Minutes of the September 19, 2003 SIG Governing Board Executive Committee

The meeting began at 6:00 PM. Alan Berenbaum welcomed the attendees and each of the participants introduced themselves.

Report from ACM EC Meeting Berenbaum summarized the report he provided to the ACM EC on behalf of the SGB. Berenbaum reported that two SIGs were officially chartered in July at the start of the fiscal year. SIGITE (IT Education) and SIGBED (Embedding Computing). The leaders of those SIGs were welcomed to the SIG Governing Board.

In addition, two SIGs were proposed, SIGFACT (Factory Automation) and SIGSOFT (Soft Computing) but after review by the SIG Governing Board Executive Committee, it was decided not to charter. SIGEVO (Evolutionary Genetic Computing) just started a petition for approval and is being considered.

Berenbaum outlined some conference financial concerns:
DAC (June 2003): returned $300K below allocation
CHI (April 2003): returned $500K below allocation (SIGCHI fund balance threatened)
GRAPH (July 2003): possible returned allocation this time (although well under budget)
SC (November 2002): $120K below allocation (2003 looks very good)
OOPSLA (October 2003): attendance looking low

FCRC 2003 was held in June (San Diego, CA). The Conference was a huge success technically and financially. The actual attendance was reported at 2500 versus the 2000 budgeted. The individual conferences/workshops had an extraordinary year as well. Student registration increased, the plenary sessions were well received, and the Turing Award lectures was standing room only. The question for the SGB leaders is will it happen again in 2007?

SGB Viability Reports and Recommendations:

Each of the scheduled presenters for the SGB meeting provided a report summary enabling the SGB EC to come up with recommendations to be presented at the SGB meeting.

Motion - The SGB EC recommends that SIGIR continue as a multi-service SIG for the next four years.
(Feldman, R. Walker)
unanimous

Motion - The SGB EC recommends that SIGAPP be taken out of transition to resume its status as a conference-only SIG
(Gabow, Chesnais)
unanimous

Motion - The SGB EC recommends that SIGCAPH remain in transition. A program update will be required from the SIG Chair and scheduled for the next SGB conference call. The SIGCAPH EC will be consulted and followed up with. The SGB EC will be prepared to issue a final recommendation on SIGCAPH via email.
(Feldman, R. Walker)
unanimous

Motion - The SGB EC recommends that a full slate of candidates must be communicated to Hal Gabow by November 30. SIGGROUP will remain in transition unless a viable slate is communicated. The SIGGROUP Chair or acting Chair will present an update on the proposed SIGGROUP activities (conferences, bulletin, Kluwer journal, awards) to the SGB EC at the next SGB meeting.
(Gabow, Feldman)
unanimous

Motion - The SGB EC thanks Elli Mylonas for all her efforts to take SIGWEB out of transition and recommends that SIGWEB be taken out of transition to resume its status as a conference-only SIG.
(Gabow, Feldman)
unanimous

Motion - SGB EC allocation recommendations:

  • Reduce minimal allocation to $10K
  • New variable rate per $125K
    • Start at 16%+delta
    • Decrease by .8% every $125K
    • Minimum of 5.35%+delta
    • Delta calculated to adjust for budget variance based on previous year's actuals
    • Maximum of 2% for change

(Chesnais, Feldman)
unanimous

Motion - The SGB EC reaffirms the distribution of the SIG DL money according to the two motions passed at the March 2003 SGB meeting, in particular fund allocation proportional to downloads of newsletter and conference proceedings only, with magazine and journal downloads not considered in this fund allocation.
(R. Walker, Chesnais)
unanimous

Motion - To revert the current SIG categories of multi-service, conference-only, newsletter-only, and electronic forum to a single designation of SIG:

All SIGs must provide a list of annual membership benefits, by November 15 each year. The list is required to remain viable.

All conference-only and newsletter-only SIGs must update their bylaws to allow for elections during the next election-cycle (2005-2007).

SIGSOUND, the only e-forum SIG, is dechartered, but is permitted to continue their forum as long as they choose to.

(Chesnais, Feldman)
unanimous
Meeting adjourned at 9:12 PM / (Berenbaum, Chesnais)

 

Participants:

 

  • Alain Chesnais, SIGGRAPH President and SGB EC
  • Alan Berenbaum, SIG Governing Board Chair
  • Bob Allen, ACM Publications Board Chair
  • Darren Ramdin, ACM Assistant Director of Financial Services
  • David Harrison, SIGAda Vice Chair
  • David Wise, ACM Vice President
  • Dena Slowthower, GRAPH 2004 Chair
  • Donna Baglio, ACM Director of SIGs Services
  • Elli Mylonas, SIGWEB Past Chair
  • Emil Volcheck, SIGSAM Chair
  • Erica Johnson, ACM Assistant Director of SIGs Services
  • Ernesto Damiani, SIGAPP Vice Chair
  • Ginger Ignatoff, ACM Program Director of SIGs Services
  • Hal Gabow, SIGACT Chair and SGB EC
  • Henry Walker, SIGCSE Chair and SGB EC
  • Irene Frawley, ACM Program Coordinator of SIGs Services
  • Jaime Callan - SIGIR Chair
  • Jeanna Neefe Matthews, SIGOPS Treasurer
  • Jens Knoops, SIGPLAN Secretary/Treasurer
  • John Tufarolo - SIGSIM Chair
  • John White, ACM Executive Director
  • Joseph Konstan, SIGCHI Chair
  • Maritza Nichols, ACM Program Coordinator of SIGs Services
  • Michael Burke - SIGPLAN Chair
  • Michael Priestley, SIGDOC Vice Chair
  • Pat Ryan, ACM Chief Operating Officer
  • Peter Nuernberg, SIGWEB Chair
  • Robert Walker, SIGDA Chair and SGB EC
  • Scott Owen, SIGGRAPH CAG Chair
  • Stuart Feldman, SGB Council Rep / SIGecom Past Chair
  • Tony Baylis, SIGGRAPH Treasurer
  • Vicki Hanson, SIGCAPH Vice Chair