Organization Wide Activities

Executive Committee Structure

The Executive Committee had evolved to be a mixture of elected and non-elected members with most of the members having significant operational responsibilities. As the activities of ACM SIGGRAPH have increased in size and scope it became more difficult for the volunteer EC members to both fulfill their operational responsibilities and have the time to be able to have a broad vision for ACM SIGGRAPH and to think strategically. Also, the Bylaws had detailed descriptions of many of the EC positions so adding or modifying a position was difficult.

This past year EC worked to create a new governance structure and set of Bylaws that would be both more functional and flexible. This new structure and Bylaws were approved by the members and took effect on 1 July, 2007. Under the new EC structure there are three Officers: President, Vice-President, and Treasurer, and six Directors at Large. All voting EC members are now elected. The following are ex-officio non-voting members of the EC:

• The Chair of the Conference Advisory Group (CAG)
• The Conference Chief Staff Executive
• The ACM Program Director for ACM SIGGRAPH
• The Past President, for the first year of the new President’s term.

All operational functions, e. g., Publications, Chapters, Education, Information Services, etc. have been moved into standing committees. The Chairs of these committees, who are appointed by the EC, are responsible for the operational functions. It is expected that EC members will serve on the different committees so that they are aware of what is happening, so for example, an EC member might be on the Information Services and Education Committees. But they will not be the ones who are responsible for ensuring that the committees perform their functions, as that is the responsibility of the committee's chair. This new structure will make the committees more efficient and allow the EC members to spend more time thinking about broader strategic issues.

General Bylaws Changes

Since we were changing the structure of the EC we took this as an opportunity to make other changes to the Bylaws. We moved many of our functional descriptions out of the Bylaws and into policies so that they could be changed easier and more quickly, giving us greater flexibility.

Associate Member

Our new Bylaws included the definition of a new type of member, the ACM SIGGRAPH Associate Member. An Associate Member pays no dues to ACM SIGGRAPH and has slightly different member benefits than a regular member. All ACM SIGGRAPH Chapters' members can automatically become ACM SIGGRAPH Associate Members and receive these new benefits. This is a significant step towards unifying the membership of ACM SIGGRAPH and the ACM SIGGRAPH Chapters.

Digital Arts Committee (Chair - Masa Inakage)

Summary

In FY2006, the arts.siggraph.org web site was updated and we had discussions to improve the web site to better serve the arts community.

arts.siggraph project summary

Meetings
One physical meeting was held in April, and numerous emails were exchanged and online meetings in Second Life were held.

Web Updates
Events and reports sections were updated, but the main feature section did not change for 1 year. We need more volunteers to help maintain the web site.

Committee Expansion
In order to have more volunteers, DAC proposed to invite outer circle committee members. However, due to the limited budget, the travel budget for the core committee members only was approved. For future activities, it is important to have budgets to support outer circle committee volunteers.

Other activities
1. Awards
A taskforce was formed by the EC and some DAC members were involved in preparing the proposal.
2. Online journal
DAC has prepared a proposal to launch an online journal to be archived by ACM Digital Library. Awaiting for EC approval.
3. Symposium
Although the idea of holding a digital arts symposium was brought up at the physical meeting, due to the limited number of volunteers, there was no progress made in planning a symposium.

The SIGGRAPH 2006 Conference (Conference Advisory Group Chair - Jackie White)

SIGGRAPH 2006, the 33rd conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, registered 19,764 artists, research scientists, developers, filmmakers, and academics from 80 countries for their conference in Boston this week. More than 230 companies exhibited, including 76 first-time exhibitors.

Returning to Boston for the first time since 1989 was met with a resounding response from the local and international community.

The keynote speaker was Joe Rohde, is currently in charge of design and development for Disney's Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, Joe Rohde has led conceptualization, design, and production for Disney's Animal Kingdom since its inception in 1990. The essence of Rohde's keynote was the prime importance of a consistent narrative when telling a story - no matter if it is a written novel or a Hollywood blockbuster.

