Region 5 Breakout Session

Jim Look headed up the Region 5 breakout session this evening.

- Gold update
Our Region had the highest GOLD member attendance to the IEEE-USA Meeting.

- Reimbursement procedure
Create a PDF with all the info and send it to Jim Look, not Dwayne Lowry.

- Announcements form the Region 5 Director
I have heard many great discussions about the energy debate. Excellent, keep it up!

- Comments from the Region 5 Director-Elect
Is mandatory unpaid time-off something that has been around for a long time or has it just started in the last few months for engineers? These actions will negatively impact the engineering profession and what will happen over the next year is unpredictable.

- IEEE-USA Legislative Agenda and Accomplishments
Over 250 members from our section have met with a politician and discussed alternative energy. We, IEEE members, need to go to congress and tell them what we feel is best for our country. Utilize the CARE system (http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/care/) to reach out to politicians and get your voice heard in Washington.

- Accomplishments of the IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee
Get involved in committees! There are many to choose from such as the energy policy, research and development or intellectual property committees (http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/committees.asp). We provide education to those in politics that do not have technical backgrounds each month; we want to make sure they make educated decisions. Later this year IEEE-USA will have an Energy Fly-In (http://www.ieeeusa.org/calendar/default.asp), in which engineers will go to capitol hill to train those that do not understand the energy technologies. All who are interested are encouraged to participate!

- PACE Activities and lessons learned
Each section should have a membership development chair. GlobeCOM went really well in Louisiana, GOLD was strong. A section in Texas had a great turn-out for a TISP and many other events. Having an on-line payment service for events with food keeps people from not showing up when they said they would. The subject of emails sent out from the section to the members is very important, such as how to adapt your skills to support the alternative energy effort. eWeek activities go over really well. Hopefully you picked up valuable info today at the conference and I hope you continue to enjoy the conference. Thank your significant others for letting you be here is weekend. :)

- Poster Presentation by the Houston Section GOLD Chair - Kheng Swee Goh