New Member Handbook
This New Member Handbook summarizes and orients towards key activities and offerings of SIGCHI for those new to the organization. Please note that this Handbook leaves out many programs and activities in order to keep the introduction brief. For further information, you can go to the https://sigchi.org webpage and/or reach us out at sigchi-4all@acm.org.
About SIGCHI
We present here briefly SIGCHI and its vision, values, and structures.
What is SIGCHI
The ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) is the world’s largest association of professionals who contribute towards the research and practice of human-computer interaction (HCI). SIGCHI is a highly interdisciplinary society of computer scientists, software engineers, psychologists, interaction designers, graphic designers, sociologists, multimedia designers, information scientists, and anthropologists, just to name a few. What brings us together is a shared commitment to the examination, design, creation, use, and evaluation of technologies as they transform lives of those around the world.
SIGCHI sponsors or co-sponsors 26 HCI conferences (and counting), in addition to hosting an even larger number of in-cooperation conferences. There are roughly 60-70 active SIGCHI chapters located across continents, which aim to promote local support networks for HCI students and professionals.
SIGCHI is a volunteer-based organization and depends on the efforts of thousands of volunteers that keep it going. These volunteers make up SIGCHI conference organizing, program, and steering committees, chapters leadership, and various SIGCHI committees. These are all ultimately overseen by the SIGCHI Executive Committee.
Vision and Values
SIGCHI’s vision is focused on supporting conferences, engaging community, nurturing local and global presence, and building a learning organization. Take a look at our “SIGCHI Turns 40” Community Square article.
SIGCHI’s values include the following:
Pluralism: Being accepting of difference in cultures, languages, research methodologies, disciplinary homes, and more.
Equity: Towards removing barriers to participation and contribution across different kinds of difference.
Infrastructuring: Setting up robust and sustainable infrastructures, including those of committees, community support initiatives, and more.
Education: Of leadership and community through regular channels of engagement and communication.
Responsibility: Nurturing the ability to respond to changes around us, with leadership
Partnership: Building bridges and strengthening ties with those who share adjacent/aligned interests.
Community: With a commitment to engaging community throughout, in all undertakings, inviting continual feedback and support from all.
Leadership
The elected president and executive vice-president work together to lead the SIGCHI Executive Committee (EC) and to ensure that SIGCHI members and volunteers are supported in attending, contributing to, and organizing current and future events and initiatives. They do this with the help of other EC members and a number of committees.
Elected EC roles include, in addition to the president and executive vice-president, the vice-presidents for finance, communications, membership, and accessibility. There are also two elected vice-presidents at large who currently focus on SIGCHI's global presence and mentoring, respectively. There are additionally four appointed vice-presidents who oversee conferences, publications, operations, and chapters. There is also a past president, whose role helps preserve continuity across ECs.
Adjunct chairs are appointed when additional roles are needed on the EC. The current EC has adjunct chairs for awards, equity, partnerships, sustainability, volunteer support, community support, hybrid, and the web. Interactions Editors-in-Chief are ex officio members of the EC.
As the SIGCHI bylaws dictate, an EC term lasts three years. Each term begins with the election of 8 members of the SIGCHI community into key roles. The remaining 5+ members are appointed.
You can reach out to the EC at sigchi-ec@listserv.acm.org.
Committees
The EC oversees several committees. Some of these are led by an EC member, others are ad hoc committees led externally with liaisons within the EC. See the SIGCHI website for a complete list.
Volunteers for all committees are recruited via open calls, following consolidated EC guidance. Ad hoc committees choose their own processes for recruitment, though the EC recommends open calls. Calls for EC members and committee chairs are conducted by the president, while additional committee members are recruited by the various EC members chairing the committees. Those interested in volunteering are invited to fill out the Open Call for Volunteers on SIGCHI’s Submittable page.
Membership
Read below about membership, and its benefits and fees.
Who is SIGCHI
Anyone who attends or has attended any of our conferences or chapter events is welcome to consider themselves a SIGCHI member. You can also become a paid member, which has costs and benefits as listed on our Membership page. SIGCHI includes students and professionals from a wide range of backgrounds, including but not limited to academia and industry. SIGCHI is increasingly establishing its global presence. As a large volunteer-run organization, it offers many volunteering opportunities. You can volunteer to help organize/lead a conference, run a chapter, or provide service on the SIGCHI Executive Committee or one of its committees or working groups. To volunteer at the conference or chapter level, you can reach out to the conference/chapter leaders directly.
