Publicity Guide page	Responsibilities page	Publicity channels page	Planning page	Website tie-ins & tracking page
Mass emails : page	IEEE-CIS ListServers page	SENDER Instructions page	EDITOR Instructions page	OWNER Instructions page

Conference Guides for [IEEE-CIS, INNS] conferences : Although this guide was initially set up for IJCNN2019, and was used for IEEE WCCI 2020, hopefully some of the basic information may still help [organising committee members, authors] up to 2023-2025 (assuming a half-life of links and process information of 3-5 years?). The Authors' and Publications menus have been combined, allowing authors to see the Publications Chair perspective as well. I am no longer keeping this up to date. Bill Howell, 11Dec2020

Mass emails

Introduction :

The IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE-CIS) [sole,co]-sponsors a large number of [conferences, symposia, workshops, etc] (referred to generically as "conferences" in the rest of the web-page). Starting with WCCI2020, a number of IEEE ListServers have been set up so that recipients may [sub, unsub]-scribe to the conferences for which they will receive publicity mass emails. As of summer 2019, only the WCCI2020 ListServer is actually being used, but the lists will be available to other conferences for their future use if they decide to use them.

[INNS, IEEE-CIS] mass email policies

As of 11Jun2019, the INNS - IEEE-CIS mass email policies.odt need modest updates for the IEEE-CIS ListServer arrangement.

[Roles, Responsibilities, Access] for producing mass emails

A number of roles for server administration are given in the "IEEE LISTERV documentation", and even though other email server platforms might be used by your conference, it is convenient to use the IEEE ListServer terminology here with the understanding that for many, if not most, conferences, the [SENDER, EDITOR, OWNER] are the same person :

SENDERS
- compose an email, and they must check [content, links, mailtos, targeted IEEE-CIS ListServer]
- send it to the intended IEEE-CIS ListServer (eg PUBLICITY-IEEE-CEC@listserv.ieee.org
- check email responses for [inquiries, problems, comments] from the users
- it helps to set up an email filter for the responses (check for cc @listserv.ieee.org)
- must use one of their personal, business] email addresses that has been pre-approved for that ListServer! If not, their emails are simply rejected by the system. You cannot use your other email addresses.
- do not have access to the ListServer management, and cannot view the email lists.
EDITORs
- [review, approve] of an email for distribution by the ListServer
- they must check [content, links, mailtos, targeted IEEE-CIS ListServer]
- do not have access to the ListServer management, and cannot view the email lists.
- may send publicity mass emails to their ListServer(s) if they are approved as SENDERS
- Generally, but not necessarily, EDITORS will be at least one of the Publicity Co-Chairs, who draft and edit mass emails with input and checking by [General, Program, Publicity] Co-Chairs. Where the email content affects [Special Session, Workshop, Tutorials, Panels] Co-Chairs, they also participate on draft email revisions.
OWNERs
- have administrative rights for the servers.
- with the IEEE-CIS ListServers, only owners may [access, view, edit] the subscriber lists, which is far more secure than emailing lists to Publicity Chairs for each conference, plus updates to the lists are handled and passed on properly from year-to-year.
- can usually [review, approve] of an email for distribution by the ListServer, although they can opt not to
- add [SENDER, EDITOR] email addresses that assume those responsibilities
- modify the configuration of the ListServer
- Presumably the owners will be multi-year designates from the IEEE-CIS executive? Tomasz Cholewo would also be a "quiet owner" (quiet because he would not have to receive all messages ffrom the IEEE-CIS ListServers), meaning that lists could be updated directly from his conference paper system.

The Email Miners

EMAIL MINER
- compose an email, and they must check [content, links, mailtos, targeted IEEE-CIS ListServer]
- send it to the intended IEEE-CIS ListServer (eg PUBLICITY-IEEE-CEC@listserv.ieee.org
- check email responses for [inquiries, problems, comments] from the users
- it helps to set up an email filter for the responses (check for cc @listserv.ieee.org)
- must use one of their personal, business] email addresses that has been pre-approved for that ListServer! If not, their emails are simply rejected by the system. You cannot use your other email addresses.
- do not have access to the ListServer management, and cannot view the email lists.

