From:	Bussert, James 
Sent:	Wednesday, March 17, 1999 3:23 PM
To:	Region 3
Cc:	Bussert, James
Subject:	Richmond Section Report to R3

To Region 3 Southeastcon:
	The current board of officers were elected in May 1998. The
officers are: Chair, Jim Bussert; Vice Chair, Mark Gill; Treasurer
Bernie Matta; and Secretary Dr Greg Tait. In May 1999 we will all move
up one slot and the new secretary will be Dr Joseph Roehl. Our section
supplied the new VA Council treasurer effective March (Bernie Matta)
and the 1998 VA Council Chair (Val Bodin).

	A major change for our section was replacing the monthly mailing
of hard copy Section Bulletins in September 1998. Our section web page
was updated monthly with meeting information and chairman's message.
We also send out an email to each member that we have an email address
for.

	 A good result was that we finally quit losing money in our
annual treasure report.  This enabled us to send a $300 check to our
student chapter at VCU (now juniors) which we could not afford the
previous year.  The bad news is that hundreds of our members do not
receive the monthly news of meetings and sparkling chair messages. Of
814 members, we have email addresses for 465.  We have evidence that
our listing of phone numbers and email is probably 30 % in error.
There are three members who are active in attending meetings that have
no computers, and I mail them meeting information monthly from my
home.

	We have held meetings that are sometime tours like VCU
Microelectronic lab and Jefferson lab (we had to cancel Goochland
Motorola plant visit), but usually talks, such as power deregulation,
electronic component packaging, professionalism for engineers, high
speed trains, navy combat system trends, or finances. Our joint
meetings with other sections, societies or groups were successful and
two of three increased attendance levels.

	Our section is deeply committed to the merit badge project for
the 2001 Jamboree to be held in our section turf at Fort A P Hill.  We
have provided seed money and Ralph Russell (nominated as ad hoc chair)
is the driving force, who recently obtained large funds from IEEE.

	I have worked hard to implement the VA House District Liason
program in the section and we sent funds to support Sam Harris'
database efforts. I made up a matrix of cities and counties in the
Richmond section and put requests for volunteers on the web and the
personal e-mail. We have only 7 of 22 House Districts with liason
names. There is an issue of whether we should have a few people who
are involved and knowledgable on legislation and IEEE issues to cover
our 22 districts, or just having "names" of IEEE residents for most
districts.

	VCU EE students are now at the Junior level and they have a very
active student chapter. We will be able to participate in GOLD in two
years.

	Minor achievements are locating the section flag (missing for 3
years) and fairly recent section By-Laws. 

	Overall a successful year but I want to summarize some Richmond
Section issues that could affect the VA Council or Region 3:
1. Inaccuracies of member data on IEEE records.
2. Hard copy versus electronic monthly Bulletins.
3. Best strategy for legislative liason volunteers (quality or
quantity?)

	Respectfully,	Jim Bussert, Richmond Section Chair