SIGCHI membership is obtained on the ACM website, but is NOT the same as ACM membership. You can be a SIGCHI member and not be an ACM member, and vice versa. It costs less to be a SIGCHI member and offers a different set of benefits. Sign up for SIGCHI membership.
Benefits For Members
The benefits of SIGCHI membership are listed below:
Registration at conferences/workshops (co-)sponsored by SIGCHI is available to members at discounted rates. ACM membership provides this benefit but at three times the cost.
Members can apply to the SIGCHI Development Fund, which supports workshops or activities initiated by individuals, communities, or chapters within SIGCHI.
Members can apply to the Gary Marsden Travel Awards, which supports SIGCHI members in need of financial support to attend SIGCHI’s virtual and in-person events.
Members can apply to the SIGCHI annual awards program, which recognizes outstanding contributions in the field, including Lifetime Research Award, Lifetime Practice Award, Lifetime Service Award, Societal Impact Award, Outstanding Dissertation Award, and the SIGCHI Academy.
Members can access the proceedings of conferences (co-)sponsored by SIGCHI that are in the ACM Digital Library, as well as selected proceedings for conferences held in-cooperation with SIGCHI.
Members have electronic access to the TOCHI, IMWUT, COMPASS, PACM HCI journals.
Only SIGCHI members can vote in the SIGCHI elections that are held every three years, or on changes made to SIGCHI’s bylaws.
Members get access to, and can use, a @sigchi.org email alias. You canfind your alias at MyACM under ‘Mail Forwarding’.
Members receive free access to Grammarly (via the @sigchi.org email alias).
Members receive a 20% discount on Overleaf subscriptions.
Members (and non-members) can seek support from SIGCHI CARES if they experience discrimination and/or harassment in any of SIGCHI’s activities.
Members can subscribe to receive a physical or digital subscription to the Interactions magazine, published six times per year.
Members are added to the SIGCHI-Members mailing list, where all SIGCHI updates are first announced.
Members (and non-members) are invited to participate in the SIGCHI Executive Committee’s monthly open meetings and open sessions that discuss important matters to guide the future of SIGCHI.
Benefits For HCI
How SIGCHI benefits the HCI community:
SIGCHI (co-)sponsors 26 leading HCI conferences, including the CHI conference.
SIGCHI supports HCI events and initiatives led by members globally, through various community support mechanisms.
The SIGCHI website, Medium publication, calendars, and other communications channels aim to provide up-to-date information about SIGCHI events and deadlines, and various other resources.
SIGCHI runs several mailing lists. The SIGCHI-Members mailing list is where SIGCHI-relevant announcements are first shared, but these can only be posted by the Executive Committee. Other members can access over a dozen popular e-mail lists such as CHI-ANNOUNCEMENTS and CHI-JOBS for event announcements and job openings, etc., relevant for our global community.
SIGCHI supports 60-70 chapters in 30+ countries on 6 continents in developing HCI capacity and supporting various initiatives.
SIGCHI supports its volunteer base and provides advocacy as necessary on wide-ranging issues relating to accessibility, equity, sustainability, global inclusivity, and more.
Fees
SIGCHI membership fees vary based on whether you are a student or not, and which country you live and work in.
SIGCHI Professional Membership Standard: $30 Level 2 Countries*: $24 Level 3 Countries:* $15
SIGCHI Student Membership All (no level pricing): $10
SIGCHI Retired Membership** All (no level pricing): $10
* The categorization of countries as Level 2/3 for reduced professional membership rates follows the associated regulations of the ACM. The ACM requires that student membership be fixed across regions.
** Only individuals who are retired, have held a SIGCHI membership for the past decade, and are 60 years or older are eligible for this membership rate. The option to select the retired rate can be found at the bottom of the invoice.
Programs
We describe here a few programs that are widely engaged by our members.
SIGCHI Development Fund
The SIGCHI Development Fund (SDF) provides financial support for SIGCHI members to organize events and initiatives that spur communication, innovation, and expansion of HCI at the global and local levels. We especially solicit proposals for events and initiatives that promote SIGCHI priorities around equity, sustainability, accessibility, global inclusivity, hybridity, and safety.