Award Winners

ACM SIGGRAPH presented three awards at the conference: Computer Graphics Achievement Award, given to Thomas W. Sederberg from Brigham Young University; Significant New Researcher Award, presented to Takeo Igarashi from The University of Tokyo; and ACM SIGGRAPH Outstanding Service Award, given to John M. Fujii from Hewlett Packard Company.

Computer Animation Festival Awards

The Computer Animation Festival jury gave "One Rat Short" by Alex Weil of Charlex (United States) Best of Show honors. Special Jury Honors were also given to "458nm" by Jan Bitzer, Ilija Brunck, Tom Weber of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.

CG Pioneer's Retrospective Art Show debuted at SIGGRAPH 2006

Art Gallery: Intersections showcased Charles A. Csuri's works from 1963 to the present. Csuri is best known for his groundbreaking work in the field of computer graphics, computer animation, and digital fine art - creating some of the earliest known computer art in 1963. Csuri is recognized by Smithsonian Magazine as "the father of digital art and computer animation" and by the Museum of Modern Art as a leading pioneer of computer animation. His early work helped to set the standards commonplace in today's computer graphics industry.

Conference content DVD set

Conference content DVD set of recorded conference presentations was continued for 2006 with SOMA Media. It was offered for sale after the conference and was posted as streaming media in the ACM Digital Library. Again, this content was made available to all ACM SIGGRAPH members free of charge as an additional member benefit.

Small Conferences and External Relations (Vice President - Alyn Rockwood)

ACM SIGGRAPH sponsored or co-sponsored fourteen small conference and/or workshops in FY 2007. This is an increase of two over the past year. In addition we were in cooperation with many more.

ACM SIGGRAPH Village

The ACM SIGGRAPH Village is a venue that we organize during each annual conference to regroup all of the organizational activities and promote membership. For SIGGRAPH 2006 we assigned an official ACM SIGGRAPH Village Manager, to co-ordinate all electrical, network, AV, shipping, signage, layout, storage, equipment rental, billing, and any other considerations that may arise for the ACM SIGGRAPH teams, and guests, and our many contractors, in the village area. For the 2006 Conference, that manager was Rob Gianino, who was the Members booth manager as well. The International Resource Committee and Center was moved from being a SIGGRAPH Conference Program to an ACM SIGGRAPH Program. Kirsten Cater was appointed to lead this effort. Part of her responsibility is to be in charge of the entire SIGGRAPH Village. She is assisted by Scott Lang. Both Kirsten and Scott serve under the Vice President, Alyn Rockwood.

Gaming Alliances

We are working with members of the ACM SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Conference, IGDA, Educational, and other gaming communities to form alliances. One result of this effort is Sandbox: an ACM SIGGRAPH Video Game Symposium which was co-located with SIGGRAPH 2006. It was very successful and is co-located with SIGGRAPH 2007.

Developing relationships with peers

We are actively working with quality teams in related areas to form official alliances, share resources, and cross promote one another. These include AWN.com, the Visual Effects Society, SIGCHI, IGDA, and Computer Graphics World Magazine. This is an ongoing effort to strengthen ACM SIGGRAPH's role within related communities. In particular we are strengthening relations with Asian organizations. We have had a long relationship with the Digital Content Association of Japan and the Computer Graphics Arts Society of Japan. This year weestablished new relationships with ASIAGRAPH (a new Chinese, Korean, and Japanese organization), The Seoul International Cartoon and Animation festival (SICAF) and the China Cartoon Industry Forum (CCIF).

SIGGRAPH Asia

The Executive Committee this past year approved the concept of a new SIGGRAPH level conference in Asia, to be called "SIGGRAPH Asia". The first SIGGRAPH Asia will be held in Singapore in December, 2008. The Conference Chair is Yong Tsui Lee of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has formed a conference committee and they have started meeting to plan the event. A SIGGRAPH Asia Conference Advisory Group, modeled after the SIGGRAPH Conference Advisory Group, has been formed.

