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Protocol for the Standing Committee on Awards

Terms of Reference

The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) has created a Standing Committee on Awards (SCA).

This committee is charged with carrying out the following activities:

  1. to oversee ADHO awards of the following prizes:
    1. The Busa Prize (an award for life-time achievement in the digital humanities);
    2. The Zampolli Prize (an award for a specific achievement of note); and
    3. The Fortier Student Prize (an award to a student or young scholar);
    4. ADHO Conference Bursaries (an award to up to 10 students or young scholars per year);
  2. to keep under review the protocols for each ADHO award, and propose changes from time to time as seems appropriate;
  3. to ensure appropriate publication of the papers prepared and delivered by award recipients;
  4. to consult with the ADHO Steering Committee on important strategic, operational, and management issues—including the planning and operation of the awards processes;
  5. to prepare reports to the ADHO Steering Committee and the executive committees of the ADHO Constituent Organisations. Reporting will take place annually, in time for the reports to be distributed at each constituent society’s AGM, and the annual meeting of the ADHO Steering Committee. (Typically these meetings take place sometime in the period mid-May to mid-July each year); and
  6. to consider possible new awards or related ways to encourage new forms of activity in the digital humanities, e.g. encouraging participation by new scholarly communities.

Membership

The committee will be composed of a Chair, appointed annually by the ADHO Steering Committee, and one representative appointed by each of the three constituent organizations. The SCA Chair is also an ex officio non-voting member of the ADHO Steering Committee and in that capacity is responsible for communication between the two committees.
Each representative appointed by a constituent organization will serve for a three-year term, with the appointments staggered such that one new appointment is made each year.
The Awards Committee may co-opt additional members at its discretion, each co-option to run for up to twelve months within the Committee’s annual cycle.

Awards cycles

Each ADHO Award has its own protocol: these are attached as annexes to this protocol. Although the overall management of each award is properly the business of the Awards Committee as a whole, it is expected that each Award process will be managed by a Committee member show three-year term coincides in some appropriate way with the Award timetable.
Up to ten Bursaries are awarded each year to students or young scholars who have papers or posters accepted at the annual ADHO conference, to support their attendance at the conference. The Bursaries protocol is attached as an annex to this protocol.

Activities

  1. The annual cycle of the SCA is considered to run from the end of one annual ADHO conference to the end of the next.
  2. The SCA will meet at the annual ADHO conference to set the agenda for the forthcoming year. If possible this will be after the ADHO Steering Committee meeting, in order that directions from the Steering Committee can be taken into account when planning. If there is a change in Chair, this meeting will include both the past Chair and the new one if both can attend.
  3. The SCA will conduct its business during the year by e-mail and, if necessary, by conference call.
  4. The Chair of the SCA will formally remind the ADHO constituent organization whose appointed member is coming to the end of her/his term that a new 3-year appointment needs to be made. The new appointment should be notified to the SCA Chair at or before the annual ADHO conference.
  5. Each year the ADHO Steering Committee will review the position of Chair of the SCA at its meeting and will appoint a Chair for the forthcoming year. There is no bar to a Chair being re-appointed at the discretion of the Steering Committee.
  6. Once a year (or more often as requested) the Chair should report in writing to the ADHO Steering Committee and to the executive committees of the constituent organizations, before their annual meetings.
  7. The Steering Committee will review this protocol and the composition and responsibilities of the SCA when there is an increase in SCA membership arising from the admission of a new organization to ADHO.
  8. The ADHO Steering Committee is encouraged to communicate proposals and directions in relation to ADHO awards, which the SCA should try to facilitate.

Typical annual timeline

  1. January/February: The SCA Chair requests the relevent constituent organization to appoint or re-appoint its representative on the Awards Committee. Where possible, the new appointment should be made in time for a new appointee to make travel arrangements for the annual meeting.
  2. Mid-May: The Chair of the SCA reports in writing to the ADHO Steering Committee and to the Chairs of the executive committees of the ADHO constituent organizations.
  3. June-July: At the annual ADHO conference, the SCA Chair may be asked to discuss the SCA’s report during the ADHO Steering Committee’s meeting. During the annual ADHO conference, the SCA also meets, and at that meeting sets the agenda for the coming year.
  4. From conference to conference: The SCA pursues the agenda set at the annual meeting.

Resp:Harold Short after John Unsworth.

Status: Revised and adopted by ADHO Steering Committee at meetings on 23/25 June 2008, and ratified by the ACH Council and the ALLC Committee on 24 June 2008.