What documentation is needed to outline administrative terms and services for a conference?

Keywords:

• Documentation
• Administrative
• Services
• Conferences
• Sponsorship
• MOU
• Operating
• Agreement
• Sponsorship

There are two separate documents that may be used to outline conference relationships: Sponsorship MOU and Operating Agreement. 

To provide some clarification around the sponsorship MOU, this is a required agreement between 2 or more sponsors of an event and does not include signature by the conference organizing committee. The sponsorship MOU is created and distributed for signature by IEEE Conferences, Events & Experiences (CEE) and should only include information regarding sponsorship identification; sponsorship percentage; required legal terms; any financial terms between the sponsors that will affect conference closing, surplus and budget; and conference details submitted on the Conference Application. The sponsorship MOU should not consist of any administrative terms, services, or relationship details between the contributing parties.

To outline any administrative terms or services between the sponsors and organizing committee of an event and/or outline the relationship between two or more organizations as it relates to conferences, a separate Operating Agreement should be created. This agreement is created/managed by the sponsoring parties and the conference organizing committee and/or the organizations whose relationship is being outlined. It should include all administrative/operational information pertaining to the event (ex: admin lead year responsibilities, organizing committee responsibilities, publicity and promotion of the event, paper review process, society specific publishing requirements, TCS fee documentation, etc.) and/or any relationship details between the organizations that are important and should be outlined. This agreement does not require IEEE Legal review unless the organizations/creators deem it necessary. Additionally, Operating Agreements should be non-binding; however, if the organizations/creators decide to include a binding clause, then IEEE Legal review will be required. If Legal review is needed, it would be the responsibility of the organizations/creators to request the review from IEEE Legal. IEEE Conferences, Events & Experiences does not need to be involved with the management or implementation of this document; however, we do ask that a copy of the fully executed/signed agreement be sent to us for record purposes. You can access a template for the Operating Agreement for any future administrative/operative agreements.