Cascade SIGGRAPH Board Meeting

February 13, 2006

Minutes by Fran Zandonella

Please send all corrections to Fran Z.

Location

Acapulco’s, NW 26th & Vaughn in Portland

Time: 12:45p – 1:35 pm

Attendees

Demetra Gilmore Arnett, Andrew Dennis, Fran Zandonella

Minutes

Minutes from October (10/5/05, 10/21/05), November (11/21/05), December (12/9/05), and January (1/9/06) were not approved, and will be approved by email before the next meeting.

* Fran will send out the minutes link so the Board can vote by email to approve the past minutes for 10/5/05, 10/21/05, 11/21/05, 12/9/05, and 1/9/06.

New Business

Elections

Fran reminds the Board that it is time to thing about upcoming elections this June.  Each board member present said that they would be willing to run again for their current office.  Is Jeff willing to run for Chair again?

We need to get a nominating committee going, so that we can get other people interested in running against us.  Fran will ask Adam, Herc, and Michael if any of them would be willing to head and/or serve on the nominating committee.

* Fran will ask Jeff if he is willing to run for Chair for 2006-2007.

* Fran will ask Adam, Herc, and Michael if any of them would be willing to head and/or serve on the nominating committee.

Business Cards

Fran found her business card template.  It is a bit late in the year to print up business cards for the whole year.  We can print up some right after the election at Kinko’s.  The cost of printing about 100-200 cards is $20 at Kinko’s.  Total cost for all the officers would be about $100 (including a box of generic cards).  Another factor in waiting is getting a chapter logo.

Fran will print up 10 cards per officer using our business card stock on her home printer in time for the Laika meeting.

* Fran will print up 10 cards per officer using our business card stock on her home printer in time for the Laika meeting.

Membership

Fran proposed, seconded by Demetra, that Heidi Lowell and Kerry Tescher of Liaison be given a complimentary membership each for the year in thanks for all their hard work in getting the word out about our organization and meetings.  The Board unanimously approved.

Demetra proposed that someone who volunteers three times a year for Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH be given a free year’s membership, and that if someone volunteers for an event, they get in to that event for free.  Andy seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Fran reported that membership cards have gone out, and renewals have gone out as well.  We now have 34 members.

Also, we now have a new PO Box at the post office on the corner of Savier and 24th.  Our new address is:

Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH

P. O. Box 10583

Portland, OR  97296-10583

Fran and Andy have the keys.  All of the on-line docs have been updated with our new address.

Committee Reports

Events

January Meeting, January 30th, 2006

We all agree that this was a wonderful meeting.  We had 16 people in attendance, and many expressed the idea to do this on a regular basis.  There was discussion of what type of future events people would like to see.  Heidi and Kerry from Liaison attended and voiced an interest in becoming more active in Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH.  There was discussion of local graphics employers and who is running gaming companies in town.  (This is related to the March meeting.)

February Meeting, Moongirl Talk, February 27, 2006

Demetra and Fran report.

Demetra says we have 20 RSVP’s so far.  Liaison has been publicizing the event, and we have heard reports of people seeing the announcements.

* Fran will send an email announcement to ASIFA.

Our venue is the Governor Hotel in the Grand Ballroom in downtown Portland.  Demetra and Fran met with the Laika folks at the hotel last Wednesday.  Jeff will be coordinating the AV with Trevor of Laika.

We will need about 12 volunteers.

* Fran will send email to our announcement list to ask for volunteers for our February meeting.

Andy asked if we could keep the money in the safe overnight at the hotel.

* Demetra will ask the hotel if we can keep money in the safe overnight.

The Board decided that Laika could have 2 guests per speaker (about 10 guests).  She will ask Laika to provide the list ahead of time so we are prepared.

* Demetra will let Nasseem of Laika know how many guests the company is allowed.  She will find out who the speakers are.

* Demetra will make signs for the chairs for the event so we can block out chairs for press, volunteers, and guests.

We need name tags for officers and volunteers.

* Fran will get plastic holders and make name tags for officers and volunteers.

March Meeting, Jobs Talk, March 20, 2006

Fran mentioned she has some concerns about the March 20th date.  Is it during finals?  Or during Spring Break?

* Fran will find out when finals and spring break are for the local educational institutions in town.

We still need a venue for this event.  That is somewhat dependent on the date.

* Demetra will find out about holding the event at Lewis and Clark college.

* Fran will send Demetra the venue info that Herc sent her.

Many people have volunteered speakers.  If you have found someone who wants to speak or review portfolios, please pass them to Fran.  Jeff, Michael, and Kerry all have potential speakers.

Andy mentioned that he had seen a local gaming company in town (near the Daily Cafe) that had the name “Liquid” in it.  He will try to track it down.

* Andy will track down the local gaming company with “Liquid” in the name.

April Meeting, Bring Your Own Art, April 4, 2006

This meeting will be held in the Exhibition Hall at the Art Institute.  Set up is on April 3rd, the exhibit is on April 4th, and tear down is April 5th.  We haven’t gotten many artists yet.  Fran suggests inviting some local established artists to exhibit, so we have something to show.

* Fran will check the S’2005 Electronic Arts catalog to see if any of those artists live locally.

Upcoming Meetings

May, June, July and possibly late April

We need speakers/subjects for the spring meetings.  Fran said she would find out if her friend Jeff had moved to the West Coast.  If so, he could speak on a variety of research that he has done recently.  He had 2 sketches at S’2005.

