Operational Goals & Logistics

ACM Practitioners Board (PB)
(Effective Nov 1, 2016)

Operational Goals

  • Develop and maintain an analysis of the global practitioner market, specifically with regard to underserved product, service, and content needs of practitioners. This market analysis should identify specific segments within the market that will be prioritized for the development of ACM products, services, and content. Although global in nature, this analysis will reflect the unique needs of specific geographic localities that the ACM serves.
  • Provide recommendations on data required by the Board in order to create this market analysis, and where appropriate assist in the acquisition of this data.
  • Provide insight, advice, and recommendations for the creation new programs and content to engage the practitioner market.
  • Develop and maintain operational processes for Board-sponsored products, services, and content. These operational processes will adhere to SMART principles: that is, they will be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
  • Periodically review and provide recommendations with regard to existing products, services, and content that are focused on the practitioner market. This should include the definition of appropriate metrics for evaluation and improvement.
  • Maintain and develop a set of standing committees in order to provide more focused support and guidance for specific products, services, or content focused on the practitioner market.
  • Liaise with other ACM and external groups and activities to assure that overall ACM programs work well for practitioners.

Staff Coordinator Responsibilities

  • ACM’s PB staff coordinator(s)will support the PB as the staff liaison working with the ACM staff leadership which can include CEO, COO, Director of Information Systems, Marketing Manager, Education Manager, Director of Publications, and more.

PB Meetings/Communications

  • The PBwill conduct bi-monthly phone calls, coordinated by the ACM staff liaison.
  • PBmembers will be added to the PB listserv (which serves as a forum for group discussion): PRACTITIONERS-BOARD.
  • Ex-PB members can be added to the PB Community listserv (which serves as a forum for broader group discussions): PB-COMMUNITY.
  • The ACM staff liaison will make arrangements forface-to-facePBmeetings 2 to 3 times per year. If invited Core PBmembers are unable to secure financial support elsewhere, ACM will cover the costs of their meeting travel.

APPENDIX 1

Draft Guidelines for Product/Service Review

  • Which PB programs require adjustments to actions and what is the impact of these actions?
  • Which PB programs need added investment and what broader value ROI (including intangibles) should be used to continue the investment?
  • What are the SWOT (internal strengths, internal weaknesses, external opportunities/threats) to PB programs?
  • What are the Practitioners Board programs need/want/satisfaction gaps and how can the gaps be closed and addressed by changing the actions of PB programs?
  • What users like/don’t like?
  • What do users want/need that we don’t have?
  • How do we find out this information?
  • How do we measure the gaps and the closing of the gaps?
  • What PB questions should we be asking and actions should we be taking to ensure that:
  • We exceed our user needs,
  • Users are highly satisfied with our services,
  • Users become Practitioners Board Program advocates,
  • The Practitioners Board program usage/growth trends are moving up, and user want/need/satisfaction gaps are addressed.

APPENDIX 2

Draft Proposal for Conference Organization Process

The conference organization process will consist of 5 phases:

-Proposal

-Review

-Planning/Preparation

-Conference

-Follow-up

The purpose of these guidelines is to ensure that conferences organized by the Practitioners Board are consistent with the overall goals of the ACM and that there is sufficient oversight to ensure that conferences have the greatest opportunity for success.

Proposal: The conference organization process is initiated when a conference proposal is received by the Practitioners Board. A conference proposal should include:

-Conference Organizers

-Conference Theme/Topic

-Conference Style (submission vs. invitation)

-Conference length/# tracks

-Proposed location

-Expected attendance (with justification)

-Competitive landscape (related conferences)

-Potential conference sponsors

-Conference history (if applicable)

-High-level conference budget

Review: Once it has been received, the Practitioners Board will engage in a review process to determine the viability of the proposed conference. This review may be undertaken by the Practitioners Board directly, or it may create an ad hoc task force for the review process (and potentially for ongoing support of the conference). In either case, this phase will rely on support from ACM staff for some aspects of the process (e.g. fiscal viability). The review process will consider:

-Alignment of conference with ACM and Practitioners Board goals

-Fiscal viability (including market analysis)

-Potential avenues of support for conference (speakers, sponsors, etc.)

The review process will communicate and stick to a clearly defined and timely review period. The outcome of the review process will be a decision to proceed or not with the proposed conference, possibly with an amended conference proposal.

Planning/Preparation: During this phase the conference organizers will work with ACM staff to plan for and execute the various activities that will be required to hold the conference. This includes, but is not limited to (these will have deadlines associated with them, relative to the conference date):

-Developing a conference budget

-Ensuring a complete roster of speakers is lined up

-Identifying/securing conference sponsors

-Developing/executing a conference marketing plan

-Choosing a conference venue and associated venue planning

-Ongoing meetings with conference logistics team

-Regular reports on progress

Conference: The conference organizers are expected to be at the conference itself. They will introduce speakers, thank sponsors, and be available to assist with resolving any issues that arise during the conference. Typically, there will also be representatives from the conference logistics company available to assist with these matters as well.

Follow-up: The conference follow-up phase will produce a conference report that summarizes the results of the conference. Prior to generating this report, there may be one or more meetings/calls with ACM staff to discuss the conference results and obtain details about various aspects of the conference. The final report will include:

-Summary of conference (notable successes/failures)

-Marketing summary (#ads, posts, etc)

-Conference attendance and demographics (age, role, m/f, geography, interests)

-Speaker and attendee survey feedback with recommendations

-Budget vs. Actual