[SIGCIS-Members] SIGCIS: new co-chair & opportunities to get involved

[Melanie Swalwell]

Dear all,

Just a reminder to please reach out if you are interested in being involved in the running of the SIG. So far there has been deathly silence, so if you thought we would be inundated, you were wrong! We need you! Come and join a remarkable bunch of people and help us keep things ticking over in good fashion.

Melanie

From: Melanie Swalwell
Sent: Wednesday, 15 March 2023 3:51 PM
To: members <members at sigcis.org>
Subject: SIGCIS: new co-chair & opportunities to get involved

Dear SIGCIS,

Further to Andrew Russell's notification that he has now stepped down as co-chair of SIGCIS, I would also like to pay tribute to him for his leadership of and service to the community. Working with Andy (and the rest of the Executive team) for the past 2 years has been a delight; a definite highlight of my involvement with the SIG. Andy has been a generous and gracious collaborator, not only showing me the ropes, but also tolerating late night zoom calls to accommodate the time differences.

I am writing to give a quick refresher of the structure of the SIGCIS leadership team and let you know of some opportunities to get involved in the running of the SIG that are the result of some other changes. Much of this is behind the scenes so I thought it would be useful to lay it out explicitly.

First, the refresher. For the last couple of years, Andy and I have shared the Chair role. Sharing the role has worked very well. It has provided continuity, organisational memory, and helped to set up a sort of rotation, with the potential benefits that renewal brings. We have been working with a newish structure for the past 2 years, with Vice Chairs for Finance, Meetings, Operations and Communications. The incumbents are listed at the top of this page: https://www.sigcis.org/officers.

This brings me to my second point, regarding a couple of other imminent changes. In the interests of setting up continuity and rotation, I asked Elizabeth Petrick if she'd consider joining me as co-chair and I'm very happy that she's agreed to. Liz has been serving as the Communications Vice-chair since late 2020 as well as on the Mahoney Prize committee, so she has a good grasp of the SIG and its rhythms and organisation throughout the year.

Jason Gallo has also indicated that he would like to start transitioning out of the Operations role. Jason has been a fabulous manager of the SIG's operations for many years. We have all benefited from his efforts both behind the scenes -- on listserv and website logistics -- and the more public facing tasks he's taken care of at the annual meetings.

As such, we are now calling for two new Vice Chairs, for Communications and for Operations. While we need to update the list of responsibilities (the overlaps are fairly glaring), here's a rough list for the 2 positions, to give you an idea:

Vice Chair, Communications:

  1.  Administer the SIGCIS email list, recruit and oversee volunteer list moderators, and enforce the Acceptable Use Policy with volunteer list moderators.
  2.  Update the SIGCIS website with regular (conference and prize announcements) and ad hoc content, as needed.
  3.  Regularly monitor the website for new account applications, approve legitimate account applications, delete spam accounts, and create email accounts for legitimate applicants.
  4.  Maintain the SIGCIS online membership directory, reviewing and editing entries as needed.
  5.  Oversee SIGCIS presence on social media (including Twitter coverage of the SIGCIS conference)
  6.  Recruit and manage a team of volunteers to help accomplish the above tasks.
  7.  Deputize the Chair, as needed.

Vice Chair, Operations

  1.  Attend and help to run all SIGCIS events at the SHOT annual meeting, including the business lunch and SIG workshop.
  2.  Administer the SIGCIS email lists (including maintain and enforcing the acceptable use policy).
  3.  Edit material and policy documents on the SIGCIS website dealing with the SIG and its activities.
  4.  Maintain the SIG's online membership directory, reviewing and editing entries as needed and prompting members when entries are in need of update or clarification.
  5.  Welcome new members to the SIG and create accounts as needed.
  6.  Organize Executive Committee meetings.

While this might seem like a long list of jobs, these are not onerous roles. There is scope to recruit others to help with both, as needed. Ideally, these teams can then become a pool for future promotion to Vice Chair, and eventually Chair.

I would encourage anyone who is interested in getting more involved in the running of the SIG to consider nominating. If now is not the right time for you to volunteer for one of these roles, then please consider it in the future. It's a great way to get involved in the running of the SIG and have a different level of interaction with some wonderful scholars!

To nominate yourself, please send a brief email to mswalwell at swin.edu.au<mailto:mswalwell at swin.edu.au> and elizabeth.petrick at gmail.com<mailto:elizabeth.petrick at gmail.com> with an introduction and what you think you can bring to the role of either Vice Chair Communications or Operations, by April 15. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions you might have.

Regards,

Melanie

--
Melanie Swalwell
Professor of Digital Media Heritage
Co-Chair, SIGCIS<http://www.sigcis.org/>

Acting Deputy Director
Centre for Transformative Media Technologies
School of Social Sciences, Media, Film and Education
Swinburne University
PO Box 218, Hawthorn Vic 3122 Australia
http://transformativemedia.swinburne.edu.au/

Tel +61 3 9214 3911
AS426
mswalwell at swin.edu.au<mailto:mswalwell at swin.edu.au>
@melswal

Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality<https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/homebrew-gaming-and-beginnings-vernacular-digitality>
Game History and the Local<https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-66422-0>

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