IEEE Providence Section Business Meeting Minutes

For the Meeting Held on September 11, 2003

The meeting was called to order at 6:44 PM. The participants were Howard Michel (Chair), Bill Cashman (Treasurer), Dave Clarke (Secretary), Dave Casper, Rick Vaccaro, Ted Dawson, Stan Ehrlich, Gary Choplin, Michael Jones, Walter Wilk and Harold Belson,

1. Secretary’s Report:

Dave Clarke noted that the minutes of the August 6th business meeting had been distributed as an attachment to the email announcement for this meeting. Rick Vaccaro rnoted that under “Communications” the phrase “Seventy five replies were received” should be changed to “ Seventy five invalid addresses were reported,” H. Belson moved to accept the report with the correction, W. Cashman seconded and the motion carried.

2. Treasurer’s Report:

Wrote check to Darling’s Restaurant to pay for August Business meeting. Mailed check with cover letter to White’s of Westport to reserve room for dinner after 12/10 talk on “Intellectual Property.” Mailed check to H. Belson to reimburse expense of IEEE banner support rods. Deposited check from Region 1 to support our PACE meeting on “Intellectual Property. Updated Section budget to reflect estimated revenues from 2003 professional activities.

D. Casper moved to accept the report as read, D. Clarke seconded and the motion carried.

3. Chairman’s report (H. Michel)

Summer Board of Governors meeting

H. Michel reported the following from the Board of Governors meeting:

Regional rebate increased from $46,800 to $62,000.

Regional net worth is about $250,000.

Only 4 sections applied for awards for distinguished members or programs.

Howard Michel was elected Area A Chair.

The goals of the Region 1 director-elect are:

Area Chair to have one additional meeting per year.

Each chapter to establish Chapter Coordinator.

Initiate at least one joint venture program with companies.

Establish 2 Life Member groups per region.

Initiate at least one joint outreach program with companies.

Establish 2 Life Member groups per region.

Establish 2 GOLD affinity groups per region.

Establish 2 Women in Engineering affinity groups per region.

Establish 1 pre-college representative per section.

PACE funding is as follows: $13,259 available; $6188 allocated.

PACE requests for 2004 start on 9/1/2003 and screening starts on 2/1/2004.

The next Board of Governor’s meeting is February 7, 2004

(A/I 0321) H. Michel: write draft for "second letter"

Howard will write letter later this month and include the letter with the mailing of the ballot in late Sept. (1 page ballot and 1 page letter). Response will be by email, web or tear off and mail strip on letter

4. Programs: (M. Jones)

Aug. Brown Distinguished lecturer (H. Michel)

(A/I 0308) H. Michel: resolve Brown Dist. Lecturer (Nam Ling) talk details

Nam Ling , an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, gave a talk on MPEG 4 at

Brown on 8/17. About 15 persons attended.

The Brown student chapter is slowly being worked on.

Sept. Wireless and Steam meeting (H. Michel)

(A/I 0307) H. Michel: resolve Steam/Wireless Museum Tour details

Forty six people have signed up (21 are IEEE members) H. Belson will coordinate. The section cost per person is $8. D. Casper will obtain 7 dozen donuts.

Oct. distinguished speaker (D. Clarke)

W. Wilk moved to charge students $10 apiece for the meal, H. Michel

seconded and the motion carried.

Jan meeting

(A/I 0310) R. Vaccaro: get details for Jan. meeting

This meeting is set for 1/21/2004 at 4pm with dinner at a local restaurant.

Feb meeting

(A/I 0311) H. Michel: get details for Feb. meeting

Michel will work with R. Vaccaro on details.

Mar RI Hospital co-gen tour (M. Jones)

M. Jones is working on details.

Mar "mammalian hearing" meeting

(A/I 0312) R. Vaccaro: get details for Mar. meeting

The meeting will be at the Ramada in Seekonk. Speaker will be Dr. Kumaresam.

"future" meetings

April meeting (Ethics for the Engineer)

Location will be the Ramada in Seekonk. D. Clarke is working on details.

May meeting (Raytheon)

M. Cohen is working on details

A family meeting is planned for late spring

5. Membership: (H. Belson)

H. Belson sent 112 emails to senior and life members asking them to look

for members for upgrade to senior member.

6. Education: (H. Michel)

Status of Power and OOSW Short courses

More advertising needed such as ads in major newspapers (Providence

Journal).

"Next" course

Members should send ideas on short courses to H. Michel. A course should

be planned for Spring 2004. H. Michel expressed the following ideas about

courses: 100 - 150 hours are usually required for course preparation; 100 +

viewgraphs are usually required; speaker can get $1500 flat fee or 50/50

split on net profits; courses to be scheduled 6 months in advance; CEUs

are calculated at 0.1 credit per hour/course.

