Atlanta Section Report


The Atlanta Section is a vibrant and growing section, with over 4,300 members, including over 600 student members. The section has 12 active Chapters (with the Chair listed in parentheses), including ASSP/COM (Randy Young), IAS (Scott Cockerham), AESS/GRSS (Marvin Cohen), APS/MTTS (Joy Laskar), CPMT (Madhavan Swaminathan), EMC/IM (Bruce Crain), LEOS/EDS (April Brown), PELS (Greg Skofronik), PES (Mike Bartlett), VTS (Jim Worsham), EMS (Len Eaton), COMP (Scott Wills). Meeting details are published on our Web site, at https://ieeeatlanta.org. We have four Student Chapters, at Chattahoochee Tech, DeVry, Georgia Tech, and Clark Atlanta.

The Atlanta Section has four Officers, six Directors, and 3 Special Committees. The Section Officers are Nan Marie Jokerst (Chair), Jack Terry (Vice Chair), Alex Best (Secretary), and Mike Rodriguez (Treasurer). The Past Chair is Dave Kettler. Our Directors are Richard M. Bass (Chapters, I), Susan Dugas (Students, Education, STAR), Mike Frame (Membership and Outreach), Jeffrey R. Kuester (Communications and the Circuit), and Frank Lambert (GOLD and Networking). Our Special Committee Chairs are Vernon Powers (PACE), David Lips (Awards), and Bill Harrison (Membership).

The Atlanta IEEE Circuit, published monthly (with the exception of summer) both in hardcopy (mailed to members) and on the website, is used to communicate with our members. Articles include Chair Notes, which examines local and national IEEE events of import to Atlanta IEEE Members, Chapter Highlights, which introduces, once per year per Chapter, a photograph of the Chapter Chair with the year’s highlights, and IEEE National News, and Meeting Announcements. Contact information for each of the Officers, Directors, and Chairs is listed in the Circuit. The Atlanta Section has numerous Chapter Meetings each year, and meeting information is updated frequently on our website. Of particular note is the vitality of the Distinguished Lecture Series, which is in it’s third year in the Atlanta IEEE. Chapters are encouraged to host a well known lecturer with a broad appeal to IEEE members outside of any particular Chapter.

This year, the Atlanta Section will host three meetings for the general membership, including the Annual Section Banquet, which was held this year on February 12, 1998. The after dinner banquet speaker was Dr. Jag Sheth, Professor of Marketing at Goizueta Business School at Emory University, who is internationally known for his scholarly contributions in Marketing and Global Competition in the evolving telecommunications environment. His entertaining and enlightening perspective on the shifting boundaries between communications, computing, entertainment, and globalization was intriguing, and refreshing. As one member of the audience commented during the lively Q&A session after the talk, engineers loves a Marketing professional who will prognosticate with solid projections!

This year, the Atlanta Section will host two additional meetings to better serve our current members and to attract new members. The Atlanta technical community has experienced a high rate of growth in the past five to ten years, and we are interested in highlighting the Atlanta IEEE in the Atlanta area. These events will take place in the Fall of 1998, and are currently in the planning stages. The first event will focus upon a Section sponsored Luminary Lecture of broad appeal, with extensive external publicity (which is often difficult for individual chapters to realize). The second event will focus upon a mixed facilities tour and presentation at a local company.

Respectfully Submitted,

Dr. Nan Marie Jokerst
Chair, 1998
IEEE Atlanta Section