Purpose:
The DATE Executive Committee plans, executes, and evaluates the total DATEnn Event and prepares timely the establishment of DATEnn+1.

Composition:
The DATE Executive Committee (DEC) shall maintain a balanced representation from different professional disciplines related to design and test, from multiple geographical areas and from industry and academia. The DEC shall preferably be comprised of the following positions, there being no prohibition, but also no preference, on one individual filling more than a single position (also: some positions can be filled in by more than one person):

01. General Chair
02. General Vice-Chair
03. Finance Chair
04. Past General Chair
05. Nominations Chair
06. Conference Program Chair

07. Conference Program Vice-Chair
08. Past Conference Chair
09. Design Forum Chair
10. Posters Chair
11. Special Sessions Chair
12. Electronic Review Chair
13. Audio-Visual Chair
14. Tutorials Chair

15. Exhibition Program Chair
 

16. University Booth Chair
17. Hands-on Tutorials Chair
18. Vendors Chair
19. PCB Symposium Chair

20. Communications Chair
 

21. Publicity Chair
22. Web Chair
23. Proceedings Chair
24. Awards Chair
25. Fringe Meetings Chair
26. Travel Grants Chair
27. Local Arrangements Chair
28. Liaison Chair USA
29. Liaison Chair Asia
30. Liaison Chair EDAA
31. Liaison Chair EDA Consortium
32. Liaison Chair IEEE

The indentation in the numbered list above indicates which Chairs at least belong to each of the sub-Committees (Other persons, usually experts, may be asked to participate in the sub- Committees).

The General Chair of DATEnn+1 shall determine which Chair functions should be filled in and inform the Nominations Chair timely of wishes in this respect. For newly created Chair functions for DATEnn+1, a task description should be provided by the General Chair. This task description should be added to Chapter 7 of this document Once the DEC composition is determined and positions filled for a certain DATEnn, no changes are to be performed during the year without informing and getting approval from the DSC. Each sponsor is entitled to propose at least one person to fill a Chair position in the DATE Executive Committee, in case of EDAA, EDAC and IEEE to be combined preferably with the Liaison Chair function of that sponsor.

All DEC positions shall be staffed by volunteers, receiving no compensation. Term, acceptance, succession, vacancies and removal: Each DEC Chair will be appointed for a one-year term. No person shall retain the same Chair for more than two consecutive years to avoid stagnation, to give more persons an opportunity, to promote innovation and to stimulate renewal. To guarantee a smooth operation of successive DATE Events and to capture as much as possible the experience accumulated in the DEC, some positions have fixed succession. Unless a vacancy occurs, the succession of DEC members shall be as follows:

• The General Chair of DATEnn shall become the Past General Chair of DATEnn+1.
• The General Vice-Chair of DATEnn shall become the General Chair of DATEnn+1.
• The Conference Program Chair of DATEnn shall become the General Vice-Chair of
   
• DATEnn+1.
• The Conference Program Vice-Chair of DATEnn shall become the Conference
   
• Program Chair of DATEnn+1.
• All other positions: For all positions other than those that have fixed succession, the
   
• Nominations Committee shall propose at least one name per position.

If the General Chair position becomes vacant, the General Vice-Chair shall immediately become the General Chair. The same procedure holds for the Conference Program Chair and Vice-Chair. When a vacancy occurs in any other DEC position, the Nominations Committee shall nominate a replacement. Should the vacancy occur in one of the offices of a Nominations Committee member, the General Chair shall appoint a member from the DEC to the Nominations Committee.

Vacancies shall be filled within one month of their occurrence. Should the vacancy occur at a time at which a DEC quorum cannot meet, the General Chair shall be responsible for conducting a mail, e-mail or facsimile vote for election of the candidate. Removing a Chair from its position before the term is passed can only be effected by the DATE Sponsor Committee after hearing all the Chairs in the DEC. Any DEC member may be removed from his/her DEC position. A DEC member may be removed for unsatisfactory performance, direct or indirect conflict of interest, or unethical or unprofessional conduct

Responsibilities:
The DEC shall have complete authority for operating DATE in compliance with the purpose of DATE and DEC's approved budget. It shall decide all issues relative to policy, program and budget. It will report to the DATE Sponsor Committee about the results of its efforts.

