CARES By-Laws and Governance Policies

SIGHPC CARES was formed as a 12-member committee in September 2021. SIGHPC CARES is a committee of SIGHPC, and this relationship is expected to continue in perpetuity. Any changes to the rules of governance must be approved by SIGHPC.

SIGHPC CARES offers informal support and advice only, through an in-person presence at SIGHPC-sponsored events as well as an email alias for communication. The CARES committee provides resources on discrimination and harassment and how to report incidents to ACM. Members of SIGHPC CARES do not formally represent any individuals reporting ACM code of conduct violations and are not involved in any aspect of the handling of the complaint by ACM. Individuals experiencing discrimination and harassment are responsible for initiating formal complaints to the ACM, which will be handled in accordance with ACM’s policies.

Membership

Appointments

Anyone may suggest potential committee members to the co-chairs through the email address CARES@sighpc.org. Committee members should be respected community members to encourage reporting. Due to the personal nature of these incidents, ensuring committee members are compassionate, trustworthy, and discreet is also of utmost importance.

In consultation with the SIGHPC executive committee, the co-chairs and current CARES committee members will vet potential committee members by seeking input from collaborators and the SIGHPC community.  After this process, new members may be invited by the co-chairs to serve.  Committee members are invited to serve for a 3-year term. Members may serve for a maximum of 6 years, served consecutively. Members can step down at any point and will be expected to provide one month of advance notice. All CARES reports or discussion must be held in confidence unless otherwise noted.

The CARES co-chairs will inform the sponsoring organization of any changes in membership in a timely manner.

Responsibilities

Members must familiarize themselves with ACM policy against harassment and view the following webinar,

ACM Webinar on “Harassment at Meetings: How to Spot, Stop, and Prevent it” (1 hr and 25 mins).
  The PDF document provided in the webinar

CARES intends to have at least two committee members present at all SIGHPC-sponsored conferences as well as the committee planning meetings, as invited, for those conferences. To support this goal, committee members are asked to attend at least one SIGHPC-sponsored event per year.

During the opening remarks of SIGHPC-sponsored conferences or events, the organizing committee is expected to announce the presence and objectives of SIGHPC CARES. This announcement should indicate CARES committee member(s) present with whom an attendee can speak directly and any particular events the CARES members will attend.

Co-Chairs

In steady state, two co-chairs will always serve. Each co-chair will serve for two years, and appointments will overlap by one year, so that there will always be a serving co-chair with at least one year of experience.  After serving as co-chair, the former co-chair is expected to remain on the committee for at least one more year.

Co-chairs may be drawn from the current committee or the community at large. The current co-chairs will propose the next committee co-chair and will request input from the current CARES committee members and the SIGHPC executive committee. A one-month period will be provided for feedback and discussion. Co-chairs will then be approved by consensus of the CARES committee members and the SIGHPC executive committee.

Ethics and Conflicts of Interest

Committee members will be held to the highest standards of conduct and discretion. They must abide by the ACM policy against harassment and any other pertinent ACM rules, their institutions’ rules, as well as any context relevant policies [1]. The reporting person’s experiences will only be shared with others on the committee if their explicit permission is provided to do so.

If an incident is reported to the ACM against a CARES committee member, and an investigation determines that the report is credible, the member will be removed from the committee.  If the committee is made aware of the complaint while the investigation is ongoing, the member will not represent CARES at any SIGHPC events during the investigation.

If the person accused of harassment and discrimination has a conflict of interest with the CARES committee member who initially receives a report (e.g., advisor/advisee, collaborator, same institution, etc.), that committee member shall refer the reporter to another committee member immediately.

Reporting to and Oversight by the Sponsoring Organization

Although CARES will work autonomously, the final responsibility for its appropriate functioning rests with the sponsoring organization, the SIGHPC Executive Committee. The CARES co-chairs will submit an annual report to the sponsoring organization indicating the conferences and events covered and the committee members attending these meetings. Individual incident reports and conversations with committee members are confidential excluding situations of imminent danger. The CARES report will therefore summarize the nature and scale of climate and harassment concerns within the community, but without inappropriate or confidential details. To align with other ACM reporting requirements, the report will be due July 15 and will cover the ACM fiscal year period of July 1 of the prior year to June 30th.