The follow
report is from Sam Terry, Vice Chair of the Houston Section who
attended the Sections Congress on behalf of the Houston Section.
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I made
the trip to Quebec City for my first Sections Congress in
late September, just after a little wind/ slash rain event
was over here in Houston. I wasn't sure that I would be able
to go what with dealing with the aftermath of Ike. But
fortunately we got power back just before I was scheduled to
leave so I took off.
What a
trip! For those that do not know, the Section Congress meets
every 3 years to discuss the direction of IEEE, select major
issues that need to be worked on and train officers. It is
basically a 3 and a half day experience that starts first
thing on a Friday morning and finishes up Monday
morning. The training consists of many 1.5 hour seminars in
your choice of 3 areas- Section/ Chapter Activities (13
topics), Membership (8 topics) and Administration (12
topics). Each topic usually had at least 2 subtopics with
several having 4! Copies of all the presentations are
available at http://www.ieee.org/web/volunteers/sections-congress/2008/index.html. There
are some great ideas in there for your Chapters...
Another
major purpose of the meeting was to determine
recommendations for the council to work on to improve IEEE.
These final 10 were distilled down from the lists provided
by regions from all over the world. Quite a process!!!! The
table below illustrates the final 10, in order of priority,
as voted on by the primary delegates. Again you can go to
the web site for further details.
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Ranking
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Group
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Recommendation
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1
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Member Benefits |
Every member to have an annual entitlement to a
limited number of free IEEE Xplore downloads.
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2
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Business/Financial Operations |
Payment Flexibility
Members, especially students and those in developing
countries who do not have credit cards, need
flexible payment methods
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regardless of location and
banking methods
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supporting aggregated payments in
local currency.
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minimizing transaction costs and
processing overheads.
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3
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Member Growth & Development |
Provide "Leadership Training Handbook (Text and
Multimedia) for Section Officers” to include:
Volunteer Recruitment, Roles & Responsibilities of
Section Chair and Section Committee, Presiding at
Meetings, Documentation - Websites & Forms, Time
Table for Elections & other formal IEEE Required
Activities, and Transfer of Responsibilities to
incoming officers. |
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4
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IT
Operations |
The MGA Board to assign staff to develop, a
user-friendly system and support to enable Sections,
Chapters and Affinity Groups to deliver, at low
cost, teleconferencing, collaborative technologies,
and webinars as a free member benefit.
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5
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Member Growth & Development |
For digital libraries: develop additional, smaller
tiered packages (10, 20 items, etc.) which allow
members to purchase defined quantities of digital
content without expiration. Provide members
permanent electronic access to previously purchased
content. |
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6
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Operations |
Improve the implementation of recommendations
identified at Sections Congress. |
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7
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Member Benefits |
There are a good number of IEEE member benefits that
are relevant or accessible to Regions 1 - 6 members
only. IEEE should implement similar benefits of
local relevance across all Regions.
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8
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Business/Financial Operations |
Sections and chapters need a web-based payment
solution for small local events that is:
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Low cost
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Secure and immediate
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Capable of depositing into a
concentration banking account or international
equivalent with event and payer identification
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9
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IT
Operations |
Provide support and tools for the creation and
maintenance of easy to update Section web sites with
“single sign-on” authentication via IEEE web
accounts featuring at least blogs, meeting calendars
and member surveys. Use commonly available, best
practice technologies not requiring programmer
support for day to day use. |
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10
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Membership |
Implement Sustained Membership options for all
membership grades exclusive of student grade:
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Single dues payment for multiple
years/life-long membership;
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Increasing benefits in proportion
to the length of renewal.
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Lowers IEEE administrative
expenses related to “annual” membership cycles.
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If
all this sounds like a lot of work, it was. But it wasn't
all work and no play. We were given a few free time periods
to check out the beautiful city and we also had a number of
wonderful evening events. There were ceremonies honoring
outstanding IEEE individuals, past IEEE presidents' panels,
a presentation by Mr.. Gordon E. Moore (co-founder and
Chairman of the Board, Emeritus, of Intel Corporation) and
several others. And what was particularly entertaining was
all the other IEEE members! I got to speak with my
counterparts from literally all over the world. Everyone was
so friendly and helpful. Common problems were shared and
everyone seems to have a good time!
I had a
good time and learned a lot. If you ever get the chance to
go, don't turn it down!!
Sam
Terry
Vice Chair- Houston Section, Region 5
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