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Chairman : National Engineers Week : Next
Meeting : BMW TOUR: Editor:
Officers
Mark Stokes
A few months ago I had the opportunity to attend a Sections Congress. While there I learned many things about what the IEEE has to offer. One of the things that caught my attention was senior membership. I did a little looking into this topic and have found some suprising information. First, let me tell you a little about what senior membership is.
When I started looking into Senior membership, I had a tough time actually figuring out what the advantages were. The membership dues are the same, the periodicals rates are the same, I was beginning to get discouraged. Then I realized one small, but important, point. Senior membership is to non-academes as tenure is to academics. This may sound like a small thing to you, but I have for many years heard about this or that professor "getting tenure". I had heard of the rigors of the research or other hard work that had gone into "achieving tenure" and was a bit jealous. Jealous because tenure was something I could never achieve as long as I was not at a university. Senior membership for IEEE members fills this gap.
February 20 to 26, 2000
Nick Pasquerilla
THIS WEEK!!
National Engineers week is February 20 to 26, 2000. As in the past, the Piedmont section will be doing visits to local Middle and High schools to give a presentation on Engineering to students. We do this in conjunction with the local Chapter of the Professional Engineers (NSPE). The visits are usually about 45 minutes and we have some prepared material to assist. If any member is interested in helping with this, or requires more info, please contact Nick Pasquerilla at 864-882-2414 x271 or n.pasquerilla@ieee.org.
February 24, 2000
Joint Section/PCS Capter meeting
Mark Stokes
Two years ago Bernadette Longo, a professor at Clemson University, decided to start a Professional Communications Society within our section. The Professional Communications Society covers topics around communications in the workplace. After a year of trying, we have finally scheduled a meeting with the PCS Chapter. Bernadette has coordinated the speakers and the topic: "Secrets to Writing a Winning Research Proposal". Since this meeting is a joint meeting between the university and the section, I asked Bernadette and the speakers to gear the talk more towards writing proposals in general. As engineers, we have to write proposals for many things that the people who are reading them don’t understand. Hopefully, this presentation will help all of us communicate our ideas more effectively with our bosses and managers (or major professors).
Meeting details:
Date: Thursday, February 24
Location: Clemson University, EIB Building
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Mark Stokes
Finally, after two years, we have been invited to tour the new BMW plant in Greenville. Tour details:
BMW Manufacturing Tour
March 31, 2000 (Friday)
Arrive at the Zentrum no later than 1:15 PM
Purchase ticket for $5.00
Tour starts at 2:00
Tour ends at 4:00
Wear good walking shoes
We have 42 places in the tour. Spaces are first come first served. I will be maintaining a list of current attendees. Please let me know if you will be attending the tour and I will add you name to the list. I prefer you leave me an email message. I will reply with confirmation and send a general reminder next month.
Armed with this new found interest in becoming a Senior member, I decided to find out just what I had to do to become one. At first, I thought being a senior member must be a difficult status to achieve. I mean, it took ten(ure) years for the college professors to achieve. After some more looking, I found the requirements rather easy, even at 28 years old. The basic requirements are:
I looked at this and realized that I actually can make Senior membership status.
When I first looked into it, I thought Senior members had to be in academics, older (or meant I was), or a rocket scientist. After reading the requirements, I realized I was easily in the running. There is a bonus for college degree (in my case I get 3 years for my bachelor’s degree).
After looking a little farther, I found some statistics:
Year |
Total |
Senior |
|
1963 |
125,831 |
26,274 |
22% |
1978 |
161,731 |
21,256 |
13% |
1988 |
251,670 |
23,848 |
9% |
1998 |
285,416 |
25,439 |
8% |
1999* |
283,254 |
25,550 |
9% |
*31 August 1999
Wow, I thought, that looks bad… the number of Senior members had dropped… I wonder if that’s because it has gotten more difficult to achieve. So I looked further and found the December 1999 senior membership report:
"1,470 Senior Member elevation applications were considered in 1999 and 1,425 (97%) were approved"
After reading this, I was convinced to try it. Over the coming months, I will be submitting my application for Senior membership. I encourage each of you to also apply for Senior membership and get the prestige of being a Senior IEEE member. I have made a list of our section’s Senior members and have it available for any current IEEE member that wished to apply for Senior membership. Just contact me (preferably by email). The senior membership application form can be found on the IEEE’s Membership Development web page: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/rab/md/ . You can also read past Senior membership update reports.
One last thing I will add, is there a good reason for our section’s members to go to Senior status. The section will receive $10 per senior status upgrade that has been referred to the IEEE by the section. There is a field on the application form for this.
Statistics borrowed from: Applying for IEEE Senior Member & Nominating for Senior Membership John Kaczorowski, Former Region 1 Director, A&A Chair, SAC Chair, Section Chair, Student Branch Counselor and SENIOR MEMBER & William C Hunter, IEEE Membership Development Staff (URL: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/rab/sc/1999/Presentations-html/Blue_Track/kaczorowski/ )
Dinner will be served in classic college style with multiple varieties of pizzas. Dinner cost is $5 for members and guests, N/C for students. The meeting will be held on the campus of Clemson University in the new EIB building. The building is to the back and right of the ECE department building.
Directions from Anderson or Greenville: turn left on Hy 93 (either from Hy 123 or Hy 76). Come to the second light (from Hy 76) and make a left. Proceed straight through the stop sign and follow the road around a slight left curve. Straight through another stop sign and the ECE building is straight ahead. After making a sharp right turn, take the next left. Down to the next road, the EIB building is across the street and to the right. It is marked the "Flour Daniel Building". Parking passes will be provided inside the meeting room #132. Make sure you park in a valid non-service parking spot.
Directions from Seneca: Exit on Hy 76 from Hy 123 and then right onto Hy 93. Follow the above directions from there.
Mark Stokes
Getting the Newsletter too late to make the meeting? Have an email address? Send it to me. I am usually done with the newsletter more than a week in advance of the meeting, however, because of printing times, USPS, etc., it doesn’t arrive until just before the meeting. I do send the newsletter via email right after I write it! I can email it to you as soon as it’s done! The newsletter will come in plain text. It is also available online at the web page listed above.
Use this space to reach over 450 IEEE members in the Piedmont section.
The Piedmont Potential is offering space for sale. Please contact Mark Stokes.
CHAIRMAN Mark Stokes (864) 647-2065 m.stokes@ieee.org
VICE-CHAIRMAN
SECRETARY/TREASURER Nick Pasquerilla (864) 882-2414 ext.271 n.pasquerilla@ieee.org
MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Allen Thomas (864) 228-4322 a.thomas@ieee.org
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES Nick Pasquerilla (864) 882-2414 ext.271 n.pasquerilla@ieee.org
STUDENT ACTIVITIES Dr. John Komo (864) 656-5916 john.komo@ces.clemson.edu
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES Lee Stogner (864) 281-8276 l.stogner@ieee.org
NEWSLETTER EDITOR Mark Stokes (864) 647-2065 m.stokes@ieee.org
AWARDS Dr. Randy Collins (864)656-5920 randy.collins@ces.clemson.edu
The Piedmont section of the IEEE is still offering sections of its newsletter for advertising space. If you are interested in supporting this effort, please contact one of the officers listed above.
-Mark