Proposals are reviewed by the SDF Committee on an ongoing basis. Applicants can expect to hear back approximately one month after submission. For transparency, awarded proposals will be announced periodically on the SIGCHI Development Fund Recipients page. Please see the call for proposals on Submittable for details regarding submission, evaluation, timelines, and more.
See our Frequently Asked Questions. You can also reach out at sigchi-dev-fund@acm.org.
Gary Marsden Travel Awards
The Gary Marsden Travel Awards (GMTA) provides travel support for attending SIGCHI conferences. Applications from students, early careers, and those experiencing financial hardship or lacking institutional support will be prioritized during review.
Proposals are reviewed by the GMTA Committee every two months. Applications must be submitted to a deadline that occurs at least a month before the conference. An accepted work is not a prerequisite for applying to the GMTA program, and early applications are preferred. Applicants can expect to hear back approximately one month after submission. For transparency, award recipients will be announced periodically on the SIGCHI website. Please see the call for applications on Submittable for details regarding deadlines, evaluation, timelines, and more.
See our Frequently Asked Questions. You can also reach out at sigchi-4all@acm.org.
SIGCHI CARES
SIGCHI CARES is a resource for those who experience discrimination and/or harassment in violation of ACM’s policies governing SIG activities and publications: policy against discrimination and harassment, policy on plagiarism, misrepresentation, and falsification; policy on coercion and abuse in the ACM publications process; and policy on roles and responsibilities in ACM publishing. CARES supports such individuals by helping them to work with long-standing members of the SIGCHI community, approachable and willing to listen and help navigate the SIGCHI and ACM reporting and accountability process.
CARES offers an open and confidential conversation, with the 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. CARES’ goal is to empower all SIGCHI community members to raise their voice if they 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.
Take a look at CARES bylaws, resources, and members. You can also reach out at sigchi-cares@acm.org.
Participation
Once you are a member, these are some of the things you can do to start participating.
Learn
Read the SIGCHI bylaws for details on the governance of SIGCHI.
Read the SIGCHI policies that all members are beholden to.
Go over archived meeting notes. These notes summarize discussions and decisions from monthly meetings.
Attend
Attend SIGCHI conferences; see our list of upcoming conferences.
Attend the SIGCHI EC monthly meetings; these are an excellent way to find out what the EC is up to, and to give input towards shaping SIGCHI.
Attend a SIGCHI Chapter event; you can write to the chapter closest to you (or one that is virtual) and participate in an upcoming activity.
Engage
Updates from/regarding SIGCHI and the larger community find their way to the community over a number of channels.
We post regular updates on the SIGCHI Medium publication, where we also invite contributions from the community at large.
All EC committees are on the SIGCHI Slack. We also have a SIGCHI Chapters Slack. Ideally, all communications go to the general channels of these Slacks first.
Our members hear next of any updates. We aim for all news to travel via the SIGCHI-members listserv next. Only EC members are permitted to send out these updates, which reach all paid SIGCHI members.
The SIGCHI Communications Committee then sends out updates on our social media channels, including Twitter/X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord.
All SIGCHI members are encouraged to share further using personal accounts.
SIGCHI virtual events (with Zoom links) open to the community are added to the events calendar on SIGCHI.org.
You can reach out to us about anything at sigchi-4all@acm.org.
Volunteer
SIGCHI is a volunteer-based organization and members of the SIGCHI community are invited and welcomed—at all stages of their careers—to contribute their service to committees, conferences, and chapters. Activities range from being a student volunteer at a conference, being reviewer for conferences and journals, volunteering for committees–including becoming part of the executive committee for SIGCHI, and more.
In a SIGCHI Committee
All committees that report to the EC recruit via open call for volunteering on Submittable. Those interested in volunteering can go to this site and see which “active” openings are of interest to them. More targeted open calls are advertised first on the SIGCHI-Members list when they are ready, following open call guidance.
In a SIGCHI Conference
There are numerous volunteering opportunities available across SIGCHI conferences. These opportunities are managed by the conferences, and typically advertised on individual conference websites, and published widely on their social media channels. You can also directly reach out to conference leaders to identify volunteering opportunities. To register as a reviewer for SIGCHI conferences, volunteer on PCS, the system used by most SIGCHI conferences’ program committees.
At a SIGCHI Chapter
SIGCHI has a growing number of chapters worldwide, and many seek volunteers to assist with chapter operations, special services, speaking at technical meetings, and more. Check out Local SIGCHI Chapters for more information.