|
SIGUCCS
About
Us
Awards
Competitions
Conferences
Information
of Interest
Join SIGUCCS
Membership
Services
Officers
& Committees |
|
SIGUCCS Board Open Meeting
Sunday, October 7, 2007
9:00am – Noon
Eidelweiss (on Mezzanine Level)
Attendees: Leila Lyons, Greg Hanek, Bob Haring-Smith, Nancy Bauer, Jayne Ashworth, Carol Rhoades, Terry Lockard, Jack Esbin, Lisa Tanger, Melissa Bauer, Parrish Nnambi, Jen Whiting
Action items in red.
Welcome |
Leila Lyons |
Conference Updates
- Spring 2007
Theresa Rowe, Tim Foley, Jack Esbin
Program well received.
Budget less than $1000 over budget.
The closing panel was well-received.
Location was excellent.
- Fall 2007
Jayne Ashworth, Carol Rhodes, Lisa Tanger, Melissa Bauer
Comments about financial matters: lack of access to checking account was difficult at times. Hoping there is a way to work with ACM to minimize these issues.
- At this point we are operating in the red. It has been an expensive venue and expensive gala. Trying to be fiscally responsible.
- The abstract submissions were down from the last year – perhaps it was the October date that affected this.
- We are in need of a centrally-housed database from which everyone could be working. Elizabeth is looking into two options: revisit the Edmonton database or utilize a Plone-based system at a local school. What seems to be a major stumbling block right now is a place to house the database.
- Leila stated that ACM uses Plone, and could house this centrally. This would be a good option if we can get the functional requirements from this.
- Spring 2008 (SMS)
Tim Foley, Diane Jung, Jack Esbin, Gale Fritsche
- Good progress is being made.
- TMRF has been submitted but not yet approved. Budget projects a $12K deficit. Pre-symposium workshop: Dennis Trinkle, Valpairaiso. Plenary speakers are set.
- Web site is up. Program tracks have been developed. CFP has gone out; abstracts due Nov 9. Acceptance notification Dec 1.
- The folks that are attending Educause will take some of the SMS materials for distribution.
- A site visit has been done, facility looks good. There will be some issues with wireless, etc.
- Fall 2008
Terry Wolff, Parrish Nnambi, Elizabeth Wagnon, Melissa Bauer
- Things are going on-track. Will follow timeline from last few years. Working on TMRF. Logo has been developed. Web site is being developed. Program area: will emphasize quality of papers. Will have four tracks, but may go to five when needed.
- Looking at ways to help prospective authors on putting a paper together, as well as materials to help presenters.
- Rob has volunteered to teach a pre-conference workshop, “How to present at SIGUCCS”.
- The conference committee is also looking at putting a positive spin on poster sessions.
- Registration: having a student fee requires the registration committee to validate student status. Is it necessary to have this rate? The Board recommended having this be a “full-time student registration rate.” The conference committee can handle this as appropriate.
- Post-conference gathering: should this be an organized event? The Board recommends posting information about other activities in the area, before and after the conference, but not to offer planned events.
Spring 2009 conference will be held in Nashville.
Future spring conference locations were discussed: Walla Walla, Whistler.
A discussion of vendor participation ensued. The Board has taken several steps to streamline the vendor program, with the volunteer effort outweighing the return.
At this point in our evolution, monetary vendor solicitation should not be a part of the efforts of a conference committee. Promote membership and registration instead of soliciting vendors.
Parrish commented that pursuing the in-kind donations is easier.
If the conference committee believes that having vendor participation in sessions improves the program, they can elect to have the types of “case study” sessions we have had in the proceedings in the past.
The conference committees should plan for break-even budgets, and if there are issues, bring them to the Board.
The vendor link should be removed from the upcoming conference web sites. The vendors that have participated this year will have the opportunity to display materials at the spring conference. |
Nancy Bauer |
Board Updates
Membership & Marketing
The Board has merged the two committees that focused on the topics of marketing and membership into one committee. The charge of this new committee is to promote SIGUCCS and our conferences.
The table tents and magnets the Marketing & Membership committee produced are here at the Fall conference. This committee will be at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Educause conference. (SIGUCCS is sponsoring a refreshment break at that conference.)
Encouraged conference committees to link up with the M & M committee as they look to publicize their event.
Financial
Finished FY 07 with surplus of $34k (32k from fall conference in Edmonton). As a result, SIGUCCS reserve fund is just over $330k.
The annual budgetary contributions endowment for the Penny Crane Award have been completed, with the balance of this fund now being just over $40k.
Membership is just over 600 members, the highest number since 1995.
The requirement from ACM is $162 in the reserve fund; we have nearly twice that amount.
Scholarship awards for assisting new members attend the conference
Jack and Jennifer Fajman will propose a program of this sort; Terry will work to see if this can be incorporated into the new ACM web templates.
All SIGUCCS newsletters have been entered into the ACM Digital Library. Thanks to Jack Esbin for making this happen.
Jack’s history of the organization should also be added to the web site. We should fund a project to document the past board members and conference committees.
Carol Rhodes recommended that the keynote speaker line item be increased. Leila favors that the conference committee get a premier keynote speaker, and the Board would support that by utilizing SIGUCCS funds for this line item. The Fall 2008 conference committee has heard, and will look into this. Carol will circulate the findings she has about getting speakers.
Karen McRitchie will, again, be coordinating the Pre-conference workshops. |
All |
Conference Updates, continued
- Fall 2006
Gordana Brouilette, Cindy Stewart
- Had 400 attendees, conference evals were favorable. Received many praises for the hot, healthy breakfast. Having all of the social activities, email room, registration and meals in the Ballroom was excellent. Received favorable comments on the opening reception and gala event. Turn out was very good for both of these events. Reg Online was a good choice for registration.
- Keynote speakers were well-received. SIGUCCS should consider allocating more funds to this item. By offering the opening keynote a workshop, the package deal was more attractive to the keynote.
- Found it very difficult to get vendor support.
- Program chairs enjoyed working together. 119 submissions, 90 papers accepted. They created a system for managing files: SIGUCCS File Manager. This database worked very well. The intent was to pass this on to other conference committees.
- Scheduling rooms and estimating popularity of sessions was difficult. They scheduled second showings for some sessions.
- A pilot project of video taping some sessions. If this is to be a regular offering, this may be need a separate committee chair.
- They found shadowing the previous year’s conference calls very helpful. It was also good to have the core conference committees at the same institution was also very positive.
- The SIGUCCS Board may want to consider core conference committee members comp’d registrations. This may encourage others to volunteer.
- The conference realized a profit of just over $32K.
- May want to consider purchasing projectors, instead of renting them.
- This conference helped the SIGUCCS organization expand its own boundaries by having a successful conference across an international border. This was indeed a very successful conference.
|
Nancy Bauer |
Call for Open Items / Closing
The issue of the SIGUCCS File Manager was discussed. Leila will ask ACM if they can host this application and then come back to the Board with the needs we would still have.
Another system that Carol Rhodes created is a repository of documents for program committee use.
Motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Rob; seconded by Terry. |
All |
|
