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San Diego, California, January 18, 2003
Attending
Judy Brown
Alain Chesnais
Gudrun Enger
Thierry Frey
Werner Hansmann
Barb Helfer
Masa Inakage
Erica Johnson
Jacki Morie
Scott Owen
Garry Paxinos
Dino Schweitzer
Stephen Spencer
Guests
Tony Baylis
Ann Eakes
Alyn Rockwood
The meeting was called to order by President, Alain Chesnais at 8
AM.
Conference call minutes
Motion (Brown Spencer) To approve the minutes from the October
Executive Committee conference call
Approved (10,0,0)
Motion (Brown, Helfer) To approve the minutes from the three
Executive Committee conference calls in December and January.
Approved (10,0,0)
Review of the final S2003 budget
It is felt that San Diego is an ideal conference city and will
provide the California market. Assumptions are as follows:
1.) Attendance is predicted to fall between the SIGGRAPH 2001 and
SIGGRAPH 2002 attendance numbers.
2.) Space sales are predicted to decline significantly from both
SIGGRAPH 2001 and SIGGRAPH 2002. Current space sales are predicted
to be 65,000square feet, a 20% decrease from SIGGRAPH 2002 space
sales.
Expenses have been cut to $1.1 Million less than the SIGGRAPH
2002 actual expenses, and $3.1 Million less than the SIGGRAPH 2001
actual expenses. The conference will be shortened by one day, and
the number of session rooms is capped at ten. All contractors took a
minimum 10% contract cut, and the cut was significantly more in many
cases. One situation that is affecting the conference is the
increasing number of submissions in all of the programs. This
requires more work on the part of the volunteers and more staff
support.
The art show will all be two-dimensional this year. Audio-visual and
decorations have been reduced. One reception and all coffee breaks
have been cancelled. The vortechs program will use the area under
the sail to provide the space for personal networking and fun
activities.
Internet access rooms will be replaced with email kiosks, and we
will be emphasizing the use of wireless laptops, since the
convention center has great wireless access. Bussing service has
been reduced, and marketing is primarily electronic, with fewer
printed pieces and more reliance on the web. The pathfinders program
has been eliminated for this year.
There is a contingency plan that relies on good accounting with
three re-evaluation points: the February exhibitor deadline, the
April exhibits update, and the June registration cutoff. The
additional expenditure reductions prepared totals $300,000.
The rental fee for the convention center has gone up in the last
year, but we negotiated and got some money back. This year, we have
to rent the civic theater.
In the income area, we are looking at the possibility of raising
registration fees, and the exhibition price has increased by one
dollar to $35 per square foot..
Two years ago, the Executive Committee tentatively approved the
strategic outreach program, with the amount to be approved each year
as part of the budget, and requiring an evaluation of the previous
year(s). The funds for SIGGRAPH 2003 will go primarily to emerging
technology and to support the web graphics program. The total
requested for SIGGRAPH 2003 is $98,500.
The current session room matrix is to have two large rooms, and the
rest will be smaller rooms. Last year there were three large rooms.
The opening session and keynote are on Monday, and papers also start
that day.
Motion (Owen, Frey) To approve the SIGGRAPH 2003 budget.
Approved (10,0,0)Alyn Rockwood and his committee were thanked
for all their efforts in putting together this budget. Alyn thanked
the committee for their support.
There was a discussion on the pricing of consignments, especially
the DVD ROM. A uniform pricing model for all ACM SIGGRAPH
publications was approved by the Executive Committee on April 10,
2002. This model is to set the price of publications for members to
cover cost and overhead expenses, with non-members paying 150% of
the member price. This means the cost of the DVD would be $20 for
members, $30 for non-members. However, when the conference decided
to put everything on a DVD, and not have printed publications, it
means a drop in total cost of publications from $340 to $20 or $30.
It was felt that this low cost would devalue conference materials. A
low price assumes perceived low value. A smaller group is to discuss
this and set a price.
Demonstration of SIGGRAPH 2002 Online
Barb Helfer gave an excellent demonstration of the SIGGRAPH 2002
Online materials. It includes a catalog editor, with different
values for things like courses or special sessions. There are
different background colors for identity purposes. The software is
included when the site is built. The program is compliant with W3
standards, and it can be customized. Slide narration has the ability
to automatically advance the slides. PowerPoint and PDF are
available. They now have 50% of the slides from SIGGRAPH 2002. These
have been sent to ACM.
Demonstration of Soma Media
Gudrun Enger presented a proposal by this company to produce
DVDs and online materials for SIGGRAPH's community. There were many
questions raised about the process, copyright issues, value of the
material, and ownership of the material.
Review of the Fiscal Year 2004 Budget for ACM SIGGRAPH
The Treasurer, Garry Paxinos, presented projected income from ACM
that is based on member dues and publications sales. We had been
discussing our individual budgets through conference calls over the
past two months, and all programs cut their budgets by about 30%.
Motion (Paxinos, Brown) To approve the FY 2004 budget.
Approved (10,0,0)
Graphic Identity Task Force
This task forces consists of Gudrun Enger, Thierry Frey, Dena
Slothower, Sheila Hoffmeyer, Jamie Mohler, and Scott Owen. They are
investigating a graphic identity that would work for both the
organization and conferences, with slight modification for the
conference from year to year.
