ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee May 2002 Meeting

May 3-4, 2002

Half Moon Bay, CA, USA

Attendees

Judy Brown
Alan Chalmers
Steve Cunningham
David Ebert
Gudrun Enger
(Note: Gudrun Enger was not present for the first four motions.)
Thierry Frey
Leo Hourvitz
Erica Johnson
Mike McGrath
Scott Owen
Dino Schweitzer
Stephen Spencer

Absent

Garry Paxinos

Guests

Pere Brunet Crosa
Ann Eakes
Fran McAfee
Jacki Morie
Jiaoying Shi

Friday, May 3

ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee and guests toured the Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory and hosted a dinner for local chapters leaders and other guests.

Saturday, May 4

Judy Brown called the meeting to order at 8:00 AM

Alias Wavefront Education Partnership Proposal

Much of the discussion involved educational resources and online resources and potential benefits to our membership through appropriate industrial relationships. Judy Brown will get back to Alias Wavefront on the results of the discussion, and the Director for Education (Mike McGrath/Werner Hansmann), Director for Communications (Leo Hourvitz/Gudrun Enger), and the managers of the online resources project (Gudrun Enger and David Ebert) will follow up on the possibilities for educational and online resources.

Approval of IVLA & SIGRAD Cooperation Agreements

The International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) is a 30-year-old non-profit, international society comprised of visual scholars (educators who deal with learning visually), high school teachers, artists, and others. They have approximately 300 members and a conference of 100 attendees

The Swedish Computer Graphics Society (SIGRAD) is comprised of educators and industrial computer graphics professionals in Sweden.

Cooperation agreements are for three years and are then reviewed for renewal. The main criteria for an agreement with another society is that it be of mutual benefit to both organizations.

Motion (Chalmers, Ebert) To Approve the IVLA and SIGRAD Cooperation Agreements.

Friendly Amendment: (Frey, Hourvitz) To modify the cooperation agreements to read "The cooperating society is to inform ACM SIGGRAPH three months prior to the conference of their intention to use space and vice versa." This adjustment is to make it easier to plan space requirements at the annual conference by knowing sooner which societies intend to be there. Earlier agreements specified that an organization would let us know one month prior to the conference if they did not plan to use the space.

Approved (8,0,0)

Motion (Frey, Hourvitz) to modify all cooperation agreements, when they come up for renewal, to read "The cooperating society is to inform ACM SIGGRAPH three months prior to the conference of their intention to use space and vice versa."

Approved (8,0,0)

Discussion of Oceania Visit and Implications for Future Globalization Efforts:

Judy Brown and Alan Chalmers provided background for the guests on the priority in the ACM SIGGRAPH strategic plan for globalization and three mechanisms for global outreach activities: chapters for local community building, collaboration with other regional, national and international organizations when they exist, and helping to form a new organization when no other related organization exists in the area. A year ago, a delegation visited Southern Africa, helping to set in place the first successful Afrigraph conference and organization. Recently, a smaller delegation visited universities, businesses and government representatives in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. Plans are to form one organization in Australia and New Zealand and a second organization in Southern Asia, although the two organizations would jointly hold one conference. The first conference is planned for February, 2003, in Melbourne, Australia. A full report is in preparation and will follow shortly. Alan Chalmers and the delegation were thanked for the advance and on-site work that went into coordination of this effort, as well as carrying out the detailed plan of visits.

Because of the interest shown in Singapore for building on the potential collaborations with Australia and New Zealand, the delegation feels that the next delegation should visit South East Asia. Other areas under discussion for the future are the India sub-continent and South America.

Approval of Conference Call Minutes.

Motion (Hourvitz, Spencer) To approve the March conference call minutes.

Approved (7,0,1, Abstain: Cunningham)

Approval of Conflict of Interest Policy

A policy on conflict of interest (See Appendix A) was presented by Judy Brown, and minor adjustments were made as a result of the discussion.

Motion (Cunningham, Chalmers) To adopt the proposed conflict of interest policy

Approved (8,0,0)

There was additional discussion on the need to educate members and the community so as to dispel the appearance of conflict of interest.

Discussion of Concurrent Volunteerism

There was a discussion of the need to notify others who may be affected when selecting a new volunteer.

Action Item: Judy Brown and Thierry Frey to revise the concurrent volunteer policy for approval at the next conference call.

Conference Financial Discussion

There was a discussion of the economic difficulties faced by the current and future conferences. For the last two years, the Conference has budgeted the contingency out of the reserve fund and has had a negative return. Submissions have increased considerably, and programs have been added. SIGGRAPH 2002 has been making an effort to control costs and shave expenses, but it is looking at a million dollar shortfall. Volunteers and Contractors are making a greater effort to make the costs associated with producing the conference more clearly evident, and SIGGRAPH 2002 is committed to keeping a tight lid on on-site expenses. SIGGRAPH 2003 plans to cut 2.6 million dollars from the preliminary budget and is looking at all possibilities. There was a discussion on the expected effects of cuts to various areas.

