CHI 98 will be the site of the second, full-day Local SIGs working meeting
for leaders of chartered and prospective local SIGCHI chapters; this year's
workshop -- entitled "'Making the Impossible Possible' in or via a Local
Chapter of ACM SIGCHI" -- will address understanding the obstacles to
achieving what you want to achieve, realizing and increasing the benefits
of being a Local SIG, meeting the challenges of starting and running a
Local SIG, becoming and remaining a vital community in your part of the
world, and benefiting from stronger ties to SIGCHI and to other Local SIGs.
The CFP is accessible via the SIGCHI Local SIGs webpage
(http://www.acm.org/sigchi/local-sigs/), as is much more information about
Local SIGs and their activities.

A sampling (i.e., incomplete list) of more of what is or will soon be
happening in the world of SIGCHI local sigs:

  Les prochaines reunions du IHM Toulouse section locale de l'ACM
  SIGCHI: en mars -- Stephane Sire (CENA), Jaime Munoz (LIS).

  SIGCHI Italy has a meeting every two or three months, usually held in
  Rome, offering presentations, panels, and demonstrations.

  SIGCHI NL will hold a meeting on "Virtual Environments" Tuesday 10th
  March at the University of Twente with 5 speakers.  The first of a
  monthly series of receptions for people involved in new media, in
  cooperation with the Netherlands Design Institute, will be on Friday 20th
  March.  (Their HCI and the Web conference on 28th January was the second
  largest HCI event in the Netherlands ever.)

  SwissCHI will feature a "Report and Demonstration of Games and MultiMedia
  Software" presented by Georg Fietz on Thursday March 26 in Zurich.

  CapCHI's next meeting occurs on Tuesday March 17th featuring Austin
  Henderson speaking on "Designing for the Real World."  Refreshments will
  be provided, but to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and in honor of Austin's
  visit, they are planning to reconvene after the meeting at a nearby
  "watering hole."

  ToRCHI will feature a presentation by Vince Velocci entitled, "Inroads of
  Human Factors and User Centered Product Development at ISG" the evening of
  Thursday 12 March.  They will also have an "Evening with Austin
  (Henderson)" Thursday 19 March which will be a dinner out followed by an
  informal chat about everything CHI.

  BayCHI welcomes Allison Druin the evening of Tuesday March 10.  Allison
  will first lead "Children as Our Technology Design Partners: A Workshop
  for Children and Adults" (pre-registration is required); she will then
  transition into "Intergenerational Design Teams: What Children Can Tell
  Us About Technology," a presentation that will overlap with the end of
  the workshop.  The next BayCHI-Kids meeting will be a pay-your-own-way
  dinner on Wednesday, March 18, and Pete Howells and Indi Young will
  present "Communication and Collaboration for Web Design Teams" at the
  March 5 BayCHI-Web meeting.  (BayCHI will be providing badge ribbons
  for members of all Local SIGs at CHI 98.)

  LA CHI will feature a presentation by Jakob Nielsen about "Content
  Usability" the evening of March 11; an opportunity to have dinner
  with Jakob will precede the meeting.  (A group of LA CHI volunteers
  led by Heather Desurvire has prepared a guide of interesting spots and
  restaurants for dissemination at CHI 98, and some LA CHI members will
  be greeting school teachers who will be attending CHI for the first
  time.)

  ConnCHI has just introduced itself as a prospective chapter in
  Connecticut.

  GB/SIGCHI will meet Wednesday, March 25, when Bennett L. Greenstein, Dan
  Gruen, and Candace L. Sidner will speak about "Voice Recognition for
  Consumer Software."

  TwinCHI's next meeting is March 19th on the UMN campus.  The topic will
  be "Visualization on the Web" by Ed Chi.  They will also compare designs
  from their "Design Challenge #1."

  KC-CHI meets March 3 at the Plaza Library.  Topic: "Publishing for the
  Computer World - 101"; speaker: Terrie Deemer.

  StLuis will hold an organizational meeting and an "Intranet Design
  Workshop" on Wednesday, March 4.  Workshop participants will get a
  hands-on opportunity in practicing user-centered design techniques to
  create web pages for an intranet site.

  CHIFOO's March 19th meeting is a social -- a chance for people to talk to
  their cohorts who share their user interface and usability concerns.
  People can come early for dinner or abit later for only the discussion.

  CHI-Austin will meet on March 26th with three members describing what
  their group does within their company.

  PS SIGCHI will meet on March 18 with a presentation by Jon Meads entitled,
  "Usability Challenges of the Wired Home."

Further information on all of the above and on more is accessible via
the SIGCHI Local SIGs webpage (http://www.acm.org/sigchi/local-sigs/).

Richard Anderson
Local SIGs Chair

   ___________________________________________________________________
                           Richard I. Anderson
          Usability/Design/Discovery Adventures, +1 510 524-2421
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               717 Coventry Road, Kensington CA 94707 USA
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