Greetings from the current SIGCHI V.P. of Operations

I would like to inform you of a renaming project that is underway at ACM
SIGCHI, explain what is to happen, and solicit input.  Thank you for
taking the time to read all the way through this message.


1. What is going on?

The SIGCHI organization is undertaking a renaming of some of its
resources.  This renaming has two sources:
        - a change of officer titles enacted as part of the recent
          bylaws changes
        - a desire to separate conceptually things related to SIGCHI (the
          organization) from CHI (the annual conference run by ACM SIGCHI).


2. What will be changed?

At this stage we are going to change the names of aliases and mailing
lists used to communicate with SIGCHI officers, members, colleagues, and
so on.  Related information on the SIGCHI Web site will also change.

Mailing lists and aliases for the organization will be regularized to
begin with 'sigchi-'.  Conference-related aliases will be 'chi-*' or
'chi<year>-*'.  Examples:

    chi-announcements will become sigchi-announcements.
    chi2005-chair will remain chi2005-chair

The change will be done in stages, with an eye toward minimizing
disruption as much as possible.  See below for how you can help.


3. Is anything being removed?

Certain old and inactive aliases will be removed; primarily these relate
to years-past CHI conferences.  Unused and redundant mailing lists may
also be removed.  Most lists will remain.


4. What do I need to do?

You will need to update your mail aliases (e.g. in Outlook or Eudora), any
mailto: Web links you use that contain old addresses, and similar address
books that you or your organization maintain.

If you use a 'whitelist' spam filter you may need to add new addresses to
your list of acceptable mail senders.  If you use a rule-based spam filter
(e.g. spamassassin) you may need to update your rules to permit mail from
new addresses to pass appropriately through your filters.

You do NOT need to update your subscriptions or memberships on the
affected lists.  Your membership status and options will be maintained by
ACM IS as the lists change.

You do not need to update http URLs - Web pages addresses are not changing
as part of this renaming.


5. What has been done so far?

A number of mailing lists used by the SIGCHI Executive Committee have been
changed.  For example, the EC is now at sigchi-ec at acm.org; the Extended
Executive Committee is now at sigchi-eec at acm.org


6. What happens next?

The next step is to rename the aliases for the individual officers of
SIGCHI.  Because names of positions have changed, the aliases are not a
simple replacement of 'chi' with 'sigchi', as will happen with mailing
lists.  For example, my alias will change from chi-vc-operations to
sigchi-vp-operations.


7. How about the (big) mailing lists?

The process for renaming lists has not been finalized.  The likely
approach will be to create the new list, subscribe people, and run the two
in parallel for some period of time.  Once we are satisfied that the new
list is operating correctly the old one will be deleted.

I am actively seeking input on this process.  If you have experience doing
this or similar operations and would like to share your experiences,
please email me.


Finally, if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, you can email
[log in to unmask] - this address will not be changing during this
renaming.

Alan Wexelblat
SIGCHI VP of Operations
[log in to unmask]