I  attended the first in-person annual SGB (SIG Governing Board) meeting since before the pandemic, and the SIGUCCS Executive Committee met for two whole days to discuss various topics related to the SIG.

Some updates from the SGB include an overview of the state of ACM Special Interest Groups provided by the president of ACM, as well as information from ACM about Open ACM (their new publishing program), ACM Financials and SIG Overhead, and the services provided by ACM to the SIGS.

From the ACM president’s presentation, it was interesting to see that some of the issues that we see in our SIG are also common in other special interest groups, including declining membership and lack of volunteers. The president of ACM also talked about looking for ways to reach younger professionals and diverse populations, and how to use different modalities to perform different conference functions (presentation, publication, and interaction were the terms he used to describe the benefits of conferences).

The second most interesting thing to come from the SGB meeting was the information about Open ACM – their new publishing program. In 2020 they announced that all content would be open access starting in 2026. Since then, they have been working to create a program (Open ACM, see https://libraries.acm.org/subscriptions-access/acmopen) that will go into effect January 1, 2026. This program could impact the future of publishing papers as part of the SIGUCCS conference, so you should be aware of this program.

Turning to SIGUCCS business, the board was able to view the location for the 2024 conference and discuss logistics for our meeting in April.  We are excited to be returning to Chicago at the other end of the Magnificent Mile. Within walking distance of the Westin where we spent the 2023 conference, the Embassy Suites location opens up a new set of opportunities for exploring dining and attractions at the end of the day. The hotel also offers breakfast every day and a reception every evening. The meeting spaces are perfect for our small conference and presentation information will soon be available for review. We think you will be excited to attend!

We also began to review sites for the 2025 conference. No news yet. But we have some prospects.

Another topic of discussion was the Affinity Groups that were begun after the last conference and their viability. While attendance at these is not large, and it is sometimes difficult to decide on topics, we feel that these are a valuable opportunity to reconnect and stay engaged between conferences. We plan to continue these meetings but we need your help.

ACTION ITEMS:

If YOU have ideas for a short presentation (10-15 minutes) that can be part of the Affinity Groups sessions, where you provide your expertise, followed by a discussion and conversation with your colleagues, please reach out to Miranda to schedule something! We’d love to showcase your expertise in this safe environment.

If YOU have ideas for a topic you would like to attend, please reach out to Miranda with that topic idea. We want to make these sessions something that is helpful and useful to you.

Lisa Brown (she/her)
ACM SIGUCCS Chair
http://siguccs.org

• Conference Chair: Laurie Fox
• Program Co-Chairs: Miranda Carney-Morris and Shawn Plummer
• Treasurer: Parrish Nnambi

As a result, the Executive Committee just completed its site visit for the 2023 conference and we are extremely excited to be planning this for you. The hotel is located in a great part of the city, with access to many restaurants, retail stores, and experiences. We are pleased to announce that the conference will be held at the Westin Hotel, Michigan Avenue located just north of Water Tower Plaza. The board has spent the last couple of days exploring the hotel spaces as well as the surrounding area.  We’ve also spent time on program planning and we think we have some great ideas for March. Watch for announcements as these ideas become more solid!

In addition to being a site visit, this was also the first in-person board meeting for this group since they took office in July 2020. Being in-person and having a full day conversation, which often extended into dinner, was such a treat. It reminded us of the reasons we love the in-person SIGUCCS conference. Networking and building relationships is what makes the SIGUCCS conference so valuable.

One of the main topics of conversation for our board meeting was long-term viability. With almost 3 years since our last conference, we are worried about disengagement. While the idea of an in-person conference in a few months might be keeping you engaged, it might not be enough for everyone. We will be continuing with monthly events online to provide both opportunities for social engagement as well as technical connections.

Stay tuned. This get-together has got us pumped up. We hope to bring some of that same enthusiasm to you over the next eight months in preparation for the conference!

Lisa Brown
Chair, SIGUCCS Executive Committee

It was with great sadness that we decided to move the 2022 conference in San Diego to a virtual event. With the pandemic continuing, and travel budgets at institutions in a state of flux, we decided that while some might be able to attend in person, that it would be better for the overall health of the community to be inclusive and do another virtual event. Additionally, we wanted to be respectful of the conference planning committee and make sure that they had enough time to plan a well-run virtual conference. We are taking what we learned from the 2021 conference and doing that work now! Watch for announcements in the coming weeks on schedule, sessions, and other activities.