To me, a critical and usually neglected responsibility is that of gathering new email addresses. The 2010-2019 period appears to has seen substantial growth in the Computational Intelligence area, thanks at least partly to Deep Learning and Big Data, and maybe system [identification, modelling, control, optimization]. Additionally, the mass email lists decline perhaps 20-30% per year as graduate students move on, jobs change, and scientists retire or change focus. Unfortunately, the net result has been a decline in the total number of viable email addresses for a couple of years now, since Simone Scardapane did a wonderful job of bolstering it. The initial mass email lists plus regular updates come from IEEE-CIS author lists for each of the conferences. Occasionally, publicly available emails or lists from related conferences are also obtained. However, the IEEE-CIS ListServers, allow end-user control of their subscriptions, including new users who learn of the lists.

Email servers

As of 06Nov2019, a variety of email server arrangements have been used to publicize [INNS, IEEE-CIS] conferences, including :

Bill Howell's email server (I forget the name of the underlying Unix-related server), paid through his ISP provider over the years.
IEEE-CIS ListServers - were set up for WCCI2020, and while they are working well for now, there is no guarantee that they will be used for other conferences. There is no IEEE-CIS policy that requires the use of IEEE ListServers for that purpose.
MailChimp - as set up by Muhammad Ilyas, Webmaster Co-Chair, WCCI2020 Glasgow, Edinburgh Napier U, UK (I think)
Other email server software - I have no idea of what people are using, but there is probably a huge variety.

I set up the current IEEE-CIS publicity ListServers while preparing for WCCI2020, and the subsequent handover of [information, email lists] on completion of my Publicity Co-Chair responsibilities. The "Publicity Guide : Mass email" web-pages focus mostly on the IEEE-CIS List Server arrangement, but older, much more [detailed, deep] information is linked on the pages for non-ListServer email servers.

Schedule for mass emails

Note that a joint [INNS, IEEE-CIS] policy is that a maximum of 8 mass emails are allowed to publicize IJCNN, and the same limitation has also been applied to WCCI, although without a formal policy that I am aware of. One or perhaps two additional IJCNN emails can be allowed by the joint [INNS, IEEE-CIS] Presidents for exceptional situations. Additional emails mostly arise where serious mistakes have been made in emails, or special issues arise requiring one more email.

Here is a "snapshot" of the schedule for WCCI2020 mass mails as taken halfway through the planned 8 emails 07Nov2019.

Dates - see my 08Oct2018 email to Amir Hussain, root email directory for WCCI2020
+-----+
Done :
25Jun2019

First mass email - wake everybody up, a month or two after the IJCNN paper acceptance notifications (30Jan2019)
17Sep2019 Tue (originally 10Sep2019)
Re-sent the first mass email - Plenary Speakers weren't ready
25Oct2019 Friday (originally set for 15Oct2019, then 22Oct2019)
1.5 weeks before proposals are due for [Special Sessions, Workshops]
theme : Calls for [Special Sessions, Workshops, Competitions, Tutorials, Panels] - with [dates, mailto Chairs, webpage links, short paragraph description]

06Nov2019 Wed

theme : Plenary Speaker [photos, topics, links to their websites], not all are committed, but they are important for selling the conference
minor theme : [Special Sessions, Workshops] 3+ weeks before proposal deadline. Simple sentence with link to web-page if any.

+-----+
Current mass email :
26Nov2019 Tue

3 weeks before proposals are due for [Special Sessions, Workshops, Competitions, Tutorials, Panels]
theme : Calls for [Special Sessions, Workshops, Competitions, Tutorials, Panels] with [dates, mailto Chairs, webpage links, short paragraph description]
Reminder of papers due
ADD compass icon for IJCNN2019 Authors' Guide

+-----+
Future mass emails:
10Dec2019 Tue

5 days before proposals due for [Competitions, Tutorials, Panels], papers due in 5 weeks
themes : Plenary Speakers updated list (new Plenary Speakers only since last listing) with [photos, topics, links to their websites]
theme : Calls for [Competitions, Tutorials, Panels] with [dates, mailto Chairs, webpage links, short paragraph description]
Reminder of papers due

07Jan2020 Tue

15 days before papers are due
themes : reminder of paper deadline!
Local Arrangements - Mufti Mahmud with details on [activities, tourism, external events in Glasgow, etc].

15Jan2020 Wed

Paper Deadline extension - You need at least one, sometimes two, mass emails in reserve for the paper deadline extensions! I suggest only one.

+-----+
Mass emails do NOT apply for other Important Dates, as these are emails to co-authors rather than the community at large :

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Many thanks to our Sponsors & Exhibitors

Ongoing support : [IEEE, IEEE-CIS] for [CEC, FUZZ, IJCNN]; INNS for IJCNN; [IET, EPS] for CEC

2020 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence, Glasgow, Scotland.....19-24 July 2020

2019 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, Budapest, HUNGARY.....14-19 July 2019

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