• Budget the contingency out of the Conference Reserve Fund

• Include the interest being generated by the Conference Reserve Fund as an income stream for the conference.

• Reduce the Operations Transfer to the Executive Committee to the same as it was for S99

Motion: To approve the S2000 conference budget

Rhyne, Fujii (9,0,0)

Lynn Pocock, SIGGRAPH 2001 Conference Chair, presented the preliminary budget for the SIGGRAPH 2001 conference.

Motion: To approve the S2001 preliminary budget

Fujii, Rhyne (9,0,0)

Motion: To augment the previous motion to state that the conference is allowed a 2% variance in this budget up until the end of February, as additional information is available. Cunningham, Rhyne (9,0,0)

To avoid confusion, all SIGs (special interest groups) and BOFs (birds-of-a-feather) at S2000, both advanced and onsite, will be called BOFs.

Judy Brown called the meeting to order at 8:00 A.M. EC Strategic Planning sessions continued during the morning.

1. Brown announced that the Reserve Funds Task Force has completed its charge. There is no report.

2. Brown also announced the resignation of Nick England as Director at Large because of the time commitments required in starting his new business. SIGGRAPH EC expressed thanks for Nick’s service and contribution to SIGGRAPH during his year and a half on the Executive Committee.

Motion: To approve the October and November conference call minutes

Hourvitz, Lang (9,0,0)

Steve Cunningham completes his term (at the end of December) as EC representative to CAG, and Garry Paxinos is the nominee for the next two-year term, beginning January 1, 2000.

Motion: To approve Garry Paxinos as the Executive Committee’s representative

to the Conference Advisory Group

Hourvitz, Chalmers (8,0,1 - abstention: Garry Paxinos)

John Fujii led a discussion about planned SIGGRAPH conference web site enhancements and the use of the SIGGRAPH Conference Reserve Fund for these enhancements. Improvements would be carried on through future years, and some immediate enhancements were proposed for funding from the Conference Reserve Fund. The budget for the proposed improvements is $130,000, and the proposed completion date is February 2000.

Part of the proposal involved advertising on the Web pages. It was agreed that advertising on the exhibitor web pages was not a problem, but there are concerns about allowing advertising on any other SIGGRAPH Web pages, whether or not they are conference content pages.

Motion: To accept the Conference Reserve Fund Proposal on SIGGRAPH conference web site enhancements, with any expansion of advertising on conference web pages beyond the exhibitor web pages to require separate approval.

Cunningham, Spencer (9,0,0)

Leo Hourvitz distributed an ACM SIGGRAPH Membership Plan asking for feedback, actions and concerns. He stressed the need to reinforce SIGGRAPH values which are passion, integrity, excellence, cross-disciplinary interaction, and volunteerism. Hourvitz reiterated the importance of having the ACM booth and the Organization booths combined as one at the conference. EC also discussed types of membership. A straw poll indicated that the majority liked the concept that a person joining ACM SIGGRAPH would either automatically have a membership in a SIGGRAPH local chapter or an option to join a chapter. Scott Lang, Director for Professional Chapters, is to contact the chapters with regard to this suggestion and report back by the January conference call, if possible, or no later than February 1st.

The Story of Computer Graphics movie distribution plan is completed and has been posted on the movie web page at siggraph.org.

Mike McGrath explained a proposal to provide seed funding for a National Research Council study to be focused on research in computer graphics and interactive techniques. Mike, along with SIGGRAPH Public Policy Chair, Bob Ellis, is looking at a study that does a mapping between the applications needs and research areas. This could then easily involve newly emerging areas. We will try to also get the European Community involved in the study. McGrath asked EC if they thought it was a reasonable idea to take the next step -- which is to rewrite the proposal with this new focus and send it out to researchers for reviewer. If the reviews are positive, McGrath would bring it back to EC to ask for funding for the project. The total project cost will be about $500,000, and he will ask SIGGRAPH for $50,000 to seed the funding.

Motion: That Mike McGrath evaluate the feasibility of doing an NRC study on "mapping between application and research areas in computer graphics and interactive techniques" and report back at the March EC meeting.

Rhyne, Chalmers (9,0,0)

Garry Paxinos explained the process by which the final budget was reached. Each person on the finance committee was assigned a program budget to review and was asked to look at ways of reducing the funding requests for each program. Revisions were reviewed via email and conference calls until a balanced budget was reached. Steve Cunningham commended Garry for continuing the improvements of the process that Nan Schaller started in terms of communication and feedback within the programs.

Motion: To approve the EC budget for FY 2001.

Hourvitz, Fujii (9,0,0)

Alan Chalmers distributed a letter that was forwarded to him. The letter was asking SIGGRAPH to provide a peer review letter to satisfy US Immigration Department requirements on a visa applicant coming in to do required work on a computer graphics film project. This particular need was resolved without SIGGRAPH's participation, but some questions remain. Should SIGGRAPH be involved with this kind of activity? Should SIGGAPH position itself as the place to come to find the leading expertise in any area of computer graphics and interactive techniques?

Action Item: Erica Johnson to explore legal ramifications.

Action Item: Mike McGrath to speak with Bob Ellis, Public Policy Committee Chair, about building a database of experts in the area of computer graphics and interactive techniques.

There was a discussion about accreditation of computer graphics courses and what involvement SIGGRAPH might have.

Chalmers reported on a meeting that he and Judy Brown had with Dieter Fellner, Eurographics Chair, and the Eurographics Vice Chairs to discuss a closer relationship between Eurographics and SIGGRAPH. The discussion included affiliated societies, possibility leading to joint membership. This proposal was taken to the Eurographics committee which unanimously approved the concept of closer affiliation with SIGGRAPH, possibly involving things such as joint membership or joint chapters.

Motion: The EC requests that the Chair and Vice Chair continue discussion with Eurographics concerning affiliation between the two societies that might include joint membership.

Chalmers, Hourvitz (9,0,0)

Jim George has been appointed as Chair of the Committee for the SIGGRAPH Outstanding Service Award. Committee members are Maxine Brown, John Fujii, Mike Bailey, and Steve Cunningham. This award is given every other year, in even-numbered years.

Alan Chalmers also noted that the members of the Awards Committee for the technical awards have to be approved by EC and that Don Greenberg has been recommended for appointment to this committee. These are 5-year terms, with one new person being appointed each year.

Motion: That the SIGGRAPH Executive Committee approve the appointment of Don Greenberg to the Awards Committee.

Cunningham, Spencer (9,0,0)

Theresa-Marie Rhyne reported on the Carto Project which has been funded for the last 3 years, a collaboration between the International Cartographic Association Commission on Visualization and ACM SIGGRAPH. The goal was to have a collaboration and combined outreach efforts between the two organizations. These efforts have been very successful.

Rhyne also reported on the ACM SIGGRAPH Outreach to the Computer Games Community. The goal of this project is an ongoing platform of interchange between the two communities.

Judy Brown asked if there were any topics to be taken to the ACM SIG Governing Board which will be held in February. Some topics she will bring up are:

• a request for SIG-only student membership, and

• a request that the donations to the movie, The Story of Computer Graphics, be exempt from the ACM tax.

Judy Brown asked the committee if there would be any problems if we hold our March EC meeting in Seattle rather than Columbus, Ohio. Since there were no objections to this change of location, Judy Osteller will look into the logistics of having the March meeting in Seattle.

On behalf of the EC, Brown thanked John Fujii for his dedicated efforts on behalf of the Executive Committee during his term as CAG Chair; Steve Cunningham added that he looks forward to John's continuing service to SIGGRAPH.

Motion: Move to adjourn

Rhyne, Chalmers — by acclamation