ICSE 2001 PC Members,

This message contains some important information about preparing for
the ICSE 2001 PC meeting, which will be held in less than two weeks.

First, thank you for submitting your reviews.  
With 232 submissions, we're following the process used by ICSE 2000 and
proposing to eliminate over half of the papers from discussion,  In
particular, we want to consider only those papers that received overall
ratings of at least one A or at least two Bs.  Of course, you can ask
that any submitted paper be discussed at the PC meeting. 

We will have about 6 minutes to discuss each paper at the meeting, so
we'd like for you to discuss controversial papers before the meeting.
To facilitate discussion, you now have access to the other reviews of
your assigned papers so that you can begin to read, think about, and 
-- most importantly -- discuss them *before* the PC meeting.  Please 
pay special attention to those reviews for which there is a controversy.  
Unlike last year, the system we're using this year does not indicate that 
there is a controversy.  However, in the past, those papers with certain 
scores are the most controversial:  an A and a D; an A and a C; and  
a B and a D.  Also, papers with no A are sometimes difficult:  all Bs; 
Bs and Cs.  We will alert you to those papers that seem particularly
controversial.  Please try to hold a preliminary discussion to try to 
resolve the conflict.

  *** IMPORTANT: We are not asking you to come to a "decision".
  *** All decisions on all papers will be made jointly at the PC
  *** meeting.  We are merely asking you to begin the discussion
  *** that would otherwise take place at the PC meeting and thereby
  *** save us some valuable time.

Please be aware that during the PC meeting we will be closely
monitoring the time spent on each paper as well as monitoring our
progress in getting through all the papers.  In the interests of time,
we will reserve the right to ruthlessly cut off any discussion and
force a decision.  So, if you feel strongly about a paper, one way or
the other, then it behooves you to begin your discussion before the PC
meeting.

We do not have a "target" number of papers to accept.  We will accept
as many or as few as the committee feels are worthy of publication.
Quality is the sole criterion.

A final note concerns the issue of modifying your reviews.  We have
decided not to allow this so that we have a stable database from which
to organize and generate the materials for the PC meeting.  We have
already started the process of printing the materials for the meeting.

Thanks again for all your efforts and we look forward to productive
and enjoyable meeting in San Diego.

                                     
Mary Jean and Wilhelm