Times of change

I just briefly wanted to touch on two pieces of SIG-CHI business, both critically important. First: SIGCHI elections will be held imminently. It is essential that you, as a member of SIGCHI, cast your vote so that your voice is heard in deciding the future of the organization. We will be voting for a new set of officers. We will also be voting on approval for a set of changes to the SIGCHI Bylaws that aim to streamline the operations of the organization and give us some much-needed flexibility while still keeping us accountable. Second: it has become clear that the CHI conference , as a whole, is no longer serving the SIGCHI community as well as in the past. The CHI 2004 co-chairs are working with the leadership of SIG-CHI to think through some significant modifications to the conference to bring it back in-line with the core needs of the community. You will hear more about it in the near future, but I want to let you know that this process is underway and that your thoughts and ideas on how we can make CHI a better conference are much appreciated. One last note: this will be my last column as chair of SIGCHI. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve this community. For SIGCHI, 2003 is a year of change. New bylaws are being proposed and the SIGCHI Bulletin that has been distributed to its member for so long, will now go online only. The changes reflect SIGCHI´s growth and development along the years. For SIGCHI Local Chapters CHI 2003 will be the beginning of new times with the discussion of the organization of the Council of Chapters and hopefully its creation. SIGCHI Local Chapters have been growing and developing since the first one was created. Now we have 69 local chapters in 30 countries. Each one of them has different characteristics, different activities and different priorities. However, all of them have a common goal: support the local HCI community. Thus, it has always been useful to hear about success and failure stories other chapters have experienced. The sharing of experiences has always been one of the main benefits of the Local SIGs workshop at the CHI conference, when representatives from all chapters meet to discuss their chaptersáctivities and relevant issues. However, this is not enough since it happens only once a year, and also …