Organisation of EURO-k Conference Guidelines

Application form for an Euro-k Conference (.doc file)

Principles

A EURO-k Conference is intended to be a forum for communication and co-operation among European operations researchers. It is also intended to be an international meeting of operations researchers who are active in all the diverse special areas of operations research, and to serve the free exchange of new ideas and promising research results. A EURO-k Conference is not held in the same year as an IFORS conference.

Site and time

The site of a EURO-k Conference may be a suitable place in the country of a EURO Member Society. In order to keep costs as low as possible, the conference is held in a university or an institution providing meeting rooms at minimum or no charge. The conference usually takes place in summer during the first half of July. Both the site and time of a EURO-k Conference are proposed by the organising Society and have to be agreed by the Council 3.5 years before the proposed date. If another organisation, e.g.,INFORMS, is to be involved as well, special protocols (to be endorsed by the Council) have to be used.

Organising Committee

The Organising Committee is chaired by a local person, member of the organising Society, to be approved by the EURO Council. It includes among its members the Chair of the Programme Committee, and EURO Vice-President 1. The Chair of the Organising Committee shall be supported in pursuing his/her responsibilities by the members of the Organising Committee approved by the EURO Council. The Committee is responsible for running all organising affairs, including:

attracting potential sponsors
the reservation of rooms and equipment for the conference, including rooms for meetings of the EURO Council, Executive Committee and Working Groups, and Presidents of O.R. Societies
support in looking after eminent invited speakers
the reservation of hotel and student rooms in different price categories for the participants
the organisation of a social programme including the main social event (banquet), visits to tourist attractions, local entertainment events etc. for the participants and accompanying persons
the provision for food at lunch time and coffee and beverages during the conference days
the provision of internet access (for free or at a reasonable rate) during the conference days
the organisation of book and software exhibitions
printing of the call for papers, invitation programme, final programme and the abstracts booklet, etc.
providing information at the reception desk for use by delegates to see which delegates have so far arrived, etc.

The Chair of the Organising Committee, in particular, maintains close co-operation with the Chair of the Programme Committee and EURO Vice-President 1. He/She presents a brief report on the status and the current activities concerning the preparation of the Conference to the EURO Vice-President 1 every 3 months and a final report regarding the organisation of the conference to the Executive Committee not later than six months after the conference.

All the organising matters are treated by the Committee members. Use of external convention offices should normally be avoided if using such offices will result in increasing the cost of the conference. In order to minimise cost, the ex officio members do not, in general, attend meetings of the Committee but receive papers and provide advice.

Programme Committee

The Programme Committee is chaired by a person appointed by the Council on the nomination of the Executive Committee coming from a different country to that in which the conference is organised. This Committee includes among its members the Chair of the Organising Committee, the Chair of the Programme Committee of the previous EURO-k Conference and the Chair of the Programme Committee of the next EURO-k Conference once appointed. Other members of the Committee are nominated by the Chair from different EURO Member Societies up to a maximum of six. The nominations should reflect the geographic and thematic diversity of Operations Research in Europe. They are to be approved by the EURO Executive Committee and Council. The Programme Committee is responsible for all scientific matters including:

the proposal of the theme of the conference, to be decided by the EURO Council
the preparation of the Scientific Programme of the conference, including plenary, semi-plenary, parallel, and poster sessions
the invitation of speakers for the plenary and semi-plenary sessions
the assignment of papers to sessions and the scheduling of all sessions
the provision in the Programme for meetings of the EURO Council, Executive Committee, presidents of O.R. Societies and Working Groups, and Editorial Board meeting of EJOR
the preparation of the Call for Papers, Invitation Programme and the Abstracts booklet
making available the Call for Papers, Invitation Programme and Final Programme on the Internet
the issuing of instructions to stream organisers, session chairs and speakers
the preparation of a special issue of the European Journal of Operational Research
issuing daily any changes to the programme etc.

