ACM SIGGRAPH EC Meeting
Saturday, October 28-Sunday, October 29, 2006
Georgian Terrace Hotel
Atlanta, GA

Attendance: Rick Barry, Jim Kilmer, Jeff Jortner, Alain Chesnais, Scott Owen, Rob Cook, Jessica Wilmers, Mk Haley, Alyn Rockwood, Jackie White, Thierry Frey, Gregg Talley, Fran McAfee

Absent: Stephen Spencer

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The meeting was called to order at 9:00AM.

Email Votes Reviewed (Owen)

October 16, 2006
Motion to approve funding for the CRF proposal for a SIGGRAPH Conference attendee survey.
For: Jackie White (Motion), Alain Chesnais (second) Rick Barry, Jim Kilmer, Jeff Jortner, Rob Cook, Mk Haley, Alyn Rockwood, Thierry Frey, Fran McAfee, Stephen Spencer

October 17, 2006
Motion to support the proposed Student Member mentoring proposal (Mentornet)
For: Fran McAFee(Motion), Jim Kilmer (second), Jackie White, Alain Chesnais, Rick Barry, Jeff Jortner, Rob Cook, Mk Haley, Alyn Rockwood, Thierry Frey, Stephen Spencer
Scott read motion that will be discussed at the SGB meeting on Monday, October 30 concerning support for Mentornet.

CAG Report (Jackie White)

SIGGRAPH 2007 Jackie reiterated concerns about the DVD duplication process. The preference is to review the process throughout the course so that the CAG is aware rather than finding out about any issues shortly before or onsite.

The EC recommends regular updates throughout the process. Mk Haley indicated that participants have concerns about whether a DVD will be available on site and requests an action plan be put together. Gregg Talley asked if the CSE should be involved, Rob Cook agreed that someone from the conference side should work with Stephen Spencer. Once a project manager is in place it would be his or her’s responsibility to work with Stephen Spencer, until then the CSE will assist.

Action: Stephen Spencer to provide plan on critical and drop-dead dates to the CSE, the CSE reports to the CAG. Stephen Spencer to provide a list of milestones and deliverables and report back monthly and weekly as we get closer to the key milestones.

Scott Owen indicated the cost to ACM SIGGRAPH to mail the DVD’s out was $50k each year.

Jackie White indicated that the CAG approved, with 1 abstention, the Submission Systems RFP recommendation of The Opal Group.

Motion to award The Opal Group the Submission System contract for 2008, 2009 and 2010. For: Jackie White (Motion), Alain Chesnais(second), Fran McAFee, Rick Barry, Jeff Jortner, Rob Cook, Mk Haley, Alyn Rockwood, Thierry Frey
Abstain: Jim Kilmer

Action: Jessica Wilmers to send out acceptance and decline letters.

Thierry Frey indicated that he was approached by someone at the wrap up meeting expressing concern about the selection of The Opal Group and indicated that they thought it was a conflict of interest (COI). Scott Owen indicated that ACM was asked and indicated that it was not a COI if the individual involved in the organization was not profiting directly. The ACM SGB EC reviewed the situation and also agreed that this did not go against the COI policy.

Thierry Frey explained that The Opal Group needs a single point of contact. Scott Owen indicated that the CSE position was developed to manage all of the contractors and should be the point person.

RFP for Conference Adminstration, including the CSE position - Scott Owen stated that according to our Conference Management Model, the CAG Chair is responsible for appointing RFP groups and managing the RFP process on all conference RFP’s. However in the past, the ACM SIGGRAPH President handled the CA/CSE RFP at the EC level. Alyn Rockwood indicated that we should follow the policy and have the CAG chair manage this RFP since the CAG chair is responsible for managing the CSE. The EC agreed that the CAG Chair should be responsible for the CA/CSE RFP process.

Action: Jackie White to start putting an RFP group together for the Conference Administration/CSE position.

Vice President Report (Alyn Rockwood)

Rockwood indicated that he attended the Virtual Reality conference in Asia and reported that it was well attended; the trend seems to be that the digital animation conferences are doing well. Rockwood spoke with Ron Goldman, chair of Pacific Graphics. He indicated that they would consider joining SIGGRAPH in Asia but had 3 concerns that needed to be addressed. 1.Must be in the winter 2.High quality papers and appear in TOG 3.Concerned about US control

Alain Chesnais recommended talking to Janet Wing, on the ACM task force representing Asia. Scott Owen indicated that he spoke with Mike Weil from Hall Erickson on exhibits and Amy Goetz with SBA on local marketing analysis with MCI.
Jackie White raised concerns about Ron’s comments on US control. Scott Owen clarified that the goal was to have a committee with primarily Asian representatives. At this point the only non-Asian delegates are Scott Owen and Alyn Rockwood.

