2016 VGTC ExCom Annual Meeting Minutes

  • Minutes taken by: João Comba (VGTC secretary)
  • Date: Tuesday October 25, 2016
  • Time: 8:10pm – 9:45pm
  • Venue: Hilton Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, MD.
  • Attendees: Cláudio Silva (VGTC chair), Rachael Brady, Larry Rosenblum, William Ribarsky, Robert Moorhead, Amitabh Varshney, Klaus Mueller, Loretta Auvil, Hans Hagen, Penny Rheingans, Tobias Isenberg, Jörn Kohlhammer, João Comba, Carlos Scheidegger, David Ebert, John Stasko, Eduard Gröller, Bernd Fröhlich, Tamara Munzner, Leila De Floriani, Terry Yoo, Jesus Caban, Meghan Haley, Jim Ahrens, Ginger Alford.
  • Agenda:
    1. Around the table introductions
    2. Publication chair status report
    3. Finance report about conferences
    4. Website updates
    5. Reports form sponsored conferences: VIS, ISMAR, VR, EuroVis
    6. Conference approval process
    7. VTGC member flow
    8. Any new business

Minutes

Around the table introductions

Claudio welcomed everybody to the meeting. He explained the structure of the meeting and how it would follow the distributed agenda. Next, he asked everybody for a brief introduction and their position in the VGTC committee. Claudio asked members of the ExCom to state how long they have been serving in the committee. Claudio congratulated Larry Rosemblum by his amazing job as chair of the technical awards committee.

Publication chair status report

Publications template. Journal-based template has been put out, no complaints so far

Finance report about conferences

VIS 2014 closed. VIS 2015 to be closed with a surplus. Terry Yoo : concerned that surplus is going to be spent on Berlin. Robert: somebody needs to make a decision if the conference wants to make a profit. Loretta, fill more here

Website updates

The 10 year-old web server was replaced. We moved to a much cheaper and simpler – static html, with 5% of the cost expected. The solution is faster, cheaper, and safer Google is going to handle e-mail, no more security updates. It is going to be rolled out in 10 days

Reports form sponsored conferences: VIS, ISMAR, VR, EuroVis

VIS. Tamara reported for VIS. In summary, everything went reasonably well. TVCG integration is a success story. She explained the big picture of moving from Santa Fe to Phoenix 2017 in Phoeni. Berlin is going well. Bids from 2019 and 2020. Terry reported about the hotel. Staff has been doing a good job, found money, saved money. Attendance is up from Chicago

Nobody from ISMAR to report.

VR. Record attendance last year in France and this year too. 2017 LA, 2018 Germany, 2019 Japan

Eurovis. 300 participants in Groningen. Last year 250-300. There were 100-160 paper submissions. Stars were published in CGF. Two-review process. Next year (2017) will be held in Barcelona. 2018 in Brno in Tchech Republic. Anders Ynnerman is going to replace Eduard Groeller in the VGTC committee

Conference approval process

How to help conference organizers making sure their conference is financially successful. Case study: PacificVis. Claudio: IEEE has change the finances. Bottomline: Conferences have been able to make a profit. Plan on how the conferences are going to make a profit or loss. PG is loosing money every year. Loretta only have final values of surplus, not detailed expenses. Tamara: Process, Report (report in advance to the ExComm). Specific finance targets. Clear understable report. Yearly report. Create a structure under Loretta (Ribarsky suggestion). Suggestion for the chair for conferences to take action on this. Tamara suggested Claudio to ask help from the committee. Claudio says he is going to come up with a plan.

VTGC member flow

Claudio read charter 4.3.3. Claudio asked people serving more than 3 years to send a message saying if they want to retire. Membership report. Vice chair is responsible for doing that

Any new business

Ginger – Two registrations offered to be used to Siggraph, booth available. Terry – upcoming program chairs to participate in the current program chair tele-conferences and mailing lists. How to raise money? Discussion returned on the VIS surplus and how this money is going to be used.