The current members are:
The steering committee’s primary responsibilities include selecting conference locations and the general chair, providing long-term strategic guidance, as well as working with the MPI Forum to oversee financial stewardship for the conference.
The committee can provide additional guidance to the conference general chair, but generally delegates all other responsibilities to them.
Given that the membership will often overlap, the steering committee should meet with the same cadence as the voting meetings of the MPI Forum, probably just before or after. It is the responsibility of the “past conference chair” to organize the meetings.
The Steering Committee is made up of two standing members, the current MPI Forum Treasurer, as well as the past two general chairs, the current general chair, and the next general chair as soon as one has been appointed. The MPI Forum Treasurer needs to be present because the finances for the EuroMPI conference and the MPI Forum are joined together and managed by Software in the Public Interest (SPI).
If a member of the steering committee needs to step down from their position, they may do so at the next steering committee meeting, at which time the committee will appoint someone else to fulfill the term of the member stepping down.
If a permanent member also fills the role of conference chair, past chair, or previous past chair, an additional member shall be appointed for the period of role duplication.
After six years, standing committee members will need to be re-appointed by their peers on the steering committee.
Terms expire at the end of the calendar year.
The rest of this document describes the norms for organizing the conference, but is not a set of requirements except where noted.
The steering committee should choose a conference location and general chair for the following year at the last MPI Forum meeting before the current year’s conference.
The current custom of the conference is to co-locate with both a meeting of the IWOMP conference and the MPI Forum in order to simplify logistics and cost. This requires coordinating with those two bodies in order to determine locations and finances.
The conference generally occurs between mid-September and early October. This means that the location and leadership of the conference needs to be established by the end of the previous year’s conference, so attendees can begin making plans to submit work and attend.
Typical timelines for the calls for submission require papers to be submitted in late May or early June, which means the calls should be published early in the year.
The makeup of the conference organizing committee is the purview of the general chair. There are usually at least six positions, though this can be adjusted to the needs of the conference: