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The Tutorials To Go program is under review by SIGCHI at this time. If you are interested in participating, please make your interest known immediately.
The Tutorials To Go program enables local SIGs to sponsor professional seminars for their members, both for purposes of professional development and for purposes of outreach to others who might eventually become members of the local SIG. These seminars are based on successful CHI Conference Tutorials, chosen by a committee of SIGCHI members, and agreed to by the developers of each tutorial. The program is sponsored by the ACM SIGCHI Executive Committee, and was developed by Tom Hewett and colleagues listed below.
Local SIGs are expected to organize the presentation event to meet the needs and abilities of their organization. SIGCHI provides guidelines and examples. Local SIGs are expected to cover all event costs including the cost of the Tutorial presenter. This may be done by charging participants, soliciting sponsors, etc. SIGCHI will underwrite the instructor expenses in the event that the local SIG organization fails to cover them. However, the goal of the program is for it to pay for itself, and to provide revenue both for the local SIG and SIGCHI. The goal of returning revenue to SIGCHI is to expand the program over time, for example, to support tutorials for SIGS in regions where covering costs might be riskier.
Long-term benefits of the program include strengthening the sense of community and collegiality among HCI professionals at both the local SIGs and national SIGCHI level. The program should promote the development of the field of HCI nationally and internationally. Finally, the program provides SIGCHI professionals who develop successful tutorials another opportunity to enhance their value and reputation as professional colleagues who make a contribution to the field.
Procedures for requesting tutorials, and guidelines for organizing tutorial presentations, are described in other sections of this Web page.
Following each CHI conference, instructors for that year's highest-rated tutorials are invited to participate in the Tutorials To Go program. Of those invited, only tutorials whose instructor(s) have the time and willingness to participate for the benefit of the local chapters are made part of the TTG program. Tutorial instructors must agree to take the tutorial on the road for expenses, an honorarium, and any intellectual inducements the local organizers may be able to arrange.
The invitation to participate in the program is tendered by SIGCHI for one year at a time, with an invitation to participate in any successive year being based upon the quality and nature of feedback from Tutorials To Go organizers and attendees. Three years after being selected, a tutorial will no longer be offered by Tutorials To Go unless it has requalified by being highly rated by CHI participants in a subsequent year or it has received postive feedback from a recent Tutorials To Go event.
Instructors must agree that the Tutorials To Go program will be treated as a collegial activity and not be overtly used as a basis for seeking direct financial gain or for directly promoting a consulting business.
The Tutorials To Go program is currently available to chartered SIGs only. For information about this see the Local SIGS webpage.
Request Tutorial Presenter
A local SIG should contact the Vice-Chair for Local SIGS, Raquel Oliveira Prates via email with a completed copy of the Tutorials To Go proposal form. Here is an example of a successful proposal for a 2001 CapCHI tutorial. The local SIG should have already established interest in the local SIGCHI community, and determined that the financial arrangements specified below can be fulfilled to the best of the organizer's ability.
Authorization from Tutorials to Go Program Director
The Tutorials To Go Committee will evaluate the request. If the request is approved the Committee will authorize the local SIGCHI organization to contact the tutorial instructor they want. This decision will be based on current program committments, and verifying the availability of underwriting funds from the SIGCHI Executive Commitee.
Verify Final Arrangements
Once the local SIG has contacted and gotten a firm commitment from the tutorial presenter, and has made the necessary local arrangements, the organizer should contact the Tutorial To Go Program Chair and verify that all arrangements agreed to have been made.
Reimbursing Tutorial Presenter
Tutorial Presenters submit expenses and receipts directly to SIGCHI by requesting a reimbursement form from the SIGCHI Vice Chair of Operations. SIGCHI will reimburse the instructor. SIGCHI will provide the local SIG with a copy of all authorized expenses reimbursed by SIGCHI.
Submit a Report to the Tutorials To Go Program Director
The local SIG will provide a full report to the Tutorials to Go program about the Tutorial event to be posted on this page. Here is a report from the 2001 CapCHI tutorial.
Reimbursing SIGCHI
The local SIG will 1) reimburse itself for locally incurred expenses, 2) reimburse SIGCHI for all instructor expenses, and 3) divide any remaining income (profit) according to the 70-30 split described below (with SIGCHI receiving 30% of this remaining income).
Don Patterson describes an example budget for a SIG seminar event, based on experience with the BayCHI local SIG:
Note that all of the expenses except the honorarium and air fare can be offset from other resources. Our first tutorial was held in a meeting room provided by one of our employers. AV included. We catered the event ourselves (to the same standard) using volunteer staff for about $5 per person. Speakers can be housed with volunteers, chauffered around by volunteers, etc.
An example based on the above: say we charge $250 for members and $300 for non-members. Our fixed expenses are projected at about $4000, per attendee expenses at $50. This means that the break even is about 20 attendees. (Note that I always assume that all attendees pay member rates (worst case). Also in this basic example I have ignored the existence of lower student rates.) Expenses: $4000 + 23*$50 = $5150 (1 instructor, 2 staff); Income: 20*$300 = $6000; Net: $850.
If many of the fixed expenses are provided and the event is self catered then using the same fee structure yields: fixed expenses projected at $2500, per attendee expenses at $10, with a break even at 11 attendees. Expenses : $2500 + 13*$50 = $3150 (1 instructor, 1 staff); Income: 11*$300 = $3300; Net: $150.
Even in a new area looking for exposure, this seems a reasonable expectation for a well publicised event.
SIGCHI wishes to thank the volunteers who worked many hours on the Tutorials To Go program. Currently the program is supervised by:
Raquel Oliveira Prates, the Vice-Chair for Local SIGs, is an Associate Professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is one of the coordinators of the Semiotic Engineering Research Group.
Send comments on http://sigchi.org/education/tutorials2go.html to the Vice Chair for Chapters, Raquel O. Prates, at chi-ac-local-sigs@acm.org