Communications (Director for Communications - Mk Haley)

Highlights from the last fiscal year for Communications include:

• 6 Month IntroNetworks Beta test in social networking with 400 Student Volunteers. Gave us a lot of great information on streamlining our tools, communication methods, and resources necessary to support a wider effort.
• CreativeHeads JobBoard becomes so popular, and populated, that we separate offerings by discipline for ease of exploration by our members.
• Student Reporters program continues, with some great support not only from 5 key student reporters, but our local Boston Chapter Members at the 2006 Conference.
• The E-Quarterly continues to be our primary communication medium to our members. Ease of deployment allows for special issues as necessary, for example our Spring issue dedicated to Volunteering within the organization.
• Career Mentoring services have become so popular, that they have expanded to an entirely new project, under Director at Large Jim Kilmer, as the SSS, SIGGRAPH Student Services (See the sectio on ACM SIGGRAPH Student Services below).

ACM SIGGRAPH Web Site (Director for Information Services - Thierry Frey)

Two new web sites were added this past year, one for the Digital Arts Committee (arts.siggraph.org) and one for the Education Committee (education.siggraph.org). Both of these were based on the Plone Content Management System. A large amount of content was moved from the old static site into our main Plone based system.

Education Committee (Director for Education - Rick Barry)

2006-2007 has been a year of both continuity and change for the ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee. The continuity is evidenced by our ongoing programs and resources, as well as the continuing commitment of Education Committee members.* The change is abundantly clear by our significant reorganization, enhancement of existing services, and a host of new undertakings detailed here.

C+IR: Curricular and Instructional Resources

The ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee has formed a new subcommittee, Curricular and Instructional Resources (C+IR), to improve the dissemination of educational resources and curricular frameworks. Activities aim at defining the computer graphics discipline, collecting classroom materials, and integrating the committee’s community building efforts into the broader curricular efforts. In 2006, the group revised a knowledge base, which will now be incorporated in other resource peer-reviewed CGEMS repository, the newly founded cgSource, a community-based material collection, and the Education Index. The peer-reviewed CGEMS has collected new quality materials and will present a “best of” in the Education Forum in the Educators Program at the SIGGRAPH 2007 conference.

Curriculum Knowledge Base

Computer Graphics is evolving as a discipline characterized by the fusion of artistic and technical theories and skills. This project aims at defining this discipline by creating a curriculum knowledge base (CKB). The knowledge base is presented as a palette of subject areas and skills that forms the necessary educational framework for creating undergraduate curricula in computer graphics. At last year’s SIGGRAPH 2006 Educators Program, the curriculum committee held a forum on the CKB. At that forum the committee presented the CKB to the attendees and solicited feedback and discussion. In September 2006, the knowledge base was presented at the Eurographics Workshop on Computer Graphics Education 2006: “Defining an International Curriculum in Computer Graphics,” Vienna, Austria. The workshop was attended by 23 participants representing 10 different countries. The feedback was positive and portions of the knowledge base were used as a reference for defining an international curriculum intended to meet the Bologna education requirements in Europe.

cgSource

The cgSource, a community-based online resource and a CGEMS complement, aims at quickly spawning content through a simple and barrier-free online collection of educational resources. Instead of requiring formal submission and peer review (like CGEMS), materials submitted to cgSource are subject to basic acceptability criteria followed by community commenting and rating. Materials published in cgSource will also be connected with the new Education Index, through the CKB taxonomy, although the details are still under discussion. cgSource materials will be licensed under the Creative Commons License. As a result, users may copy, distribute, display, and adapt the work as long as it is attributed to the author, not used for commercial purposes, and shared under an identical license when altered, adapted, or derived.

Visualization Education

Education on Visualization has gained significance for non-technical majors in recent years. While teaching material has become available for visualization education in the computing curricula, there is little available for students in non-technical fields. Educators of such courses are in need of assistance. The ACM SIGGRAPH Education subcommittee on Visualization Education has recognized this need and contributed to the workshop “Visualization Education for non-technical Majors” at the IEEE Visualization Conference 07 in Baltimore (October 29, 2006). The workshop had an (unexpectedly) high attendance. In accordance with the workshop chair, Holly Rushmeier from Yale University, we interlinked her post-workshop website with our Visualization Education website. Cooperation between the IEEE Visualization community and SIGGRAPH`s Education Committee is planned to continue.

