Notes from the Region 3 Caucus December 4 & 5, 1999 Dale Caston convened the Region 3 Caucus at 7:40 pm. As part of his report, Director Caston reported on actions of the IEEE Regional Activities, IEEE-USA and the IEEE Boards. Included in this report was * Increase in Section rebates * The assignment of Section Congress Recommendations * Status of RAB Funding of the Corporate Relations Project Phase II * RAB is discussing requiring the submission of Region Budgets to RAB Finance Committee * The New Financial Model was not approved * Dave Conner was re-elected as IEEE Treasurer and Dale Caston will be IEEE-USA Treasurer. * The present approved branding approach was discussed and displayed Director-elect Riddle referred members to his report. Secretary Green referred members to his report. Treasurer Hickman passed out expense reports and requested the prompt submission of reports. He then went through the 1999 Region 3 Budget that shows $147,146 in income and $108,595 in expense. Income exceeded the original budget and the expenses were underneath budget. He expected the year-end report will show a non-deficit result substantially under budget. He reviewed the status of Section Congress expenses and urged everyone to insure that the outstanding expenses be promptly submitted. Charles Hickman reported that he and Reed Thompson had reviewed the new L50 report and provided IEEE feedback on it. Dick Riddle suggested that an Excel spreadsheet is now available based on this feedback. Past Director Jim Beall had nothing additional to report. Awards & Recognition Committee Chair John Twitchell reported that his committee met this afternoon and noted that response to the call for award nominees was promising but not at the levels they would like to see. He discussed the concerns/plans of the committee regarding the use of E-Conf and the EXCOM voting procedure. The committee is developing a proposal for the EXCOM to select an Outstanding Section. They expect to have a proposal in April for consideration of the EXCOM. They are also working on a revision to the Awards Manual. Conference Committee Chair Jim Howard distributed a conference committee report. He reported that SOUTHCON is under new management using IEEE Conference Services. He introduced Tom Klote who is based in Florida. Tom is an IEEE Conference Administrator of IEEE Travel and conference Management Services and is working on SOUTHCON 2000. Jim Howard reported that the Columbia Section wishes to host the SoutheastCon 2002 in Columbia SC in April 5-7, 2002. The committee is soliciting bids for SoutheastCon 2003. The Conference Committtee recommended The EXCOM recommends that the Region Committee accept the proposal of the Columbia Section to host the Southeastcon 2002 in Columbia, South Carolina in April 5-7, 2002. The EXCOM agreed to place the item on the consent agenda. Educational Activity Vice Chair Atef Elsherbeni reviewed his report and progress on receiving award submissions for the Educational Professional Development Employer award. Finance Committee Chair Charles Hickman reported on the proposed budget for 2000. He commented that if the Region is required to submit its budget to RAB with the announced time table, the budget will have to be approved by the EXCOM in November-December of the preceding year. The EXCOM has traditionally recommended a budget by the "old" EXCOM and the new EXCOM actually appproved the Region budget. He then reviewed the proposed budget for 2000 based on inputs from the EXCOM and the finance committee. The proposed budget presently shows an expected receipts of $141,784 and expenses of $173,575, a deficit of $31,791 and a reserve of approximately $200,000 (with approximately $57,000 of the reserve set aside for conferences and Sections Congress). The Finance Committee recommends Region 3 adopt the 2000 Budget as presented with modifications by the Finance Committee. The EXCOM agreed to place the item on the consent agenda. MDC Vice Chair Kathy Drevik reported for Bill Harrision on the Corporate Relations Project. Kathy related the results of the present phase of the Corporate Relations Project which included a successful presentation and workshop at Sections Congress. Copies of the Region 3 Corporation CD were distributed to the EXCOM. The group discussed the prospects and actions related to continued IEEE support of the project. PAO Chair Don Hill referred members to his report. The PAO committee met today and discussed future goals for the committee. After a recess, Director Caston distributed gifts of appreciation to the EXCOM. Communications Committee Chair Lee Stogner referred members to his report. He distributed the IEEE Region 3 Communicatons Resource CD. He reported that the web will be updated to have past issues of the Region 3 Newsletter. Vernon Power reported the goals of the IEEE Archive project which is a follow-on to the BBS project. Brian Swail reported on the Electronic Communication activities related to EWH and majordomo mailing lists. Bill Ratcliff referred members to his report. Bill recapped the activities of the E-Conference Committee during the last year. Charles Lord reported on the training done at the EXCOM. Bill discussed the next activities including an electronic EXCOM and development of additional guidelines. Almost all of the EXCOM attended one of the training sessions. Strategic Planning Chair Bob Duggan referred members to his report and reported on the SPC meeting held on Friday December 3rd. He reported the following mentor assignments for 2000: Awards & Recognition -- Debbie Powers Communications -- Dave McLauren Conference -- Jim Beall Educational