GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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GENERAL ASSEMBLY

• INTERSPEECH 2009
• Brighton, UK

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• Agenda
• 1. Opening remarks and approval of the Minutes of
  the 2008 General Assembly (Brisbane)
• 2. Presidents report
• 3. Treasurers report
• 4. Approval of the reports
• 5. Announcements of changes to the ISCA Board
• 6. ISCA goals for 2009-2010
• 7. Information on proposal to change ISCA Statute
  A4.1 which restricts Board membership to two
  members per country
• 8. Comments, Suggestions and Questions from ISCA
  Members
• 9. Announcement of next ISCA General Assembly
• 10. Any other business

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Minutes of the 2008 General Assembly in Brisbane,
Australia, 24 September 2008, 6.00 pm

• Opening Remarks and approval of the Minutes of
  the 2007 General Assembly (Antwerp)
• President's Report
• Treasurer's Report
• Approval of Reports
• ISCA Goals for 2008-2009
• Comments, Suggestions and Questions from ISCA
  Members
• Announcement of Next ISCA General Assembly
• Any Other Business

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• Presidents Report
• The ISCA Board
• Recent Board Meetings
• Secretariat and Membership
• ISCA Web
• The ISCA Online Archive
• Workshops
• SIGs
• International Affairs
• Industry Liaison
• Liaison with other Organizations
• Conferences
• Grants and Awards
• Student Liaison
• Publications
• Others

Isabel Trancoso President
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• ISCA Board (2008-2009)
  Ex officio
  

Vice-Pres. / ITWRs Jean-François Bonastre
President Isabel Trancoso
Secretary David House
Treasurer Bernd Möbius
International Affairs Lin-shan Lee
Membership Services Eva Hajicova
Grants Awards Alan Black
Education / Website Helen Meng
Conferences Tanja Schultz
SIGs Michael Picheny
Liaison w/ other orgs Yoshinori Sagisaka
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• Recent Board Meetings
• Sept.2006 Pittsburgh (2)
• Dec. 2006 Virtual
• Jan. 2007 Virtual
• April 2007 Virtual
• Aug. 2007 Antwerp (2)
• Dec. 2007 Virtual
• June 2008 Virtual
• Sept. 2008 Brisbane (2)
• Dec. 2008 Virtual
• April 2009 Taipei (at ICASSP)

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• Secretariat and Membership
• Direct contact with members
• Membership database
• Financial transactions and administration
• Support for ITRWs
• Membership dues
• Web content coordination
• Documentation of ISCA board meetings
• Elections to the Board and Advisory Council
• ISCA Statutes and Bylaws

David House ISCA Secretary
Please give us input and suggestions either this
week at the ISCA Booth or later
secretariat_at_isca-speech.org
Manu Foxonet Administrative Assistant
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Membership Development
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Membership by Category
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Membership by country
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• ISCA website
• Need for significant improvement
• Migrate provider from Mdb Web Data Solutions to
  InCampus Pte. Ltd. (with help from Dr. Haizhou
  Li)
• Resumé posting service at
• http//www.isca- students.org/isca_resumes_search_
  facility
• With help from Dr. Michael Picheny
• Maintenance by ISCA SAC members
• Web information updates
• Emmanuelle Foxonet, ISCA administrator

Helen Meng
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• The ISCA Online Archive
• Contains all former INTERSPEECH (EUROSPEECH and
  ICSLP) conferences and all ITRWs and ETRWs from
  1987 to 2009 in machine-readable form
• gt 100 events
• Available on website since August
  2003http//www.isca-speech.org/archive/index.html
  
• Abstracts accessible for everybody
• Full papers accessible for members only
• Use your individual ISCA password to access
• Since 2007 linked to Google Scholar, thanks to
  David Gelbart and the Student Committee

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Archive Structure
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ISCA Workshops (ITRWs and supported events)
Jean-François Bonastre

• 2009
• 15 wrk/conf. Sponsored
• (2 ITRW)
• Contact ISCA
• for new event proposalsworkshops_at_isca-speech.org

• ISCA support for workshops
• Web and ISCAPAD announcements
• Grants for students
• Archive

• Additional services
• Secretariat support
• Online banking service
• Online registration
• Monetary advance
• Web/Mail announcement