Digital Arts Curriculum Framework

This new working group will design a Digital Arts Curriculum Framework to assist educators and students in the creation of not only individual Digital Arts courses, but possibly the development of full a Digital Arts degree program. It could also serve as a guide for students creating individualized courses of study at institutions without Digital Arts majors. The project will strive to create a clear definition of what Digital Arts means in an academic environment, and will also incorporate research into some of the more well-established Digital Arts programs in both North America (Cornell University, Texas A&M, The Ohio State University, etc.) and the world at large.

Community Building & Support

Our website has had a major overhaul over the last year. Technically this involved porting all the content over to the open source content management system Plone (plone.org). It also meant reviewing all the content and reorganizing it to increase accessibility. The new site went on-line in September 2006. More features have been added since, like the education spotlight, which will change regularly and highlights content on the site. The Plone system that now drives the dynamic site has built-in capabilities for creating an on-line community. We hope to open up the site to public membership soon. Members of the site will be able to leave comments on the resource in the new cgSource area, and give each resource a ranking (vote). In time we hope to expand on this. We are also looking into using the site to get on-line submissions for new resources. With our increased web presence we hope to become an important resource to which computer graphics educators can turn for teaching materials, curriculum development and information on institutions in the field of computer graphics and digital arts education (with the upcoming Education Index).

Education Index

The Education Index will be a comprehensive online interactive database of college programs teaching some form of computer graphics and/or digital arts. It will be a valuable resource for students looking for schools, for educators wanting to connect with other educators, and for professionals wanting to broaden their skills. The Index and supporting web site is currently in the design and database construction stage. In our initial research phase, we identified over 450 college programs that will form the foundation for the Index. The Education Index will implement the Curriculum Knowledge Base structure, so that it will be possible to search for programs based on topical areas, as well as by degree type, geographic location and other attributes. We expect to have a beta test version up and available for review and comment during the 2007/2008 academic year.

E-quarterly Editor

The Education Committee is participating in the new online version of Computer Graphics Quarterly. We started with three articles in the November 2006 edition. We have two places for news events about education in computer graphics: the E-Quarterly and the Latest News located on the Education Web site at http://education.siggraph.org. We plan to be more aggressive in soliciting information for both of these items. One of the articles for each E-Quarterly will be in the form of an interview with a colleague either from the Education Committee or someone in computer graphics education. This article will highlight their work with students and hopefully have student and personal work accompanying the article. Two articles will feature activities from the work the committee is doing. The final article will focus on techniques and research being done

Games and Interactive Media

The area of Game Education has been of increasing interest to the Education Committee. In August 2006, Susan Gold and Jacki Morie accepted joint coordinator responsibilities for Game Education (now called Games and Interactive Media), and met for the first time to discuss the needs of this community. In February 2007, Susan and Jacki discussed creating content for the annual SIGGRAPH conference and decided they would like to create workshops for professional development. In March 2007, Susan and Jacki developed an educators survey to assess the needs of the Games and Interactive Media community. The survey went live in June 2007. Beginning September 1st, when the educators survey is completed, we will analyze the survey data and develop an implementation plan. ACM SIGGRAPH and IGDA are exploring how they might work with one another to provide each of their memberships an interesting joint event at future SIGGRAPH conferences.

P/SE: Primary/Secondary Education

In Support of our mission we are posting two web sites. Both are full of links, ideas, and inspiration: http://jimmoulton.org and http://www.landmark-project.com. Attendance to SIGGRAPH conferences has inspired the first Primary/Secondary Educationsubmission to CGEMS. It has also created a commitment to identify people willing to help with this process and develop curriculum in Math, Science, Civics, and Art. Goals for 2007-2008 include: 1- Submit abstracts for 3-5 lesson plans to be developed during the 2007-2008 academic year in San Diego. The plans will be finalized and submitted to CGEMS by the end of the Academic year. All lesson plans will be tested and refined in Wye River Upper School classrooms. Our goal is to develop lesson plans in Math, Science, Civics, and Art. 2- Work with the SpaceTime Student Competition to increase the quality and quantity of Primary and Secondary level student submissions. We are open to suggestions regarding the placement and deployment of P/S level work.