The Chair of the Programme Committee shall be supported in pursuing his/her responsibilities by the members of the Programme Committee including among its members the Chair of the Organising Committee, and he/she, in particular, keeps close co-operation with the Chair of the Organising Committee and EURO Vice President 1. He/She presents a report on the conference regarding the Scientific Programme to the Executive Committee not later than six months after the conference.

Most of the work of the Committee is undertaken by correspondence. The Committee however meets to agree on the allocation of tasks to members, the outline programme and the call for papers usually at the previous EURO-k Conference (or an IFORS conference). The Committee then meets again to accept papers for the Invitation Programme and to approve its form, although to save travelling and hotel costs only some members of the Committee attend. This number must be allowed for in the conference budget.

Finance

An initial budget (including the proposed conference fees) of the EURO-k Conference accompanies the proposal of the organising Society, which has to be agreed upon by the Council. A final budget is submitted to and approved by the EURO Executive Committee at least 12 months before the conference. Initial and final budgets should present the development of the relevant positions for a low, medium and high level of attendance. Significant changes between the initial and the final budget - in particular with respect to the conference fees - should be convincingly motivated and agreed to by EURO Executive Committee. The system of payment of abstract deposits and registration fees and the location of the bank accounts receiving these fees are chosen by the Organising Committee after consultation with the EURO Treasurer.

EURO provides a list of conference participants for which it will pay the registraton fees (in early registration rates). The speakers at the plenary and semi-plenary sessions are excluded from paying fees (covered by the conference budget). Also the members of the Programme Committee and the Organising Committee are excluded from paying the registration fees.

Students pay a reduced fee. EURO also may provide a sum to meet the registration fees of participants of some special category. Reduced fees may be decided by EURO Council for other categories of participants.

EURO provides, if asked so by the Organising Committee, a loan to cover the costs incurred before registration fees come in. The loan shall be refunded to EURO at the latest at the conference date.

The organising society would remunerate EURO by paying a fee of 20 euros per regular participant and 10 euros per student participant to cover the required contribution to overheads. In general, all other profits and losses would be shared equally (50% / 50%) between EURO and the host society, but the host society may request different percentages in negotiations with EURO. The conference accounts have to be audited by an auditor appointed by EURO. The costs of the audit will be covered by the conference budget.

Agreement Preparation

EURO Vice president 1 prepares a formal agreement based on the above guidelines which is signed by EURO President and Secretary, a representative of the organising Society and the Chairs of the Organising and Programme Committees at least one year before the Conference. In appointing the chairpersons of OC and PC, these guidelines should be considered as the basis of their task.

Timetable of EURO k Mile Stones

Years before conference	Activity	Concerned Party
4.5	Asking for bids	VP1, Nat. societies
4.0	Selection of bids	EC, VP1
3.5	Presentation of selected nat. societies	Nat. societies
	Acceptance of one of the bids	Council
	Information of nat. society about the decision, information of the OC chair of the EURO-k guidelines	Euro President
3.0	Selection of the PC chair	EC, VP1
2.5	Appointment of the PC chair	Council
	Communication of the Council decision to the PC chairperson, information about the EURO- k guidelines	Euro President
2.0	Approval of the PC members appointed by the PC chair	EC, VP1, PC Chair
	1st PC meeting	PC, OC, VP1
1.5	Conference agreement	PC, OC, Nat. soc., VP1, EC, Euro President
1.0	2nd PC meeting	PC, OC, VP1
0.5	3rd PC meeting	PC, OC, VP1
0.0	Conference

Penalties

The omission of providing the registration information within 3 months, access to the Conference accounts and the final reports within six months allows EURO to apply legal penalties to the due funds. Any controversy shall be regulated in the country where EURO is officially registered.

ANNEX A1

Publicity Relations

In order to increase the number and quality of presentations, it is important to announce the Conference early enough in an effective manner so as to create wide awareness in the global scientific community. The major task in an dissemination plan is to determine the proper timing and content of announcements. Usually preliminary announcements are printed two years before the Conference and calls for papers are printed one year before the Conference. They are distributed at different related conferences, mailed to national OR societies, EURO Working groups, and universities. Posters are usually printed and mailed to different conference sites and universities as well. Electronic copies of these are made available on the EURO,and Conference web-sites. The impact of personal efforts and personal contacs with key researchers should be considered as an important factor in increasing participation.

