ACM SIGGRAPH Bylaw Changes Passed

The proposed bylaw changes by the ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee (EC) have been approved by the ACM EC when the member voting failed to meet the ten percent rule required for all bylaw changes. These changes will start in the voting taking place in next summer's elections.

The biggest bylaw change is all elected positions will become director positions rather than electing a person to a specific position such as the President, Vice-President, and Treasurer as we have done in the past. The EC will select new officers from within the EC to serve one-year terms. The officers will be the Chair, Chair-Elect, Treasurer, and Treasurer-Elect. The Chair-Elect will become the Chair and the Treasurer-Elect will become the Treasurer the following year.

As some of you know, choosing to volunteer, particularly for these key leadership roles, is a huge time commitment. Many of us are at junctures in our careers where we may not be able to volunteer for one of these larger roles due to time constraints; this new structure within the EC would share the work more broadly across the directors of the EC and lessen the burden on a specific position. It is our hope in adopting this new structure our nominating committee will have a larger, more diverse pool of candidates who would consider taking on a leadership position within the EC.

The SIGGRAPH EC worked with experts in nonprofit governance to put forth modifications around the organization’s structure and processes of voting/elected positions. Internal elections are becoming standard practice for nonprofit, volunteer-run boards, as are one-year terms for the elected officers.

The second important change revolved around creating a structure that accurately reflects our diverse community and will enable us to be more representative of our membership. Instead of being presented with a total of N+1 candidates for N positions as is specified in the previous version of the Bylaws, voters will be presented with at least two candidates for each specific position. This will enable the ACM SIGGRAPH Nomination committee to “bucket” candidates into positions to ensure all open director roles aren’t filled, for instance, with members who are from academia or that the EC doesn’t have only representation from North America. With this modification to the Bylaws, the nominating committee is able to achieve increased diversity in skillset, area of expertise, and geography on the EC.

Lastly, the third major change to the Bylaws is the EC will be allowed to appoint three voting members to its rank. Currently, the both Chairs of the Conference Advisory Groups for the North America and Asia, for instance, serves in an ex officio, non-voting capacity. As we are all aware, both SIGGRAPH conferences are our group’s marquis outward-facing programs, and we feel it is important to have at least one of these individuals in a voting position. This change will also allow the EC to increase representation and expertise from core constituencies as needed to complement the make-up of the elected EC.

The EC worked on these modifications for the past two years to achieve a more modern, efficient, flexible, and diverse volunteer-run operation. These Bylaw changes will allow us to be more representative of the ACM SIGGRAPH membership, and in turn, help us create a strategic direction and programs that will better benefit the entire community.

Nomination for SACAG Chair

Nomination for SACAG Chair

The current SIGGRAPH Asia Conference Advisory Group (SACAG) Chair, YT Lee, will be stepping down at the end of 2018. The nomination for the new Chair is now open. Here are the details:

1.       Anyone who knows a suitable candidate can make a nomination.

2.       Please provide the justification for your nomination, highlighting your candidate’s services for the SIGGRAPH organization, particularly for SIGGRAPH Asia.

3.       The nominee must consent to be nominated. Please state that in your justification.

4.       The closing date: 31 Oct, 2018, 23:59 Eastern Time.

5.       Please send your nomination to: sacagnomination@siggraph.org.

6.       The SACAG will select the candidate by voting, subject to approval by the ACM SIGGRAPH executive committee.

7.       The result will be announced at the SIGGRAPH Asia Conference in Tokyo.

Volunteer Opportunity: ACM SIGGRAPH External Relations Committee Chair

Volunteer Opportunity: the ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee is Recruiting for an External Relations Committee Chair

The ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee is recruiting for a Chair of their External Relations Committee.  The chair and their committee will establish and oversee ACM SIGGRAPH's agreements with organizations and conferences worldwide; manage relationships with external professional societies, organizations, and companies; and work with the ACM Executive Committee to identify and pursue relationships with new organizations and companies in alignment with the current strategic plan.