Undergraduate Research Initiative

After four years of Birds-of-a-Feather working groups, various issues have been identified regarding how best to create and support undergraduate research in computer graphics and related disciplines. This past year, William Joel, director for the initiative, has presented preliminary findings as a member of two panels (SIGCSE 2007, CCSCNE 2007). His presentations were well received in both cases. This summer, Dr. Joel will be facilitating two sessions at SIGGRAPH 2007 in San Diego. The first is a forum in the Educators track, where attendees can add their voice to work of previous working groups. The second is another BOF concerning the creation of inter-institutional undergraduate CG research projects. The intent of this BOF is to provide schools with small or non-existent research programs to initiate such programs for their undergraduates. This will be accomplished through resource sharing. Future plans include an online resource to act as a clearing house for information on existing undergraduate CG research programs and projects.

SIGGRAPH 2008 Teach/Learn Sphere

The SIGGRAPH 2008 conference committee is committed to bringing educational and professional development opportunities to conference attendees, including educators. At the 2008 conference, you can expect to see classes, workshops, and networking events organized by the SIGGRAPH 2008 Teach/Learn committee. The ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee will be collaborating with the committee on sessions specifically focused on professionals in academia. The 2008 conference committee is also calling for proposals for sessions related to mentoring, careers, and professional development as part of the 2008 Call for Proposals.

International Activities

SOUTH AMERICA

One of the objectives of the ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee is to help establish a world-wide network of computer graphics educators. To this end, we have established a partnership with SIGRADI, the Ibero-American Association for Computer Graphics, which organizes an International Symposium on an annual basis, always hosted by educational institutions located in different Ibero-American countries. SIGRADI symposiums are excellent venues for promoting ACM SIGGRAPH educational activities and events, and for encouraging educators from different countries to participate and join ACM SIGGRAPH. In 2007 the Symposium will be held from October 23-25 in Mexico City, hosted by Universidad La Salle. We have also established an important partnership with the international association LEONARDO/ISAST (International Society for the Arts, Science and Technology), whose projects, publications and activities congregate CG professionals from all over the world. We have also been actively involved with international activities related to SIGGRAPH conferences.

EUROPE

The education stream at the Eurographics 2006 conference in Vienna was very successful; there were over 50 attendees who came to the 4 sessions regularly. We had 20 good submissions, 11 of which made it into the conference after reviewing, and 4 of these finally were selected for publication in distinguished journals (2 in Computer Graphics Forum, and 2 in Computers & Graphics). In conjunction with the Eurographics 2006 conference, we had our Workshop on Computer Graphics Education, co-sponsored by Eurographics and ACM SIGGRAPH. It was a very creative, very successful workshop on computer graphics education in the context of the European Bologna Process. The results were published electronically both at the Eurographics and the ACM-SIGGRAPH websites. They will also be presented at a panel during this year's Eurographics conference.

ASIA

During Edutainment 2006, there was a symposium on Graphics Education and Visual Learning. The workshop co-chairs were Prof. Steve Cunningham, Prof. Lars KJelldahl, and Prof. Zhigeng Pan, the ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee's Asian representative. A report of the event may soon be published by Computers & Graphics. ASIAGRAPH is an event organized in Asia, focusing on CG education, digital art, and including a trade exhibition. ASIAGRAPH 2007 was held on May 23-25, 2006 in Shanghai, China, in cooperation with the ACM SIGGRAPH Beijing Chapter. ACM SIGGRAPH President Scott Owen was the keynote speaker. Among other things, Prof. Owen discussed the possibility of cooperation between ASIAGRAPH and SIGGRAPH. ACM SIGGRAPH has developed a SIGGRAPH conference in Asia, to be held in December. The first conference will be held in Singapore in 2008. This will enable Asians to more easily attend a SIGGRAPH conference. It is likely that countries like China, Japan, Singapore, Korea, and others will play a key in the success of this Asian conference.

