SIGACT elections

SIGACT elections are coming up. Online voting starts April 1. It would seem very important to remind you that election day is coming up, except that apparently you'll have a couple of months to vote. (I admit I'm a bit confused about why the election site would "go live" three separate times, but that probably won't effect anything.)

I was surprised to see that we're actually having an election this year, in that there's more than 1 person running for chair, and many people running for Member at Large. (See all the various SIG slates here.) It's good to see that people are interested in serving, and I think it reflects a healthy community.

It would be fun to say I'm surprised to see that I'm running (for Member at Large), but it comes as no surprise. I did indeed volunteer myself. I'm not planning on campaigning other than mentioning it here. (It's not really the sort of job one campaigns for, is it?) There are seven people running, and it's an excellent list -- the others running are Cynthia Dwork, Anna Lysyanskaya, Toniann Pitassi, Michael Saks, Baruch Schieber, and Alan Selman -- I think SIGACT will be well served by any subset. If you think I'd be a good Member at Large, vote for me, and if not, vote for the people you think will do better.

As has been mentioned elsewhere, Madhu Sudan and Lance Fortnow are running for chair. Again, that's an excellent choice to have. Apparently, platforms will go up when the election site goes live, and I'll be curious to see what both of them have to say about possible plans for SIGACT in the future. I'd be happy to host a debate here, on the blog, though again, this isn't really a position where there's a big debate necessary. But that's a good issue for comments : what would you like to ask them? (I can always send them a list of questions/point them to the blog post, if only so they can see what is on people's minds.)