[MetaPRL Users] ACM and You

[MYV]

Dear Colleague: 

(Please do not reply to myv at cs.rice.edu. See email address below.)

I am writing to tell you why, if you are not currently an ACM member, 
you should join the Association for Computing Machinery. If you 
already are a member, I hope you will forward this information to 
colleagues you think should join. 

ACM has led the computing field for over 60 years and is the 
discipline's oldest association. Its 90,000 members comprise the elite 
of computing, including a unique mix of educators, researchers, CIOs, 
CTOs, senior developers, and other technology professionals. 

Whether you are an academic, researcher, or practitioner, you are 
probably benefiting from many ACM activities even if you are not an 
ACM member. Your institution, organization, or company may subscribe 
to ACM's Digital Library. Undoubtedly, you have read articles published
in ACM's 40-plus journals and magazines, or in proceedings of its 
over-150 annual conferences. And each spring you probably eagerly 
anticipate the announcement of the ACM A.M. Turing Award, the highest 
recognition of technical excellence in the field of computing. The list
goes on and on. (Please visit http://www.acm.org/memberoffer4 to learn
more about the benefits of ACM Membership.)

Over the last few years, many have expressed their dissatisfaction with
Communications of ACM (CACM), saying ACM's flagship publication does 
not reflect the breadth of interests of its members. Some even cite it 
as a major reason for not maintaining an ACM membership. The good news 
is that we have heeded these complaints and taken major steps to 
address them. In January 2005, ACM's former president Dave Patterson 
launched a project to revitalize CACM. That project has culminated in 
the "new CACM," unveiled last week, see http://cacm.acm.org. 

The revamped CACM is modeled after Science, the prestigious publication
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which 
combines a science magazine with a scientific journal. Like Science, 
the new CACM offers a breadth of exciting material, including news, 
viewpoints, practices, peer-reviewed articles, and research highlights. 

I took the position of CACM Editor-in-Chief in 2007 because I believe 
the best is yet to come in computing. Such a dynamic and exciting 
field deserves an equally dynamic and exciting leading publication. 
CACM is not just the flagship publication of ACM; it is, in effect, 
the flagship publication of the whole discipline.  

As I recruited CACM's new editorial board of world-class computing 
experts, I was heartened by their positive responses. My colleagues 
uniformly thought the board's mission would be hard, but incredibly 
important work. And they readily accepted my offers to join in. 
Likewise, thousands of dedicated volunteers, supported by a relatively 
small professional staff at headquarters, drive ACM's activities. 

So why else should you join ACM? Because it is the right thing to do! 
If you care about our field, then you want a strong association to 
lead it. Moreover, a broad membership makes for a stronger association.
Simply put, you need ACM and ACM needs you. We live in a consumer 
society, so there is a tendency to value everything from the buyer's 
perspective, which is, "Will I get my money's worth?" ACM is not a 
product, but an organization of individuals like you and me. Our dues 
are not the price for a set of benefits, but our contribution to 
promoting computing as a field.  

Please join your colleagues at ACM in this worthwhile endeavor. 

Sincerely, 

Moshe Y. Vardi 
Rice University
CACM Editor-in-Chief 
eic at cacm.acm.org

P.S. Learn more, and take advantage of ACM's special offer to join and 
receive a discount and a complimentary gift at: 
http://www.acm.org/memberoffer4 (you will need to select 
"Priority Code: DP2ACM").