Our Mission

GBC/ACM provides local professionals, members and the public at large with a forum for increasing knowledge of modern computing technology. This ranges from the science, design, development and construction of computing hardware, software, development environments, and networks to applications and relevant social issues.

Who We Are

We are more than 1,000 people who want to learn and share knowledge of our profession. Our members are mostly local professionals ranging from new entrants to retirees. Our volunteers are members who want to lead while learning, grow new leadership skills in a forgiving environment, or just contribute to our community.

What We Do

The GBC/ACM provides a number of services to our community.

Evening Lecture Series

We produce evening lectures with technical speakers and networking opportunities. There are typically 10 per year on the third Thursday of the month, in the ten months, September through June, but this may vary. They are free and open to the public. Typically we have speakers, but we may have panel or a workshop for hands-on learning. Some of our notable speakers have included Grace Hopper, Gordon Bell, Ron Rivest, Radia Perlman, Irene Pepperberg, Butler Lampson, Jim Gettys, Ray Kurzweil, Stephen Wolfram, etc. See our history of evening lectures and events. [link]

Professional Development Seminars (PDS)

GBC/ACM produces Professional Development Seminars (PDS) with leaders and innovators in our field as full day or two-day events. Our speakers have included Edgser Dijkstra, Gordon Bell, Chris Date, Bjarne Stroustrup, Guy Steele, Jim Gray, Jeff Sutherland and hundreds of others. Our topics have included AJAX, Agile Development, C++, Java, Eclipse, Transaction Processing, The One Laptop per Child Program, Algorithms,… And soon, Spring Framework, Drupal and software testing.

GBC/ACM’s PDS program has been used as an example for other chapters in ACM international leadership meetings. See our history of PDSs. [link]

Special Events, Community Outreach and user group collaboration

We periodically participate in community events that are consistent with our mission. In recent years we have been looking for more opportunities, often in collaboration with the IEEE, ACM, Agile Community and other local technical and user groups. GBC’s participation in the Cambridge Science Festival has included a code camp for the "XO Laptop" in the One Laptop per Child program. GBC/ACM volunteers helped launch the Agile Bazaar as a special local ACM Professional Chapter and we are currently seeking volunteers to reenergize the Boston SIGGRAPH Chapter.

Newsletter

Our Real Times Newsletter has been through many variations over the decades ranging from simple flyers to many-page, professionally printed formats with content ranging from event schedules to articles and games. In recent years, we have gone to an all-electronic format as part of our transition to building a web presence supporting social networking. [link]

How You Can Get Involved

• Become a Member [[link]](/membership/join "Join the GBC/ACM")

  Membership opens up a world of information, relationships and growth opportunities. For a small membership fee, members help support our mission.

• Become a volunteer
  We need a continuous infusion of new volunteers to bring new energy and ideas to the chapter. Many hands make light work. Why volunteer? Here are some of the benefits:
  • As volunteer leader, you will have an opportunity to practice new skills in a forgiving environment. Those skills can range from leading teams to production of events to community outreach and more.
  • As an experienced volunteer, you will be expected to mentor newer volunteers as we innovate and expand our capabilities. You will have the opportunity to help steer our chapter to grow with our rapidly changing industry, which has always been a challenge. We are looking to have backup for every volunteer role.
  • As a speaker and topic proposer, you will have first rights to be the host for the event. As part of that responsibility, you would be the single point of contact for the speaker(s). This provides a unique opportunity to build and enhance a personal relationship with leaders in our industry.
  • See our volunteer opportunities..
• Recommend a speaker or topic…
  If you have a topic and/or speakers to recommend for a PDS or evening lecture, please contact us at … You may be the primary point of contact for a selected event.

mailto:vp@gbcacm.org
mailto:president@gbcacm.org