SIGGRAPH EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

MARRIOTT SALT LAKE CITY
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
FEBRUARY 21-22, 1998

Attending:
Marc Barr
Walt Bransford
Steve Cunningham
Chuck Hansen
John Hart
Scott Lang
Patrick McCarren
Theresa-Marie Rhyne
Nan Schaller
Dino Schweitzer
Mary Whitton

Absent:
Alain Chesnais

ACM:
Judy Osteller

Guests:
Judy Brown
Bob Judd
Bonnie Mitchell
Carolyn Williams

Steve Cunningham called the meeting to order at 9:00 A.M. on Saturday, February 21, 1998.

Approval of the minutes for December meeting and for the December conference call were postponed.

The siggraph.org contract was discussed and Steve Cunningham suggested that EC should consider how to handle organization contracts. EC does not now review organization contracts but probably should, just as conference contracts are approved. Pat McCarren is to put together suggested policy and procedures for nonconference contracts for EC review.

Carto Project Report

Theresa-Marie Rhyne reported that as a follow up to the SIGGRAPH 97 Carto Project BOF meeting, the VRML community proposed a geo-VRML working group. This group will explore how to integrate geographic information with the VRML specification. Lee Iverson, of SRI will lead the VRML consortium's geo-VRML working group.

ACM SIG Governance

Mary Whitton reported that proposed revisions to the ACM Constitution and Bylaws are of particular interest to the SIGs. One will allow additional types of SIGs, such as Societies, and the other will increase SIG representation in ACM governance. The SIG Chairs group will become the SIG Governing Board, and that Board will select a member of the ACM Executive Committee and a total of four members of ACM Council, replacing regional representatives. The phase-in will take three to four years, as the terms of the current regional representatives expire. This change is extremely important for the SIGs and we will do everything we can to get out the vote on the constitutional amendment.

NRC Funding

Chuck Hansen brought up the December motion on the NRC study of research issues in computer graphics. He would like to see a motion that the SIGGRAPH Executive Committee does not fund the proposal as it was received than, but believes that there is value in such a study and supports the concept. At Hansen's request, Cunningham reviewed the rules for reconsidering a passed motion.

Motion (Rhyne, Hansen) to reconsider the motion of December 7, 1997 to not fund the NRC study concept.
(8, 0, 1; Abstain: Lang; Absent: Chesnais)

The original motion was open for discussion, and there was a motion (Hansen, Lang) to table (8, 0, 1; abstain: Schaller; absent: Chesnais)

CAG

Dino Schweitzer distributed documentation on the conference budget process and discussed the question of access to the conference mailing list.

Motion (Schweitzer, Bransford): To request Steve Cunningham to write a letter to the SIG Board expressing concerns about revenue from the conference mailing lists and the review of the material being sent to the lists.
(2,4,3; for: Lang, Bransford; Abstain: Rhyne, Spencer, Schaller; Absent: Chesnais)

Schweitzer reported that the SIGGRAPH 97 draft audit was completed; S97 will be closing the books at the end of March.

SIGGRAPH 98

Walt Bransford reported that there was a meeting in Orlando two weeks ago. Chris Stapleton is going to hand over the Outreach work to Adele Newton. There were a tremendous number of submissions in all areas; to date, 168,000 square feet exhibit space has been sold, although a dozen companies have cut back on space or dropped out; the conference is at 87% of their target. The new executive summary was distributed; income is reduced due to new registration fees.

SIGGRAPH 99

SIGGRAPH 99 had their first strategy meeting in January. Many interesting ideas were discussed. Their next meeting is in March, and the Call for Participation is in progress.

SIGGRAPH 2000

Jackie White had her Chair orientation and is in the process of putting a committee together.

Computer Rental Contract

Dino Schweitzer presented the CAG proposal for the computer rental contract for SIGGRAPH 98, SIGGRAPH 99, and SIGGRAPH 2000.
Motion (Schweitzer, Lang): Move to approve computer rental contract.
(9,0,0; absent: Chesnais)

Communications Committee

John Hart introduced Carolyn Williams, Bonnie Mitchell, Judy Brown and Bob Judd who serve on the Communications Committee. The Committee met in conjunction with the EC to discuss a membership drive and considered possible changes to membership options to be made this summer.

