Original document (Söderköping-2) agreed at Söderköping meeting, August 1983.
The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a multinational federation of professional and technical organizations concerned with information processing. The technical work is done through Technical Committees and Working Groups of Technical Committees. Each Technical Committee is composed of one representative of each member organization, whereas Working Groups consist of specialists in the field who are appointed as individuals independent of nationality.
The Technical Committee TC 2 "Software: Theory and Practice" has among its sixteen working groups the group WG 2.5 on Numerical Software, founded in 1974. Its aim is to improve the quality of numerical computation by promoting the development and availability of sound numerical software.
The group meets roughly once a year. Every member is expected to actively participate in working group activities; membership is assumed terminated when a member has been inactive for three years. Reports on current and completed activities are given and discussed at the meetings, and areas of activity and the proper means of achieving results are defined. Usually the meeting is combined with a workshop or seminar with a more public attendance, but meetings are open to observers (except for formal business sessions) provided there is sufficient space in the meeting room. Most activities take the form of projects. One or several members of the group assume the responsibility to pursue a given subject matter in collaboration with other scientists in the field. Results of the projects are usually published. All projects are performed on a completely voluntary basis. Another activity is the arrangement of working conferences.
It is necessary to limit the number of members of each working group in order to obtain a productive group, one that can meet and exchange ideas without demanding organizational arrangements. Most working groups aim at about 30 members as a reasonable limit. Since there exist many qualified potential members, the group has agreed on certain rules for electing new members.
The membership consists of full and affiliate members. An affiliate member is not subject to the three meeting rule, but is elected for a three year period. This period can be renewed by the group if the member has contributed actively to the work of the group.
Except for the right to hold office and to vote for full members, an affiliate member has the same rights as full members, and the same requirements except the duty to attend at least every third year.
A candidate for membership may be nominated by any member of the group. At most two members are permitted from a single institution, and not more than half of the membership may be from the same country. Also, people retiring from full membership can chose to become an affiliate member.
The nominator has to submit the curriculum vitae of the candidate to the vice chairman at least six weeks before the meeting, and the vice chairman distributes them to the membership for consideration. At the meeting there is a secret ballot, and a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes cast in order to be approved for membership by the working group.
The approved candidates are proposed to the chair of TC 2 for appointment as members of the working group. This is the final step in the appointment process. (So far, the chair of TC 2 has appointed all candidates we have proposed.)
For further detail see document IFIP/WG 2.5 (Boulder-12) 3812.