ACM SGB Meeting Materials October 2, 1999

A best practice session was held. All SGB members were encouraged to participate. The goal of this session was to share ideas both good and bad on their SIG's: 

• Best Practices 
• Electronic Community (CD ROM Products and Web Presence) 
• New Awards 
• Internationalization 
• Member Incentives 
• Student and Outreach Activities (scholarships, grants, programs and lectureship programs)
• Conference Innovation 
• Collections/Newsletter Ideas 
• Inter-SIG/Inter-Society Relationships

SIGGRAPH is pioneering a new award called the Young Pioneers Award. It has nothing to do with age. 

SIGARCH established a new award - Recent Practitioner Award - it focuses on time in the field (15 or 20 years). The title is the Maurice Wilkes Award. SIGARCH endowed it. The money was taken out of their fund balance and placed in ACM's Endowment Fund. ACM is responsible for managing that fund, relieving the SIG from worrying about funding from year to year. 

SIGMOD Anthology - they are moving toward their 2nd volume. All SGB members were sent the 1st. The next one will have journal papers including TODS. In addition, they are working on another publication called Tech Talks. It's a CD-Rom of tutorials; submitted, evaluated and digitized. They'll be videotaped, tutorials will be produced specifically for them. 

SIGDA was videotaping major panel sessions, found out capturing slides didn't work and the audio didn't work. SGB members were advised to be cautious and careful. 

SIGDA gives graduate student scholarships. They've recently had fewer applicants. Scholarships are given to graduate students that apply with advisor support. They have trouble getting people to apply. The scholarships are given to Institutions where there is need and associated with young faculty members. Must be in research area of DA. 

SIGOPS is seeking proposals for best paper awards for conferences held previously (10 years). 

SIGSOFT is conducting interviews with members that are named ACM Fellows. The interviews are printed in their newsletter (usually 2 per issue). 

SIGCPR's Chair and Secretary/Treasurer are reviewing the last 10 years of proceedings. They will summarize their findings and research questions. The project is helping the new Chair see how much has been done and gives them better handle on where to start to add value. 

SIGCHI hired information science types to do a cross-citation study of last 10 years of proceedings. 

SIGCHI supports CHI Kids. It is not a childcare program. They accept children that are between 8 and 14. They sign up and register for the program. CHI receives donations of computer equipment from companies. They produce a newsletter for the conference and are an integrated part of the event. Participants are part of the closing session. It was advised that if you're holding an event to do with children be sure you can do it annually. 

SIGSOFT prepares a newsletter each evening during the ICSE conference (6-12 pages). There are interviews with keynote speakers, updates, etc. Students produce it at night and they're ready for the morning session. They can then be posted on line. 

SIGGRAPH is celebrating its 30th year and trying to focus on the organization. In addition, The Story of Computer Graphics is headed for distribution (movie entirely financed by SIGGRAPH funds). 

SIGAda has a booth that they take around to various trade shows. They usually trade space or advertising. 

SGB members were asked for input on volunteer development and recognition: 

SIGMOD had a limited edition mug made. 

SIGPLAN wrote letter to supervisors/departments, thanking individuals. 

SOFT had special T-shirts made up for volunteers. Some conferences provide free sleeping rooms and complimentary registration. SIGAda gives plaques. 

SIGPLAN has a travel fund for columnists that contribute to the newsletter. 

SIGIR has an active student volunteer program, which provides free registration, T-shirts, subsidized travel. 

SIGWEB provides student volunteers with free registration and volunteer T-shirts. 

SIGCHI asks students whom they'd like to have lunch with and then they go and grab that individual from the conference. 

SIGCSE puts out a pitch for volunteers to attend a BOF. So many people participated that the leaders didn't know what to ask them to do. 

SIGCHI has a Chair of Volunteers to match individual strengths with the needs of the SIG. 

SIGGRAPH's key volunteers meet on Wednesday afternoon during the conference to meet prospective volunteers to match their area of expertise with possible positions. 

SIGAPL had volunteers at each session during their annual conference designated as session chairs to announce speakers and give warning about time so people didn't run over.