Getting Started

There are three main steps you must take when starting a chapter:

First: Start meeting informally: lectures; discussion groups; video, art, and multimedia shows; etc. This will give you a general idea of the level of interest in your area. Begin identifying people willing to serve as the nucleus, or core, of your group. Eventually your core must consist of ten people to petition for chartering as a Chapter.

Second: The core group members should become part of the ACM SIGGRAPH network by joining ACM or ACM SIGGRAPH. This core group should designate at least three acting officers: a chair, a vice-chair, and a secretary-treasurer. These interim officers must be members of both ACM and ACM SIGGRAPH. Once formed, your general membership need belong only to your group (the officers of your group must always belong to ACM and ACM SIGGRAPH).

Third: The core group and its interim officers must submit a petition of recognition, together with a set of bylaws under which the chapter will operate, to Lauren Ryan at ACM Headquarters who will then submit them to the appropriate boards for ratification. The petition is available from ACM Headquarters. A bylaws template is available on-line. When submitting your petition, please keep in mind that SIGGRAPH has a policy which requires it's Chapters to have names of cities or regions, not countries or states. You will find more information on ACM's web site for Professional Chapters and Student Chapters.

When your bylaws have been approved, you will be chartered as a Chapter.

Startup Support

To help you in the formation / recognition process and to coordinate the activities of all Chapters, the Professional and Student Chapters' Committee (PSCC) was established by the ACM/SIGGRAPH Executive Committee (EC). The Director for Chapters serves as the chair of this committee.

The current Director is Fran McAfee. Scott Lang is the chair of the Start-Ups sub-committee. During your formative period you will be working closely with both Fran and Scott. Once you have your charter ready for submission, they will help guide you through formal recognition.

The Director for Chapters can also authorize important growth support, principally in the form of mailing labels for ACM and ACM SIGGRAPH members in your area. As soon as you think you have enough interest for a viable group, mail the names and addresses of your core members to Fran and Scott. Additionally, when this information is in place, your chapter can be listed in SIGGRAPH publications and on-line as a group "In-Formation". Each chapter is also eligible for a listing on the ACM SIGGRAPH Professional and Student Chapters Chapters Directory and a forwarding address at siggraph.org (the main ACM SIGGRAPH server). Due to the explosive growth of on-line services, many people start their search for local activities electronically. A contact listing and email address on siggraph.org can be a tremendous boost for a new chapter.

ACM Headquarters has full time staff for all ACM and SIG chapters. For start-up groups, Lauren Ryan sends out expanded guidelines, the petition, and sample bylaws. For these materials please contact Lauren; she can send them to you via regular or electronic mail. Lauren also keeps a geographic breakdown of inquiries, in order to connect people with similar interests.

Responsibilities of a Chapter

A chapter must hold a minimum of four meetings per year to be considered active. A chapter is also expected to set up AND maintain a chapter web site. Finally, you should keep in regular contact with the Director for Chapters via e-mail or phone. It is important to let the Director know you are meeting and serving your constituency.

Once a year, your secretary and your treasurer (or your secretary-treasurer) must file an annual chapter activity report. This will be your most formal contact with ACM, our parent organization; ACM Headquarters will notify you at the appropriate time (usually June or July) of what and where to file.

Each year, chapters receive support from SIGGRAPH through the PSCC to help serve their members. One form of this support is the material benefits which chapters receive at each year's SIGGRAPH conference. Each year the Chapters have a booth to publicize our activities and attract new members. We also hold chapter meetings and sponsor one of the only receptions which is open to all SIGGRAPH attendees. A chapter receives the material benefits only if they have assisted with the above activities. Although an officially recognized group gets the materials "free," they are charged against the Chapters budget. Thus the amount and type of support vary according to each years' budget. As the annual Conference nears, each chapter receives a notice of that years' benefits and how to earn them.

Handy Hints

A few words of advice on getting your group together: Distribute responsibilities; forming a chapter and keeping up the momentum requires more than a few dedicated souls. Even "minor" tasks take time and energy and can contribute to burnout. Delegating responsibilities is a deceptively difficult skill; don't underestimate its importance. A well structured organization whose officers and board members have well defined responsibilities will survive longer than one without such a plan.

Newsletters are vital to communicating with your members. During your formative period one or two page, timely newsletters are better than infrequent extravaganzas with stale news. It takes time to develop a really good, stylish newsletter. Your efforts might be better spent on energizing members.

Schedule regular meetings (for example, the first Tuesday of the month at X place) so that interested individuals always have a rough idea of when and where you meet, and can plan accordingly. Many companies, libraries, and educational institutions will provide a meeting room at no charge.

Establish a fixed contact person or place or phone number for questions about membership and activities as soon as possible. A floating contact will frustrate inquiries and stifle enthusiasm. How can new members join if they can't find you? (we can help you by creating an email alias for your chapter on siggraph.org)

Keep your bylaws simple. Include only the provisions required by ACM, as per the template sent out by Lauren Ryan. Use the "standing rules" for those regulations unique to your group's operation. In this way, if you want to update certain details, you only have to modify your own standing rules without involving the upper echelons.

Keep in Touch

The PSCC was formed to help you. In addition, Lauren Ryan is anxious to keep us all abreast of current news. Appoint someone, preferably your group's Acting Chair, to notify the Director for Chapters of your progress. He/she will see that news about other chapters, meetings and such reach your group through the contact person. Identifying yourself also has another great advantage; we can forward inquiries about your existence directly to you. We also have an electronic distribution list of all the SIGGRAPH chapter leaders to which we can add you and your officers. This list is used to inform the chapter leaders of new developments, upcoming activities, and to receive updates from the Director for Chapters.

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