Please keep a detailed log of your activities as Technical Program Chairperson. This could be of great help to your successor at the next ICASSP, and it would be invaluable if someone else is required to take over for you at this ICASSP. Logs from previous conferences may be obtained through the Conference Board.
Ideas for special invited, plenary, or tutorial sessions can come from either you or any of the Technical Committees. Before such a session is organized, both you and the cognizant Technical Committee must agree that it should be held. Start the planning process early for special sessions, so that you can obtain the necessary approvals before the regular papers are reviewed, and so that the session organizers have enough time to do a first class job. As details of these sessions become settled, please send the information to the Publications Chairperson in a form suitable for inclusion in the Advance Program.
The September before the preceding ICASSP, you should communicate with the Technical Committees to see if they want any changes in the wording of the previous Call-for-Papers, or in the list of categories for authors to use in classifying their papers. This request should be made in writing to the Technical Committee Chairpersons. If there is no response, use the previous year's categories and repeat the request for changes to the Technical Committees Conference Board representative when you present the draft Call-for-Papers to the Conference Board at its October meeting. After getting final Technical Committee input, you should finalize the Call-for-Papers for your ICASSP, and send it to the Publicity Chairperson, who will have it disseminated.