Role of Executive Committee members
There was a brief discussion of the importance for all Executive
Committee members to contribute to the various discussions. It is
important to get multiple opinions and ideas into the discussion and
not to be fearful of having a differing opinion. This time was also
used for the two candidates for treasurer to ask questions about
finances.
Changeover from old to new Executive Committee members.
It can be very difficult for newly elected officers to know what
they need to do when they are elected just shortly before the annual
conference. This year we knew election results early, and there were
things that didn't go well at the conference because the outgoing
officers were left out of the loop on the questions. Also, the
conference database was not updated from the year before. In order
to provide continuity, we need to make sure that outgoing officers
are involved. Newly elected people cannot know everything that has
been happening in the past year or what they need to do immediately.
We can't change the beginning of our terms of office, but we can
determine how we handle the changeover. It doesn’t make sense that
one works on something all year, and then right before the
conference, turns over authority. In most offices, a handover during
the conference makes more sense. Also, the job manuals that each
Executive Committee member is supposed to write will be useful, as
well as having the new and outgoing officers spend some time
together during the conference.
Policies for the Online Industry Directory
The conference has put up an online industry director. There were
questions about whether this directory was reserved for our
conference contributors and whether it contained outdated material.
There was also a discussion of whether this should have member-only
access. It was decided that it would have less value to the
industries listed if that were the case.
Action Item: Scott Owen to check on the questions above.
Email aliases on siggraph.org
Gudrun Enger presented a proposal for a consistent naming scheme
for aliases on siggraph.org.
Motion (Enger, Frey) To approve the email alias policy that is
appended to these minutes.
Approved (10,0,0)
Annual meeting
There was a brain storming session on what to do in the booth for
our yearly meeting this year. Past meetings styles were discussed,
and multiple options were suggested, including having the meeting as
a reception, having fortune cookies, and pre-marketing the event on
the website. The scheduling needs to be reconsidered since we
usually have this meting Thursday noon, and the conference will now
finish on Thursday.
Action Item: Gudrun Enger to explore options for the meeting
and make recommendations during the next conference call.
There was also a discussion on having better interaction with our
local ACM SIGGRAPH volunteers in the various cities where we hold
our meetings.
Chapters Party
Thierry Frey, Director for Chapters, discussed the status and
options for the chapters party to take place at SIGGRAPH 2003.
Meeting adjourned at 5 p.m.
Appendix – Approved Email Policy
1) EC, CAG, organizational positions, and conference committee
positions are automatically given "position" aliases related to
their position ( such as president, chair-2003, etc. These aliases
will continue to be maintained on our local siggraph.org machine
with pointers to them from ACM's mail server. EC ad CAG members will
automatically be given "personal" e-mail aliases( assuming they do
not already have one ). Automatic "personal" alias may be created
for Conference Program Chairs if so desired by the CAG although a
preferred solution is for the chairs to be SIGGRAPH members and
obtain member aliases
2) All organizational and conference related "personal" aliases will
have a format of firstname_lastname@siggraph.org. These aliases are
to be requested through any EC member, CAG member, or the
Information Director. Any EC or CAG member may delegate alias
approval authority to program or subcommittee chairs as they see
fit. However, I'd recommend that SIGGRAPH aliases not be given out
to people below the program or subcommittee chair positions and
instead have those people become SIGGRAPH members.
3)An individual with an organizational or conference "personal"
alias may request an additional "personal" alias besides their
standard one (such as lastname@siggraph.org)
4) All organizational "position" aliases will be updated as new
people take those positions. Conference "position" aliases will be
removed in December of the conference year. All organizational and
conference "personal" aliases will be terminated 1 year after a
person's term of office or conference role is finished unless that
person remains a SIGGRAPH member and wishes to keep the alias.
5) SIGGRAPH members are allowed to select any member alias on a
first-come basis. It is intended to tie these aliases into the
membership database. Eventually we would like to have these totally
handled by ACM. A person would then get a siggraph.org address in
the same fashion as they currently can get an acm.org alias. Will
plan on following ACM policies as to when these addresses become
invalid
6) Any organizational or conference personal alias (standard or
alternate) can be maintained provided the individual is a SIGGRAPH
member. However, only one alias will be maintained( We may be able
to keep both standard and non-standard according to ACM. Thus one
might be able to keep both firstname_lastname@siggraph.org and
lastname@siggraph.org ).
7) The sysmgrs group will be responsible for maintaining a database
of accounts and aliases for tracking purposes. They will also be
responsible for seeing that items are deleted as appropriate The net
result of this policy is that only currently active SIGGRAPH
volunteers and members will have siggraph.org aliases. It might make
sense to maintain some old legacy aliases such as those for award
winners or other positions, but I would like to keep that number
relatively small.
The following procedure will be used to initiate this change:
1) Current and past year EC, CAG, organizational position, and
conference committee position aliases will be maintained. Primary
source of information to be the SIGGRAPH directory
2) All other aliases will be sent e-mail stating the new alias
policies. If they fall under a pre-approved category then their
aliases will be maintained. If they are not currently active in the
organization or conference, then they will have the opportunity to
maintain one alias provided they are a SIGGRAPH member. If so they
will be asked to provide their membership number.
3) If a person is not active and not a member, then their alias will
be deleted.
4) Individuals will be allowed to appeal their deletion to the
Director for Communications or other designated personnel.
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