Minutes of the March 8, 2001 SGB EC Conference Call

1) Review status of current action items

It was agreed that the action items would not be reviewed in order to concentrate on the agenda for the Sunday, March 11th SGB meeting.

2) Status of SIGCUE and SIGBIO and other Small SIGs

Notkin announced that the SIGCUE discussion would be moved to the morning session of the SGB meeting in order to accommodate Jim Hightower's schedule. The SGB EC will need to help keep the timing of the agenda in order.

Prior to further discussion of CUE and BIO, Klein reported that he'd spoken to Jennifer Fajman the SIGUCCS Chair. SIGUCCS has had difficulty meeting their newsletter requirements over the past 3 years and has postponed their program review twice. The SIGUCCS EC recognizes there is a problem within their SIG and is planning to make some changes. They are seriously discussing moving to Conference SIG status. Their EC is meeting during the coming weekend. Fajman suggested and supported the idea of SIGUCCS being placed in transition at this time. The SIGUCCS EC intends to put together a revitalization plan. Klein agreed that it was the right move and will encourage them to bring a plan to the SGB EC for review by May 1st. Fajman intends to discuss the change in status with other SIG leaders that have done the same (MICRO, SIM and SAC).

Motion: Move to place SIGUCCS in transition with the consent and agreement of the SIGUCCS leadership.
Klein, Notkin
Unanimous

Action: Klein to inform Fajman that SIGUCCS was placed in transition and the SGB EC expects a revitalization plan by May 1st.

Action: SIGUCCS leadership to bring revitalization plan to SGB EC by May 1st.

Action: Baglio to place SIGUCCS revitalization plan on May conference call agenda.

Klein reported that Jon McGrew of SIGAPL delivered an issue of APL Quote Quad to ACM a couple of weeks ago. This was Volume 31 Number 1, dated September 2000. It was a 40-page issue, somewhat larger than their regular 32-page issues. They have promised to deliver two issues: the other issue is the Conference Proceedings. David Siegel is creating this issue, and has told McGrew that it is essentially finished, and nearly ready to send to ACM, but hasn't yet been sent. He will try to get it on its way this weekend, so that ACM will have it at the first of next week. That issue will be approximately 200 pages. Color covers for that issue were delivered to ACM.

According to Jon McGrew, SIGAPL is still behind in our publishing schedule for APL Quote Quad, but are still working hard to get caught up.

Klein forwarded the SIGBIO leadership's plan for revitalization to the SGB EC prior to the call. The proposal is a fleshing out of what was proposed in October, to effectively merge with SIGAPP. If this happens it needs to be clear that SIGBIO no longer exists. There's no reason that SIGBIO cannot align with SIGAPP; there's no stopping that. The SGB EC was hesitant about allowing them to take the fund balance that accrued as a result of non-activity and not meeting obligations to their membership. Allowing a merger could block a reasonable new proposal on BIO and could discourage another group from coming to ACM with programs and ideas in this area. The SGB EC summarized their 2 choices:

  1. go ahead with dissolution and decide what to do with fund balance
  2. permit formal merger which dissolves the SIG

The SGB EC discussed having the SIGBIO fund balance brought into the SGB fund balance and earmarked for a two-year period for good woks in the BIO area. The current leaders, SIGAPP or any group could then come to the SGB EC and apply for funds.

Motion: Move to proceed with the dissolution of SIGBIO, handling membership obligations, reverting their fund to the SGB. The fund will be earmarked for a 2 year period within the SGB fund balance for BIO related activities. The SGB EC thanked the leadership of SIGBIO for their efforts in revitalization.
Notkin, Klein
Unanimous

Action: Klein to report to the SGB, the SGB EC's recommendation to SIGBIO.

Klein and Chesnais met in October with the SIGCUE leadership. They were unclear on any activities that have taken place since then. The group seems reasonable and is changing the focus from education to learning. The SGB EC was concerned that the timing issues had not been though through. Their next milestone was to present a complete revitalization plan in October. The SGB EC was concerned that was too long a time. There was discussion about dissolving the SIG, which would not preclude the group from submitting a proposal for a new SIG. Some members of the SGB EC felt that this is a good group of people that want to make SIGCUE work and they should be given the opportunity. As part of their revitalization, the new group needs to present a plan to meet the membership obligations of the past. Perhaps membership in SIGCUE should be extended for the next year at no charge; they must come up with a reasonable plan by May 1st. This will give the SGB EC adequate time to review prior to some terms expiring. Klein was asked to request the plan by May 1st. It should include a financial model; publication plans other activities and milestones. Also, they need to address issues to make up for not meeting member obligations in the past.

Motion: Move that the SGB EC request that the group that has submitted a preliminary plan for the future of SIGCUE be asked to prepare a formal plan to include a financial model, publication plans, other activities and clear milestones for all.
Chesnais, Furuta
(4,2,0)

Action: Klein will report SGB EC's decision on the revitalization of SIGCUE to the leaders that proposed the plan.

3) SGB Agenda

Notkin reviewed the agenda for the March 11th SGB meeting. The major topic will be membership. The SGB needs to start discussing the issue. Everyone is concerned and we must start thinking out of the box on what we're going to do. The plan is to meet in working groups and come back with some shared ides. The topics for the groups were discussed. Notkin requested ideas for topics be sent to him via e-mail. He estimated there would be 5 groups and asked the SGB EC members to fan out so there was at least 1 SGB EC member in each group.

Notkin will attempt to keep the agenda on time in order to successfully get to all the program reviews. He requested the SGB EC's help with this.

 

Participants:

  • Donna Baglio
  • Alan Berenbaum
  • Alain Chesnais
  • Carla Ellis
  • Rick Furuta
  • Mark Scott Johnson
  • Bruce Klein
  • David Notkin
Absent
  • Jim Cohoon
  • Stuart Feldman
  • Stephen Hayne
  • Mary Lou Soffa