Each committee member shall have responsibilities as enumerated below in Chapter 7. The General Chair shall make final determination of specific responsibilities in the case of ambiguities. Should certain duties of a position be contracted to a vendor, that Chair shall be responsible for monitoring all aspects of the vendor's performance.

Each DEC member shall assume the responsibilities of his/her position at the beginning of the DATE year and perform the duties of the position, at least, to the end of this DATE year. The DATE year of DATEnn+1 starts at the closing date of DATEnn, and it continues until the day after the last date of DATEnn+1. A position (e.g., Finance Chair and Audit Chair) may have responsibilities for several months after DATEnn+1, i.e., beyond the end of the DATEnn+1 year. Nevertheless, the voting rights of a person leaving the DEC expire with the end of the DATEnn+1 year.

Meetings:
A DEC meeting shall be defined to be a meeting convened by the General Chair by sending invitations with a meeting agenda to all the Chairs at least two weeks before the meeting date. The DEC shall meet as necessary to perform the business of DATE. It shall have, typically, six Meetings per year. It should convene at least for the following three Meetings:

• one meeting during the preceding DATE,
• one meeting in May/June and
•  one immediately following the Fall Conference Program Committee meeting in which the Final Paper selection is performed and the Final Program composition is concluded. For this third meeting also the Topic Chairs of the Conference Program Committee are invited.

The General Chair, the General Vice-Chair or the Past General Chair may call a DEC meeting. Other Chairs can only call a DEC meeting when an agenda for the meeting, stating all the decisions to be taken at the meeting, is distributed to all Chairs at least two weeks before the meeting date. Sub-Committees have been introduced to make DEC meetings better manageable and to indicate which are the critical positions in decision making in the DEC. Sub-Committee Chairs may call meetings for their sub-Committees in preparation of the DEC meetings. It is at the discretion of the General Chair to call separate meetings of the core team of the DEC to prepare the full meeting with all Chairs present.

All DEC meetings are minuted. The minutes of a DEC meeting shall record all decisions, agreed action points and their due dates and allocation of action points to Chairs. Recorded should be also all motions, names of motion proposers and seconds, and the result of the decision on each motion, but the record of discussion shall not include the names of particular individuals, unless expressly requested by the individual named.

DEC Chairs may attend all DEC meetings except during their own election or during a deliberation on their own performance.

The contracted Conference and Exhibition Secretariats should participate in all meetings of the DEC without voting rights and except during a discussion of their contract, performance, or other issues deemed sensitive.

Visitors may be invited to attend DEC meetings as deemed appropriate and should be announced in the agenda of the meeting. All decisions regarding visitor attendance shall initially be made by the General Chair, but are subject to approval by a majority vote of the DEC in case of dispute.

Decision making:
Decisions in DEC meetings are made by consensus. If no consensus can be obtained the General Chair may decide him/herself or may decide to escalate the issue to the DATE Sponsor Committee for a timely decision.

In case decisions need to be taken between DEC meetings in response to the filing of a motion with the General Chair, the following procedure shall apply: The General Chair distributes the motion in writing, by standard mail, e-mail or facsimile, to all Chairs of the DEC (In case of e-mail a confirmation of receipt must be issued). Each DEC Chair has one vote. The DEC shall have a minimum of five working days to respond to the motion and each Chair of the DEC may approve, deny, abstain, or request additional discussion on each motion so presented. Each Chair will respond to the motion in undersigned writing, by standard mail or facsimile, directly to the General Chair. A majority vote of the entire DEC is necessary to approve a motion via this procedure. The result of any such motions must be included in the minutes of the next DEC meeting, along with all responses to the motion. This voting procedure may not result in a modification of the Operating Procedures.

Expenses:
Expenses have to be budgeted and will be paid only against a properly documented DATE Expense Form.

Work not explicitly described in the contracts with the Conference Secretariat or the Exhibition Secretariat must be requested by the responsible Chair using the Service Request Form.