Website

Since Conference web-site provides visibility and an important means of communication with potential participants, it is recommended that the web-site containing basic information be made operational two years before the Conference by the local organizers. In due-time, the web-site is gradually improved by adding new information about the Conference and later the possibility to submit abstracts and register. It is recommended to sustain a close contact with potential participants and to inform them about Conference activities and dates by sending e-mails whenever it is appropriate.

Electronic Conference System

The EURO conference system is used for abstract submission, conference registration, communication with all participants and producing the scientific programme. It is requested that all the abstracts be delivered electronically through the conference system which helps the PC schedule streams and sessions easily.

Important Dates

Although there are no general rules and the organizers have the full freedom and the authority to set these dates, based on the experiences of the last EURO Conferences, main milestones in the Conference organization and recommended deadlines are given in the following table:

(a) The operationalisation of the web-site	A year before the Conference (latest)
(b) Abstract submission	Sometime in March of the same year of the Conference
(c) Notification of acceptance	(b) + 2 weeks
(d) Early registration	(c) + 2-3 weeks
(e) Author registration	(d) + 2-3 weeks (late April, early May)
(f) Announcement of tentative Conference programme	Early June

The organizers are advised to monitor the process closely and extend these dates whenever necessary depending on the response from the scientific community and global economic and socio-political factors.

Conference Structure

EURO-K Conferences feature plenary, semi-plenary, tutorial and panel sessions along with a number of invited and contributed sessions organized within the framework of streams. In recent years, each member of the PC is assigned a set of keywords and asked to invite scientists to organize streams and sessions in those keywords. A stream is usually defined to contain at least a given number of sessions, each of which in turn include usually three or four presentations. The degree of flexibility and the coordination among the stream organizers, session organizers and PC members is at the authority of the PC and to be executed according to the joint decision of the PC members. The PC members may empower the stream organizers to invite and accept presentations and to organize their invited sessions subject to their approval. Contributed paper presentations are welcomed and processed by the PC. Once they are accepted, either they are assigned to the right invited session in coordination with the related stream organizer or they are assigned to contributed sessions. The willingness and dedication of stream organisers play an important role in increasing participation and decreasing no-shows.

Special EURO events

The opening and closing sessions should be structured as plenary sessions in mutual consent of the OC, PC, and the Executive Committee. Particularly the opening session should give EURO and the inviting national society the opportunity to present themselves to the public. Thus the PC and OC Chairs of the Conference, the president of the national OR society and the EURO President may use the opportunity to address the audience in the opening and closing sessions., In some conferences a keynote speaker, sometimes a well-known personality from the host nation, is invited to deliver a key-note speech. The presentation of the Gold Medal and the accompanying lecture of the laureate are scheduled as a plenary session following the opening session. In the closing session, organizers of future EURO events are also given the opportunity to announce their meetings.
For the presentation of other prizes, the following plan is implemented in recent years: the presentation of the Excellence in Practice Award (EPA) finalists and the presentation of EURO Doctoral Dissertation Award (EDDA) finalists are scheduled as parallel sessions while the presentation of the Management Science Strategic Innovation Prize (MSSIP) winning paper is scheduled as a semi-plenary session. These prizes are awarded to the winner(s) either during the Conference banquet or during the Closing session. Also the EURO Distinguished Service Medal is awarded during the Conference banquet. The Best Discussion/Poster paper prize giving is usually accomplished during the Closing session.
The PC should provide a minimum time slot of a semi-plenary lecture for the IFORS-EURO distinguished lecture (IEDL). It is the programme committee's responsibility to eventually enlarge this slot in order to allow for a (full) plenary lecture. In recent years, IFORS Distinguished Lecture is scheduled as a plenary session following the closing session.
All possible modifications are permitted with the mutual consent of the OC, PC and the EURO Executive Committee.

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