Termination Competition Steering Committee Bylaws

(Draft, under discussion)

goal: steering of termination competition

The committee

• elects one research group to host the Termination Competition (for some mutually agreeable range of time)

• votes on design issues related to the Termination Competition (the Host of the competition tries to implement the design, within reason)

Q: It should be clarified what is meant by design issues.

the following issues should be decided by the SC:
- competition categories
- changes to the database
- scoring/timeout
- frequency/mode 

• defines Categories (including problem selection, result evaluation) for Competition

• reports on results of runs on Categories

composition of committee

Each research group that is interested in the competition, and has proven this interest by having actually taken part, sends one member into the Committee.

 Q: What is meant by "research group"? I would write "team developing tools" here and weaken "sends one member" to "may send one of its members".
 Q: is it one member per team or one member per site (that has several teams)?

how the committee operates

• The committee can cast votes. Any committee can propose a question for voting.

• The question shall be discussed (for some reasonable time) on the mailing list, where input from all list members is welcome. The wiki pages can be used to record the status of discussion.

• The Chair then formally announces a reasonable time range where committe members may express their vote (e.g. by emailing to the Chair).

Q: I propose instead to have a Doodle like facility for recording votes, which is accessible to all members.
Q: The bylaws need not be too specific about technical means to reach the stated goals

• The result of the vote is then announced on the mailing list and recorded on the Wiki page.

chair of the committee

• The Committee elects a Chair that initiates discussions on the termtools mailing list, brings discussions to a onclusion, and manages voting and reporting.

• To clarify the above point: The role of the chair is the role of a moderator, who should initate discussion but refrain from using its role to define the discussion. Proposed votes should be directly posted to the steering comittee members. Moreover it is the responsibility of the Chair that crucial decision are made *well in advance* of the start of the competiton.

• The Chair, with the help of other steering members, initiates PR activities to attract more tools.

• The Chair is responsible for maintaining a mailing list for steering committee members.