IEEE Syracuse Section Executive Committee (ExComm)
Thursday, March 1, 2007
meeting held at C&S Engineers
12:00pm
Meeting Minutes

Attendees: Mike Hayes, Prasanta Ghosh, George Kirkpatrick, Scott Stumpf

1. Chapter Reports. George Kirkpatrick state that about 15 people attended the February Life Member meeting: Digital Broadcasting -- AM & FM Radio, TV (HDTV), & Amateur Radio; Speaker: Steve Auyer. The presentation was very good. There were no other chapter reports.

2. IEEE ExComm meeting day & location. There was a discussion about the best day of the week to have ExComm meetings and where they should be help. The “votes” from the survey Mike Hayes sent out are attached. Friday was the best day by a small margin. C&S Engineers is an acceptable location. There is a desire for holding ExComm meetings in or near Syracuse University, but logistics are an issue. We decided to keep ExComm meetings on the first Friday of the month at C&S Engineers for now.

3. Treasurer’s Report. The treasurer’s report is attached. The Section has about $29,000 including the investment fund.
The Section received reimbursement for the $7500 in seed money for the Radar Conference that we provided thanks to Bill Maxwell’s efforts. We should be getting our share of the conference surplus “soon” since it has been disbursed to AES. Scott Stumpf said our share could be up to $25,000.
Mike Hayes suggested keep one year’s expenditures in our concentration banking account ($7500 to $9000 at current rates of spending). The remainder would be in the IEEE investment account, which offers the potential of higher returns, but at increased risk. The concentration bank account is now paying about 5% interest. There was general agreement, but no decision has been made yet.

4. Support for pre-college education. Marian Chaffe and several other students met with Lincoln Middle School Teacher Gwendolyn Maturo to start the Lego Mindstorm project at Lincoln Middle School. The software has been installed on some the school’s computers. The project will start after the SU Spring Break. {Mike Hayes comment: I think this is a great project that I hope we can expand to at least one other school (possibly Shea) next year if we can get enough volunteers. I want to thank Marian Chaffe, Scott Stumpf, and Gwendolyn Maturo for making this happen.}.
We decided to support the Greater Syracuse Scholastic Science Fair again this year. We expect to get PACE support for the Lego Mindstorm project, which will free up money for the Science Fair. We are also supporting the Lincoln Middle School Science Fair.

5. April 2007 Fellows Night Speaker. We decided to invite Mr. Dick Piwko from GE in Schenectady to speak about wind power at out Fellows’ Night meeting in April. A date will be chosen shortly. George Kirkpatrick will check on the speaker’s availability. Thursday, April 19, 2007 is the target date. The meeting will be at the SU Sheraton to facilitate attendance by students.

6. Newsletter. We had a discussion about the newsletter. There is no clear consensus on what the IEEE position should be. The TACNY Communications Committee is considering major changes in format, frequency, and distribution (email vs. hard copy). The financial impacts of any decision have to be considered. Mary Reidy and Mike Hayes are both on the committee, so IEEE does have a voice. In addition Mike Hayes is on the TACNY Finance Committee.
We agreed to send TACNY $3000 to cover our share of the cost through December 2006. IEEE did not pay anything in 2006. TACNY is picking most of the cost, which varies between about 90¢ and $1.00 per person. IEEE would be paying about $600 a month if we paid the full per copy cost for our share of the distribution.
We decided to have a special ExComm meeting in March just to discuss the newsletter. Mike Hayes will suggest some dates to determine what’s best for the largest number of people. The meeting will be held at SU. {I am available for lunch meetings on 3/9, 3/15, 3/20, 3/21, 3/27, 3/28, 3/29, and possible on 3/12 & 3/26 – Mike Hayes. I suggest Friday, 3/9/07 at SU if that works for most people.}

7. Consider forming new GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) and WIE (Women In Engineering) affinity groups. The meeting ended before we discussed this in detail. However, this is interest on the ExComm in forming GOLD and WIE affinity groups in the Syracuse Section. There is an upcoming joint GOLD and WIE conference. We agreed to pay the expenses for at least one person to attend and thought Marian Chaffe would be a good choice if she’s willing to go. {I just received updated info today on this conference, which will be emailed to ExComm members. Mike Hayes}

8. Mike Hayes passed out a copy of Mary Reidy’s IEEE Region 1 Educational Activities Report, which was presented at the 2/3/07 R1 meeting.

9. Mike Hayes will be presenting an IEEE/NSPE Short Course about electrical power system engineering for non-electrical engineers. Mike Hayes asked IEEE to support this in return for reduced rates for IEEE members. NSPE would get the financial surplus, if any, in return for arranging for PDHs and due to the PE chapter’s relatively weak financial position.

10. New Business.
Scott Stumpf mentioned a simpler domain name for the section: www.ieee.org/syracuse. This domain name with a redirect is available with redirect service to our actual web site for $30 per year when a multi-year contract is signed. Scott will get more details.
There was a suggestion to pay IEEE student member dues in some cases. I didn’t take good notes on this topic, so I forgot some of the details of the discussion. We wouldn’t pay them for everyone, but would for students with, for example, a 3.9 or better grade point average or those who agreed to be student branch officers in the future.

Next full ExComm meeting: Friday, April 6, 2007 at noon at C&S Engineers
Tentative dates for following meetings: 4/27/07 (Mike Hayes is out of town on 5/4/07), 8/3/07, 9/7/07, 10/5/07, 11/9/07 (Mike Hayes is out of town on 11/2/07), and 1/4/08. All are on the first Friday of the month except as noted. We can discuss changing the days at future meetings.

Please let Mike Hayes know if any corrections or additions to these minutes are required.