ACM Membership Services Board

Our Vision:

The ACM Membership Services Board encourages the development of products and services that help ACM’s constituencies--software developers, practitioners, technical managers, researchers, faculty members, and students--combat the two greatest problems faced by the entire computing community: information overload and technical obsolescence. By providing high quality products that are developed by individuals who come from the computing community, ACM enhances the value of membership and fosters the building of professional and student communities.

The Board works on several fronts. It seeks to:

• Promote grass-roots projects through its local chapter infrastructure,
• Foster a global computing community by creating "working groups" throughout the world, and
• Support networking and continuing education through its "electronic communities program".

Headquarters Staff

Board Activity Briefings:
Member Affiliation Recommendations
Working Groups Program
Electronic Communities Program
Student Membership Programs

Board Activity Briefings:

Member Affiliation Recommendations: The Board will submit for the approval of Council, ACM’s governing body, a proposal on membership and affiliation categories. These recommendations are being made to respond to:

• The need to expand membership and involvement in ACM
• The changing nature of membership
• The ongoing need to increase the value of membership
• Increasing opportunities afforded by the electronic community
• The need to expand our student activities program
• The need to reach and communicate with more members of the computing and related communities

European/Chinese/Mexican "Working Groups" Program: In order to serve the needs of computing professionals throughout the world it is necessary, the MAB feels, to establish local programs thereby helping to build communities in specific areas. Naturally the Board would want this to go on throughout the world but pilot programs must be launched to gauge the kind of programs that could be established under ACM’s initiative by creating several “working groups” consisting of computing professionals from those areas. These professionals can assess the technical needs of these areas and recommend local programs.

In the case of the Mexican Working Group, Jesus Flores-Morfin has been working closely with Hal Berghel (see MAB structure) organizing a very successful lecture tour throughout Mexico. In addition, Flores-Morfin and Berghel are responsible for the translation into Spanish of:

Crossroads, the ACM Student Magazine, and ACM’s Student Membership Benefits brochure

In the case of the Chinese Working Group, Kam-Fai Wong, assisted by ACM HQ staff, developed a Mandarin Chinese version of ACM’s Group Membership Application. Kam-Fai would like to spread the word in China about ACM’s Group Membership, which is available to individuals from economically developing areas throughout the world (group membership was introduced as a pilot program for Eastern Europe, Mainland China, and India); group membership makes it possible for a group of up to 5 individuals to share member dues and benefits, enabling them to circulate and share the print copy of Communications of the ACM (CACM); all of the group members would have access, however, to the electronic CACM.

Electronic Communities Program: ACM sees a lot effort spent in developing electronic communities; this program goes under the working title of the ACM Community Center Project, and Hal Berghel and his committee recommended the following steps be taken:

1. Promote a sense of community within ACM;
2. Promote virtual scholarship;
3. Help deploy enabling software;
4. Create discussion groups for publications;
5. Create conferences on virtual communities.

Some potential projects suggested by the Community Center Project Committee included:

1. Video conferencing;
2. Development of a standards research center;
3. Creation of a technical report index;
4. Volunteer classifieds;
5. Creation of a civics center containing a global issues forum, debate and referendum rooms, a polling place.

Student Membership Programs:
The Board through its Student Activities Committee, chaired by Lorrie Cranor, is interested in further developing the following programs:

Crossroads - ACM’s Student Magazine is currently published on the web, available to students and faculty around the world and is also published in print (quarterly) and sent to all ACM student members. The Board is interested in including more career-related articles, impressions of recently graduated students' new jobs, impressions of co-op jobs, etc.

Scholarship Program - The Board will be developing a scholarship program for students; it is in the process of establishing a faculty committee to develop scholarship criteria. Industry will be solicited for funds, and the program will be announced in 1998.

Summer Internship Database - High on Lorrie Cranor’s list is the development of a summer internship database; individuals and organizations are being contacted for information about this database and a website will be created posted all relevant information for summer 1998. A special email address has been created for all those who would like to provide ACM with information, summer_intern@acm.org.

Special Student Chapter Reimbursement Pilot - Four student chapters are working with ACM to help promote both ACM and student chapter membership via a reimbursement pilot program. ACM is trying to make it easier for students to join both the local and international organization.

The ACM Student Research Competition, held during several ACM conferences, provides an excellent opportunity for Computer Science students to present their research and discuss it with other students and with computer science professionals. The contest is open to both graduate and undergraduate students who are doing research in any area of computer science. Students may enter individually or in groups. The best 10 to 15 entries in each division (graduate and undergraduate) are selected, and their authors are invited to present posters describing their research at an ACM conference. The posters are judged at the conference by the student participants and computer science professionals. Prizes are awarded to the top entries.