From the Chair… .
Most SIGIR members don’t think much about the day-to-day operation of ACM SIGIR,
the organization that publishes Forum and oversees the operation of SIGIR conferences.
ACM SIGIR is an organization of about 1,200 members, and for the most part it runs
smoothly. However, I was reminded recently that in some ways we are fortunate indeed.
In September the ACM SIG Governing Board conducted its quadrennial (every fouryears) review of SIGIR Viability. I attended the meeting and gave an abbreviated versionof the presentation I made at the SIGIR Business Meeting (see David Lewis’ minutes
elsewhere in this issue, or see the presentation on the SIGIR Web site). After a very brief
discussion, SIGIR was found viable for another four years.
Our smooth evaluation was based on our consistent record of profitable and high-quality
conferences, an active membership, and a broad set of services to ACM SIGIR members
and the IR community at large. Some SIGs have difficulty finding people to run for
office or to serve as volunteers; some SIGs have difficulty running profitableconferences, especially in the recent economic downturn. SIGIR has managed to avoid
those problems. Your active involvement is what makes SIGIR a success.
During the last four years SIGIR was lead by Sue Dumais (Chair), Susan Gauch (ViceChair), Liz Liddy (Secretary), me (Treasurer), Ross Wilkinson (Regional Representative,Australia/Asia), and David Harper (Regional Representative, Europe). You probably
know that SIGIR elected a new set of officers last Spring. The elected officers were me(Chair), Fabrizio Sebastiani (Vice Chair), David Lewis (Secretary), and Justin Zobel(Treasurer). Noriko Kando was appointed Regional Representative for Asia, continuinga SIGIR tradition of having regional representatives from core regions that don’t haveelected representation on the Executive Committee.
Mark Sanderson, who served as an Editor for SIGIR Forum stepped down after theSpring issue was completed. We thank Mark for helping improve Forum quality over thelast two years; his efforts are much appreciated. Ian Ruthven is the new Editor for theSpring issue. Ian has prior publishing experience from the Computer Journal, so look for
the Forum to continue improving. Send us your content!
Mark Sanderson and Stephen Levy served as editors for the SIG-IRList electronic
newsletter after it was adopted by SIGIR. They stepped down in August, and have been
replaced by Raman Chandrasekar. Thanks Mark and Stephen for your work managing
the transition of IRList to SIG-IRList.
Charlie Clarke and Gord Cormack were General Chairs for the SIGIR conference thisyear. SIGIR is always deeply indebted to the SIGIR, JCDL, and CIKM conference
chairs, but a special thanks is due Charlie and Gord this year. Attendance was down 25%
due to concerns about SARS in Toronto. Charlie and Gord did an excellent job offinancial management in a very uncertain situation. As I write this, it looks like theconference will either make or lose a very small amount. Amazing work guys!

News From the SIG Governing Board
SIGIR is one of about 35 ACM SIGs. The ACM SIG Governing Board meets twice ayear, to manage the SIGs, to provide a forum for exchanging information about what has
and hasn’t worked for other SIGs. The September 19-20 SGB meeting made somedecisions that will affect SIGIR to varying degrees.
For the last ten years there have been four types of SIGs: Multi-service (like SIGIR),
conference-only, newletter-only, and eForum. Originally the different types of SIGs paid
different “taxes” to ACM, but no longer, so the SGB has now eliminated these classes.
All SIGs are now considered multi-service, and each November will be required topublish a list of services it will offer for the coming year. The SIGIR EC was alreadyplanning to do this, so this new requirement won’t have much effect on SIGIR.
ACM’s “taxes” on SIGIR will increase by about 10% next year. This increase comes at abad time for SIGIR, because we are launching the new Doctoral Forum at the SIGIR
2004 conference, and because SIGIR 2003 did not make money. The EC will address
this new revenue gap, but it is likely that SIGIR will run a small deficit this year and next.
New Initiatives
The SIGIR EC is working on several new initiatives to improve services to members.
Right now we’re working on a variety of issues, some of which are listed below.
• Guiding the Toulouse and Amsterdam groups through the final stages of biddingfor SIGIR 2007: Watch http://www.sigir.org/ for an announcement in December
about where SIGIR 2007 will be held.
• Mentoring Asian groups that might want to bid next summer to host SIGIR 2008.
• Developing a more coherent electronic mailing list policy, to resolve confusion
over the identities of SIG-IRList and SIGIR-ANNOUNCE, and to better deal withspam laws in different countries.
• Finding funding for the SIGIR 2004 Doctoral Forum. Our goal is to fund travel
for all student participants. Contact me if your organization might like to sponsor it.
• Evaluating “in cooperation” agreements with other conferences. When aconference is “in cooperation” with SIGIR, you get the lowest registration rate. As I
write this it seems likely that HLT/NAACL 2004 and CIVR 2004 will both be held“in cooperation” with SIGIR. Check the http://www.sigir.org/ Web site before you
register for an IR-related conference. If it is “in cooperation” with SIGIR, be sure tomention your SIGIR membership when you register for the conference.
• And more… .
Active and opinionated members are one of SIGIR’s strengths. If you think of ways thatSIGIR can be improved, please let me know by email. SIGIR is run by volunteers, so
there is a limit to what we can accomplish by ourselves. However, with your help, wecan continue to improve SIGIR.
- Jamie Callan