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J-F Bonastre

• WOCCI, October 2008 (CRETE/GREECE)
• Wrk in memory of C. Benoît, October 2008 (France)
  
• VJTH , November 2008 (Spain) - SIGIL
• SLT, December 2008 (India) ILSP
• DiaHolmia, June, 2009 (Sweden)
• NOLISP, June 2009 (Spain), ITRW
• KRPDS, July 2009 (USA)
• SLATE, September 2009 (UK), Slate, ITRW
• ACORNS, September 2009 (UK)
• AVSP, September 2009 (UK) - AVISA

• SIGDIAL, September 2009 (UK) SIGDIAL
• Blizzard, September 2009 (UK) - SynSIG
• YRRSD, September 2009 (UK)
• SLTD, September 2009 (UK)
• IE-IR-LRL, September 2009 (Spain) - SALTMIL
• WOCCI, November 2009 (USA)
• IEEE ASRU, December 2009 (Italy)
• MAVEBA, December 2009 (Italy)
• eaSDS, December 2009 (Germany)
• LREC 2010, May 2010 (Malta)
• Speaker Odyssey, June-July 2010 (Czech Republic),
  SPLC, ITRW

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• Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

Michael Picheny
AISV
SIG-IL
ISCA SIG-ILSP
AFCP
SynSIG
SIGRU
Chinese SLP
SLaTE
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• Representative SIG Activities
• Annual meetings - regularly by several SIGs
• International Conferences and Workshops - e.g.
  ISCLSP 2008 co-organized by SIG-CSLP (Dec. 2008),
  SIGDIAL (in conjunction with Interspeech 2009),
  SLATE (Sept 2009), VJTH (SIGIL, Nov., 2008),
  Odyssey (SPLC, 2010), Blizzard (SYNSIG, Sept.
  2009).
• Young researcher roundtable (SIGDIAL, Sept 2009)
• Upcoming Special issue of Speech Communication
  SLATE (October, 2009)
• Topic vs Language-specific SIGs
• Some SIGs are clearly geographically based
  (SIG-IL, SIGRU, etc), others such as SIGDIAL,
  SYNSIG and SPLC are clearly topic-based and
  broad-based geographically.
• Should the International Affairs Committee
  coordinate such SIGs for better synergy?
• Thanks to the SIGs for their help in recruiting
  reviewers!!

Michael Picheny
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ISCA International Affairs Committee
Lin-shan Lee

• ISCA decided to become an international
  organization in 1999 in Budapest
• Events and participants in them should not be
  confined to limited number of countries
• ISCA International Affairs Committee tries to
  fulfill that mandate
• Targets regions currently under-represented in
  ISCA programs
• Subcommittees for these regions initiate
  region-specific efforts
• Sub-committee on Eastern Europe
• Sub-committee on West Asia and North Africa
• Sub-committee on South Asia
• Sub-committee on Sub-Saharan Africa

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ISCA International Affairs Committee
Lin-shan Lee

• Sample Action Items for the International Affairs
  Committee
• Arranging Distinguished Lecturers Tours to give
  lectures in far away regions
• Disseminating information about regional research
  activities to the global research community
  through ISCA channels
• Initiating ISCA-organized or co-sponsored events
  in their region
• Distributing ISCA event and service information
  to researchers in their region
• Recommending that students and young researchers
  in their region apply for ISCA grants to attend
  events sponsored by ISCA
• Developing ISCA relationships with relevant
  sister associations in their regions
• Establishing Special Interest Groups

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• ISCA Distinguished Lecturers Program
• Sending Distinguished Lecturers to different
  parts of the world when invited by a Regional
  Subcommittee
• Selection Committee chaired by Sadaoki Furui
• Two Distinguished Lecturers selected Dec 2006 for
  2007-08
• Chin-Hui Lee, Georgia Institute of Technologies,
  USA
• South Asia in Nov 2007 and Latin America in Oct
  2008
• Marc Swerts, Tilburg University, the Netherlands
• Brazil in June 2007 and Southern Africa in July
  2008
• One Distinguished Lecturer Selected Dec 2007 for
  2008-2009
• Richard M. Stern, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
• India planned for Dec 2008 but canceled, now
  planned for Dec 2009
• Latin America in Aug 2009
• Two Distinguished Lecturers Selected Dec 2008 for
  2009-2010
• Abeer Alwan, University of California at Los
  Angeles, USA
• James R. Glass, Massachusetts Institute of
  Technology, USA
• Lecture Trips under planning
• Call for Nominations for new DLs by 15 Nov 2009

