Student Volunteering

The student volunteer program is an essential part of CHI and provides opportunities for students to attend, assist, and network.

Become a Student Volunteer

The student volunteer organization is what keeps CHI running smoothly throughout the conference. You must have had student status for at least one semester during the academic year before CHI. We are more than happy to accept undergrad, graduate, and PhD students. We need friendly enthusiastic volunteers to help us out.

The SV lottery is now open. You can visit https://chisv.org/CHI2019 to enroll. We will close the lottery December 21 and approximately 170 students will be chosen as SVs. All other students who registered will be assigned a position on the waiting list.

Once you have a confirmed spot and registration is open you will be required to register by a date in January. You will receive instructions on how to do this with a special code that will waive your registration fee for the conference, though you will still be responsible for course/workshop fees.

What will I do when I volunteer?

You will agree to a volunteer contract, in which you agree to:

• Work at least 20 hours
• Show up on time to tasks
• Attend an orientation session
• Arrive at the conference by Sunday morning at the latest
• In return we commit to waive your registration fee, provide 2 meals a day, and most likely provide a limited amount of first-come, first served discounted housing, and, of course, we will have our fabulous SV thank-you party on Thursday night. When you are booking flights I highly recommend that you remember to leave on Friday or Saturday so you can attend the party. There is always food, drinks, dancing, and fun!

If you need to communicate with us, please contact svchair@chi2019.acm.org. Reply-to-all on our correspondence so we both stay in the loop and can better help you.

Frequently Asked Questions

We get a lot of emails with the same kinds of questions:

Q: I know the deadline for the lottery is passed, but I really, really want to be a student volunteer. Can you get me in?

A: You may go to chisv.org at any time after the lottery is opened or even after it is run to put your name in the running. If the lottery has already been run your name will simply be added to the end of the waiting list. If you will be attending CHI anyway there is always a chance you may be able to be added to the last minute, you never know.

Q: I want to skip orientation, or work less than 20 hours, or arrive on Monday, can I still be an SV?

A: No, sorry, these are minimum expectations for everyone. If extenuating circumstances appear after you commit to volunteering (like volcanos erupting or other strange things) please communicate with us (svchair@chi2019.acm.org). All we ask is that you tell us what your circumstances are as early as possible.

Q: I didn’t get your emails and/or forgot to register by the deadlines and I lost my spot as an SV, can I get it back?

A: If this is due to you just not reading your emails, not taking care of your responsibilities, not keeping your email up to date in our system, forgetting or similar things then the answer is NO, no you may not. If there are extenuating circumstances, please communicate with us (svchair@chi2019.acm.org). All we ask is for you to tell us about your circumstances are as early as possible. (Yes, we’ll repeat this often).

Q: I was nominated for an SV spot by someone and got in, will I have to do the same kind of work as other SVs?

A: Yes, the obligations are the same.

Q: My advisor, or some other person, is giving a course or workshop and has a specific need and/or wants me to be the SV for that session, what do I need to do?

A: If you already have a confirmed spot and have done all the stuff you should have been doing then all you need to do is have that person communicate this to us directly (svchair@chi2019.acm.org) or you may forward on the email from them.

We are looking forward to meeting all of you!