Region 1 Breakout Meeting

Region 1 IEEE Meeting (6:05pm-7:35pm on 3/4/11)

Present

Ravi Todi, Mid-Hudson Section.
Charles Rubenstein, Region 1 Director (Long Island Section)
Vince Socci, Binghamton
Al Reinhart, Worcester County
Niresh Chand
Richard Tax, North Jersey
Peter Strecker, Boston Section
David Casper, Providence Section
Ali Abedi, Maine Section
Tom Gentile
Bob Pelegrino
Joe Devita, Rochester NY
Iwan Santoso, Princeton Section
Vishnu Pandey, Worcester County
Nita Patel, NH Section
Jignasa Ray
Alex Loui
Richard Gilachick

SECTIONS CONGRESS

August 19-22, 2011 in San Francisco

Nita Patel, one of the members of the Section Congress committee, gave an overview of Sections Congress. Each region is allowed to give 4 recommendations from the region and is asked to give the name of someone that will champion the cause, plus a plan for execution. The recommendations from 2008 and a report on their progress are available online and can be accessed via the IEEE webpage:

http://www.ieee.org/societies_communities/geo_activities/sections_congress/2008/recommendations.html

The following are the official survey results that have not yet been approved by the region but will be submitted once they are->

1) Better Tools and Services for unemployed members and for career growth
2) Membership Reward Program (MRP): Program allowing members to earn points for participation in IEEE activities. Members can redeem their reward points for IEEE merchandise or services.
3) Update IEEE mission to protect the rights of the engineering profession
4) More publications relevant to industry

Please email Charlie Rubenstein (c.rubenstein@ieee.org) and Nita (nita.patel@ieee.org) with the name of a local delegate if you have not done so already.


PACE

Last year we received $30,000 from IEEE and this funded 40 separate projects for different sections across the region. Our current budget for 2011 is $13,000 and right now Ravi has received ~12 projects that total about $12-$14,000. There is money in reserve and all money is first come, first serve so be sure to get your project proposal in to Ravi and Charles as soon as possible. It's very rare that a project is not funded so be sure to send in your request and they will find money somewhere. Region 1 requires 50% monetary matching for all projects so please keep that in mind when submitting your proposal. Charlie is willing to provide extra help to sections that are financially stressed so please contact him directly to discuss any funding issues that you may have (c.rubenstein@ieee.org).

Unemployed members can renew their membership at 50% off. Region 1 also has a coordinator available, Don Herres (d.herres@ieee.org), that can provide your section with workshop materials to better assist the unemployed members.

Please be sure to let Charlie know if you are having any issues getting help from the staff of IEEE or IEEE-USA. He will do his best to assist you as best he can but alternatively may be able to point you to other people that can help move your request forward.


MEMBERSHIP CONCERNS THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED

->More travel funds for regional leadership to attend the Annual Meeting
->Funding for IEEE-USA award recipients to attend the event to receive the award
->Hold committee meetings at the Annual Meeting to cut travel costs for leadership
->Have meetings over Memorial Day/Labor Day

IEEE-USA Leadership Meet and Greet

The following is a small snippet from the 5-minute introductions given by all the leaders present during the Friday night Meet and Greet->

Jim Jefferies, VP of Government Relations

You can benefit most when you are aware of the government policies in play and their effect on you. There are 100 new members of congress that we have not had any contact with and this a huge priority for our organization. The key to our success is getting the information of the legislature in play out there to everyone and then getting their feedback.

Nita Patel, VP of Communications and Public Relations

Public Awareness- We are good from top down communication but we still need to work on bottom up communication. How can we take your best practices and share them with other members of IEEE-USA?

Gary Blank, VP of Career and Member Services

There are 6 committees involved in the Career and Member Services. Every section should have an active Consultants Network for multiple reasons. Having one means more money for your section and special recognition for your section members that participate in it.

Jim Look, VP of Professional Activities

We lose 80% of our student members in the transition from student members to professional members.We need to figure how to reverse this trend. We have a great opportunity via HKN, the EE honor society, to contact and influence highly qualified engineers so we should work to make this a high priority.

Charles Rubenstein, Region 1 Director

Charles addressed the format of the Annual Meeting->You should have the board available and all of the committees in IEEE-USA available during the weekend to answer your questions. He then asked how many audience members are members of committees and, furthermore, how many are meeting here this week.

Parviz Famouri, Region 2 Director-elect

Some of the challenges facing IEEE-USA is that the US membership is in decline and the life membership has increased, which means that the incoming revenue to IEEE is going to decline even further. Our priority is to ensure that we have a healthy membership in Regions 1-6 by ensuring that our members see the value of IEEE-USA and actively want to stay involved. Studies by IEEE have shown that new members are likely to join if introduced by a colleague. ROMP (Regional Outstanding Meeting Program) was started by Region 2 to highlight the most active sections in IEEE and what they did to achieve success.

David Green, Region 3 Director

We should never downplay the influence that IEEE has on Washington and the issues at large. We are finding that some of our more seasoned members are losing faith in IEEE and the benefits of societal membership. Many of us have been told at 5pm on a Friday that our help is no longer necessary and this is a tough pill to swallow if you do not have a network to support you in your time of need. Region 3 ran a project that identified sections hit hard by layoffs and provided online help to the people affected. IEEE is a network and if all of us work together then we have the ability to help each other and provide help in our times of need.

Jim Reiss, Region 4 Director

Finding and inspiring volunteers is a huge task for IEEE. Region 4 has an issue that it does not inspire it's members when it send outs communications, which is part of a large IEEE/IEEE-USA problem. A telephone call is better than nothing but never underestimate the power of a face-to-face meeting.

Candy Robinson, Region 5 Director

The biggest issue facing our members is that IEEE has lost its relevance (Sections Congress 2008). If we keep doing things the way that we have always done then we're never going to get there. The new ideas come from the sections and it's integral that the leadership start listening to the people on the ground if they want to be relevant to the members. We are doing some wonderful things but we need to start communicating the new tools at our disposal if we want to be relevant.

Ed Perkins, Region 6 Director

We need to figure out how to meet member needs. How can we better dessiminate information about opportunities from the leadership to the membership? Someone once described IEEE as a collection of social networks but we still choose to think of ourselves as a collection of technical networks so we're not figuring out how to engage each other more actively. We need to somehow get this message out that we are actively listening to the members and that we are able to provide them with ample value for their membership.