The basic eligibility criterion is that the contribution has appeared in a  paper or papers within the past 25 years. When a paper has appeared in a conference and then in a publication of record such as a journal or a book chapter, the date of the latter publication will determine the cut-off date. Thus, for the first award, which was presented in Summer 2016, the cut off date was 1st January 1991.

Nominations will be solicited through the newsletters, bulletins, mailing lists, social networks, and websites of the sponsoring organizations and through publicity flyers at major conferences. The nominating letter must summarize the contribution and make the case for why it is outstanding. The nominating letter can have multiple co-signers. Self-nominations are excluded. A nomination must state clearly the contribution, explain why the contribution is fundamental and outstanding, and may be accompanied by supporting letters and other evidence of worthiness. Nominations must include a proposed citation (up to 25 words), a succinct (100-250 words) description of the contribution(s), and a detailed statement to justify the nomination.

The award will be given for intellectual depth, novelty, and impact. The award will be selected by the Award Committee from the submitted nominations by consensus, following the Ground Rules for Award-Committee Decision Making by ACM Awards Committee. If the Award Committee does not select any nomination, then no award will be made in the given year. The Award Committee shall provide a detailed citation that explains the basis of the award. The Award Committee shall take into account all individuals who have contributed to an awarded accomplishment, as well as independent discoveries of an awarded contribution, and assure that all individuals are treated fairly. In particular, the Award Committee can select a nomination, but change the set of selected individuals. The Committee must follow the Guidelines on Conflict-of-Interest by ACM Awards Committee.

The award will be given annually and will be presented in turn at LICS,CSL, and ICALP, which are the flagship conferences of SIGLOG, EACSL, and EATCS, respectively. (The 2016 award was given at LICS, the 2017 award was given at CSL, and the 2018 award will be given at ICALP.) The award will be accompanied by an invited lecture by the award winner or one of the award winners at the conference where the award will be presented.

The awardee(s) will receive a certificate and a cash prize of USD2,000. If there are multiple awardees, this amount will be shared. The award will be covered by the operating expenses of the sponsoring organizations. The individual conference organization will cover the travel and other expenses for one of the award winners to present the invited talk. Each of the sponsoring organizations will contribute USD500 every year for the award honorarium.

The Church Award Committee will consist of five members appointed by EACSL (in consultation with KGS), EATCS, and SIGLOG. The appointments should be coordinated to strive for multi-dimensional diversity of the Committee, as well as to provide broad coverage of expertise across different research areas. A member of the Award Committee will serve for five years, with one member retiring every year. (There will be an initial transient period with an accelerated retirement schedule; see below.). Members of the Award Committee are not eligible to receive the Award during their service on the Committee. Officers of the sponsoring organizations are not eligible to serve on the Award Committee. The four positions on the Award Committee are referred to as 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. The Sponsoring Organizations will appoint the members of first Award Committee to specific positions. The tenure of a member in position n shall be n years. In respective subsequent years, the member in position 1 shall retire from the Committee, the member in position n (n > 1) shall assume position n-1, and a new member shall be appointed by the Sponsoring Organizations for position 5. The Sponsoring Organizations shall take turns in appointing new members, to ensure a fair representation on the Award Committee according to the schedule specified below. In the event of an unanticipated vacancy on the Award Committee, the Sponsoring Organizations shall appoint a new member to the vacated position.

The Committee shall be chaired by the member in position 2. Thus, after serving as a chair, a member serves one additional year and then retires. The chair is responsible for publicizing the request for nominations, receiving nominations and distributing them to members of the Award Committee, and overseeing the selection processes.

For the 2019 Committee, the positions are appointed as follows:

(1) EATCS (2) SIGLOG (3) EACSL (4) EATCS and (5) SIGLOG. In 2020 the new member will be appointed by EACSL and in 2021 by EATCS; thereafter this pattern will repeat.

Oversight of the Award will be done by the SIGLOG Awards Chair, who is responsible for keeping track of Committee membership, announcement materials, timelines, and the like, reminding the Sponsoring Organizations when it is their turn to name a new member of the Award Committee contacting the new chair of the Award Committee every year by October 1 to go over the Award rules, monitoring Committee’s work progress, and coordinating with the four Sponsoring Organizations. Any circumstances that are unaccounted for through the above process shall be resolved by the Sponsoring Organizations through the coordination of the SIGLOG Awards Chair. This set of rules can be changed by the Sponsoring Organizations.