The External Relations Committee will also work with the Specialized Conference Committee to strengthen existing ties and identify new venues, emerging themes or potential relationships with other conferences and organizations to broaden the scope of SIGGRAPH.

The Chair of the External Relations Committee will assemble a small committee of 2-5 individuals interested in strengthening the relationships between the SIGGRAPH organizations and other organizations and companies.   The committee members should be selected from different sub-fields of graphics so that they can work with organizations and companies related to their area of expertise such as displays, design, and robotics.   They should also be geographically diverse because many of our agreements are with organizations outside the U.S.

Some of the current partnership agreements that have been cultivated by former external relations chairs include:

  • Computer Graphics Arts Society (CG-ARTS)
  • Digital Content Association of Japan (DCAJ)
  • Eurographics
  • Laval Virtual
  • Spark Computer Graphics Society
  • VFX Rio
  • Unity
  • Nvidia

The Executive Committee would like to broaden out the areas covered by the organizations and companies that SIGGRAPH has relationships with to include areas that are synergistic with computer graphics and interactive techniques and aligned with the organizational mission of “Enabling Everyone to tell their Stories.”

We estimate that this role will require about two hours/week.

If you are interested in this position, please contact: Rebecca Strzelec

SIGGRAPH Academy

SIGGRAPH Academy Award

This year we were pleased to announce the SIGGRAPH Academy at SIGGRAPH 2018 in Vancouver. The initial class of inductees was drawn from previous award winners. However, moving forward, our goal is to induct a broader range of individuals who have made substantial contributions to our field. To accomplish this, we need nominations for the Academy from across all of computer graphics. 

Here is the information you need to make a nomination:

Nominations for the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy may be submitted by contacting the SIGGRAPH Academy Award Chair before 31 January each year.

Eligibility Criteria:

  • The criteria for election to the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy are
  • Cumulative contributions to the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques
  • Impact on the field through development of new research directions and/or innovations
  • Influence on the work of others
  • Reasonably active participant in the ACM SIGGRAPH community
  • All accomplished members of the ACM SIGGRAPH community will be eligible to be nominated including researchers, practitioners, technologists, artists, designers, and educators.

Nominations will require:

  • A brief summary (in English, maximum one page) explaining how the nominee meets the criteria
  • Supporting letters of exactly three endorsers. Endorsers should themselves have achieved distinction in the field. Endorsers will need to have personal knowledge of the candidate's work. Endorsers will provide a brief endorsement statement giving their personal assessment of the candidate's impact on the field.
  • Nominator’s name, address, telephone number, and email address.

ACM SIGGRAPH Academy Committee

  • Holly Rushmeier, Chair
  • John Fujii
  • Cynthia Beth Rubin
  • Hugues Hoppe
  • Nelson Max
  • Hans-Peter Seidel

We look forward to receiving your nominations!

— Holly Rushmeier

Seeking Nominations for Chairs of Awards and External Relations

ACM SIGGRAPH is seeking Nominations for two committee Chairs. The first position is Chair of the Awards Committee. The second position is Chair of the External Relations.  If you are interested in either position, please contact the Chair of the Nominations Committee, Rebecca Strzelec.

ACM SIGGRAPH is recruiting for a Chair for the newly formed Awards Committee.  This chair will join the ranks of the standing committee chairs who assist the Executive Committee in nurturing and supporting the community of computer graphics researchers and practitioners.   A listing of the current standing chairs and their roles can be found here: https://www.siggraph.org/about/acm-siggraph-committees

The ACM SIGGRAPH External Relations Committee and their committee will establish and oversee ACM SIGGRAPH's agreements with organizations and conferences worldwide; manage relationships with external professional societies, organizations, and companies; and work with the ACM Executive Committee to identify and pursue relationships with new organizations and companies in alignment with the current strategic plan.

The Chair positions will start as soon as the candidates are identified and each position will have a three year term.

A detailed job description for ACM SIGGRAPH External Relations Chair and ACM SIGGRAPH Award Chair can be found by clicking on the links.