Hi everyone. My name is Eunice Sari.
I am the ACM SIGCHI VP for Chapter
Today I would like to give some updates in regard to the SIGCHI Chapters 2020 to 2021.
As you know, ACM SIGCHI Local chapter is the integrated part of SIGCHI community at the grassroots level to help promoting
and advancing Human-computer Interaction locally and around the globe.
We have currently 65 chapters across 36 countries that consist of 54 professional chapters and 11 student chapters across 6 continents.
The chapters operate their activities based on the ACM Bylaws and guidance from the SIGCHI Chapter-in-a-Box.
The Chapter-in-a-box helped chapters to run and maintain the chapters.
It provides practical guides, tools, and tips on how administrate the chapters
keep the chapters updated, and maintain and expand their presence in the community through various activity ideas.
One of the most popular activities that SIGCHI chapters have done is to utilize the ACM Distinguished Program or we call it as DSP.
This program helps the chapters to get international thought leaders coming and speaking on their local events.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, this program gets more and more popular
because there have been more and more renowned leaders available to contribute to the local chapters
Why is that? Because these leaders do not need to travel anymore.
So they just go online and talk and meet the chapter members.
A lot of collaboration have happened amongst the chapters in the neighboring regions
to organize joint international activities where they invite international thought leaders to come and speak in their events virtually
Communication is a key, especially during pandemic season.
For the last one year, we have utilized our Slack more than before to get to know and connect with chapter leaders around the world.
We start to contribute to the SIGCHI medium
We also build our social media presence through Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to reach out wider audience.
We also start sending chapter newsletters to each member twice a year.
And we also encourage the SIGCHI chapters to improve their visibility by building their own social presence.
Inspired by the ACM initiatives, SIGCHI organized the first Chapter Website Competition last year.
Last year, ACM also provided SIGCHI chapters with access to a Meetup page at meetup.com
if a chapter is keen to be more prominent in organizing their local events.
Next, SIGCHI also supports a lot of chapters through Chapter Funding since 2019.
The Chapter Fundings is now merged into the SIGCHI Development Funding.
Many chapters have started to apply for this funding since 2019.
Here are some of the examples of chapters that applied for the Chapter Funding, and the activities they organized with the fundings.
It has been very encouraging to see how the seed funding has helped these chapters to build their presence and to connect their members tremendously especially during Covid-19
Now we are going to talk more about the SIGCHI Chapter activities.
The first one is conferences.
There have been several international conferences organized by a chapter or several chapter leaders in the region,
such as IrisX 2020 organized by CairoCHI
or Asian CHI Symposium organized by chapter leaders in Asia including Japan, Southeast Asian and South Asian countries.
The second one is Student Competition or often called Student Challenge
Inspired by CHI Student Research Competition, Indonesian ACM SIGCHI specifically,
has organized a number of Student Design Challenge every year, even during Covid-19 season.
The activities have shown some positive outcomes as some of the winners of the competitions were able to either win
the CHI Student Research Competition or any similar competitions.
as well as commercializing the products.
Some of the key HCI thought leaders from the community have also been invited to mentor and judge these student competitions.
The third one is the Design Workshop
Early last year, many of the chapters organized Design Workshops that involves a lot of the students, faculty members as well as industry practitioners.
Some of the examples of the design workshops were organized by KACT ACM SIGCHI Chapter in Saudi Arabia
and Bangkok ACM SIGCHI Chapter
The fourth one is the Online Events
There have been a lot of Online Events ever organized at SIGCHI chapter levels around the world, especially during Covid-19.
The fifth one is inaguration events
SIGCHI Chapters is growing despite the situation that the world is facing.
The needs to connect and grow amongst HCI professionals and alike are bigger.
The last one is the official SIGCHI Chapter events
Few months prior to CHI 2021 submission,
we have a series of Mini Virtual Workshop to help people navigating the CHI 2021
from understanding the CHI conference itself,
conducting an HCI Research for writing HCI publications
as well as navigating CHI Review Process.
We also conduct regular Chapter Meetups and Office Hours, where we invite chapter leaders
to share and connect with other leaders, and sometimes discuss on how they manage their chapters.
Finally, but not least, I would like to invite you
to consider starting your chapter in your institution as well as cities.
So, if you have any further question, please direct it to me at sigchi-vp-chapters@acm.org
Thank you for your attention.