Minutes of the February 8, 1999 SGB EC Conference Call

1) ACM EC Review

Chair Ellis reported that she'd just returned from an ACM EC meeting in New York. She was surprised to find that the EC managed not to think about the SIGs unless they talked about how much money they had. They needed constant reminding about the SIGs. Most of the meeting time was spent allocating a limited amount of EC Contingency money to various projects.

The ACM EC is putting together a nominating committee to fill Council/EC positions. Although the SIGs no longer have an official representative on the committee, Ellis encouraged the SGB EC to forward her names allowing her to suggest people to Barbara Simons. It would still be good to have some strong suggestions from people with SIG backgrounds.

Ellis reported to the EC that SIGCHI would be requesting bylaw amendments and a change in status to a "Society". She indicated that she would discuss this in more detail later in the call.

The EC had an extensive discussion on Software Engineering. For a number of years there have been a limited amount of joint activities with IEEE on Software Engineering issues. Now that the state of Texas is pushing to license this area, ACM has become more actively involved. A Blue Ribbon Panel will be established to provide advice to ACM and ACM SIGSOFT on moving ahead.

2) Nominations Update -

Past Chair Lidtke was unavailable. HQ Liaison Baglio provided the group with the election slate submitted by the Nominating Committee. Mark Scott Johnson and Barbara Ryder have agreed to run for the position of ACM Council Member. Alain Chenais, Rick Furuta, Lewis Johnson, Bruce Klein and David Notkin have all agreed to run for the 3 available positions on the SGB EC. All positions will begin on July 1, 1999 and run through until June 30, 2001.

The SGB EC thanked Chair Doris Lidtke and the nominating committee members (Steve Cunningham, Steve Levitan and Donna Baglio) for putting together a fine slate.

Action: Baglio to invite Ryder and Chenais to meetings. They are the only nominees that have not been included in previous mailings.

3) February Meeting Schedule and Agenda -

HQ Liaison Baglio provided a list of attendees for the upcoming SIG meetings. To date, 33 SGB, SGB EC and ACM Staff members have signed up to attend. The agenda was discussed and suggestions made. Baglio indicated she'd forward to the SGB EC for additional comments.

Members of the SGB EC suggested that a discussion take place with regard to the program reviews. A decision needs to be made on those SIGs that paint a pretty picture for the review but are not meeting their obligations to the membership or the organization.

Action: Baglio to forward draft agenda to SGB EC for comments.

Action: Discussion with regard to program reviews to take place during upcoming brainstorming session.

4) SIGAda Issues -

Conference Advisor Snodgrass reported that SIGAda had resolved all three issues presented to them by the SGB EC with regard to their 1999 conference. Those included: bringing their publicity budget in line with other conferences, amending their CFP to focus on Ada and to provide ACM HQ with a single point of contact. Snodgrass approved the conference for 1999. He has informed the leadership that in order to move ahead with a conference in the year 2000 they need to submit a budget by September of 1999.

5) Future of SIGNUM and SIGCAS -

Small SIG Advisor Cassel sent a message to the Chair of SIGNUM but she has not gotten a response.

Cassel reported that SIGCAS is currently discussing a merger with SIGCAPH. The proposed combining of these two SIGs would lead to a SIG on Computers and the Quality of Life. The SIGs are currently discussing the alternatives. Cassel believes this is a good direction for both groups.

6) FCRC -

HQ Liaison Baglio reported that the FCRC committee is currently working on their registration. ACM HQ has taken the lead in assisting them with logistics, administration and planning. She indicated there were challenges in working with an event like this. There are 13 conferences/workshops trying to combine their activities into one event but still wanting to keep their own identities. ACM HQ is pitching in whenever possible to help them.

7) SIGCHI Society Status Request -

Chair Ellis reported that she'd received e-mail from Mike Atwood, Chair of SIGCHI wanting to move ahead with changing the status of CHI to Society. He had submitted some suggested changes in bylaws for review and would like to send them to their membership with their election materials. The committee asked how these bylaw changes fit in with the recommendations being made by the Alternate SIG Model Task Force, Chaired by L. Johnson. Ellis tried to contact Johnson to discuss this but he was out of town. Atwood had been asked to participate in the committee to help establish the criteria for a society. When the draft report on moving a SIG to society status was put together there were obligations that the SIG had to meet on behalf of their membership, the community and the organization. The SGB EC asked if SIGCHI was seeking to change the name of the SIG and it's officers only? Only a set of bylaw changes was received but Ellis indicated Atwood was intending to send a letter as well.

The SGB EC indicated that the Task Force was the place the Society issue needed to be addressed. Ellis would contact Johnson to future discuss. She would also contact Atwood and explain to him that the SGB EC would encourage the Task Force to move ahead with this issue and develop the criteria for Societies. She'd also encourage him to participate. Soffa indicated she'd be willing to participate as the Large SIG Advisor since it's likely that's where the societies would come from.

Action: Ellis to contact L. Johnson to find out activities of committee and encourage him to move ahead with development of criteria for Societies.

Action: Ellis to contact Atwood and explain that the criteria for societies would be developed through the SIG Model Task Force. She will again encourage him to participate in this.

8) Late Newsletters -

Publications Advisor Cohoon had no report on the late issues but indicated Arms may discuss these during the SIG meeting. The SGB EC discussed the recommendations they could make to the SGB with regard to SIGs that don't meet their publishing obligations. Perhaps they should automatically be placed in transition when publications are more than 6 months late. The SIG would be given 3 months to get on track and if not an automatic review would be put in place. This will be discussed during the Friday brainstorming session.

9) SGB EC Member Reports -

  • Rick Snodgrass - Indicated he'd provide update on the Reviewer Database during the SIG meetings.
  • Carla Ellis - Indicated that the IFIP TC appointments had slowed. She'll continue to work on this.
  • Baer - Indicated that there was no report on the Election Task Force
  • Furuta - Indicated he'd had no volunteers to for the Technical Standards Committee

10) Review status of Current Action Items - A list of action items will be distributed.

There was no time to review action items. Baglio will go through and clean up those that were complete and the list will be reissued.

 

Participants:

  • Jean-Loup Baer
  • Donna Baglio
  • Boots Cassel
  • Jim Cohoon
  • Carla Ellis
  • Rick Furuta
  • David Notkin
  • Richard Snodgrass
  • Mary Lou Soffa
  • Mary Whitton
Absent
  • Doris Lidtke