It was recommended that the Conference Advisory Group revisit the budgeting model for the conference and include a separate line item for contingency rather than continuing to fund it out of the conference reserve fund.

During the October, 2002 Executive Committee conference call, Scott Owen proposed the following amendment to the minutes of the May, 2002, ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee meeting:

"For the last three years (SIGGRAPH 2000-SIGGRAPH 2002), the conference has adopted the practice of budgeting the contingency out of the reserve fund. SIGGRAPH 2000 realized a positive return, SIGGRAPH 2001 had a negative return, and it is anticipated that SIGGRAPH 2002 will realize a negative return as well."

Motion (Owen, Helfer) To amend the minutes.

Approved (9,0,0)

Project Grants Proposal for Archiving Project

The Project Grants Committee asked the Executive Committee to discuss a proposal by Brad DeGraf to create a digital archive of the films shown in the Electronic Theater over the past ten years. There was a discussion of how much this duplicates work already being done by SIGGRAPH Video Reviews and the ACM Digital Library. Although this falls with the $10,000 for approval of project grants, the Projects Grants Committee felt there were multiyear implications and wanted review by the Executive Committee. There was also some concern about co-branding with the other sponsor of the project. Any use of ACM SIGGRAPH trademarks should be discussed with the ACM SIGGRAPH President.

Motion (Chalmers, Hourvitz) ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee has reviewed the proposal and makes the recommendation to the Projects Grants Committee to approve the proposal subject to the following conditions:

• Funding for the project will be up to $10,000
• All rights granted in pursuing this project are granted to ACM as well as the other co-sponsoring entity
• A copy of any information gathered in this process will be provided to ACM.
• There is no guarantee of future funding after this pilot program.

Approved (7,1,1, Opposed: Enger, Abstain: Ebert)

Action Item: Alan Chalmers to advise Project Grants Committee to convey to Brad that, due to the current financial climate, this is a one time allocation of funding and future funding is not guaranteed.

Executive Committee Representative to Conference Advisory Group

There was a discussion of what the position entails, and many possible revisions of the current policy were discussed. Executive committee membership is not a requirement for candidacy of the position.

Motion (Owen, Enger) To table the selection of the Executive Committee representative to the Conference Advisory Group until the June Conference Call.

Approved (4,2,3, Opposed: Cunningham, Spencer, Abstain: Chalmers, Ebert, Frey)

Action Item: Judy Brown to revise the policy on the Executive Committee representative to the Conference Advisory Group for the June conference call.

Candidates and guests were excused during discussion of the candidates.

EC Activities at the Conference

For the Executive Committee's open meeting at the conference (Thursday, 12:15 Ð 1:30), we need to make small signs that direct volunteers where to find information.

Action Item: All EC Members to get a text file to Leo Hourvitz for the sign pertaining to their volunteer recruitment needs, by July 4.

Action Item: Leo Hourvitz to email the copy from last year to the EC for review by June 1.

Executive Committee members (continuing, outgoing, and new) will participate in a training session on Saturday, July 20, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. This session will include an overview of the strategic plan and goals of ACM SIGGRAPH by the President, and how to use ACM's Financial Management Records (FMR's). This will be a lunch meeting.

Action Item Erica Johnson to arrange a space for this Saturday meeting.

Gini Gold, ACM promotions person, will be attending part of the SIGGRAPH 2002 conference in order to help us promote organizational activities.

Action Item: All EC members need to submit meeting times to Judy Brown for any activities that Gini should attend. Judy will then compile the list of EC Activities for Gini.

Membership Survey

Leo Hourvitz briefly discussed the results of the recent membership survey. We sent 1,200 surveys by email, and got 240 bounces. We received 230 responses, for a 23% return rate. Leo will issue a full report and post it online.

We also discussed the current membership model and dues structure. Would it be of interest to have multi-year memberships?

Action Item: Erica Johnson to forward the percentage of SIGGRAPH members who are also ACM Members.

Action Item: Leo Hourvitz or future Director for Communications to evaluate the current membership model and dues structure.

Action Item: Erica Johnson to work with the ACM membership department on the feasibility of Multi-Year Memberships.

Action Item: Erica Johnson to follow up on the status of membership cards status and delivery date

Executive Committee Job Manuals:

Each Executive Committee member is preparing a manual describing the duties, responsibilities, and policies related to his/her ACM SIGGRAPH position. These are useful for new people coming in, as well as for potential candidates. We reviewed the manuals prepared by Directors at Large, Director for Education, and Director for Communications.

Appreciation

Judy Brown expressed appreciation to Alan Chalmers, Mike McGrath, and Steve Cunningham for their work on the Executive Committee, since this was their last EC meeting as EC members. She also thanked the guests for joining us this weekend and Gudrun Enger for arranging the visit to the computer graphics laboratory at Stanford and dinner Friday night.

Motion to Adjourn (Cunningham, McGrath)

By Acclamation