some ideas for broadening participation activities that any TC can implement. Does your Technical Community (TC) already do some of these broadening participation activities? Is there a super cool activity that we have not thought of? Did you try one of these activities? How did it turn out? Send an email to inclusion@computer.org with (1) a short description of the activity and (2) a link to a description of the activity on the TC website that hopefully includes pictures!

• Travel Grants to provide support for students who are TC members from communities that do not traditionally attend your TC’s conferences. Conferences often use a competitive application process to identify candidates from communities that could benefit from attending the conference who have the most need. Conference broadening participation chairs run this process. To ensure that the money is being spent on allowable travel expenses, the grants are processed as a reimbursement following the conference.
• TC sponsored conference registration for student TC members from communities that do not traditionally attend your TC’s conferences. This is a less expensive variation on the initiative above. Conferences often use a competitive application process for this as well to identify candidates from communities that could benefit from attending the conference who have the most need. If your conference is hybrid, it is possible to award many registrations for virtual attendance, since the cost to provide each registration is lower than the in person cost. This option also requires less paperwork because the bulk amount invested by the TC can be transferred to the conference account.
• Support for affinity groups within your TC. This could be financial or in-kind support (this refers to non-monetary support, such as food and beverage) at a TC sponsored conference for a workshop or other social event. The TC could also provide support for meet-up events outside of a conference.
• Support for workshops on broadening participation topics at your TC’s conferences. This could be financial or in-kind support (e.g., food and beverage). Different from affinity groups, these workshops can address participation challenges through novel research.
• Support for high school students from communities that do not traditionally attend your TC’s conferences. This can be in the form of travel grants or waived registration for students in the city you are hosting your event in. This initiative has the potential to be very impactful, because addressing participation challenges in a field needs to start well before graduate school. Note that given the age of the students, chaperones will likely be needed to accompany them for the duration of your event.
• Subsidies for on-site child care at your TC’s conferences. Conferences are not traditionally family friendly. This is a particular challenge for the parents of young children. TCs can subsidize affordable on-site childcare through trustworthy providers.
• Support for TC ombuds. This could be travel support for conference travel. TC ombuds act as resources to assist members of the conference community with addressing potential violations of the TC’s code of conduct for conferences and other professional activities. This is a volunteer position that is potentially a lot of work, depending on the size of the TC. Ombuds are typically present at a conference to respond to issues on-site. The Computer Society has created guidelines and training to help TCs start an ombuds program at their conferences. For more information, please see the IEEE Computer Society Committee to Assist in Reporting Ethics and Conduct Violations (CS Assist) webpage.
• Make TC web infrastructure accessible. Most TC web infrastructure is a challenge to navigate for the visually impaired. This includes TC and conference websites. This can be addressed by retrofitting sites so that they can be interpreted by screen readers. Web developers who specialize in this service exist.
• Contribute to existing outreach efforts in the developing world. Many existing programs exist to teach computing to students in the developing world. An easy initiative for your TC can be to provide some funding for one.
• Support broadening participation fund proposals. The Computer Society Broadening Participation fund usually receives many more applications for broadening participation activities that it can support. TCs can (fully, or conjointly with other TCs) support the broadening participation projects that could not be funded from the broadening participation fund.
• Support to improve speaker participation. TCs can provide funds to help conferences invite additional keynote speakers or panelists to improve the speakers’ demographic participation, which will also benefit conference attendees.
• Provide awards or recognitions for papers with author participation. This award or recognition can be provided by conferences or journals organized by your TC. The cost is limited, but it may require some additional efforts to collect authors’ demographic information.
• Support for conference promotion and publicity in diverse channels. This funding can support conferences to attract participants by advertising to or collaborating with professional communities for underrepresented groups, such as National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), Engineers Without Borders (EWB), Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and etc.

View more best practices to facilitate and promote broaden participation at technical community events.