Bylaws and Restructuring (Rob Cook)

Rob Cook indicated that he used the non-profits guide to bylaws when editing and revising the bylaws and policies. He indicated that the book highlights 3 main functions
1.How the organization is structured
2.Rights of participants
3.Procedures

Rob reviewed and discussed that there was some redundancy. He indicated that he removed about half of the bylaws and placed them in policies and procedures since it was a more appropriate location and they can be modified as necessary. The mission statement has been moved to policy, however it needs to indicate that any change to the statement must be approved by the SGB.

A question was raised whether an annual business meeting is required, Alain confirmed that the there is no indication that it is based on the ACM bylaws.
Action: Jessica to check with appropriate staff on any issues within the corporate state.

Review of revised policies (Rob Cook)
Motions and voting to approve
Policy 1: WChesnais (motion) (motion), Rob Cook (second), unanimous
Policy 2: Rick Barry (motion), Alain Chesnais (second), unanimous
Policy 3: Jackie White (motion), Jim Kilmer (second), unanimous
Policy 4: Jackie recommends adding past president and removal of nomination of the CAG. A separate policy should document nomination of the CAG chair and role & responsibilities
Policy 5: May change
Policy 6: Education, Chapters, Awards, CAG should have its own policy.
Policy 7: should clearly define associate membership and indicate that it’s at the EC’s iscretion
Policy 8: Jackie White (motion), Thierry Frey (second), unanimous

Note: These policies are appended to the end of this document. These approvals are contingent upon the approval of the appropriate ACM bodies and the bylaws changes being approved by the membership.

All directors should sit on at least one committee but not chair them so that the EC can remain more strategic. The ACM SIGGRAPH project manager (once determined) will be responsible for collecting reports from the various subcommittees. Should all standing committees that have deliverables be provided with a budget? An official committee should have deliverables and continuity.

Rick Barry was creating a guide as an example to determine committees. Suggestions are size, charge, budget authority and deliverables.
Action: Rick Barry to assist with suggested guide using the education committee model as an example.

Gregg Talley indicated that the categories would assist in the collaboration with the hierarchal grouping. Scott Owen indicated that concern was raised about the elimination of a Director for Chapters at the chapters meeting.

Mk Haley indicated what the director of communications covers.
Oversight of creative content on the website
Partner with info services team
Newsletter
Membership marketing
Pioneers mentorship program
On site content- i.e.: awards

Thierry Frey indicated what the Director of IS covers
Maintaining servers
Technical oversight of website
User help
Application servers

Scott Owen reminded everyone that the goal of the new structure is to remove operational roles, which will allow the directors to view ACM SIGGRAPH globally. Rob Cook indicated that functioning as a group will allow the EC to work towards a common goal, rather than each member focusing on their operational area.

Suggested Committee Structure
1.Communication (Facilitator)-Awards, Info Services, Publications, International/SIGGRAPH Village, Marketing/Outreach
2.Education
3.Conference Activities-SIA, Small conferences, CAG?
4.Chapters
5.CAG

Alyn Rockwood indicated some concern about the reporting structure; chair of each committee should act as a facilitator rather than a “boss”. As a member of the board one would serve as a governing member and serve as a volunteer on a committee. Scott Owen shared his experience as a volunteer on the sysmgrs IS team, he indicated that he assists with IS and currently takes direction from Thierry in that capacity.

Scott Owen reviewed the proposed benefits to associate members to be listed in the Policy section.
Scott Owen discussed these benefits with Joe Konstan, Chair of the SGB EC, and indicated that he raised some concern about voting. Bob Ashenhurst suggested that dues of zero would not permit the associate member to vote. Fran McAfee indicated that if dues were required that some chapters may not be able to participate. Based on the feedback associate members will not be able to vote and will not be counted as ACM SIGGRAPH members for purposes of votes on the SGB.

Action: Rob Cook to revise policies and bylaws based on recommendations and discussion.

Communications (Mk Haley)

E-Quarterly is due out in a few days, Barb Helfer submitted a letter about education
Working with Flenser on the career symposium
Will not renew intronetworks contract there has been little buy in and feed back, only 60 of 400 student volunteers participated.
Spoke with sales team of Second Life, cost is upwards of 95k. Rick indicated that building a site may be a good for a student competition.