Regarding San Diego, while this was a location that we were excited about visiting, we were no longer able to extend our contract with the hotel. Instead we were able to negotiate a cancellation fee that was under the contractual amount in order to serve the SIG as best we could. This was not done easily and it was disappointing to spend money and get nothing in return, but we also couldn’t see hosting a conference for only a small number of attendees.

Thinking ahead now to 2023, the board is concerned about how to proceed. We began looking at sites, but without a clear sense of how the pandemic will shift and whether or not institutional budgets will bounce back, we struggle with signing another hotel contract. We want to hear from you! And we want to hear from you sooner rather than later.

Our next board meeting is February 14. Put on your favorite red shirt or hat for Valentine’s Day and join us to provide us with your thoughts about how we proceed. We WANT to have a conference, but not if it means YOU cannot attend. Do you feel that your institutions will shift away from sponsoring travel and in-person conferences in the future? Is your institution seeing virtual conferences as a permanent and positive shift? If a virtual conference is what you NEED in order to stay connected, we want to make it happen and make sure that it is the best conference we can plan.

Join us for our next board meeting. Monday, February 14 at 2pm EST (1pm Central, 12noon, Mountain, 11am Pacific) and bring your ideas for how we can engage with each other, realize the very positive  benefits of this organization, and continue to build community while not being able to gather in person. Register today!

We’d to hear from you.

~ Lisa Brown, SIGUCCS Chair

• Check This Out: Loaning Laptops and Other Technology with Ashley Koebel from University of Michigan
• Revamping a Neglected Technology Space for Success: A Team-Based Approach to Developing Training, Documentation, and Communication for a Virtual Reality Space with Doralyn Rossmann from Montana State University

Check This Out: Loaning Laptops and Other Technology

LSA (College of Literature, Science and Arts) Technology Services Loan was created as a merge from different organizations across University of Michigan campus. They provide equipment to students and faculty within the college. They use WebCheckout to handle reservations and checkout. Most equipment has a maximum checkout limit of 72 hours, although some equipment has shorter or longer periods and exceptions are made as needed. Equipment has a 3 hour turnaround time upon return. During this time, equipment must be tested and cleaned.

Decisions about what to circulate are made based on past checkout data, partnerships with Learning and Teaching Consulting and during the COVID–era, reaching out to departments to determine what was needed. New equipment is purchased based on portability, durability and usability criteria. Equipment is reviewed on a life-cycle, usually 4 years, to determine if it needs replacing and if it can be replaced with the same make/model.

During COVID, the collection has grown and more exceptions have been made. 

Read more in the ACM Digital Library

Revamping a Neglected Technology Space for Success: A Team-Based Approach to Developing Training, Documentation, and Communication for a Virtual Reality Space

Montana State University began their Virtual Reality collaboration space journey by installing a large visualization wall, running Sage software, modeled after an installation at another university. The quickly discovered that the wall was not easy to use after installation, and the space went unused except as study space.

During the summer of 2019, Montana created a task force to determine how to best promote and support the space. This was a very efficient group of 12 people that met weekly to quickly re-launch the space with its new mission and service. This group also developed use cases to market the space more effectively.

The revised space includes partitions to isolate the space somewhat so that people using the space feel more private. They transitioned the operating system from Sage to Windows OS to support ease of use. The VR equipment was added to their checkout system. They also added a reservation system and hired a student to hold office hours in the space, was available by appointment and do training. 

Visit their website for more information: https://www.lib.montana.edu/spaces/virtualdiscovery/index.html

Read more in the ACM Digital Library

Lightning Talks are short seven minute presentations. The presenter provides a concise summary of a single topic with useful information in a short time. This year, we had a nice grouping of lightning talks!

Slacking On: Organizing 50 Student Staff Remotely with Kevin Chapman

Using Slack, and focusing on specific channels for different needs, as well as policy for communication, Carleton College was able to manage re3mote student staff on their help desk phones during the pandemic. Lessons learned:

• Number of channels is important. Find a good balance between too many and not enough.
• Threading is very important. Be sure your users are creating threaded conversations!
• Pinned posts were used for relevant information that needed to be seen by all.

