Information Theory Society

Amended March 18, 1992, June 22, 1992, March 22, 1995, March 19, 1997, September 25, 1999, June 24, 2001, June 30,2002 and June 29, 2003

Article I. Purpose

Section 1. These Bylaws provide detailed guidance for the supervision and management of Society affairs in accordance with the Society Constitution. Amendments to these Bylaws may be made as prescribed in Article IX, Section 2, of the Society Constitution.

Section 1. The annual Society fee shall be set by the Board of Governors and billed and collected by IEEE Headquarters.

Section 2. Society Affiliates are non-IEEE members who have been admitted to membership in the Society. The Affiliates enjoy all the rights and privileges of Society members except those accruing solely from membership in IEEE. In general, a Society Affiliate must be a person whose technological activities do not justify full membership in IEEE, but who may be helped by participation in Society activities or who may contribute beneficially to Society activities. The qualifications for Society Affiliates and the limits in rights and privileges shall be established by the IEEE Executive Committee which shall also fix the annual surcharge for Society Affiliates. The annual Society Affiliate fee shall include the annual Society fee plus the surcharge.

Section 3. Exception to the annual Society fee shall be made for students, as prescribed by IEEE rules and regulation.

Section 1. The President shall designate one of the Board Meetings in the calendar year as the Annual Meeting of the Society.

Section 2. No Society member may serve continuously on the Board for longer than two terms except as provided in Section 3 below.

Section 3. A Board member who is elected President, 1st Vice-President, or 2nd Vice-President for the next year shall continue as a voting Board member to the end of that officer's term, except that the President shall vote only if his vote would change the outcome. A Board member who is elected President shall continue as a voting Board member for two years after the end of his/her term as President.

Section 4. No meeting of the Board shall be held to transact business unless each member has been notified of the time and place of such meeting and the main agenda items at least 3 weeks prior to the date of the meeting.

Section 5. Official business may be transacted at a duly called meeting of the Board only if a quorum is present. However, if less than a quorum attends a duly called meeting of the Board, tentative actions may be taken which will become effective upon subsequent ratification by a majority of the Board. Minutes of such meeting, with a ballot entry for each action to be ratified shall be mailed by the Secretary to each Board member. Ballots must be returned within 3 weeks in order to be counted.

Section 6. Robert's Rules of Order (revised) shall govern the conduct of the Board on all matters not otherwise specified in these Bylaws or in the Constitution.

Section 7. Minutes of a Board meeting shall be mailed by the Secretary to each Board member and to the Technical Activities Board Secretary of IEEE within thirty days of the meeting.

Section 8. Immediately upon assumption of office, the Board President shall notify all Board members of those professional meetings in the coming year at which it is likely that a Board meeting will be held. All meetings of the Board shall be open to all Society members and, whenever possible, advance notice of Board meetings shall be given to the membership by Newsletter notice or other means.

Section 1. No later than two weeks prior to the Annual Meeting of the Board, the Nominations Subcommittee shall forward to the Board the biographies of at least 12 Society members for election by mail ballot by all of the members of the Society.

This list must also include any Society members endorsed by twenty or more members of the Society in response to a Newsletter solicitation published in the first issue of the current year. This list must also include any Society member endorsed by five or more members of the Board.

In order to ensure adequate international representation from regions which have been historically under-represented in the Board of Governors, in addition to the six nominees receiving the largest number of votes, the top nominee (not among those six) from every under-represented region shall be elected to the Board.

For the purposes of the previous paragraph, an under-represented region refers to each of regions 8, 9, and 10 with at least 5% of the membership of the Society (on December 31 of the year preceding the election) and at most one Board member (after the election of the top six nominees).

In preparing its list of nominees for election to the Board, the Subcommittee shall ascertain the eligibility and willingness to serve of each nominee.

Section 2. At the Annual Meeting of the Society, the Board shall nominate one or more of its members for the posts of President, 1st Vice-President, and 2nd Vice-President. Each nomination shall require a mover and one seconder. It shall be the responsibility of the mover to ascertain in advance the willingness of the nominee to serve if elected.