Information Services (Thierry Frey)

Encore on siggraph.org is ready to go live for 03, 04, and 05. The site will be open in November and will be complimentary through the end of December. Scott Owen indicated that he may present Encore at the best practices session at the SGB meeting.

Thierry Frey and Justin Ryan went to the Plone conference and reported back that the new features will provide interesting functionality. Scott Owen asked if the transition between Plone 2 & 3 will be as difficult as the transition between Plone 1 & 2, Thierry Frey said that was addressed and that the Plone team believes that it will be easier. Thierry Frey mentioned that the IS team is working on separate plone sites for the EC and CAG.

Thierry indicated that Ken Bauer is working on resolving the increase in SPAM, however it is a larger task than initially expected.

Thierry Frey recently received a complaint from a member that some important email got caught in SPAM and almost resulted in a lost business deal. Jim Kilmer indicated we should explore an acceptable use policy.
Action: Jim Kilmer to send a sample from the Opal Group.

Treasurer (Jeff Jortner)

Jeff Jortner listed the chart of accounts on the Plone site so that bills can be coded accurately when submitting to ACM. Jeff Jortner reminded everyone that FY08 budgets are due shortly to ACM Jeff Jortner, Scott Owen and Alyn Rockwood will review prior to submitting and be approved by March. Jeff Jortner reminded everyone to review income and expenses on a regular basis in the FMR.
Action: Jeff Jortner and Jessica to work together on getting access to those who need to view their FMR.

Motion to Adjourn at 5:35

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Sunday

The meeting was called to order at 9:00am

Alyn Rockwood reported that he spoke with Julie Jacko, President of SIGCHI, about exchanging papers and presentations at each other’s conferences. Overall the feedback was positive, Jeff Jortner suggested applying this to other conferences other than just CHI and SIGGRAPH.
Action: Jackie White to bring this information to CAG for discussion and feedback.

Bylaw and Policy Modification (Rob Cook)

Modifications were made to the first version of the bylaw changes. Some of the comments that came out of the discussion were
9.2 Concerns were raised about timing on notice of intent and petition, Alain Chesnais verified dates with ACM bylaws and policies
12 Meetings should be open to all members

Review of revised Policies
Policy 4a: Jim Kilmer (motion), Jackie White (second), unanimous
Policy 4b: Rick Barry (motion), Jackie White (second), unanimous
Policy 5: Scott Owen raised concerns about inclusion; remove until changes go in to effect
Policy 6: Jackie White (motion), Rick Barry (second), unanimous
Policy 7: Fran MacAfee (motion), Thierry Frey (second), unanimous

Gregg Talley recommends sending out the bylaws with abbreviated version (only headers) on the policy changes.

The committee has discussed hiring a project manager; in order to issue an RFP roles and responsibilities should be created. Some suggestions are
Facilitate and support standing EC committees
Support cross committee interactions
Manage admin support structure and student volunteers
Work with officers to set and move agenda items
Project support development effort

Jackie White asked whether the committee should involve support from student volunteers. Jim Kilmer is currently working on a proposal for involvement of student involvement within the committee and will try and speed up the process for review.

Action: Scott Owen, Rick Barry, Jim Kilmer, Jessica Wilmers, Jeff Jortner, and Tony Baylis to lead the Project Manager RFP group

Scott Owen discussed the Athena award and mentioned that 4 names were submitted for consideration.

Education (Rick Barry)

Rick Barry indicated that upon taking office he received advice, critique and suggestions but the common question amongst everyone was what does the Ed committee do? Rick Barry encourages the EC to continue to provide input.

Rick Barry reported that the education website has been revised and updated. He has created a new committee structure and organized in “Spheres”. All committee members are in place and need to select a subcommittee chair for each area.

New Education Areas-Game Education, Primary and Secondary (K-12), and Open Source International Activities-Currently there are 3 representatives which will help contribute a global perspective to the committee. Education Committee International representatives help contribute a global perspective to the Committee. Most recently, they have also served on the Curriculum subcommittee.

Outreach-the goal of the outreach committee is to increase proactive communication and awareness. With an increased emphasis on outreach, along with the development of a larger, more current database of contacts, the Education Committee will be in a position to communicate more effectively, with a wider audience. It will include an Education Catalog, Education committee website, and E-Quarterly.

