Minutes of the meeting of the Regional Board for the Consortium for Computing in Small Colleges, Northeastern Region of the, Sept. 13, 1997. (Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT)

Attending: Michael Anderson, Michael Berman, Venu Dasigi, Heidi Ellis, Richard Goldschmidt, Fran Grodzinsky, Sandra Honda, Efim Kinber, Amruth Kumar, Mark LeBlanc, Bonnie MacKellar, Scott McElfresh, Dominick Pinto, Viera Proulx, Mary Ann Robbert, Ingrid Russell, Ralph Walde, Charles Welty.

Minutes taken by Charles Welty.

Absent: Richard Close, Matt Dickerson, Takis Metaxas, Esther Schuster, Laurie Smith-King, Will Mitchell, Bill Taffe, Hoyt Warner, Ralph Morelli.

The conference committee for next year92s conference is set. Fran Grodzinsky (Sacred Heart University) is chair.

Reports:

Ingrid Russell reported on the Spring Meeting of the CCSC. Minutes from that were previously distributed. The following items are from that meeting.

• Regional conferences are now required to submit budget one year in advance to the CCSC. This will be done if 2 weeks. (Note: The Northeastern Conference will be held at Providence College in 1999.)
• Elections for the CCSC.

• We are encouraged to run for CCSC offices, for regional representative, and for other regional offices.

New Business:

Fran Grodzinsky about about who pays what expenses. It was established that the hosting university has no monetary obligation. It has been customary for the host to pay for mailing and copying. Hosts have also paid for janitors, setup, and badges. These expenditures are not required and may differ from host to host.

Viera Proulx wanted the CCSC to return conference budget information as soon after the conference as possible. We can then see how the funds were actually expended and what the revenue was. This will help in planning for the following meeting. This is usually given out at the Fall meeting (about 2 weeks after our meeting). (We have done quite well in our two conferences, making $2500 in 1996 and at least $3000 in 1997, based on what Bill Myers indicated to Ingrid Russell.)

There were a series of changes to the CFP. The final changes were as follows.

• Introductory paragraph changes: The last sentence now reads "In addition to parallel paper sessions, the program will include tutorials, panels, student research papers, vendor displays and half-day invited workshops.

• Suggested Topics changes:

Computer science education 85 Becomes the first item in the list.

Advanced topics 85 Becomes the second topic on the list.

Computer engineering Added to the list.

• Panels and Tutorials. Add the parenthetical statement "(70 minute sessions)". Change "panelists" to "presenters".
• World Wide Web. Change the URL to http://aslan.wheatonma.edu/~cc scne98.
• 1998 Conference Committee changes.

Heidi Ellis is with Rensselaer at Hartford, not Hartford Graduate Center/RPI.

• Telephone number changes.

Mary Ann Robbert's telephone number is now (508) 697-1200 ext 2223

Scott McElfresh's telephone number is now (315) 299-5471

There was a question regarding the differences between workshops and tutorials. It was agreed that tutorials are 70-minute presentations and should go to the panels/tutorials chairs for review. Workshops are for three hours and by invitation only. The committee as well as the board will agree as to what workshops to solicit and invite.

Ingrid Russell said that the conference registration would remain at $95 for regular attendees and $30 for students.

Viera Proulx said that the papers chairs will need the names and email addresses for all accepted submissions in electronic plain text. This allows for better communication between the papers chairs and the presenters.

The final acceptance letter includes format specifications and audio visual needs. Ingrid Russell will send Venu Dasigi a copy of her acceptance letter and Viera Proulx will send him a copy of the paper format.

Michael Anderson distributed a notice ("Untitled") from another conference that separates the conference from the hotels, airlines, car rental agencies, etc. this was done to limit liability. He will write up a new version for submission to the CCSC.

Sandra Honda distributed fact sheets and brochures about local accommodations. After much discussion it was decided to have the Ramada Inn (not the Ramada Plaza) and the Trumbull Marriott as the conference hotels. There was some concern that one or both of the hotels would want exclusive mention in our future mailings in return for reduced room price and any other benefits. Sandra Honda will check into this.

Efim Kinber - The keynote speaker will be Lynn Stein from MIT. David Gries (Cornell) will be the dinner speaker. Some discussion of the honorarium for Gries occurred. No final resolution was made.

Venu Dasigi is continuing to solicit reviewers. He has 15 now. It was suggested that he keep at least a few of the board and conference committee aside to meet last minute reviewing needs.

Ingrid Russell asked that the conference committee keep a good record of those who are interested in being moderators (session chairs) and encouraged the conference committee to involve as many people as possible in the final program. Ingrid Russell strongly recommended that they have at least 50 reviewers. Each paper is reviewed by three reviewers.There was a question as to whether committee members can submit papers. Ingrid Russell pointed out that the review is double blind and encouraged everyone to submit.

There was much discussion on the Student Posters displays. It was decided that the posters would be in a classroom or other place close to the majority of the attractions (parallel sessions, breaks, social hour). The Mahogany Room, although very attractive and large enough, was considered to be too far away from the action. It did seem that this issue might need more resolution.

Bonnie MacKellar said that the vender letters would go out Sept. 15. Venders will probably sponsor breaks if they are in the same room as the vender displays. It was decided to have a maximum of 12 venders. There was a discussion of vender presentations. It was decided to wait and see what, if anything, will be suggested. Perhaps venders could sponsor some best paper awards and the social hour. There may be more vender space available if needed. This will be determined by the number of interested venders.

Venu Dasigi was informed that 48 papers were submitted last year and 24 were accepted (50% acceptance rate).

Ingrid Russell reminded us to all solicit papers from our colleagues.

There was a discussion of what to do in the event of absent moderators and presenters. This has not been a major problem in the last two conferences. It was suggested that some of the board and committee members could possibly be replacement moderators if needed.

Heidi Ellis wanted to know about how registration is handled. Registration goes to Cathy Bareiss at CCSC. She collects all the checks, except for those from presenters which go to the editor. The editor sends the checks on to Cathy Bareiss. Cathy Bareiss sends a receipt for each registrant and a list of all registrants to Heidi Ellis. Sandra Honda and Domenick Pinto (local arrangements co-chairs) will make up name tags, meal tickets, and a generic packet of conference materials.

Heidi Ellis will handle the on-site registration, update the attendance list and create an attendance list to be distributed on the second day of the conference.

Everyone was encouraged to help out during registration. Heidi Ellis was encouraged to have a schedule of who is helping and when they are helping prior to the conference Heidi Ellis will then mail the on-site registration money to Cathy Bareiss.

The next meeting will be here (Sacred Heart University) on Saturday, January 10, 11 AM to 3 PM.

Meeting adjourned.