Good Migrations: Finding New Home for Support Articles, Done with Minimal Resources with Mo Nishiyama

Planning a migration of their documentation to a wiki, the project team did much planning through surfing the internet, playing with other wikis, and learning how to best use the wiki. The planning of the project was also based on reality, not a specific due date. However, even with a lot of planning for reality, they team had to expect the unexpected. This project started just before the start of the pandemic and required changes in timing due to issues with a move to remote work.

Lessons learned:

• Keep it simple
• Experiment
• Remember the humans

Board Games As Relationship Building Tools with Kevin Tschopik

An opportunity to play board games on a break or lunch provided this new employee an opportunity to break the ice with colleagues around the university and form personal relationships with the persons that you need to interact.

Games that are suitable need to be

• Setup, teach it, and play it within one hour
• Themed games with cross appeal

Recommendations

• Mint works ($15, up to 4 players)
• The Fox in the Forest ($15, 2 player)
• Jaipur ($25, trading game, 2 player)
• Ticket to Ride, New York/London ($20, up to 4 players)
• Abandon all Artichokes ($15, up to 4 players)

Too Much Too Soon vs Too Little Too Late with Kevin Chapman

Kevin shared the ways his college prepared to provide technology to the campus. He also talked about ways they were surprised by how faculty and students used that technology. This sparked a lively conversation among attendees about what we are all facing as we return to campus.

Everything Counts: Making a Difference with Inclusive Words with Mo Nishiyama

This was a great reminder of how IT is fraught with terms that minimalize marginalized communities. In this case, a simple outreach offered an opportunity for change.

Bringing up a situation where a fellow employee was disturbed by a specific language used began a process to review documentation and remove racially charged language from all documentation.  A new style guide was created to learn about and use inclusive language.

Out in Tech: an open discussion about inclusive workspaces

Four staff shared their coming out journey both as persons and as employees in technological positions and posed questions to the audience about how to make the workplace more inclusive.

Some of the discussion the followed centered on preferred pronouns, preferred/chosen name and how to use these in our various IT systems. But discussion also focused on Safe Space training and being an Ally and also about not using gender terms in communications with persons where you don’t know their pronouns. This panel brought an awareness to many about the simple gestures that can isolate others who are different from us.

Mental Health in the IT Workplace: A Continuing Conversation

R Kevin Chapman, Beth Lynn Nolen, and Max Cohen

As a continuation of a lightning talk and subsequent panel about mental health issues at past SIGUCCS conferences, three staff helped us normalize conversations about mental health in order to help ourselves and others. They shared their own personal struggles and the solutions they considered to help overcome these issues. One panelist shared how he supports his staff and their needs as they work to overcome certain mental health issues.

Following their personal stories, the group discussed how to provide a space for staff to share their struggles, identify solutions, and make the workplace better.

These two panels worked well together as we consider how we as leaders and fellow employees can make our workplaces more inclusive and make sure staff feel supported. All staff should feel that they can openly discuss issues with their managers. Managers should look for ways to allow conversations to happen and ways to educate others about differences.

ACM supports our efforts in this area – their Diversity & Inclusion website “celebrates the similarities and differences that make our community so innovative and productive.”

Our virtual poster session allowed attendees to visit breakout rooms on their own and meet with the various presenters.

This year we have two exhibitors – Okta (View Website) and Software2 (View Website) available to chat with to learn more about their products.

Communication Awards winners were also available to talk about their winning entries. It was great to learn about the Dragons and Dungeons Security Awareness campaign from University of Illinois Chicago, which won the General Service Campaign materials. You can check out their award winning campaign here https://it.uic.edu/security/awareness/national-cyber-security-awareness-month-ncasm/. Also available for discussion were winning team members from Texas A&M who won for both Student Created Materials – their 2020 Computer Lab Signage Campaign and for best Computing Newsletter for their 2019 annual report which can be viewed at https://it.tamu.edu/annualreport-2019/index.php.

Finally, we have our poster presentations. Two of these presentations focused on the rapid deployment of web conferencing services during the pandemic response.  With little to no budget, each was able to ramp up services in a short time to allow continued activities for remote learning.

Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) was one such presentation:
Design and Implementation of the Cisco Webex System based on self-service sign-up using G Suite for rapid deployment (View Poster)

The other was from Kyoto Institute of Technology:
Preparation for Remote Activities in the University using Cisco WebEx Education Offer (View Poster)

Kyoto Institute of Technology also offered a poster presentation about a collaborate project with their high school to implement shared learning experiences over high speed internet.
Practice report of high school and university cooperation class using high-speed network (View Poster)

Another presentation was also by Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) and reported on the success of two training programs. Students were found to be more successful after these trainings.

Introduction of the basic human resource development program for Freshman and the practical professional development program for current students at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (View Poster)

Endlessly Exhausting Possibilities: Pandemic Planning in Support Services

Rebecca Klein, Jerome Hilscher, Greg Christie and Clayton Mitchell from Drake University

This team showcased the challenges of pandemic planning at Drake University by highlighting the following:

• This was an ever-changing situation and the need for adaptability
• The need to rebuild from the ground up multiple times
• The need to Implement new resources for help desk support
• The trials of managing remote student workers
• The challenges of supporting faculty in a move to remote teaching – use of LMS, synchronous web delivery (Bb Collaborate) and video platform (Panopto)

Japanese Activities to bring online academic meetings against COVID-19 -How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Online Meetings

Hiroki Kashiwazaki, Hajime Shimada, Nariyoshi Yamai, Kazuhiro Mishima, Shiu Sakashita, Kensuke Miyashita, Yusuke Komiya, Eisaku Sakane, Takuro Ozaki and Yoshiaki Kitaguchi

Japan is a country good at handling natural disasters, but little precedence for handling infectious disease.

This presentation discussed how they were able to move four conventions to online or hybrid environment after request from government to bot hold large events where spread of COVID might be rampant. (CIS, IA/IOT/SITE, DEIM, IPSJ)

Created technical requirements for presenters in one day. Requirements included all of the technology necessary to present, including second display, speaker microphone, webcam, and timer.

Common failures include

• Intrusion of presenter’s children
• Facilitator mixed the order or presentations
• Zoom application too heavy for older devices

Lessons learned

• Created documentation to help conflicts between Zoom and Powerpoint
• Chat log in Zoom not available after the event, so discussion was done on Slack
• Feedback when two people in same room turned on microphones required muting

One final acknowledgement, human relationships are still important.

Preventing COVID-19 Infection in a University Using Office 365

Shigekazu Katagiri, Takashi Yamanoue and Shinji Hira from Fukayama University

Health survey required in order to have in-person classes safely. Survey required staff and students to fill it out every day and asked to not come to campus if they have symptoms or if they did not fill out the survey. Created survey with Office 365. Also created an automated seating chart system for their 500 in-person classes to help with contact tracing. In addition to technology precautions, they had hand sanitizer available outside every classroom and sanitizing wipes for computer stations. Faculty and staff were also encouraged to install a contract tracing app called COCOA.

After in-person classes started in June, one two infections were reported between then and October, and low infection rates continued beyond that.

• Centralizing Server and Workstation Provisioning, Configuration, and Management by Kyle Vonblohn
• Consolidation of Individual Email Services into a Cloud Service by Takao Shimayoshi, Yoshiaki Kasahara, and Naomi Fujimura
• Automatic and Flexible Operation of Campus Equipment Using Bot Computing by Takashi Yamanoue

Centralizing Server and Workstation Provisioning, Configuration, and Management with Foreman and Puppet

Kyle Vonblohn impressed attendees with his presentation recording – he used a recently renovated classroom to share his expertise.

Read more in the ACM Digital Library

Challenge for Consolidation of Individual Email Services into a Cloud Service

Our colleagues from Kyushu University discussed their system for delegating administration of email domains to different constituents at their college.

Read more in the ACM Digital Library

An Attempt of Automatic and Flexible Operation of Campus Equipment Using Bot Computing

Takashi Yamanoue is leveraging a wiki and Bot Computing (Arduino) to program electronic power-on time and power-off time. His informative slides demonstrated how leveraging small technology can have a big (positive) impact for users.

Read more in the ACM Digital Library

• Learning On and At the Edge: Enabling Remote Instructional Activities with Micro Controller and Microprocessor Devices with Owen McGrath
• Leading Diverse Teams during Transitions to Remote Work with Laurie Fox & Shawn Plummer
• Won’t You Be My Leader? With Tom Wilk

Learning On and At the Edge: Enabling Remote Instructional Activities with Micro Controller and Microprocessor Devices

The sudden shift to online / remote teaching in March 2020 was troublesome for performance, workshop and laboratory experiences at University of California, Berkeley. This presentation offered us a look into how three courses made adjustments through he use of microprocessors and microcontroller devices.

