We the undersigned believe the extraordinary strength that SIGGRAPH now enjoys as the preeminent graphics conference in the world is the result of many years of effort by the graphics community as a whole. To promote the continued health of the graphics community, we believe that every effort should be made by SIGGRAPH leadership and members to encourage submissions to the national SIGGRAPH conference. In particular, we feel special consideration is appropriate to encourage students and young academics to submit work, since these people represent the next generation of graphics research. We feel strongly that the Recognition Policy for Presenters and Volunteers introduced for SIGGRAPH 2007 presents a significant new barrier to participation in the conference for potential presenters. In the new structure, Papers, Computer Animation Festival, and Art Gallery presenters, as well as Jurors, are required to pay 50% of applicable registration fees. Panels, Special Sessions, Sketches and Posters, Educators Program participants must pay 75% of registration costs. This is a significant change. Large groups of students and independent academics will be adversely impacted, and we feel that the loss to the conference will be significant. We believe it is unwise to impose restrictions for the very people who SIGGRAPH requires for its future existence. We realize that SIGGRAPH is not immune to the financial realities of mounting a large international conference. However, we ask: before implementing this year\'s new compensation structure, was every effort made to consider a range of options What options were considered, specifically Has there been a discussion about the likely long term effects of this policy on the future of SIGGRAPH We ask SIGGRAPH to immediately revise the Recognition Policy for Presenters and Volunteers. We further call for SIGGRAPH conference management to allow students and presenters full access to the conference, without fee. We understand that this policy could present additional costs to the SIGGRAPH conference. However, considering policies of comparable academic conferences we feel that this is an appropriate level of compensation and maintain that this worthwhile investment will pay dividends in the form of a greatly improved SIGGRAPH conference in future years. We the undersigned are former SIGGRAPH presenters, students, graphics professionals, and interested members of the graphics community. Thank you for your consideration.

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