Guidelines for Renewal or Termination

When a SIAM activity group is up for renewal, the Charter Renewal Application asks activity group officers to provide detailed information about the group's activities during its present term as well as specific plans for future activities. An activity group that has not been active during its present term will not be automatically renewed. Activities may be of various natures according to the activity group's interests; examples include the organization of conferences, a regular newsletter, participation in SIAM annual meetings, etc. The number of activity group members is also a clear indication of the health of an activity group. If a group's membership is dropping, this may indicate that renewal is not appropriate.

SIAM activity group leaders are expected to respond to questions from the SIAM office in a timely way, normally by email and to organize regular elections following the SIAM activity group Rules of Procedure.

SIAM activity group charter renewals are approved by both the SIAM Council and Board; the renewals take place effective at the beginning of a calendar year. Requests for renewal are due typically by June 1 of the previous year so that they may be considered by the Council and Board at their summer meetings. If the Council or Board does not approve the charter renewal of the SIAM activity group, the SIAM activity group officers will be notified during the summer so that they have the opportunity to provide more information to the SIAM office during the fall. This information will be due no later than November 1. The Council will then be given the opportunity to review and vote to approve the updated renewal, and if the Council approves renewal, the Board will make a final decision regarding renewal at its December meeting.

Sample Charter Renewal Application

[Note: SIAM office will fill in bracketed information before sending out.]

This CHARTER RENEWAL APPLICATION applies to the SIAM Activity Group on [insert name of group]. The SIAM activity group (or SIAG) to which this renewal applies was originally formed under the aegis of SIAM on [insert date] by the SIAM Council and [insert date] by the SIAM Board of Trustees with its initial operating period beginning [insert date] and ending [insert date]. Its charter has been renewed by the Council and Board [insert number] times thereafter. This SIAG has [insert number] members, including [insert number] student members, as of [insert date].

According to its Rules of Procedure, the objective(s) of the SIAG are [insert objective(s) from Rules of Procedure, Article I, Purpose].

Its proposed functions were [insert activities from Rules of Procedure, Article II, Activity] to which have been added [list prizes, publications, conferences not included in the Rules of Procedure].

The SIAG has complemented SIAM's activities and supported its proposed functions. The answers to the questions below indicate how this was accomplished and what the officers propose as the future directions for the SIAG.

1. List all current officers of the activity group (including advisory board, if relevant).
2. How is the field covered by the activity group doing? Is it growing? Is the focus shifting? What have been the significant advances over the last [two/three] years?
3. How is the activity group doing? Is it remaining vibrant? Is the size of the SIAG stable or increasing? How is the SIAG keeping up with the changes in the field? How are the broader interests of SIAM reflected in the activities of the SIAG?
4. Please list conferences/workshops the activity group has sponsored or co-sponsored over the past three years, and give a brief (one sentence or phrase) indication of the success or problems with each. The SIAG [name] organizes the [biennial/triennial] conference on [SIAG name]. This list of conferences may be found at: http://www.siam.org/meeting/archive.php# [name]. [The SIAM Conference on [SIAG name] in [year] had [number of] attendees including [number] paid nonstudents and [number] paid students attending.]
5. Please indicate the number of minisymposia directly organized by the activity group at the last two SIAM Annual Meetings. When did the SIAG last organize a track at an Annual Meeting or meet jointly with the Annual Meeting?
6. Please indicate other activities sponsored by the activity group, to include newsletters, prizes and web sites. Have each of these been active and successful?
7. What activities are planned and proposed for the next period of the charter? Please describe scheduled and suggested future activities in detail.
8. How can SIAM help the activity group achieve its goals?
9. How can the activity group help SIAM in its general role of promoting applied mathematics and computational science?

This SIAG requests that the SIAM Council and Board of Trustees renew its charter for a [insert length] operating period beginning [insert date].

Signed
[SIAG Chair]
[Date]

Small SIAGs

For small SIAGs, for example, the nonstudent member size is less than 100, SIAM allows the officers to request rare exceptions from the standard rules of operation in their charter renewal. An example is to use an officer structure with fewer than four officers. In such a case, the renewal document needs to clearly specify how the responsibilities are redistributed among the new officers. When an exception is requested, the renewal document needs to discuss how the SIAG plans to grow so that an exception will not be needed in the following charter renewal cycle. Exceptions to any rule will not be granted twice in a row. The Committee on SIAGs will evaluate the activity group based on the standard assessment rubric.

Small SIAGs will be strongly encouraged to join with another SIAG or the Annual Meeting for their conferences. In the case that they have indicated the desire to join another organization outside SIAM for their conference, that conference should be organized in cooperation with SIAM. The Chair of the conference should communicate with the SIAM Vice President for Programs and SIAM Director of Programs and Services about the conference planning. The Organizing Committee of the conference should include at least one SIAG member. If these are not met, SIAM will not support the SIAG in that conference.

Termination

If an activity group has not been active during its present term, it may be terminated. The indicators of inactivity include the following:

• Not conducting the SIAG elections on schedule
• Lack of response to SIAM requests for information needed to maintain the stated schedule for charter renewals, elections, etc., including nominating a slate of candidates for officers, nominating committee members, etc.
• Lack of participation in the shared tracks at the Annual Meeting, minisymposia or talks at other SIAM meetings
• Lack of contributions to SIAM News
• Lack of members participating in journals, books, or other SIAM-related activities
• Low attendance at independently held SIAG conferences (if there is an independent conference)
• Too few members to field a selection committee for a SIAG award or an election slate

If an activity group does not submit a Charter Renewal by the SIAM due date (typically June 1) in the year it is due, it may be terminated without further recourse.

The termination decision will be discussed among the Committee on SIAM Activity Groups, Vice President-at-Large, Vice President for Programs, SIAM President, and SIAM’s Director of Programs and Services. It must be approved by the Council and the Board.