From: rsc@altair.csustan.edu (Steve Cunningham)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics,comp.graphics.visualization,comp.org.acm
Subject: SIGGRAPH member benefits
Date: 26 Aug 92 20:22:45 GMT
Followup-To: comp.graphics
Organization: California State University, Stanislaus
Originator: rsc@altair.csustan.edu

There has been some discussion on comp.graphics from people wanting to 
get SIGGRAPH publications such as the SIGGRAPH '92 CD-ROM, and I have 
been responding consistently with "we don't have the budget to provide 
that for all members."  This has led me to believe that we would benefit 
from a discussion on the net about SIGGRAPH member benefits and costs, 
because we want to hear what people in this community want from 
SIGGRAPH.  All discussions and notes on this will be summarized and 
included with the results of a membership questionnaire being mailed 
next month in ongoing SIGGRAPH discussions on member benefits and fees.

SIGGRAPH has long subsidized member benefits through our annual 
conference.  However, ACM is developing a policy that will mandate that 
SIGs fully fund all member benefits from member dues.  Since I'm looking 
at this from the publications side, I see our publications as the main 
tangible benefit we have for members.  I would like your thoughts on 
what publications you want to have, knowing what it would likely cost 
you to get them.  I would also like to know what else SIGGRAPH can 
provide as member benefits that you would find valuable.  Please send me 
e-mail at
	cunningham@siggraph.org
with your individual responses, and please feel free to contribute to 
any thread on these newsgroups to discuss these questions.

Below is a list of publications and rough approximations of what it 
costs to provide each of them, based on current costs and figures from 
SIGGRAPH '92.  Note that the current membership fee of $26 doesn't even 
cover the lowest level of member services we provide, so membership fees 
will have to go up in any case.

Computer Graphics (3 issues/year), and membership overhead  $30 per year
     This is the lowest level of service we could provide,
     and must be seen as part of all memberships.  Besides
     Computer Graphics, you also get discounts on conference
     registration and single-copy publication sales

All conference proceedings from the annual conference       $25 per year
     Conference proceedings, visual proceedings, CD-ROM

Proceedings of various conferences that SIGGRAPH sponsors or cooperates 
with, when those proceedings are published by ACM.  These proceedings 
cost an average of about $10 each to print and mail when we don't have 
the overhead associated with single-copy sales.  They include:
     Interactive 3D Graphics Symposium
     Workshop on Volume Visualization
     Computational Geometry Conference
     User Interface Software Technology Symposium
     Geometric Modeling and CAD/CAM Conference
and at least two new conferences are being developed as well.
Including all of the current proceedings would add about    $50 per year

SIGGRAPH Video Reviews, conference issues                  $100 per year
     Four issues, with the electronic theater, animation
     screening room, and videos from the technical sessions

Other publications could include course notes (individual or full sets), 
additional issues of Computer Graphics each year, and special issues of 
Computer Graphics such as the Computer Graphics Career Handbook.

Given these costs and options, what combination(s) of publications would 
you like to receive as a SIGGRAPH member?  For those of you who are not 
members, are there any publications here that would lead you to join 
SIGGRAPH?

Thank you for your comments and suggestions.

-- Steve Cunningham
   SIGGRAPH Director for Publications