The Communications Committee reviewed existing benefits and discussed possible new ones.

Existing benefits are discounts on conference registrations, receiving the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics newsletter, having access to the full set of Member Plus publications at a very low price, and participating in SIGGRAPH elections. Members also found conference identification such as the member pin or ribbon to be a valuable way to identify with the organization.

Possible additional benefits include on-line services such as email aliasing; web page forwarding, on-line publications, an on-line membership directory, and on-line career services such as on-line resume and consulting databases. Additional benefits could include such things as reinstating discounts on the SIGGRAPH Video Review, making conference merchandise available to members, expanding the Member Plus program to include unbundled SIGGRAPH conference publications, and linking SIGGRAPH membership to Professional Chapters.

Bonnie Mitchell pointed out that the career on-line services is an ongoing, high-maintenance item; it will require persons to monitor it and to keep it working.

Digital Library

John Hart asked about making SIGGRAPH publications available on-line as a member benefit. Steve Spencer said that we could make the SIGGRAPH materials in the ACM Digital Library available to our members.

Motion (Hart, Lang): Direct the ACM Digital Library to allow access to SIGGRAPH content in the ACM Digital Library at no fee to SIGGRAPH members, effective immediately.
(8, 0, 1; abstain: Bransford; absent: Chesnais)

Motion (Lang, Barr): To suspend rules to consider member benefits and pricing without backup in spite of the fact that the FY99 budget was approved at the last EC meeting.
(9, 0, 0; absent: Chesnais)

Carolyn Williams suggested a universal membership form that would have ACM and SIGGRAPH with bullets explaining benefits, including professional chapter memberships, and the pricing of all member options. This kind of form would make local chapters realize there is a bigger organization while allowing local chapters to retain their autonomy. The list of existing benefits is:

MEMBERSHIP (Prices Effective to July 1, 1998)

Membership Benefits
o Computer Graphics, a quarterly newsletter
o On-line conference proceedings (per today's vote)
o Discounted registration on SIGGRAPH sponsored conferences
o Discounted prices on SIGGRAPH publications
o Email forwarding (for volunteers only at this point)
o Membership Directory (when this is in place)
o Vote

The Communications Committee discussed other options for member benefits with the following two suggestions:

SIGGRAPH Professional Chapters

A check-off box should be included for Professional Chapters membership on the main SIGGRAPH membership form. Members would find the particular membership fee either on-line or, if space allows, on the membership form.

SIGGRAPH Member Plus

SIGGRAPH should consider further unbundling membership benefits to allow members to purchase more focused sets of conference publications. These could be managed through the Member Plus program by adding the following items (with possible prices indicated):

EC expressed a desire to follow up on these ideas with one or more motions to be developed by the Communications Committee.

Further discussion was postponed until Sunday, at which time motions were to be presented for consideration.

Small Conferences

Chuck Hansen announced that Eurographics would like to co-locate the Eurographics Hardware Workshop with SIGGRAPH 99. Since the Eurographics/SIGGRAPH hardware workshop was such a success, the general consensus of the EC was to support the co-location in 1999. Hansen described his belief that, in general, co-sponsoring workshops with Eurographics, co-located with the annual SIGGRAPH conference, is strategic to both the conference and the membership. However, we do not want to have many co-located conferences or workshops because they could conflict with our annual conference. He recommended that a limited

number of workshops co-sponsored with Eurographics, one or perhaps two, be considered each year co-located with the annual SIGGRAPH conference. CAG was asked to comment on the co-location issue.

Traveling Course Proposal

Scott Lang reported that there is a great deal of interest in bringing the VRML course from SIGGRAPH 97 to New York City and to the District of Columbia. The course developers will be working with the NYC Chapter in New York City to present the course.