Activities -- Dan Jackson Finance -- Dale Caston Membership Dev. -- Reed Thompson Prof. Activities Opns -- Vernon Powers Student Activities -- Roy Harris Corporate Relations -- Bob Duggan At their meeting, the committee made final modications to the 2000-1 Region 3 Strategic Plan. Bob Duggan reviewed the changes from the distributed version. The SPC recommends Approval of the 2000-1 Region 3 Strategic Plan. The EXCOM agreed to put the item on the consent agenda. Region Student Activities Chair Pat Donohoe reported on the Student Branch Leadership training efforts. He introduced Bruce Walcott who will be the 2000 Regional Student Activities Chair. Joey Duvall thanked the group for the opportunity to serve as Regional Student Representative. Director Caston turned the gavel over to Vice Chair Dick Riddle to conduct the meeting for Area/Council and Ad Hoc Committee Reports. With the permission of the EXCOM, Dick modified the order of presentation to accommodate members' travel plans. Section Congress Coordinator Dan Jackson referred members to his report and reviewed Region 3 participation in Sections Congress. He re-emphasized the need to submit the expense reports immediately. He suggested that Sections (as well as the Region) needs to begin setting aside monies to support participation in the next Sections Congress. Debbie Powers, chair of Nominations and Appointments Committtee, reported on the various Region EXCOM assignments for 2000. Approval of the new EXCOM and appointments will be done by the 2000 EXCOM. Lee Stogner will report the new Chair of the South Carolina Council to the EXCOM. The N&A Committee recommends The 1999 Region 3 recommends the appointment of the 2000 EXCOM appoints as reported by the nominating committee. The EXCOM agreed to place the item on the consent agenda. GOLD Chair Sean Haynes reviewed progress on GOLD and his interaction with other GOLD entities. Area 1/Virginia Council Chair Grove Hargrove recognized Dan Jackson who reported on the 50th Anniversary of the Virginia Mountain Section. Grove then reported on the Scout Merit Badge Jamboree and IEEE's support of the 2001 event. One thousand kits are being produced to support an electronics merit badge for the Jamboree. These kits are also being made available to the Girl Scouts and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Incoming Area 2/North Carolina Council Chair Charles Lord reported for Silvia Middleton who was unable to attend. Charles reviewed the status of the Council and events that occurred in North Carolina. Area 3 Chair Bill Ratcliff referred members to his report on the web. He encouraged the support of the new Area 3 Chair Ed O'Brien. He reported on the use of E-Conferencing by Area 3. Area 4/Florida Council Chair Butch Shadwell referred members to his report and reviewed the purpose of the Council and its meetings. He reported on the coordination of the student training sessions with section leadership training. He reported on his "Section Trek" where he has tried to visit all the sections in his area. Area 5/Tennessee Council Chair Brian Swail reported on the meeting held today. He reported on the activities of the various sections to move to a calendar year. Area 6 Chair Darrell Piatt referred members to his distributed report. Lee Stogner reported on Council status for Area 7/SC Council Chair Allen Thomas. He reviewed the status of sections in the council and reported on plans for 2000. Area 8 Chair John Parr referred members to his report. Area 9 Chair Dennis Hartley referred members to his report. He reviewed his recent and past activities. As outgoing chair, he thanked the EXCOM for its support and promised to continue to work on the development of IEEE activities in Jamaica. Leadership Development Committee Chair Reed Thompson reviewed his report. He mentioned, as corrections to his report, that the training activity for Tennessee Council was canceled (no need upon survey of attending council attendees) and the request of the Florida Council was withdrawn. Chip Dawson is going to be developing web versions of the leadership development material. He discussed the changes in training to better meet the needs of the region given the shift in the administrative calendar. Review Committee Chair Roy Harris referred members to his report and updated it to reflect that the response from the Communications Committee has now been received. The Review Committee intends (as previously announced) to review the Conference Committee and Membership Development Committee in 2000 as well as complete the review of the Student Activities Committees. He reminded outgoing chairs that they had a responsibility to report actions against goals and objectives to the Review Committee. Life Member Coordinator Dave McLauren discussed interactions of the Life Member program with other committees. Special Projects Chair Vernon Power had no addtional items to report. Given the hour (10:38pm), Director Caston recessed the caucus until 8 am Sunday. At 8:00am, Director Caston called the caucus back to order. He invited Director-elect Riddle and David Green to discuss plans for the January EXCOM. Dick Riddle reminded members that the first EXCOM would be using e-conferencing and invited David Green to make additional comments. David Green stressed the need for preparation by all participants and then reviewed the tentative agenda for the meeting. The group discussed the agenda and details of the meeting process. Brian Swail is in the process of populating the r3-excom2000@ieee.org alias. Having completed its agenda, the caucus was adjourned at 8:35am. Respectfully submitted, David Green Region 3 Secretary