ACM HQ Staff Present: Paul Rivera

Others: Harry Joiner, Rod Abraham, Steve Grimaldi, Jorge Díaz-Herrera, Ed Colbert, Ben Brosgol, Harry Joiner, Norm Cohen, David Brookman, Roy Bell, David Wheeler, Ed Colbert, Dirk Craynest, Karlotto Mangold, Judy Kerner, David Hoos, Currie Colket, David Harrison, Marretta Holden, Jorge Díaz-Herrera.

Review and Approval of Agenda

Discussion on adding a Long Range Planning meeting was the action added to New Business by Hal Hart.

Changes were moved & approved unanimously.

Chair's Report

Hal handed out statues to former officers and conference chairs. A packet of graphs and spreadsheets on membership (from ACM) were handed out. These graphs reveal a clear trend that is membership is down for all SIGs. SIGAdaÕs membership is smaller than the very largest SIGs but larger than most others. Overall ACM membership is down. ACM SIGAda is not in the top or bottom 25% in membership renewal.

With regard to our FY96 budget, SIGAda under earned by 15% and under spent by 15%. We were right on budget with a net loss of $22K (our planned spend down of our reserves).

Member Plus Package

Currently on the Tri-Ada proceedings are on the member plus package. Three items are on the table to be added to the package: (1) the Walnut Creek CD-Rom, (2) the Ada UK Ada Year Book, and (3) the Discovering Ada CD-Rom. Weíd have to spend $2,500 to get 100 Ada UK Ada Year BookÕs as a stockpile.

Discussion ensued over packaging options and the philosophical decision of whether SIGAda is attempting to make money on the member-plus package.

Currie Colket raised the point that the package would make the set of services look better. Mark GerhardtÕs suggestion was reiterated that SIGAda send out a notice that offers a copy of the Walnut Creek CD-Rom to all members. Dave Brookman raised the idea of inserting the CD into a copy of Ada Letters to save on shipping.

Motion: The member-plus option was tabled pending the budget discussion.

FY í97 Budget Update and FY í98 Budget Presentation

Hal handed out a copy of the SIGAda financial report for FY96. He also presented the FY97 monthly report up to October 96. A draft FY98 budget is due by the end of December 1996. FY98 runs from July 1, 1997 to June 30, 1998.

Hal explained the FY98 budget and how the areas of grants and WG budgets were slightly changed from FY97. Membership is projected to continue to decline.

Discussion also occurred on the topic of changing the frequency of Ada Letters to 4 issues per year.

Hal polled the room on adding $5K to the budget to do change the frequency of Ada Letters to Quarterly and to include a copy of the Walnut Creek CD-Rom. There was overwhelming sentiment in favor of fewer, thicker issues to include a CD. Inserting copies of the Walnut Creek CD in each copy of the May/June issue also was favored by a majority of attendees. This extra effort would be paid for by funds from our surplus.

AI: Hal has action to produce a comparison spreadsheet showing 3 years of budget. This would also include a $5K line item to change Ada Letters publication.

AI: Paul Rivera to investigate the impact on postage rate and regulations.

AI: Ed Colbert to investigate costs in conjunction with Walnut Creek.

Brad asked for a poll of the room on whether or not people were satisfied with the general priorities. The general sentiment was to continue with current SIGAda initiatives with the exception of the Ada Letters changes.

Brad moved that the budget be resolved in a subsequent meeting prior to December 15, 1996 upon receipt of the information in the action items. Rudolf second this motion which passed unanimously.

AI: EEC to complete discussion and voting on FY98 budget..

Tri-Ada í96 Status

Jorge provided status. The team began late, but had a strong team supporting him. There was a major miscalculation on the exhibition area of the budget when the exhibitor space was limited to 10x20 but the budget was not lowered to reflect this. (52 vendors last year, 37 this year). Also, there was a minor miscalculation on tutorial honorarium ($8K vs. $14K spent). We lowered expenses in travel and printing.

Jorge believes we may have a $25K surplus based on todayÕs numbers. At COB on Tuesday the attendee count was 106 for both tutorial days, 97 for Tuesday and 7 for Saturday only. Total registrants are 448 as of COB Tuesday. 1000 expo passes were distributed to vendors. 208 people registered for tutorials. 47 for Exhibits. We sold an extra 600 proceedings copies to ACM and have 20 copies here at the conference. In comparison to 1995, one day before the count was 406 vs. 414 here in 1996. We picked up 90 new SIGAda members and 44 new ACM members.

Mohamed Fayed did not show up for his tutorial. It might have been a confusion on dates, but he could not be reached to confirm. Anthony Gargaroís affiliation is wrong in the proceedings ñ it should read CSC.

Tri-Ada í97 Preview and Update

David Harrison of Harris Corp. is the chair of Tri-Ada í97, to be held in St. Louis. There will be a second airport opening St. Louis in October 1997. The conference will be held from November 9-13, 1997 at the Adams Mark Hotel in St. Louis. Tutorials will be on Sunday and Monday and the conference will be Tuesday - Thursday. The hotel faces the Gateway Arch. Side events are to be determined.

Jorge suggested that the invited talks and vendor presentations be included in the proceedings next year to counteract the comment that the proceedings are very thin. Also the lack of tutorial proceedings reproduction was not received well. It was suggested that his be examined last year. No theme has yet been chosen. Norm Cohen suggested ÒRendezvous with Me in St. Louis.Ó

Nominating Committee Report

Mark Gerhardtís report was summed up in a single word: ìdismalî. One candidate has previously volunteered and one in the bar last night might volunteer. Help is needed with all positions to supply names and to help motivate people.