* Fran will ask Jeff Han and Adam Lake if either of them would speak.

Demetra reported that Chris Hale volunteered to speak to Mark Macey about doing something on 3D Max at 3DV in the spring.  (This is an idea that came up at the January event.)

Demetra reported that the Programming Committee suggests doing a social event in July so that Portlanders going to SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston can get to know each other before going.  We may also do another social event in late April.

She also reported that Jeffery Williams has volunteered to post information about our upcoming events at Intel.

SIGGRAPH 2006 Conference, July 30 – Aug 3, 2006

Demetra asked what the Board needs to know about the conference.  Every year, the Professional and Student Chapters Committee (PSCC) holds a Chapters’ Workshop on the Saturday before the conference.  Often, the PSCC will pay for 2 nights lodging for 1 chapter representative (or 2 if they share a room) to go to this workshop.  Also, in the past, the PSCC has provided one Conference Access Pass for a chapter representative, and one Press Pass for a chapter press person.  The person receiving the CAP needs to attend several meetings, as well as volunteer at least 2 hours in the chapters booth.  The person receiving the press pass must write one article for a SIGGRAPH publication.  Each chapter must volunteer 4 hours at the Chapters Booth in order to receive the SIGGRAPH Video Review (aka SVR) which is the Electronic Theatre, plus the Animation Theatre footage.

None of these passes are guaranteed, and they are dependent on the 1) PSCC finances / ACM SIGGRAPH finances, 2) the chapter being an active chapter, and 3) how honest and trustworthy the chapter is.  It really hurts a chapter to say they will write an article and then not write one.

In addition to the Chapters Workshop, there is a chapter business meeting on Wednesday morning.  Last year, our chair Jeff Borg went to both the chapters workshop and the chapters business meeting.

Fran expressed an interest in not attending the Chapters Workshop, because she has been to a lot of them, and it is very beneficial for new chapter leaders to go to it.

Logo Contest

We still need to drum up entries for this contest.

Financial Report

Andy presented the chapter’s financial statement.  We have $1059.57 in Assets, $144.50 in Liabilities, $216 in recent Expenses (for February meeting venue and new PO Box and stamps), and $18 in new memberships since January.

Website

Fran recently updated the website with our upcoming meeting schedule and past events.

We need a webmaster.

* Demetra will ask Lindsay Bell if he would like to volunteer as webmaster.

At the Programming Meeting, Demetra mentioned that our information on the siggraph.org website was hard to find (“missing” was how she put it).  Fran checked it out and put in a request to the Professional and Student Chapters Committee (PSCC) to update our contact information so people can find us.

One problem that came up is that the new siggraph.org website is using plone.  Andy says that we cannot use plone on our website cascadesiggraph.org.  Fran will see what she can do to get this sorted out.

* Fran will keep in contact with the PSCC until the website issues get sorted out.

* Andy will post the recent job info sent to the Board to the jobs announcements list.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting is TBD at a restaurant chosen by Andrew.

* Andy will check out a new restaurant that he has in mind and email the Board.

The meeting adjourned at 1:35pm.

Action Items

============

Minutes

* Fran will send out the minutes link so the Board can vote by email to approve the past minutes for 10/5/05, 10/21/05, 11/21/05, 12/9/05, and 1/9/06.

Elections

* Fran will ask Jeff if he is willing to run for Chair for 2006-2007.

* Fran will ask Adam, Herc, and Michael if any of them would be willing to head and/or serve on the nominating committee.

Business Cards

* Fran will print up 10 cards per officer using our business card stock on her home printer in time for the Laika meeting.

Events

February Meeting, Laika Moongirl presentation, Feb 27, 2006

* Fran will send an email announcement to ASIFA.

* Fran will send email to our announcement list to ask for volunteers for our February meeting.

* Fran will get plastic holders and make name tags for officers and volunteers.

* Demetra will ask the hotel if we can keep money in the safe overnight.

* Demetra will let Nasseem of Laika know how many guests the company is allowed.  She will find out who the speakers are.

* Demetra will make signs for the chairs for the event so we can block out chairs for press, volunteers, and guests.

March Meeting, Jobs Talk, March 20, 2006

* Fran will find out when finals and spring break are for the local educational institutions in town.

* Fran will send Demetra the venue info that Herc sent her.

* Demetra will find out about holding the event at Lewis and Clark college.  She check on venues as soon as Fran confirms the date.

* Demetra will start checking for venues for the March meeting.

* Andy will track down the local gaming company with “Liquid” in the name.

April Meeting, BYOA, April 4, 2006

* Fran will check the S’2005 Electronic Arts catalog to see if any of those artists live locally.

Upcoming Meetings

* Fran will ask Jeff Han and Adam Lake if either of them would speak.

SIGGRAPH 2006 Conference, July 30 – Aug 3, 2006

* Fran will send an announcement of the S’06 student volunteer opportunity to the announcement list.

Website

* Fran will keep in contact with the PSCC until the website issues get sorted out.

* Andy will post the recent job info sent to the Board to the jobs announcements list.

* Demetra will ask Lindsay Bell if he would like to volunteer as webmaster.

Next Meeting

* Andy will check out another local area restaurant and mail the board.