I guess first suggestion is to post the contents (or something similar) of this e-mail at the very least on the web page, since this is the first clear answer to some of the how's :-) Perhaps post it as a FAQ and send it out as part of a welcoming package for becoming a SigAda member. When I became a member of the ACM I received a ton of documents, but when I became a member of SigAda, I don't recall getting anything. So suggestion two is a welcome packet with this information. BTW, I never asked who the officers were that is about the only thing that is easy to find out and I have had the pleasure of meeting almost every one of them. DB ----- Original Message ----- From: "Currie Colket" <[log in to unmask]> > Dear David and Team Ada: > > This thread discussing SIGAda has been interesting and thought > provoking. > > As Mike Feldman indicated, much of the information you seek is already > on the SIGAda Home Page at: > > http://www.acm.org/sigada/ > > Some of your questions addressed who the officers were, how they were > selected, and how does one contribute. > > SIGAda is a special interest group under the Association for Computing > Machinery (ACM). Consequently it conforms to all the rules established > by ACM as a society for software professionals. SIGAda has 7 elected > officers: > > Chair > Vice Chair for Meetings and Conferences > Vice Chair for Liaison > Secretary > Treasurer > International Representative > Past Chair > > The current officers are: > > Chair: Ben Brosgol > Vice Chair for Meetings and Conferences: Currie Colket > Vice Chair for Liaison: Ron Oliver > Secretary: John McCormick > Treasurer: Bard Crawford > International Representative: Karlotto Mangold > Past Chair: Hal Hart > > ACM conducts the elections. Only ACM Professional Members have the right > to vote (i.e., Associate members who join at a reduced fee, do not have > this right). All officers serve as volunteers and try to keep up with > their regular job:-) Elections for SIGAda officers are scheduled for > this spring, with the new slate of officers taking the helm on 1 July > 2001. You should be getting a ballot sometime this winter/early spring. > Hal Hart, as Past Chair, is responsible for soliciting candidates to > run. If you are interested in running for a SIGAda office, please send > him email at <[log in to unmask]>. Only Ben Brosgol qualifies for the > position of Past Chair, so please don't apply for this position:-) This > is a good time to get involved in the election process. You must be both > an ACM Professional Member and a SIGAda Member to run for an elected > position. Membership can be obtained on-line through the ACM Home Page. > (http://www.acm.org) > > SIGAda does have the support of a paid ACM staffer, Ms. Ginger Ignatoff, > the SIGAda Program Director at <[log in to unmask]>. She supports a number > of other SIGs as well. She would be a good person to contact should you > have any membership problems (not handled by the volunteers). > > David's email challenged me to search the ACM and SIGAda Home Page, > where I expected to find a description of the election process and the > governing by-laws for both ACM and SIGAda. Unfortunately, nothing was > easily found. This information is a good candidate for the SIGAda Home > Page. I have asked John McCormick to add some information there (the > SIGAda Secretary is also the SIGAda Webmaster). Speaking of the SIGAda > Home Page, if there is anything else you would like to see there, please > contact John at <[log in to unmask]>. He would be happy to add > most things requested. We have a lot of freedom to put things onto our > Home Page. John has done an excellent job in posting things of interest > to the Ada community. If you have additional things you would like to > see, please let John know. > > David, as far as your question as to how one contributes, there are many > opportunities. You are already involved in the SIGAda 2000 Conference, > both as an Invited Speaker and as a Tutorial Presenter. I thank you for > this. The SIGAda Conferences are one of our most important activities > and our most visible in supporting the needs of the Ada community. (The > Advanced Program is in the process of being printed as I write and will > be mailed out shortly). For those who can not wait, please visit the > SIGAda 2000 Conference Home Page at: > > http://www.acm.org/sigs/sigada/conf/sigada2000/ > > An electronic tickler for the conference will be sent out shortly. > > Another excellent place to contribute is with the Working Groups. ALIWG, > NUMWG, ARTEWG, and PIWG all were important forces is shaping the Ada 95 > ISO standard. ASISWG has developed an effective interface for extracting > syntactic and semantic information about a program to support static > code analysis. EDUWG has served as a prime resource to support the > Educational Community. The ABWG has served as a forum to develop and > disseminate information on Ada bindings. Other working groups have > conducted workshops to address concerns for the Ada community. Some > working groups have ambitious missions that need volunteers to achieve > success. These are all excellent places to contribute. We have 3 > workshops planned for SIGAda 2000: > > 1. Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS) Workshop > 2. Cost Effective Approaches to Satisfy Safety-Critical > Regulatory Requirements > 3. Should Software Engineers by Licensed Engineers? > > Other workshops are welcome and encouraged. Please contact Alok > Srivastava at <[log in to unmask]> if you would like to propose > a workshop (or a BOF). We do have space for several more. > > SIGAda publishes Ada Letters. This is an excellent place to contribute > your ideas which will benefit the entire Ada community. It was noted > recently that deadlines for Ada Letters should be posted on Team Ada. > This is an excellent idea. > > There are many other ways to contribute, but I will mention only one > more, that of the Ada Booth. SIGAda and the ARA send forth a booth to > about 5-8 conferences each year. SIGAda provides volunteers while the > ARA support many of the fiscal arrangements for booth shipping, etc. > This is another good venue to volunteer. If there is a conference you > think we should take the booth to, please contact Hal Hart at: > <[log in to unmask]>. > > One of the comments in this thread addressed if the officers subscribe > to Team-Ada. Most of the SIGAda officers subscribe to Team-Ada and we > hear the excellent ideas raised here. Some of us have even commented on > the ideas. Ideas that you feel strongly about should be sent explicitly > to the SIGAda Executive Council at <[log in to unmask]>, requesting > action by the SIGAda Officers. > > If you have any specific questions on SIGAda, please contact me at > <[log in to unmask]> or at +1 (703) 883-7381 and I will try to answer. > > v/r > Currie Colket > SIGAda Vice Chair for Meetings and Conferences