Section 3. Election of Board members shall be by ballot, mailed to all voting members of the Society at least 45 days before the date appointed for return of the ballots.

Section 4. Election of the new President, 1st Vice-President, and 2nd Vice-President shall be by mail ballot of the Board. The ballots shall be distributed by the outgoing President as soon as practical after the Annual Meeting and must be returned to the President within 3 weeks in order to be counted.

Section 5. Election to fill within-term vacancies in the offices of President, 1st Vice-President, or 2nd Vice-President shall be by mail ballot of the Board with the remaining officers serving as the nominating committee.

Section 6. The responsibilities of the Treasurer are to prepare the budget and to carry out financial transactions as representative of the Board and the President. The responsibilities of the Secretary are to record the minutes of Board meetings, and to carry out duties specified elsewhere in the Constitution and Bylaws.

Section 1. The standing subcommittees of the Board shall include the following:

Section 2. The Nominations Subcommittee shall consist of the Junior Past President, the Senior Past President, and a former President of the Society appointed by the current President. The Senior Past President shall chair the Subcommittee.

Section 3. The Constitution and Bylaws Subcommittee shall consist of the two most recent past Presidents of the Board. The senior past President shall be the chairperson of the Subcommittee. This Subcommittee is charged with preparing suitable revisions to keep the Constitution and Bylaws up to date and with insuring that the Board is made aware of those sections of these documents pertinent to proposed actions.

Section 4. The Claude E. Shannon Award Selection Subcommittee shall consist of the President, First Vice-President, Second Vice-President, and four other members appointed by the Nominations Subcommittee before January 31st. At least three of the appointed members shall be former Claude E. Shannon Award winners, and at least one of the appointed members shall be the current, or a former, Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. The Subcommittee is charged with deciding whether to name a Claude E. Shannon Award winner for the following year, and to select a winner. The President of the Society shall serve as Chairperson of the Claude E. Shannon Award Selection Subcommittee. Ordinarily, the decision of the Subcommittee shall be made public at the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory of the year preceding the award.

Section 5. The Awards Subcommittee shall be responsible for submitting a recommendation to the Board for the Information Theory Society Paper Award according to Article VIII Section 2, and for the solicitation, processing and submission on behalf of the Society of nominations for the W. R. G. Baker Award, the Browder J. Thompson Award, Donald Fink Award, and all other appropriate IEEE Awards.

The Subcommittee shall consist of at least nine members representing all major technical areas in the Society. At least four members shall have served as Associate Editors of the Transactions within the past three years. The First and Second Vice Presidents of the Society serve as ex-officio voting members of this Subcommittee, with the First Vice President serving as Chair. The Subcommittee will be appointed by the Nominations Committee no later than January 31.

Section 6. The Membership and Chapters Subcommittee shall consist of the 2nd Vice-President of the Society, who shall serve as chairperson, and of such other Society members appointed by the 2nd Vice-President. This Subcommittee shall be responsible for maintaining up to date membership records, a roster of Chapter officers, and a summary of current Chapter activity. The Subcommittee shall recommend measures for disseminating information about the Society and for encouraging interest in Society activities among prospective members. It shall respond to membership inquiries and shall periodically ascertain the opinions of the membership with regard to group policies and activities.

Section 7. The Publications Subcommittee shall consist of the Society Transactions Editor-in-Chief who serves as chairperson, the Associate Editors of the Society Transactions, and the Newsletter Editor. The President, First Vice President and Second Vice President of the Society are ex-officio members of the committee. The Subcommittee shall generate yearly nominations for the Information Theory Society Paper Award, as per Article VIII, Section 1, oversee the solicitation and review of papers for publication, and shall edit, prepare and publish the Transactions, Special Issues, Monographs, and Newsletter as directed by the Board, with the assistance of the IEEE Editorial Office. The Subcommittee shall recommend changes in publication policy to the Board.

The term of office of the Editor-in-Chief shall be three years. The Associate Editors are appointed by the Editor-in-Chief subject to approval by the Board.

The Transactions Editor-in-Chief shall be nominated by the Nominations Committee and shall be appointed by the Board at an Annual Meeting.