Case Study – Physics class (spring 2020)

This course was built around weekly lab activities in a specially outfitted facility. Moving to remote teaching with 7 weeks left in the term was a major problem as students would not be able to complete the assigned labs. However the instructor created kits of Arduino electronics to be shipped to students at home that offered them the same experiences as they would have had in this on-site facility.

Case Study – Design Innovation (summer 2020)

Summer classes were also offered only remote. Students in this design and innovation course normally spend both class time and outside time in a specialized facility for access to fabrication equipment and electronics. To continue to host this course, the instructor and staff created and shipped kits with Arduino, LED, electronics, and other components to each student in order to accomplish goals of the course. In one case the resulting student project was something that they could never have created on-site as they made use of their personal piano to supplement the equipment provided.

Case Study – Robotics (fall 2020)

Again, as fall approached, campus was still using remote instructional models. This course followed the same process as the others and shipped students the parts they would need and also offered an online simulation environment.

From this experience, it was learned that these microcontrollers and microprocessors provided an alternate experience to the fully functional labs. They were affordable, flexible and able to be shipped out.

For future, the IT department is considering how they can help supplement this process by planning for multiple uses, procuring these systems in bulk, and helping with distribution.

Read more in the ACM Digital Library

Leading Diverse Teams during Transitions to Remote Work

At the State University of New York, Geneseo, there was no formal work from home policy. A very recent policy allowed work from home on occasion with supervisor approval and a clear work plan. When the pandemic began and there was an order from the state to work remotely, all IT staff were required to produce daily reports from their ticketing system to show work productivity.

Come April, it was realized that this was not temporary. Staff began the process of setting up a home office and establishing a new routine. Many people had to adjust to child care needs and teams needed to determine how to stay connected.

One solution to this was morning meetings, sharing of productivity insights, regular check-ins, use of Slack for communication, and learning how to balance home and work.

Also, many project had been put on hold until we “returned to campus”. The original plan was that this was a two-week pause. Those projects had to come off hold and people needed to work through them remotely.

Now, some classes have returned to campus with social distancing and some staff have returned to work. But not all… this means that as leaders they needed to maintain daily connections and interactions, schedule and host game breaks, and fun activities, and maintain productivity but still have compassion.

While they have seen an increase in the number of meetings, they are learning to have shorter meetings. They are also learning to embrace remote work principles

What do they foresee in the future

• More hybrid work
• New meeting formats
• Shared workspace

Additionally, we should be aware that “Return to Office” will be just as disruptive as moving remote because people’s habits have changed. We need to be prepared for that next disruption.

Read more in the ACM Digital Library

Won’t You Be My Leader?

Leadership is about the ability to lead or guide others. However, you cannot lead everyone in the same way. Who are the people you lead? There are three categories…

• The Struggler – This is the person that struggles at work. To handle them you need to be direct (figure out where and why are they struggling). YOu should also ask them to help fix the problem (they will know better than you what works for them). YOu also need to be supportive and empathetic.
• The Rock Star – This is your go-to person, the one that will take on additional work. Be sure to provide balance (don’t just give them the cool projects). Make sure that you provide them with focus (a priority list is helpful). And you need to provide guidance, including the ability to say no to new endeavors.
• The Average Joe – These are the people that keep the team stable, you want a lot of these! Make sure that you give them the same attention as others. Listen to them (how are things really going, they’re the ones that will tell you). And you need to guide them.

What tools can we use to help with this leadership and guidance?

One-on-one meetings – Have an agenda – one that both you and the employee can see. Be aware that the location of you meeting is also important. Cover the following: Things to discuss this week, Action items, Parking lot items, Career development, And accomplishments.

SMART Goals – Make sure that your goals for your employees are SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. 

Performance Management – This is not a once a year task. It should be something covered every time you meet. 

Takeaways

• HARD goals (heartfelt, animated, required, difficult)
• DUMB goals (Dream-Driven, Uplifting, Method-friendly, Behavior-triggered)
• WOOP goals (wish, outcome, obstacle, plan)

Read more in the ACM Digital Library