Conference Activities

Education Committee conference activities include the Education Booth within the SIGGRAPH Village, the Education Committee activities within the Educators Program, and the SpaceTime Student Exhibition. Until this year, the SpaceTime exhibit was part of the Education Booth within the SIGGRAPH Village. This year, the exhibition will be housed in its own gallery at the conference. Dena Eber, Rick Barry, Dawn Fox, Kathryn Saunders, and Barb Helfer worked throughout the spring to make this happen. The Conference Committee, and especially the Educators Program Chair, Janese Swanson, Development Donations Coordinator, Pete Braccio, and SIGGRAPH 2007 Conference Chair, Joe Marks were instrumental in helping this venue materialize. We will be working with future conference committees to make this venue a lasting entity and a part of the planning that goes into future conferences. The Education Committee will be supporting he Educator program Ramp In and Ramp Out events. The Ramp In will focus on the SpaceTime Student Competition, and the winners will be awarded at that time. The Ramp Out presentation will review the Education Committee work done throughout the year, and will include a call for participation.

SpaceTime Traveling Student Exhibition

The traveling component of the 2006 SpaceTime Student Exhibition was comprised of 19 posters, interactive works, and animation. During the SIGGRAPH 2006 conference, 12 different schools or ACM SIGGRAPH chapters requested that the traveling show be sent to them for local exhibition. The show has traveled from Boston to New York, Colorado, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, and many other locations.

For more information, please see our website at http://education.siggraph.org.

Chapters (Director for Chapters - Fran McAfee)

New Associate Membership

In an effort to integrate the chapters more closely with the ACM and ACM SIGGRAPH organizations, the "Associate Membership" was proposed as part of the new Bylaws. These Bylaws were ultimately passed  by the SIGGRAPH Governing Board. This new member category will not incur fees to chapters or their members, but will provide meaningful benefits; such as a "siggraph" email alias, a subscription to the e-Quarterly, and inclusion in the CreativeHeads career resources . An implementation plan for chapters is being discussed in the Professional and Student Chapters Committee at this time, we will also discuss this at the annual Chapters Workshop in San Diego. Along with the transition to a new organizational structure for ACM SIGGRAPH it is hoped that an improved membership model will continue to be developed. At a minimum the Associate membership will help improve communication from the organization to the individual local chapter member.

Professional and Student Chapters Committee (PSCC)

The members of the PSCC help the ACM SIGGRAPH Director for Chapters in his role as the liaison between the Chapters and ACM SIGGRAPH.  The PSCC's annual meeting was held in February, 2007 in San Diego. This gathering is a chance to assess the situation of the chapters halfway through the program year while also looking ahead to what we would be doing at the next SIGGRAPH Conference. We focused on the PSCC's role in support of the chapters around the world, creating better coordination of chapter members with the organization and the SIGGRAPH Conference. We also planned conference activities, met with local representatives and visited possible venues for SIGGRAPH2007 activities.

Traveling Art Show

This year the Traveling Art Show (TAS) was hosted by Hong Kong ACM SIGGRAPH. They orchestrated an impressive multi-venue tour of the TAS to the Hong Kong community during July, 2007.

SIGGRAPH 2006 Conference Activities

The annual conference provides the chapters with a chance to meet as a group. It is a prime opportunity for our chapter leaders to make contacts and plan for their year-round activities. During the SIGGRAPH 2006 conference in Boston, over 50 chapter representatives attended the eleventh  annual Chapters Development Workshop. In addition to  information sessions and discussion groups, the workshop also allows chapter leaders to meet informally with volunteers from the conference and the organization (EC, CAG, Conference Committee, etc.).

The other events of the week focus on outreach to conference attendees. The Professional Chapters Start-Up Meeting and the Student Chapters Start-Up Meeting were well attended, and the Chapters Booth saw many attendees come to inquire about our general activities and find out about the existence of a chapter in their particular area.

The Chapters Party, held at the Roxy Night Club in Boston, drew over 4,200 attendees. This was the first time we hosted the SIGGRAPH Fashion Show. The collaboration was successful and we enjoyed press coverage from WGBH, Boston ( Public Broadcasting System).

An International Committee Reception was also supported by the Chapters at SIGGRAPH2006.  Another new collaboration is scheduled for the upcoming SIGGRAPH2007 conference; we will host the Student Volunteer Alumni Reception an hour before the Chapters Party.

