Constitution of ‘Humans, Machines, Language’
Written in accordance with BAAL’s rules for Special Interest Groups.
‘Humans, Machines, Language’ (HuMaLa) is a Special Interest Group (SIG) within the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL). It provides a forum to discuss, critically engage with, and research the intersections of linguistic scholarship and human-integrated language technologies. The twin foci are: speaking to technology (humans having substantial and complex conversations with machines); and speaking through technology (machines substantially augmenting language use between humans, for example live real-time machine translation, voice synthesis, and live augmentation of mouth movements). Further details of these are outlined in the ‘forecast report’ of HuMaLa’s precursor network, ‘Language In The Human-Machine Era’: https://doi.org/10.17011/jyx/reports/20210518/1.
HuMaLa holds at least two academic meetings every year: one at the BAAL Annual Meeting (SIG Track), and a standalone event for SIG members. Each meeting seeks to include variation in its focus, and to welcome a broad range of participants, especially spanning humanistic and technological inquiry. HuMaLa maintains a website, an email discussion list, and social media presence.
A HuMaLa member is someone who has subscribed to the HuMaLa email list. HuMaLa welcomes all researchers and practitioners with an interest in human-integrated language technologies, whether or not they have technological expertise. Precisely the purpose of HuMaLa is to bring together, on the one hand, those with humanistic expertise and a critical interest in human-integrated technologies, and on the other hand, those with technological expertise and an interest in dialogue with humanistic researchers.
HuMaLa membership is free of charge, but fees may apply to attend academic meetings. Members are not required to be BAAL members, although this will be necessary to run for a position on the Executive Committee (see below), per BAAL rules. HuMaLa will also encourage its members to consider BAAL membership.
Members’ email addresses will be passed on to BAAL once per year, under the BAAL regulations for SIGs.
HuMaLa is managed by a Executive Committee (EC) that consists of:
The Convenor (this may be shared between two Co-Convenors) facilitates all EC communications and planning (including annual reports), takes responsibility for different EC briefs as necessary, chairs events, and otherwise represents HuMaLa;
The Treasurer manages the SIG bank account and financial transactions (e.g. liaising with different host university finance departments to administer event payments), and completes the annual financial reports for BAAL;
The Conference Secretary oversees HuMaLa's annual conference (hosted at a different host university each year), publicises the event and manages abstract submission and review (likely in coordination with the Communications Secretary), and repeats these duties for the SIG track at the annual BAAL conference;
The Training Secretary plans and oversees HuMaLa's training events (hosted at a different host university each year), likely to include an annual training school similar to the precursor LITHME training school;
The Communications Secretary manages the HuMaLa website and social media accounts, facilitates mass media contact, and coordinates with the Membership Secretary on aspects of the email list;
The Events Coordinator facilitates and coordinates both training and conferences briefs, to ensure mutual compatibility and distinctiveness;
The Membership Secretary records and analyses HuMaLa's membership, manages the HuMaLa email list, and serves as a general first point of contact for members on matters outside the brief of other EC members;
Ordinary Members (a common position within BAAL SIGs, without a specified brief) attend to shared matters across all briefs, working flexibly as capacity is needed in each area -- this is equally important to the other positions, and is widely recognised among BAAL SIGs (the EC may opt to appoint more than one Ordinary Member according to need);
Co-opted Members, typically representing the host organisation of a HuMaLa event and serving as chair of the local organising committee.
These are all elected for a (renewable) period of two years, though with flexibility for changing circumstances (see below). Elections are normally held during the BAAL annual conference.
HuMaLa specifically encourages early career individuals to participate in the committee.
The EC is responsible for coordinating, facilitating and overseeing the activities of HuMaLa (for example publicising HuMaLa events; liaising with local organisers; maintaining financial accounts; servicing business meetings; updating membership list, etc.). It is also responsible for organising EC elections as described below.
The EC must submit:
a detailed financial statement to the BAAL Treasurer by 15th June every year, for onward transmission to the BAAL accountant for auditing; and
an Annual Report to the BAAL SIG Co-ordinator for transmission to the BAAL Secretary, the BAAL Newsletter Editor, and the BAAL Web Editor by 1st August every year.
The EC should also ensure that all HuMaLa activities are regularly publicised through the BAAL Newsletter, the BAAL website, BAALmail and the HuMaLa website.
The AGM typically takes place during the BAAL conference, with both in-person and online attendance facilitated. All members may vote, though only BAAL members may run for the EC.
Votes are conducted at the AGM in person, and online beforehand for members not in attendance – usually for a period of around 5 working days beforehand, so that the result can be decided and announced at the AGM. In-person votes will be by secret ballot. For online votes, names will be collected and seen by the EC for verification purposes, except by EC members who are being opposed in an election.
For each EC position, each member is entitled to one vote.
Quorum for an AGM election is eight (including online votes cast beforehand, as above). This excludes currently serving EC members and any candidates for EC posts.
In the event of an equality of votes, the (Co-)Convenor(s) may give a second or casting vote; their decision will then be final.
If an EC member has to stand down within their period of tenure (for example following a change in their professional or personal responsibilities), this will trigger a new election. The EC is authorised to decide whether this is done immediately online or at the following AGM. If the latter, then the EC is authorised to agree a temporary caretaker in the interim, by means of majority vote among the EC.
In the event of the HuMaLa ceasing to operate, any funds held will be paid back to BAAL.
This constitution may be amended by majority vote at any quorate AGM, provided that written notice of the proposed amendments are given to the Convenor(s) in good time and then relayed to the membership at least fourteen days before votes are opened.
This constitution may also be amended by majority vote following online elections among members.