The Newsletter Editor shall be appointed by the Board, upon nomination by the Society President.

Section 8. The Fellows Subcommittee shall be responsible for providing the IEEE Fellow Committee with the Society evaluation of nominations to Fellow grade.

The subcommittee shall consist of at least five IEEE Fellows who hold membership in the Society and represent all its major technical areas. The Nominations Committee shall appoint the members of the Fellow subcommittee, and designate its chairperson by October 1st of the previous year.

Section 9. The Distinguished Service Award Selection Subcommittee shall consist of the President, First Vice-President, Junior Past-President, and two members appointed by the Nominations Subcommittee before January 31st. The Subcommittee is charged with deciding whether to name a Distinguised Service Award winner for the actual year, and to select a winner. The President of the Society shall serve as Chairperson of the Distinguised Service Award Selection Subcommittee. Ordinarily, the decision of the Subcommittee shall be made public at the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory of the year of the award.

Section 1. The Society shall sponsor an annual International Symposium on Information Theory. The Board will select the venue and dates for the Symposium, and shall direct the appointment of the Symposium Chair or two Co-Chairpersons. The Symposium Chairpersons will have the entire responsibility for planning and executing the Symposium subject only to appropriate IEEE regulations and such guidance as the Board wishes to provide.

Section 1. The purpose of the Claude E. Shannon Award is to honor consistent and profound contributions to the field of information theory. The selection is governed by Article V. Section 4.

An honorarium of $10,000 and a suitable memento are awarded to the Claude E. Shannon Award winners. Each Shannon Award winner is expected to present a Shannon Lecture at the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory of the year of the award. In addition to the honorarium, the Information Theory Society will pay the winner's travel expenses.

Section 2. The Shannon Lecturers in the years preceding the institution of the Shannon Lecturer Award (1973-1994) shall be considered to be Claude E. Shannon Award winners for the years their respective Shannon Lectures were delivered.

Section 1. The Information Theory Society Paper Award shall be given annually for an outstanding publication in the fields of interest to the Society appearing anywhere during the preceding two calendar years.

The purpose of this Award is to recognize exceptional publications in the field and to stimulate interest in and encourage contributions to fields of interest of the Society. The Award consists of an appropriately worded certificate(s) and an honorarium of $1,000 for a paper with a single author, or an honorarium of $2,000 equally split among the authors of the paper.

Section 2. An open call for nominations to this award shall be published in the Newsletter.

By March 15, the chair of the Publications Subcommittee or designee shall forward to the First Vice President a list of at least nine articles, published in the previous calendar year, for the consideration of the Awards Subcommittee. Each nomination shall be accompanied by a statement outlining the contribution of the paper.

The Awards Subcommittee shall take into account (a) all nominations submitted in response to the open call for nominations in the last two years; (b) the nominations supplied by the Publications Committee in the last two years; (c) any nomination that its members may want to submit for consideration.

The Awards Subcommittee shall submit to the Board a list of up to three selected nominations for the Information Theory Society Paper Award at least 3 weeks in advance of the first Board meeting following June 1st of the award year, and shall enclose a rationale for each nominated paper explaining its contribution to the field.

The Board shall then vote for the nominees by ballot, conducted by the Society President or designee at the first Board Meeting following June 1st of the award year. The paper receiving the highest total number of votes in the balloting shall be declared the winner of the Information Theory Society Paper Award.

Section 1. The purpose of the Distinguised Service Award is to honor individuals who have shown outstanding leadership in- and provided long-standing exceptional service to - the Information Theory Community. The selection is governed by Article V. Section 9.

Section 2. Nominations for the Distinguished Service Award can be made by anyone and are made by sending a letter of nomination to the president of the IT-society by April 15. The individual or individuals making the nomination have the primary responsibility for justifying why the nominee should receive this award. Current officers and members of the Society Board of Governors are ineligible.

Section 3. The prize shall be an ISIT or ITW participation fee waiver, a specially engraved plaque and a certificate, and shall be presented at the ISIT meeting held during the Summer following selection of the winner or at an appropriate IEEE IT society activity selected by the recipient.