Region 3 Newsletter Volume 15 Number 4

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November 2000

YEAR 2000 IN REVIEW

First ExCom e-conf

Year 2000 has been a very good year for Region 3. On January 29, 2000, the Region 3's Executive Committee (ExCom) started the year with the first region-wide electronic conference (e-conf). For the 31 members who participated in this meeting from their comfortable homes and offices this was an exciting experience and they were thankful that they did not have to fight the winter storm that had blanketed most of our southeastern states. I think that this one event proved to all the value of our e-conf methods and techniques. We urged the ExCom members to use e-conf in conducting as much of their activities as possible particularly in preparation for our upcoming SoutheastCon 2000.

Pre-SoutheastCon 2000 ExCom e-conf

Realizing that time and space would be limited at SoutheastCon 2000 due to a full agenda that included several training workshops, we held our ExCom Caucus Saturday night April 1 at 9:00 - 11:00 PM via e-conference. About two thirds of the ExCom was present and on-line. All ExCom members had been asked to e-mail their reports to the ExCom and the Region 3 Secretary who placed them on the web. Although I consider our meeting a success it became obvious that some of our members had not done their home-work in reviewing the agenda items and reading the published reports.

SoutheastCon 2000 highlights

SoutheastCon 2000 was held on April 7-9 in Nashville, TN and was attended by several hundred professionals and students from the area served by IEEE's Region 3. George Cook and the SEC 2000 conference committee did an outstanding job in providing another successful regional conference. An excellent technical program was provided for our students and professionals that included tutorials, student and faculty presentations, student job fair, hardware competition, software competition, paper competition, and T-shirt competition. Highlights of our Region 3 Committee meetings included training workshops on Professional Development Activities (PACE) and E-Conferencing (both synchronous - using the Internet Relay Chat tools and techniques, and asynchronous conferencing via e-mail, web pages and newsgroups. I commend Charles Lord and the e-conf team for providing outstanding workshops on electronic conferencing.

• We held our first Society Presidents Reception at SoutheastCon 2000. All five Society Presidents who live in Region 3 were invited. The purpose of this event was to meet with the Region 3 leadership to discuss how our Region can help the Societies and conversely how the Societies can help our Region. We are considering holding a similar event at SouteastCon 2001.

• Highlights of the Region 3 Meeting held on Sunday, April 9 at 8:00 AM - Noon included presentations by Ken Laker 1999 IEEE President, Robert (Bob) Noberini, IEEE-USA Member-at-Large, Sean Lockhead, EMS Board of Governors, Pete Morley, TAB Representative to RAB, and Sean Haynes, Region 3 GOLD representative. Ken Laker and Bob Noberini were made honorary members of Region 3 and were awarded a moon pie in recognition of this honor.

• The Awards Luncheon was held Sunday April 9 at Noon - 1:30 PM. Director Riddle dedicated the ceremony to Valdemar "Val" Bodin who died on March 13, 2000. Val was a valued member of Region 3 and had served in leadership positions at the Section, Council, Region and IEEE-USA level. A Dedication Certificate was signed by his friends present and mailed to his family after the conference ended. SoutheastCon 2000 concluded following the Awards Ceremony.

Concentration Banking action plan

After the IEEE Board of Directors mandated the use of concentration bank accounts as the only bank accounts for all US-based geographic units and conferences, we recognized that this action would be met with strong objections and rebellion by many of the units within Region 3. Forcing change in a top down hierarchical fashion may be appropriate in a command and control environment such as some military, educational and industrial organizations, but a member driven organization requires commitment more than simply compliance. In an effort to ease the transition of our 60 Region 3 units to Concentration Banking, we developed a plan of action. We in Region 3 have concentrated much of our effort to reform how we do work as volunteers and increase the involvement of the membership. In the past we have used e-conf to successfully accomplish greater interaction by our volunteer leadership, so we again applied this technique to maximize the number of volunteers that could participate in our on-line phase of this plan. In addition, we established a News Group to document the issues, problems, solutions, and recommendations in non-real-time environment. Our concentration banking action plan resulted in a memorandum to the IEEE Board of Directors summarizing our findings and recommending that in addition to concentration banking account units must be allowed the option of establishing limited local banking accounts. At this time, no action has been taken but will be a topic of discussion and action at the upcoming Board meetings in November and December.

First Region 3 electronic newsletter

A little more history was made during the year 2000. Thanks to Chip Dawson, we developed our first Region 3 e-Newsletter. It was linked to our Region 3 webpage and a notice was sent to all Region 3 volunteer leaders that have current e-mail addresses in the Region 3 Organization Roster inviting them review our e-newsletter. Based on the many comments that we received this was a successful attempt to improve our communications with our volunteer leaders. Chip has also made some much-needed improvements to our Region 3 webpage. Please check it out and let us know how we can continue to improve our communications with the membership.

Fall Region 3 ExCom meeting at Myrtle Beach

The Region 3 Executive Committee held the last face-to-face meeting of Year 2000 on October 20-22 in Myrtle Beach, SC. Please refer to the article by Marvin Neidtz for the details of this meeting. However, based on the many comments we received I feel that we accomplished the regions business and still had time to relax and have some fun. I would like to congratulate Don Hill and Bill Harrison on being nominated as candidates for Director-Elect 2002-3. One of these outstanding individuals will be elected in 2001to serve as Director-Elect 2002-3 and will assume the duties as Delegate/Director 2004-5.

November IEEE Organizational Units Series in Tampa

Unfortunately my IEEE duties did not end with our ExCom meeting in Myrtle Beach. The IEEE Organizational Units Series will be held November 15-18 in Tampa, FL (Still a part of Region 3 in spite of the outcome of the US Presidential Election). In addition to an overwhelming number Board meetings and agenda items that will influence the future of IEEE we will elect several 2001RAB and IEEE-USA officers. Several members of Region 3 have been nominated for these offices. They are:

Regional Activities Board

Treasurer -Charles Hickman

Vice Chair - Region, Section & Chapter Activities - Jim Beall

Vice Chair - Student Activities - Pat Donohoe

IEEE-USA

Vice President - Professional Activities - Lee Stogner

Secretary/Treasurer - Dale Caston

Nominees from other regions are opposing all of our Region 3 candidates. Please join me in congratulating our candidates on being nominated and wishing them luck in the election.

December IEEE BoD Meeting

No rest for the weary. I will be attending the IEEE Board of Directors meeting from November 30 - December 4 in Puerto Rico. No this is not a vacation trip. Contrary to what one would think, about all that I will see of Puerto Rico will be the two hour trip from and to the airport and the meeting resort. The purpose of splitting the IEEE BoD meeting from the IEEE Organizational Units Series was to allow the Board members to have more time to debate and understand the consequences of their actions prior to taking that action. From looking at the meeting schedule, agenda items and the pounds of paper to review and digest, I am sorry that I do not see this taking place. I will try, however, to keep an open mind and positive attitude.

I wish all a bountiful Thanksgiving and a joyful Holiday Season.

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