Sadaoki Furui
Lin-shan Lee
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• Industry Liaison
• Established set of 20 Industry affiliates to ISCA
• Listed on ISCA website (under development)
• Yearly ISCA-Industry Roundtable with affiliates
• September 2008 at INTERSPEECH in Brisbane
• September 2009 at INTERSPEECH in Brighton
• Monthly ISCApad affiliate research focus
• One of first actions leverage new student resume
  service (in conjunction with SAC and Education
  Coordinator) to help match students with jobs.
• Future goals promote educational materials,
  software, workshops with industrial application
  focus

Michael Picheny
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Yoshinori Sagisaka

• Liaison with other Organizations
• Liaison with organizations in speech and language
• ACL, ACLCLP, AFCP, AISV, ASJ and ASSTA
• Encouragement of joint activities
• Representation in NAACLHLT

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• ISCA journals
• Speech Communication
• Computer Speech and Language
• Best paper awards

Yoshinori Sagisaka
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• International Conferences
• Upcoming INTERSPEECH Conferences
• 2010, Makuhari, Japan
• 2011, Florence, Italy
• 2012, Portland, Oregon, USA
• Call for Proposals and guidelines available
  http//www.isca-speech.org/conferences.html
  (deadline November 15th 2009)
• Call for volunteer reviewers

Tanja Schultz
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Towards spoken language processing for all
regardless of age, health conditions, languages,
environment, etc.
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Grants September 2008-09
Alan W Black
Total expenditure by ISCA 19750 IS09
13000 Total 32750 52 Grants 8 events
23 Countries
By Country (by institution of awardees) USA
10, UK 4, France 4, India 3, Spain 3, China
3, South Africa 2, Australia 2, Belgium 2 plus
others By Continent NA 11, Europe 21, Africa
2, SA 1, Asia 16, ANZ 1 Extra support from IS2006
organizers
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2009 Applications 63, awarded 52, award rate
83 (2008 Applications 106, awarded 54, award
rate 51) Awardees are Students, First time
presentation ISCA support event, One grant per
Institution Exceptions sometimes made Rejections
are due to Applications from the same group,
too many for event Please apply early through
Online Application Website
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Awards ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement
2008 Recipient Sadaoki Furui 6 new ISCA
Fellows ISCA Award for the best paper published
in the Speech Communication Journal 2007-2009
3 ISCA Awards for the Best Student Paper
of INTERSPEECH 2009 TBA Thursday 2009 at the
Interspeech 2009 closing ceremony
Alan W Black
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• Fellows nomination procedure 2009
• 11 nominations
• 6 awarded
• Anne Cutler
• Wolfgang Hess
• Joseph Mariani
• Hermann Ney
• Roberto Pieraccini
• Elizabeth Shriberg

Eva Hajicova
Alan W Black
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Student liaison
Helen Meng
ISCA Student Advisory Committee Board members
Samer Al Moubayed Outreach Coordinator Royal
Institute of Technology, Sweden
Marco A. Piccolino-Boniforti Educational Series
Coordinator University of Cambridge, UK
Antonio Roque Transition Coordinator University
of Southern California, USA
Sylvie Saget General Coordinator Telecom
Bretagne, LUSSI Department, France
Sunayana Sitaram Volunteers Coordinator National
Institute of Technology, Surat, India
Marcel Wältermann Web Coordinator Deutsche
Telekom Laboratories, TU Berlin, Germany
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• ISCA-SAC _at_ Interspeech 2009
• Student Panel Discussion
• Organisers ISCA SAC
• Sponsors ISCA
• Date Tue (Sep 8, 1330-1530)
• Guests
• Geoffrey Zweig (Microsoft Research)
• Philippe Bretier (Orange Labs)
• Mike McTear (University of Ulster)
• Web Online Grant Application System
• http//www.isca-students.org/grants
• Student Room Share Service
• Helped students find room-mates for the IS2009
  conference
• SAC members will be at the ISCA booth 12-14 every
  day

