Welcome & IEEE Candidates Forum

IEEE-USA President Evelyn Hirt kicked off the IEEE-USA Annual Meeting this evening. With more than 200 attendees -- and 75 first-timers -- this year's IEEE-USA Annual Meeting is sure to be exciting!

During her opening remarks, Evelyn said that by the end of the weekend, all meeting attendees should understand who IEEE-USA is, understand what IEEE-USA does, take this knowledge and bring it back to their organizational units and share it with other members.

Then Evelyn led a Q&A session with the two candidates running for IEEE President-Elect, Gordon Day and Joe Lillie.

Below are excerpts from their responses to a few questions posed by meeting attendees.

What do you see as the greatest weakness of IEEE and how would you improve it?

Lillie: Everyday everyone touches something that IEEE had a part in making. We as an organization need to get the credit for what we have done. That’s not necessarily financial credit, but recognition for the profession. We have a public visibility committee that’s making progress in Regions 7-10 now and we’re using the members in those areas to be spokespersons for IEEE.

Day: As volunteers, we focus our energies looking inward toward the detailed workings of the organization rather than looking outward toward what we can accomplish, to the people we can serve and to the public we can influence. We need to focus on the notion that engineers change the world.

What is the single most important issue facing IEEE today?

Lillie: I think it’s a fundamental strategic strategy around the world. I think that’s where we have a big gap. We have a lot of success, we can wave the flag and say we’re successful. What we are doing with publications and conferences is at risk if we don’t take better care of the membership around the world.

Day: We have four sets of stakeholders -- members, volunteers, customers for products and the general public. I think the main challenge is to serve all of those stakeholders as well as we can in a way that addresses the changing needs and the rapid advance of technology.

What do you see as IEEE-USA’s role in professional activities for IEEE?

Lillie: Gordon and I worked together to see if we could expand areas outside the U.S. to get access to professional activities. I think we owe these members access to professional development, but there are cultural, language and financial barriers and we just can’t give our products away.

Day: I agree with Joe. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from that program between IEEE-USA and MGA was the importance of tailoring professional activities to the local region.

How will you improve IEEE’s relevance to the profession and industry?

Day: A lot of what we have to do is reaching out and telling the story of what technologists do. That’s the profession part and the public part is telling that story of how we do create a world that’s never been before. I’ve always gotten more out of my volunteering than I gave to it and I’m always trying to tell that story to my employer and other volunteers.

Lillie: I think industry takes us for granted and we let them do it. You look at standards, what we have done on creating new technologies and industry takes those and runs and makes a profit. We need to justify to industry that they are what they are because of what IEEE has done, but it's a two-way street.

What would you do to promote opportunities for young professionals?

Lillie: IEEE is not going to create jobs, but IEEE can influence public policy that creates jobs. I think that’s a role IEEE can play outside of Regions 1-6. If we can influence public policy on a broader scale than we’re doing it now, then I think everyone benefits.

Day: I’ve had a mantra in talking to the press -- engineers create jobs. That’s something we need to get more widely understood. Engineers have ideas and are ready to use them to build companies and we need to make sure that we provide that infrastructure.

While trying to expand engineering fields and support members, what suggestions do you have for getting our members more involved?

Day: I think everyone in this room understands what they get out of IEEE volunteer work and IEEE membership. It’s not the same for everyone. We need to get that message out, promoted, articulated and marketed.

Lillie: I think one of the keys is membership engagement at the local level. The challenge for all of us is to work together to create programs that attract members. The presenters and audience members at meetings all benefit. Joining together at the chapter and section level to share knowledge is where we can make a difference.

To read more about the candidates, please visit www.gwday.net (Gordon Day) and www.ieee.joelillie.com (Joe Lillie). And please vote during the election!