Annual Report for SIGSAM June 30, 1994 1. Publications: SIGSAM is publishing the issues of the Bulletin at a regular quarterly schedule. The bulk of the pages is spent on technical papers, which are of good quality. I have contributed a ``message from the chair'' in the past three issues. The rest is made up by conference announcements. An issue facing SIGSAM is how to distribute information to its members: in hardcopy in the Bulletin or in softcopy on the computer network. SIGSAM has also published the past 6 Proceedings for the International Symposia on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation (ISSACs). Publication of the 1995 Proceedings is guaranteed. I advise to establish a member-Plus service for membership renewals that automatically offers the purchase of those Proceedings to members on renewal. 2. Electronic services: Gene Copperman, our treasure, has taken on responsibility as SIGSAM's information director. A link from SIGSAM's directory on ACM.org to the directories under Gene's care at Northeastern has been installed, and pertinent information is now openly accessible. 3. Conferences: SIGSAM is fully sponsoring the International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation (ISSAC '94) in Oxford in July 1994. SIGSAM and SIGNUM are sponsoring ISSAC '95 in Montreal. The Oxford meeting is progressing smoothly, and the assembled program consists of high quality papers. The organization of the Montreal meeting is well on its way. In fact, a Call for Papers has been distributed already. SIGSAM also endorsed the organization of an East Coast Computer Algebra Day, held for the first time on May 14 at Drexel University. SIGSAM is actively seeking to cooperate with more conferences, at least. To this end, I feel that the approval of an "in cooperation" request with no financial obligations SIGSAM and ACM should be left largely to the discretion of the SIGSAM board. 4. International collaboration: I have established communication with the leaders of computer algebra societies in Germany and Japan. On October 12, 1993, I had a meeting with Johannes Grabmeier, the speaker of the German Fachgruppe (Section) on Computer Algebra of the GI/DMV/GAMM. We agreed to coordinate decisions of mutual interest, such as matters of the ISSAC conference series and network services. We hope to establish cooperation on network services. The German Fachgruppe also provides such services already. Kobayashi Hidetsune, the co-chair of the Japanese Society for Symbolic and Algebraic Computation, has via email agreed to participate in our deliberations on international matters. 5. Membership: The membership of SIGSAM has declined in proportion to the rest of the SIGs. SIGSAM must become more attractive to the many researchers abroad, some of whom view ACM as a US organization. This is reinforced by subtle signs, such as the clause directed to US government work on the copyright forms that we send out to persons contributing papers to ISSAC Proceedings. In the upcoming business meeting at Oxford I will propose to change the Bylaws to an ``Open SIG.'' I also believe that international representation on the executive board is an important step to making SIGSAM more attractive outside North America. 6. Leadership development: I have attended both the Anaheim and Phoenix SIG Chairs meeting. The most useful information obtained was on network services and electronic publishing. We have also held a meeting of the executive board in August 5, 1993, where the plan for our activities for the next 2 years was discussed. Appointments: Bulleting editor: Robert Grossman (reappointed) TOMS editorial board: Richard Zippel Information director: Gene Cooperman Education director: Bruce Char General chair for ISSAC '95: Stephen Watt Liaison to standards committee: unfilled Submitted by Erich Kaltofen SIGSAM chair