Roles and responsibilities of LEF Coordinating Committee Members

These ‘job descriptions’ for the UK Linguistic Ethnography Forum’s Coordinating Committee were drafted at a meeting in Birmingham on 13 June 2003, attended by Richard Barwell, Angela Creese, Janet Maybin, Ben Rampton, Karin Tusting.  They represent a provisional checklist of what tasks need to be done by whom, which we will no doubt continue to revise - more general principles governing LEF’s activity are outlined in our draft constitution.

Convenor / secretary
•	Keeping an overall check on time and deadlines
•	Coordinating discussion of ideas for future seminars and colloquia
•	Coordinating business meetings agendas and bringing photocopies
•	Ensuring reports, discussion papers etc pre-circulated a week before general meetings
•	Sending out reminder about candidate meeting themes to email list 2 weeks before business meetings
•	Chairing business meetings
•	Coordinating constitutional discussions and keeping constitution
•	Coordinating elections: send out call for nominations on email list in January, organise written self-descriptions from any nominees who won’t be present at the election
•	Managing external relations with BAAL and other organisations
•	Collating and drafting annual report to BAAL
•	Approaching BAAL EC for extra funding where necessary (in liaison with treasurer)
•	Reminding BAAL meetings secretary that SIG exists and that time needs to be put aside for SIG colloquium

Treasurer
•	Day to day management of incomings / outgoings
•	Authorising expenditure
•	Liaising with bank
•	Updating authorised signatories on account when co-ordinating committee changes
•	Keeping auditable books to pass on to next treasurer
•	Liaising with local organisers re. seminar budgets and outgoings
•	Liaising with local organisers re seminar participants who need to pay non-members' supplement
•	Buying gifts for local organisers from UKLEF funds
•	Sending money to BAAL to cover non-members' supplement
•	Preparing auditable accounts for BAAL treasurer (16 July)

Communications secretary
•	Maintaining email list
•	Maintaining website including archive
•	Keeping hard copy of archive
•	Keeping private file of material only open to co-ordinating committee, such as recording who has been asked to be referees for the BAAL Colloquium submission
•	Making an annual check of who wants to be on the membership list in early June, in time for the membership list to be circulated in July
•	Sending a list of members to BAAL Membership secretary by 16 July
•	Liaising with and training electronic back-up person

Meetings secretary
•	Keeping a check on seminar-specific timelines
•	Liaising with membership over venue for spring seminar
•	Liaising with local organisers
•	Visiting sites
•	Conferring on and updating Jo Arthur’s guidelines on organising seminars, in liaison with local organisers
•	Making sure publicity goes out about seminar.  (Local organiser sends publicity out (email and produces web page), meetings secretary makes sure this happens, supplies templates etc.)  
•	Drawing up feedback form and collating feedback from seminars
•	Keeping templates for evaluation forms

Spring seminar programme co-ordinator
One member of steering group acts as spring seminar programme co-ordinator, beginning in the spring the year before. Responsibility rotates according to interest, links etc.  Responsible for designing the discursive shape of the event:
•	Liaising with speakers and local organisers
•	Planning programme (final decision on programme to be made collectively by the CC and local organisers)
•	Identifying pre-readings, in liaison with presenters and local organiser
•	Soliciting seminar reports

September Colloquium co-ordinator
One member of steering group to act as colloquium co-ordinator (starting in September the year before), with responsibility rotating as above.  Responsible for:
•	Putting out call for papers in October/November, with February deadline for abstracts
•	Taking responsibility for making sure landscape of colloquium hangs together - group makes final decision
•	Setting up panel of referees, inviting people to referee submissions for colloquium (coordinating committee makes final decision), sending referees the colloquium proposal
•	Making sure colloquium proposal gets in to BAAL on time
•	Co-ordinating with BAAL local organisers / meetings secretary
•	Arranging chairing of the colloquium
•	Producing / updating guidelines for next colloquium co-ordinator

(Both programme co-ordinators to be or become members of co-ordinating committee.)

To be decided collectively among the Coordinating Committee
•	Finalising dates of spring seminars
•	Finalising seminar and colloquium topics
•	Identifying programme coordinators one year in advance of the event
•	Identifying people to invite as presenters
•	Deciding on final shape of colloquium and seminar programmes

Ben Rampton
Acting Convenor
1st July 2003
Revised following business meeting 4th September 03.