CARES

SIGCHI CARES exists to serve as a resource for those who experience discrimination and/or harassment in violation of ACM’s policies governing SIG activities: policy against discrimination and harassment, policy on plagiarism, misrepresentation, and falsification; policy on coercion and abuse in the ACM publications process; and policy on peer review. CARES supports such individuals by allowing them to work with established members of the SIGCHI community, who are approachable and willing to listen and help navigate the SIGCHI and ACM reporting and accountability process. By its existence, CARES seeks to raise awareness of and deter discriminatory, harassing, or other unethical behavior and incidents related to SIG activities and publications. It seeks to support those who have had such experiences directly, offering them an open and confidential conversation, with dual intent of: (a) creating better awareness of discriminatory dynamics on the part of conference organizers; and (b) increasing accountability of conference organizers, event staff, and conference attendees. Our goal is to empower all SIGCHI community members to speak up if we observe such behavior. Note that in certain cases of imminent danger, including threats of violence, suicide, harm to children, etc., CARES committee members are required to report to appropriate authorities.

The CARES committee was initially formed in January 2020, and the SIGCHI Executive Committee (EC) approved and appointed an initial fourteen members (see membership). SIGCHI CARES is a committee of SIGCHI. This relationship is expected to continue in perpetuity, and any changes to the rules of governance must be approved by the SIGCHI EC.

If you have questions or concerns, you can contact the SIGCHI CARES co-chairs at sigchi-cares@acm.org .

Call for new members

The SIGCHI CARES committee is currently seeking new members to join. We seek SIGCHI members who want to help people in our community to navigate difficult situations and potentially to navigate the ACM complaints process on a confidential basis. If you are interested in serving, please get in touch with the co-chairs at sigchi-cares@acm.org.

Conference Representatives

This table below shows the SIGCHI CARES members who will be in attendance or available by email as a SIGCHI CARES representative for conferences. If you are a conference chair and there is no SIGCHI CARES rep assigned for your conference, please reach out to the SIGCHI CARES Co-Chairs. Also, consider if there is someone in your research sub-community who would be a good person to join the SIGCHI CARES committee. We would definitely like to have more representation from all of the sub-communities within CHI on the CARES committee.