Helen Meng
 
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Helen Meng

• Other activities of ISCA-SAC
• Organization of the 10th anniversary poster
  design contest
• (72 submissions)
• Interview transcriptions for the History of
  Speech and Language Technology Project (Saras
  Institute), publication in IEEE SLTC Newsletters
• ISCA-SAC logo contest winner Mohamed
  Abou-Zleikha
• Website Transition to Web 2.0 (Blog already
  launched)

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• Publications
• ISCA Pad on the website
• Edited by Christian Wellekens
• Authoring toolISCAPad Maker
• By Laurence Liu and Helen Meng
• Converts text to structured hyperlinks for easy
  access

Chris Wellekens
Helen Meng
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• Treasurers Report

Bernd MÖBIUS

• Positive result for 2008 - more income but more
  expenditure due to new initiatives
• Solid financial base for continued Interspeech
  and ITRW seed funding
• Enhancing internationalization (DL, SIG)
• Continuing grant support
• Consistent saving thanks to Student Committee
  initiatives
• Major overhaul of ISCA website and move to new
  web hosting service requiring more expenditures

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Includes generous surplus donation from IS
2006 (Pittsburgh), to be used for
grants Includes membership fees from
2 conferences (IS 2007, Antwerp and IS
2008, Brisbane) Loan payments/repayments are
not included in income and expenditure tables
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Lower because of maternity leave Includes
room rent for all committee meetings
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For several months each year, ISCA has loans to
1-2 Interspeech conferences and 1-2 workshops
outstanding. Assets gt82k are required to
maintain a positive cash balance.
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Conclusions

• ISCA is financially sound - assets growing.
• Increased reserves enable ISCA to reduce
  financial risks to conference organizers
  potentially reducing registration fees.
• ISCA will continue to provide loans for
  Interspeech conferences and ITRW workshops.
• ISCA is still in a position to strengthen its
  support for grants, international actions and
  groups, and new initiatives.
• New ideas are most welcome!

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Approval of Reports

• Presidents Report
• Treasurers Report

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• Changes to the ISCA Board
• New members Nick Campbell (Ireland), Keikichi
  Hirose (Japan), Haizhou Li (Singapore), Douglas
  OShaughnessy (Canada), Yannis Stylianou (Greece)
  
• Continuing members Alan Black, Jean-François
  Bonastre, David House, Helen Meng, Bernd Möbius,
  Michael Picheny, Yoshinori Sagisaka, Tanja
  Schultz, Isabel Trancoso
• Retiring members Eva Hajicova, Lin-shan Lee

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• New ISCA Board
  
  

Alan Black
Keikichi Hirose
Jean-François Bonastre
David House
Nick Campbell
Helen Meng
Michael Picheny
Haizhou Li
Bernd Möbius
Douglas OShaugnessy
Yoshinori Sagisaka
Yannis Stilianou
Isabel Trancoso
Tanja Schultz
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Goals for 2009-10

• To enhance ISCAs world position
• To promote high standards in ISCAs conferences
  and workshops
• To expand ISCAs international aspects
• To support student-centered activities
• Regional sub-committees
• Remote access to lectures (DL program)
• To enhance the ISCA community
• To raise the impact factor of ISCA members
  publications
• To launch the ISCA video archive
• To understand members needs better and increase
  community involvement
• To stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration in
  new areas of research
• To improve current ISCA web-based services and
  create new ones

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• Board composition
• Alternatives considered
• Keep current restriction (max 2 per country)
• Increase limit to max 3 per country
• Include regional restrictions
• max 3-6 per region
• Regions Europe Africa, America, AsiaOceania
• Make restrictions proportional to membership
  representation
• need a concrete proposal for this, but it will
  be logistically very difficult
• Remove restriction
• Problem
• None of the above options encourages diversity in
  field
• The Board unanimously decided for option B
• In view of extension to 14 members
• Goal getting both regional and scientific
  variation
• To be presented to the General Assembly in 2009,
  but voted in 2010, in time for the next Board
  elections

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Comments, Suggestions and Questions from ISCA
Members
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Next ISCA General Assembly INTERSPEECH
2010 Makuhari, Japan, September 26-30, 2010
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• Any Other Business?

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