1.- What is ACM and what is Siggraph ?
ACM is the abbreviation of the Asociation for Computing Machinery, a non-profit association, maybe the most important and old (founded in 1946) of the world regarding computers. Its activity is mainly academic, since through this organization the research and advances in diverse computer fields are made known in an international scale, conferences and expositions are organized and periodic publications are printed. By the diverse interests and fields of application in computer science, ACM is organized by means of special interest groups (SIG) in many area. One of this is the computer graphics area, and therefore the existence of the Special Interest Group in Graphics , SIGGRAPH.
The special interest groups, at the same time, are organized in professional groups, which are local groups, usually by city, that are relatively autonomous in their organization and work, but which count with the approval and support of the ACM and of SIGGRAPH in particular in order to carry out tasks of diffusion, publication and development in the area of computer graphics in each geographic region.
2.- Professional Group in Mexico : for what and how to form it.
In Mexico, as in many places in the world, there is people developing the theory, design, implementation and application of computer graphics. A forum is necessary where interested people may interchange information, learn from the experience of others, discuss ideas and eventually give an impulse to the development of new techniques, teories or applications.
On the other hand, organizing within the philosophy and lineaments of ACM SIGGRAPH has many advantages:
-The support of the ACM implies an organization of more than 90,000 members, which provides information, activities sponsorship, conferences and publications (as for example, the publication Computer Graphics). This support provides the professional chapters with strong and up to date basis.
-An organizational structure, in which the information generated in the local chapters has the chance to be diffused and discussed in the whole world.
-A public image and objectives which give coherence to the activities of the local chapters without hindering in the way of their development in accordance to their regional interests and characteristics.
The organization of the local chapter has been resumed in four steps:
a) It is needed as a first step that a convocation be made by people who are ACM members for an organizational meeting to take place. To be a member of ACM it is necessary to register, and this is usually done by mail by every person itself directly with the ACM. Persons who are not members of the ACM may belong to the local chapter, but in order to maintain the support of ACM SIGGRAPH ten ACM members are required as a minimum. An agenda of technical meetings must be established to carry out the formation of the chapter and atract the interested people.
b) In second place, it is necessary that three members of the ACM form an interim management team. These interim organizers must conduct the technical meetings and determine the purpouse and objectives of the chapter that wants to be formed.
c) Write the bylaws where the objectives, the internal organization, the work methodologies and the periodicity of the meetings in the chapter are described. ACM furnishes some models that the members of the interim management board must know, to maintain the non-profit and academic spirit of ACM SIGGRAPH.
d) Gather this information and send it to the ACM to obtain the charter as a professional group. For chapters out of the USA, it is asked also besides the request for charter and the bylaws to forward the name of a computer related organization to announce the creation of the group.
The formation of a professional chapter of the ACM SIGGRAPH in Mexico has already started with this meeting of many people interested in computer graphics and computer animation. We expect to put together soon the necessary requisites to formalize the support of ACM SIGGRAPH.
In the meantime we manifest the common interest that brought us together: increase our knowledge and comprehension of computer graphics, and keep ourselves up to date in the new developments.