Motion: To suspend rules to consider a motion on traveling courses without prior backup.
Hart, Hansen 8,0,1 (abstain: Bransford; absent: Chesnais)

Move that SIGGRAPH underwrite the Traveling Course Proposal up to the amount of $20,000 with surplus, if any, to be split between the sponsoring chapter and SIGGRAPH, and that the proposers (Hansen and Lang) will report on the results of the prototype based on course evaluations and financial viability.
Schaller, Barr 9,0,0 (absent: Chesnais)

Student SIGGRAPH Chapters

Scott Lang reported that discussions were held between the Chapters and Education Committees about establishing SIGGRAPH student chapters.

Budget Items

Nan Schaller reported that a review of the December financial management reports, which is halfway through the budget period, shows that all areas are well within their appropriate expenditures.

Draft Proposal for Leadership Development Workshop

Steve Cunningham announced he is speaking with two people about leading this workshop. He passed around a draft Request for Proposals and asked members to look at and make comments on it within the week.

Business Meeting Schedule

Steve Cunningham announced that the Business Meeting at the conference, which usually takes place Thursday evening from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, will need to find another time this year because of conference activities. Further details will be announced as they are developed.

Purpose and Value Statement

Steve Cunningham noted that everyone continues to support the overall outline of the Purpose and Values Statements. EC members are to forward wordsmithing comments to be incorporated to an updated version which will be presented to EC for final approval.

Membership

The Communications Committee reported on their work during their meeting and stimulated further discussion of SIGGRAPH membership benefits: The discussion focused on creating a single registration form that would present member benefits and would include Professional Chapter memberships as well as SIGGRAPH membership. Part of the form would include changing the names of membership classes to make it clear what each includes.

Motion (Hart, Rhyne): To approve the membership form as described by the Communications Committee with prices based on a cost analysis by the Director for Publications, pending a review of implementation from ACM HQ. The prices are to be approved by the Executive Committee.
(9,0,0; absent: Chesnais)

NRC Proposal

Motion (Hansen, Rhyne): To remove the NRC workshop motion from the table.
(8,0,1; abstain: Bransford; absent: Chesnais)

Motion (Hansen, Hart): To replace motion on table with substitute.
(8,0,1; abstain: Bransford; absent: Chesnais)

The following substitute motion to the original motion was proposed.

Substitute Motion (Hansen, Hart): The SIGGRAPH EC supports in principle the idea of an NRC study on Computer Graphics. However, given the concerns about details of the proposal as presented, I move that the SIGGRAPH EC not at this time approve an incremental budget for the Special Projects Committee for the purpose of funding this proposal. The EC encourages the proposal writer to revise the proposal and resubmit the request.
(7,0,2; abstain: Barr, Bransford; absent: Chesnais)

John Hart and Chuck Hansen agreed to work with Bob Ellis to make an NRC study happen.

Nan Schaller clarified that we do allow requests for spending from the surplus reserves to occur throughout the year.

SIGGRAPH Movie

John Hart reported that he is waiting for a decision on the $300,000 proposal he made to CAG. So far, the CAG has not formally considered the movie. Dino Schweitzer noted that CAG did not disapprove of the movie funding, but they do need clarification on certain points.

Hart went over the compostion of the movie team. Carl Machover has the responsibility to provide volunteer oversight on content. Judson Rosebush has been contracted to write the script; Steve Silas will manage the planning, budgeting, and progress of the documentary as Executive Producer; Joan Collins is the Producer; and Frank Foster is the Director. Hart reported that a lot of preproduction work is in progress. Donations will be offered to SIGGRAPH exhibitors first.

Hart said that if the full $1.4 million from SIGGRAPH and external funding is not received, he will evaluate the progress of the movie and construct a new budget, given the expected donations. If the money is not raised, it is still the intention to make a good documentary. It won't be HDTV and it won't have custom computer graphics, however.

Proceedings Citation

Steve Spencer noted that proceedings citation is an issue because of the perception in the academic community that since the SIGGRAPH Conference Proceedings is not in the volume and numbering sequence, it is not a reviewed publication and is therefore less valuable. Implications of this issue were discussed, including its possible ties to the question of conference sketches. Spencer will work with representatives from the academic and library community and address this issue, with a goal of getting a solution in place by SIGGRAPH 99.

Motion to adjourn
Hart, Schaller (8,0,0; absent: Chesnais, Rhyne)