Committee Charter

Committee Origins:

The concept of an LSRL Executive Committee has long been advocated for by LSRL community members, going back to at least 1978 at the University of Louisville (Rafael Núñez-Cedeño, p.c.). Following discussions at the LSRL54 business meeting, organizer Adam McBride spearheaded efforts to move forward with the idea. Soliciting nominations from the LSRL community for membership in the new LSRL Executive Committee, he created an election system which resulted in the committee’s birth in July 2024, with four members.

Committee Mission:

The primary role of the LSRL Executive Committee is to help establish and organize hosts of the annual Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages. One of the goals is to ensure that by June 30th of each year, the community has at least the following year’s host already in place (with the greater ambition of having three future LSRLs lined up), in order to avoid ever having a year in which the LSRL has no host. Other goals are to (a) help and advise current LSRL hosts by providing information and resources from prior meetings; (b) maintain a stable platform (this website) which provides useful information about past meetings (locations, invited speakers, special session themes, proceedings); and (c) perpetuate the committee, which simulates a “professional association” for our community, in order to maintain cohesion and continuity. Meetings occur on an ad hoc basis and follow Robert’s Rules of Order.

Committee Structure:

  • Four elected members
  • One ex officio member

Elections procedure:

[to be completed]

Terms of office (run from July 1 to June 30):

  • Elected members: three years
  • Ex officio member: one year

Committee Member Roles:

  • Archivist: organizes and maintains relevant documents in our Google drive
  • Conference Liaison: serves as the primary committee contact for current organizers of the conference
  • Ex-officio member: the committee will always have one ex-officio member. This member will be the organizer of the prior year’s LSRL. The purpose of the ex-officio member is to provide immediate continuity from the prior year’s LSRL to the following year’s LSRL.
  • Membership Manager: organizes and maintains the community contact list
  • Webmaster: maintains the LSRL website (lsrl.co)