Conference Activity-Coordinator for competitions-Dena Eber
SIGGRAPH Education Booth Manager
The main goal is to provide content that is useful, accessible and necessary. Rick Barry requested that some material in the DL be provided through the Ed site. Scott Owen raised some financial concerns. The recommendation is to provide specific pointers to the DL. Rick Barry's goal is to also post instructional material.

Scott Owen congratulated Rick Barry for putting together a great committee and website.

Chapters (Fran McAfee)

Fran McAfee indicated that he only has 8 months left as the Chair for Chapters. He offered his thanks to the EC for instituting the associate membership. Scott Owen requested that Fran McAfee write up a policy for chapters to adhere to. Jim Kilmer indicated that some countries may have an opt in policy rather than opt out.
Action: Jessica to provide ACM privacy policy.

Chapters continue to grow. Fran McAfee is working on setting conference activities for S2007, one of the places for the chapters party is On Broadway. Fran McAfee is working on getting industry and chapters more integrated and is trying to schedule a tour for the Art Show.

Meeting adjourned at 11:30am

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List of Proposed new policies

Most of these are currently in the bylaws

ACM SIGGRAPH Policy
Awards Program

The Steven A. Coons Award is awarded in odd-numbered years to recognize long-term creative impact on the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques.

The Computer Graphics Achievement Award is awarded yearly to recognize significant recent accomplishments in the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques.

The Significant New Investigator Award is awarded annually to a researcher who has made a recent significant contribution to the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques and is new to the field.

The scope of the areas of accomplishment for the Coons, Achievement, and Significant New Investigator awards will encompass both theory and application. It will include, but not be limited to, works of art, algorithms, and hardware designs. None of these awards will be based on service to ACM SIGGRAPH.

The Outstanding Service Award is awarded in even-numbered years to recognize a career of outstanding service to ACM SIGGRAPH by a volunteer. It recognizes an individual who has given extraordinary service to ACM SIGGRAPH, both in the trenches and in positions of more responsibility or visibility, over a significant period of time.

The Awards Program will be administered by the ACM SIGGRAPH Awards Chair who will be appointed by the ACM SIGGRAPH President with consent of the Board of Directors.

ACM SIGGRAPH Policy
Past President

For one year after the completion of their term as President, the Past President will be an ex-officio member of the ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee.

The Past President shall be the chair of the nominating committee through the term of next President.

ACM SIGGRAPH Policy
Values

ACM SIGGRAPH is built on a fundamental set of values and strives to support and follow these values in all its activities. These values are:

Excellence
ACM SIGGRAPH values excellence in the information and experience provided by its products and activities.

Integrity
ACM SIGGRAPH values personal and organizational integrity in the selection of our content and in our interpersonal and organizational relationships.

Volunteerism
ACM SIGGRAPH values volunteers and volunteerism in an environment that actively supports its volunteers.

Passion
ACM SIGGRAPH values the passion its community feels for SIGGRAPH and for the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Cross-Disciplinary Interaction
ACM SIGGRAPH values the interaction among the many disciplines that make up its community.

ACM SIGGRAPH Policy
Ex-officio Members

The following shall be ex-officio non-voting members of the Board:
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.

ACM SIGGRAPH Policy
CAG Chair

With the nomination of the CAG, the Executive Committee shall select the Chair of the CAG. The Chair of the CAG will be selected every third year, beginning in 2007, for a three-year term beginning on January 1 of the following year.

The duties of the Chair of the Conference Advisory Group are:
i. Managing the work of the CAG; and
ii. Serving as the primary communication link between the annual SIGGRAPH conference and the ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee.

ACM SIGGRAPH Policy
Standing Committees

The following shall be standing committees of the Board:
Communications (includes outreach, international, SIGGRAPH village)
Information Services
Publications
Education
Chapters
Awards
CAG
Conferences and Activities (small conferences, spheres of influences such as Digital Arts, BOFs)

>p>The following groups of committees shall coordinate their activities and explore ways to organize their areas:
Communications, Information Services, Publications
CAG, Conferences and Activities

The chairs of these committees will be selected by the Executive Committee.

ACM SIGGRAPH Policy
Associate Members

Members of a professional or student ACM SIGGRAPH chapter shall qualify as Associate Members.

ACM SIGGRAPH Policy
Nominating Committee

By July 15 of each year, the Past President will put forward an odd number of persons, numbering three or more, to serve on a Nominating Committee which will propose candidates for election; these must be voting members of ACM and voting members of ACM SIGGRAPH and must not be members of the ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee. The candidates for the nominating committee must be approved by the Executive Committee before being accepted. The Past President serves as the chair of the Nominating Committee.