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The Road Ahead - 2003

Jim Howard – Region 3 Director

This  year, I will continue to represent you on all the standing committees and Boards, as well as others as requested, and will begin with my term as Chair of the IEEE Audit Committee.   The information shared in RAB Strategic Planning Committee Retreat is being used to develop the RAB Strategic Plan for 2003-2004, which will be integrated with the direction established in the IEEE Strategic Planning Retreat. On these Boards and Committees, we are continually making decisions that affect the Institute, its Regions, Sections, Chapters and Student Branches.  Many of these decisions are neither simple nor easy, and require a tremendous amount of discussion as well as a willingness to see others opinions and points of view.

At the beginning of my term, I asked that each Committee Chair put together a list of Goals for their committees.   It was important to me to have an understanding of what each of the committees felt were their major concerns that they wanted to work on for the upcoming year.   During the year, we have requested each of the Committee Chairs to report on their progress on these goals, and we are again asking for updates for this Region 3 Executive Committee meeting.   One of the goals I recommended for each committee was to have at least one E-Conference for the committee.  This was suggested in order to encourage more communications within the committees. 

Some of the key issues that the Region has been working on include:

Although, the road we have traveled has yielded progress in many areas, as I hope you will agree, the challenges we face are unfolding in an ever uncertain world. Region 3 has been noted for ”thinking outside of the box” and I believe that we will find the answers to questions that have not been previously asked. You have an opportunity to share in the challenges that will be presented in the “road ahead” first by supporting and encouraging the Section Chairs to attend the annual meeting of the Region 3 Committee in conjunction with SoutheastCon and second by actively participating as a member and volunteer at all levels in IEEE.

We will see the future together… this is a certainty… what improvements we make will depend on the degree of our combined commitment to our profession and to each other.

I look forward to seeing as many members as possible in 2003 and especially at SoutheastCon in Jamaica.