Ada Europe í97 Preview and Update

Karlotto passed out copies of the Ada Europe conference information. The conference is in June in London. The deadline for the CFP has passed and there were 40-50 submissions; plus there will be invited talks. Bill Taylor, the conference chair, has asked for help in recruiting US participation in three activities: education, reliable software ÒdayÓ, and one other.

Education Activities Update

Skipped due to Mike Feldmanís absence.

Ada Letters Status

Two special issues: best of WAdaS and Real-Time conference proceedings are scheduled. Three issues worth of articles in the queue. The Dr. Ada 95 feature is not receiving questions and not consistently written. Judy Kerner has downsized her CASE matrix. Brad Balfour has not submitted any Tips and Tidbits columns. KM George would like additional papers and suggests asking the Tri-Ada invited speakers to submit their speeches as papers.

AI: KM George and Anthony Gargaro to ask Tri-Ada invited speakers to submit their speeches as papers for Ada Letters.

Hal suggests beginning the 4 quarterly issues plan in calendar 1997. It will depend on Paulís research.

David Wheeler suggests that KM George post a mention on comp.lang.ada recruiting new papers. A page on Ada Letters should also be added as a separate page on the SIGAda web page.

AI: KM and Brad to work on encouraging authors and increasing web/internet visibility.

Electronic Publishing Plans

Brad Balfour reported that ACM has sent out an e-mail announcing that the next step in making ACM publications available to members has been taken by ACM HQ. All members can register via the ACM WWW page and use their ACM membership and account info to gain access to ACM publications and SIG publications for which they are members. SIGAda needs to investigate how and when it can make Ada Letters. The largest issues are not technical (the software needed is available), but rather revolve around volunteer labor.

Hal suggested additional grants to graduate students to provide labor for htmlíizing Ada Letters. KM George said that this was possible.

ReuseWG Status Report

Harry joiner reported that the ResuseWG activities are at the same level as the past. There has been a refocusing of the RAAT [Reuse Acquisition Action Team] (the primary subgroup of ReuseWG which was formed in Jan. 1992). It previously met jointly with the DoD Management Issues WG and Industry WG (which has now disbanded). The RAAT has decided to continue its efforts and is now renamed the RIAT (ÒacquisitionÓ changed to ÒissuesÓ) [pronounced riot]. The group is chaired by Col. Gene Glasser. The attendance is now down to 12-15 members, but is a core viable group. The mailing list around 120 members. The current focus is on business issues related to software architectures and a workshop in Summer 1997 is planned. A workshop was held at WadaS í96. The web site is linked to the ReuseWG page. ReuseWG materials will be distributed at Tri-Ada í96 at the Army Reuse Center booth.

OOWG Status Report

Dave Brookman reported that they have had very little participation ñ about 10 people via e-mail in the last year. He is looking to reassess and possibly change status to a BOF. He doesnít see that itís working as is.

ASISWG Status Report

Current version of ASIS standard is under review. WG met today (with OOWG and AJPO participation as well). The standard is moving toward ISO standardization. The next ballot result is expected by 9 February and the WG expects comments and changes. Several implementations are out there now including one for GNAT and one by DDC-I. Rational also has one. Aonix is working on one for spring of 1997.

CAUWG Status Report

Ben reports that the group is ìaction challengedî. Some of the role has been subsumed by Mike Feldman and AdaIC. Last year, Ben did successfully influence the COBOL community to adopt the Ada 95 picture clause changes in the next version of COBOL. CAUWG has not been product oriented, but rather activity oriented. He foresees some meeting support this year. He is also willing to examine bindings needs.

Working Groups Status/Review ñ skipped

ABWG - no status

ARTEWG - disbanded by request of its chair.

AIWG - no status

ASISWG - see earlier review

CAUWG - see earlier review

EdWG - no status

EnvWG - disbanded by request of its chair

NumWG - no status

OOWG - see earlier review

PIWG - no status

ReuseWG - see earlier review

SSWG - no status

SDSAWG - no status

STDWG - no status

WAdaS í97 Status and Coordination

Provided 10 copies of WAdaS í97 TMRF. Some of the registration fees have dropped. After being a financial participant in WAdaS 94 & 96, the conference has asked ACM SIGAda to support the conference and be on the line for 100% of any loss. Ben Brosgol questioned why take 100% risk? Hal mentioned that Ed Seidewitz wants to give it one last try and if its not successful then fold up the tent. Mark Gerhardt questioned the overlap in attendance and asked if WAdaS takes away attendance from Tri-Ada. Harry Joiner pointed out that the St. Louis location will, possibly, be less affected.

Motion: Brad moved & Mark seconded a motion to table the issue. It will be taken up by e-mail.

SIGAda Booth Activities Report

5 conferences this past FY. Spent about $5K attending these shows. Sent 70 CDs to midwest small community college conference. Plans call for attending 5 conference in the 1^st half of next year: LabTek in SanDiego, SAC/ACM Computing Week, Object World East, Object Expo NY, and Object World West. There is debate on attending SEI conference. Mark Gerhardt suggested attending COMDEX. Suggestions on conference attendance via e-mail are appreciated. Ed Colbert suggests that we might offer SIGAda corporate sponsors the chance to additionally contribute in return for our distributing the material at our booth. It takes 2-3 days per show in organizational effort and overhead.

Mark Gerhardt suggested that we add a benefit to the industrial sponsorship ÑÊthe offer should include a SIGAda lecturer.

Subscription only Status for German Ada Group ñ skipped

New Business ñ skipped

Motion to Adjourn was made and passed at 11:41 p.m.