The Rest of the Year

Growth for new charters was moderate. We continued to charter new chapters conservatively to maintain quality and integrity of our membership base. A complete listing of existing chapters can be found at http://www.siggraph.org/chapters. The Manchester ACM SIGGRAPH Professional Chapter was the only one officially chartered this year.

All ACM SIGGRAPH Chapters web pages have been reformatted to reflect the organization's plone template. This public portion of the site also lists the upcoming and past chapter events, indicates how one can start a chapter, and presents some general information about the PSCC. Chapter leaders have access to a private section, "Officers Corner", that presents all the information needed to run their chapter effectively along with conference activities information and agendas.

The chapters program continues to be a successful ACM SIGGRAPH endeavor. As a membership oriented organization, the chapters network continues to grow and if structured appropriately will play an even larger role in ACM SIGGRAPH's future.

During the 2006/2007 program year there were a variety of events organized by the chapters around the world. The range of activities is quite dramatic: conferences, panel discussions, video screenings, art shows, site visits, promotion of the annual conference, and boot camps. More and more, chapters organize events with other organizations in their areas and communities. The screening of the Electronic Theater program remains the number one event overall, often attended by large audiences of 100 or more people.

Industry Collaboration

Last November, 2006, we tried a pilot program to bring more film industry involvement to the chapters. Rhythm & Hues collaborated with us on an East Coast Tour (U.S.) of NYC ACM SIGGRAPH, Orlando ACM SIGGRAPH , and Fort Lauderdale ACM SIGGRAPH. Hans Ripjkema did a presentation that covered computer graphics techniques used in the production of "Chronicles of Narnia", "Fast and the Furious Three", and "Happy Feet". We would welcome more such tours of this nature if we can get the companies to cover their travel expenses. Most smaller chapters can't absorb these costs, but are interested in bringing these experts to their local membership.

Outreach Efforts with the "Scoop"

Last year we organized a small team to shoot overviews of various venues at SIGGRAPH 2006. Each segment was available as a podcast or a Quicktime movie download on the Chapters website. This was done on a shoestring budget over the course of the SIGGRAPH 2006 conference (5 days) and was ready for a presentation at the Conference Wrap-up Dinner.

We will do the same this year with most of the same production veterans from last year. The content is used by local chapters for marketing the upcoming SIGGRAPH conference. It is still available at this URL:  http://www.siggraph.org/chapters/siggraph2006-scoop.

Nominations and Elections (Past President - Alain Chesnais)

The major responsibilities of the ACM SIGGRAPH Past President, Alain Chesnais, are to chair the Nominations Committee and manage the election process.

The other members of the Nominations Committee were Eugene Fiume, Scott Lang and Bonnie Mitchell. The committee held many candidate interviews during the week of the SIGGRAPH 2006 conference and continued for a few weeks afterwards talking to potential candidates by telephone and email. As is usually the case, there were more good potential candidates than we had positions to fill. This is good for ACM SIGGRAPH but difficult for the Nominating Committee. The following excellent slate of candidates was selected: Jeff Jortner and jamie Mohler for Treasurer, Gary Bertoline and Rick Barry for Director for Education, and Tom Appoloni, Jim Kilmer, and Sue Gollifer for Director at Large. The winning candidates were Jeff Jortner, Rick Barry and Jim Kilmer.

ACM SIGGRAPH Student Services (Director at Large - Jim Kilmer)

In 2007, ACM SIGGRAPH formed the SIGGRAPH Student Services Committee (S3) led by Director-at-Large Jim Kilmer. Over the next year, S3 will be expanding existing conference-centric student programs into year-round offerings available to a larger segment of our student population, and developing new programs to create and support student opportunities. The committee plan represents an exciting new collaboration between the world-class content at our annual conference, and the organization's ongoing year-round services. S3's initial objectives will focus on mentoring and career programs, including expansion of our Demo Reel, Portfolio and Resume Review Service, and the introduction of new online networking tools to help our students gain experience and contacts in their chosen fields before they enter the professional world. The committee conducted an informative "How can we serve you" survey of 500 students in May 2007, and plans to have an initial rollout of new services to SIGGRAPH student members by January 2008, with full-service operations in place by SIGGRAPH 2008 in August.