7. Cape Cod: (H. Belson)

Nov. C-Map meeting

Set for 11/12/03. See Calendar.

Nov. PAVE PAWS meeting

See Calendar. Non citizens should contact meeting planner.

8. Student activities: (D. Defanti)

Nothing to report

9. PACE: (D. Casper)

December meeting: intellectual property (D. Casper)

(A/I 0314) B. Cashman: send check ($25) to White’s Rest.

The check was sent to White’s

10. MPAC (H. Michel/T. Dawson)

(A/I 0313) D. Casper: mail request for funding for MPAC

(A/I 0315) T. Dawson: MPAC draft agenda; meeting announcement; identify speakers

(A/I 0316) H. Michel: ATMC coordination

(A/I 0322) H. Michel/T. Dawson: work on MPAC meeting report

Report to be finished by Monday, 9/15.

11. GOLD: (G. Choplin)

Progress in forming GOLD affinity group

(A/I 0317) G. Choplin: work on GOLD meeting for this month

(A/I 0318) R. Vaccaro: send GOLD members list to G. Choplin

G. Choplin to meet on Tues. 9/16 with interested GOLD members at Applebee’s in Seekonk

12. Communications (R. Vaccaro)

Nothing to report

13. Student activities

(A/I 5) Investigate plans for an event for students (D. DeFanti)

No report

14. Awards (W. Wilk)

(A/I 10, A/I 0306) Gift for Don Tufts (R. Vaccaro/W. Wilk)

(A/I 0319) R. Vaccaro: check with W. Wilk about D. Tufts gift

W. Wilk is working on details.

15. Others as required

Specialists are needed to make function room arrangements, write and run ads and handle other repetitive functions. A matrix organization is needed for committees

A URI SPAC is planned for 10/3. A nationally-known speaker will talk on

“University to Real World” A panel discussion with 4 companies represented will follow, Dinner will follow, Eighty students are expected to attend. Support of $200 is requested. This request is an approved item in the budget.

A distinguished lecturer is scheduled to give a talk on computer science at WPI. See H. Michel for details.

16. Old Business

Plan for reallocating funds (W. Cashman)

(A/I 0320) B. Cashman: send fund allocation report to D. Clarke for inclusion in minutes

W. Cashman recommended not changing the present allocation of funds.

17. Elections

(A/I 0309) R. Vaccaro: send election information to Prov. Section mailing list

R. Vaccaro is working on details.

(A/I 11 and A/I 12) IEEE VC Web Conference (D. Defanti)

No report.

18. Continue “Big” project discussion (H. Michel)

Perception of Engineering, Engineers week (W. Cashman, T. Dawson)

Recruiting students into engineering (M. Jones, N. Pendergrass, G. Choplin)

Lego Robots (H. Michel)

Classroom Acoustics (S. Ehrlich)

“big” project discussions continued to next meeting.

19. New Business

Committee structure

A banner chairman is needed to be responsible for the new Providence Section banner.

20. Summary of action items and review of meeting goals

(A/I 0323) D. Clarke: send information to D. Casper regarding Lego Robot event.

(A/I 0324) H. Michel: send information to D. Casper regarding MPAC planning meeting.

(A/I 0325) T. Dawson: finalize MPAC; send to R. Hart and H. Michel.

(A/I 0326) R. Vaccaro: send GOLD list to G. Choplin.

(A/I 0327) R. Vaccaro: send ballot out; late Sept. or early Oct.

(A/I 0328) R. Vaccaro: send email out on short courses.

(A/I 0329) D. Clarke: send information to D. Casper for April meeting PACE funding

A motion was made by H. Belson to adjourn the business meeting. The motion was seconded by D. Casper and the motion carried. The business meeting closed at 9:46 PM.

21. EXECOM meeting

Discussion and vote on reallocation of funds

W. Wilk made a motion to accept B. Cashman’s plan to keep the allocation percentages at 46% of total funds for the IEEE Investment Fund and 54% of total funds for Concentration Banking, R. Vaccaro seconded the motion and the motion carried.

Approve tellers committee

H. Belson made a motion to appoint R. Vaccaro (Chairman), D. Casper and W. Wilk to the tellers committee. H. Michel seconded and the motion carried.

22. Next Meeting Date

The next meeting (a business meeting) is scheduled for Thursday, October 16th—6:00 PM social and 6:30 PM dinner at the Ramada Inn in Seekonk, MA. The following meeting at the Ramada is scheduled for November 13th. A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by H. Belson and seconded by W. Wilk. The meeting was adjourned at 9:52 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Dave Clarke

EXECOM Secretary