[sigcomm] attendance policies for SIGCOMM-affiliated events

[Jennifer Rexford]

Hi folks,

Thanks for participating in the discussion about attendance policies for 
workshops and conferences the SIG sponsors.  The issue is a complicated 
one with many defensible positions, given the competing values at play. 
  The thoughtful comments on the mailing list, and the personal comments 
and suggestions from many of you off list, helped the SIGCOMM executive 
committee in coming up with a policy statement that I'm listing below. 
We'll be including these two paragraphs as part of a "SIGCOMM FAQ" that 
we'll be adding to the SIGCOMM Web site shortly.  Again, thanks for your 
thoughts.

-- Jen, SIGCOMM Chair

Organizing a successful workshop or conference requires a significant
investment in time and resources.  To allow each event to have its own
character, and to ensure continuity from year to year, each
SIGCOMM-sponsored conference and workshop has a steering committee
that oversees the organization of the event.  While the steering
committees have a large degree of autonomy in organizing an event,
they need to keep the broader goals of the SIG and the ACM in mind.
The steering committees should aim to create events for the public
presentation and discussion of technical contributions, as well as
to operate within the guidelines of the ACM Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct.

In light of these goals, questions naturally arise about what kinds
of attendance policies are appropriate for a workshop or conference
sponsored by SIGCOMM.  SIGCOMM strongly encourages workshops and
conferences to have open attendance but also recognizes that some
events benefit from attendance restrictions to foster meetings in new
topics or because of limitations in venue space.  Although most
SIGCOMM-sponsored events will have open attendance, the SIG may also
sponsor a small number of limited-attendance workshops or conferences.
Limited-attendance events should state their attendance policy, and
the motivations behind the policy, in the conference materials (e.g.,
the conference Web site, the call for papers, and ACM conference
approval forms).