IEEE Region 3 Conferences Committee
Report to the Excom October 15, 2001

The Conferences Committee has had a mixed year. Neither Southcon nor the NC Symposium were held this year, but we had a successful and enjoyable SoutheastCon at Clemson. Many thanks to the Piedmont Section for a great conference!

There was a meeting of the committee via e-conferencing on Saturday, October 13 and the committee will meet again in Jamaica on October 27. There are a number of issues that are being addressed by the committee:

1. Registration at SoutheastCon 2002

Background: Due to various reasons, the Columbia Section has determined that they are unable to handle the registration of SoutheastCon 2002. They had proposed to hire a conference management firm to handle this task. However, after scrtiny by the Conference Committee Chair, Region Director, and Director-elect, the contract was found to be open ended and reflected a potential financial exposure of over $30,000. As there was no alternative for-pay registration service that could provide services needed by the conference for a fee that the conference provided, it was decided that the R3 Conferences Committee would form a SoutheastCon Support Task Force as an ad-hoc (for now) subcommittee. Intended as an ongoing support team for future SoutheastCons, the primary task for this group for 2002 will be to provide advance and on-site registration assistance. With the assistance of Chip Dawson (R3 Webmaster and SoutheastCon 2004 Chair) and David Mills (SoutheastCon 2002 Webmaster and Chair of the Central Savannah River Section), I have placed a registration form on the website at https://www.ieee.org/southeastcon which is the permanent re-direct for all future SoutheastCons. Please see more on the Task Force in item xx below.

Our committee is already soliciting volunteers to help with on-site registration at Columbia, April 5-7, 2002. Please have any potential volunteers contact me. We are particularly interested in people who are involved in recent past or future SoutheastCons, as they will either have or need the experience in this area.

Nancy Gunderson submitted a report on SoutheastCon 2002 for the Excom meeting. It is located at https://ewh.ieee.org/reg/3/excom/meetings/2001-10/secon2002.txt  

We hope to see all of you in Columbia, SC on April 5-7, 2002!

2. Special Review Report on our committee

There is a report from the Special Review Committee on our committee, its operations, and its records located here. I have placed our relies to the observations in a file at https://ewh.ieee.org/reg/3/conf/reply.htm

3. Preliminary issues for SoutheastCon 03 (Jamaica)

The bid for SoutheastCon 2003 by the Jamaica Section was accepted with the proviso that we (they) come up with a way that the students in Region 3 could attend and participate at something resembling the levels of a US-based SoutheastCon. That was in a much different world that had not seen the current economic conditions and aftermath of 9/11. There is a growing sentiment that many of the more active schools in recent conferences would not participate in a Jamaica SoutheastCon if it were being held this year. Unless conditions improve greatly, they will not participate in 2003. I have asked Bruce Walcott, R3 Student Activities Chair, to poll the student branches in the Region and determine the extent of this concern and what alternatives that would be acceptable. It may be necessary to organize a parallel student conference in the US at a central location. The question then would be whether it was held at the same time or staggered so that some people could attend both. I have asked this to be an item on the discussion agenda, plus it will be discussed at length at our meeting in Jamaica on 26-27 October.

4. Southcon status

Jim Beale provided the following report:

" Southcon is alive and working to produce a show in Jan. 16-17 2002. We did not actually kill the show, although we had region 3 permission to do so. We are using ECI, now wholey owned by IEEE to do the show on a no liability to Southcon basis. We might make a little or hopefully a lot. The review committee should change its statement about the demise of Southcon, it's not yet."

5. RADARCON in Huntsville

Eric Gregorian, Chair of the Huntsville Section, wants to bid for the RADARCON 2003 conference. He believes the conference needs about $8K in seed money from the section, which due to AUTOTESTCON hosting in 2002, will not be possible due to cash flow. He is seeking some of these funds from Region. I have asked for a budget as to the anticipated return and Eric provided it.

Please note the follwing contributions vs distributions that are being proposed.

Note Anticipated Surplus is AFTER Loan Repay

Region 3         $6,000 25% of Surplus $1071.25
Huntsville Section     $2,000 25% of Surplus $1071.25
AESS             $8,000 50% of Surplus $2142.50

***
The Conferences Committee has voted unanimously to recommend that these funds (up to $6,000) be provided to the Huntsville Section from the Regional Conference Fund for this purpose
***

6. G&O Update

We have the following objectives on the 2001 R3 Strategic Plan:

II Membership , A. Leadership Development
e. Develop Region 3 training program specifically for conference treasurers. (Conference)

This has not been done - however, We are working on a leadership development module for sections for hosting conferences which will include the financial duties. This is part of the RAB LD project headed up by Tracy Hawkins and is being pitched to the MSC (Meetings and Services Committee) as a joint project at the upcoming board series. This is anticipated to be complete by the TAB Conference Workshop in Piscataway in Feb 2002.

III. Services & Technology, C. Conferences
Goal: Review and improve conferences structure of Region 3.
Objectives:
a. Review horizontal conferences in Region 3. Consider possible new areas/sites as well as CEU credits for tutorials. (Conference, Education)

We continue to investigate possible new horizontal conferences in R3.

b. Review vertical conferences. Provide Sections information on how to formally solicit Technical Society Conferences. (Conference)

This will be provided as part of the LD training module listed above.

c. Examine professional management for conferences. (Conference)

We continue to search for economical management assistance for conferences, particularly SoutheastCon. We will be re-opening discussions with IEEE Conference Services and the MSC to press IEEE to provide these services to small and low-margin conferences. Of particular interest is the provision of on-line and onsite registration services, including credit card transactions directly credited to CBA.

7. Region 3 Conference Manuals

The R3 Conference Manual and Student Conference Manual are virtually complete (just needing some historical input). They can be seen at:

Conference Manual - https://www.ewh.ieee.org/reg/3/conf/confman/R3ConfManual.pdf  

Student Manual - https://www.ewh.ieee.org/reg/3/conf/confman/STUDENTconfman.pdf  

8. Conference Training

As already alluded to, We are assembling a module for the new Leadership Development package for conference hosting / organization. It will concentrate on the basics of how to hold your own conference to hosting regional conferences or technical society conferences. A critical part of this will be finances, as this is the #1 complain by societies about sections, that they can't manage conference finances. I will be looking for help and guidance on this in Nov-Dec.

9. Update on SoutheastCon 04

See Chip Dawson's report at https://ewh.ieee.org/reg/3/excom/meetings/2001-10/secon2004.txt  

10. Anticipated bids for 05 and 06

Anyone know of specific bids coming for 2005 and beyond? I would like to work with these sections to help them get a strong committee and successful bid assembled.

11. Proposal for Special Project for piloting of the SoutheastCon Support Taks Force

>From a proposal made by me in July 2001 ( https://ecelx00.eng.uab.edu/cgi-bin/dnewsweb?cmd=article&group=ieee.r3conf&item=31   )
the Conferences Committee is asking the Excom to approve the formation of a special project to pilot the SoutheastCon Support Taks Force. The two functions to be carried out between now and April 7, 2002 will be to (1) Supply on-line, mail, fax, and on-site registration for SoutheastCon 2002 in such a way that can be reproduced and carried out for subsequent years and (2) develop and carry out training in a central location for prospective SoutheastCon committees (including future selected locations) on how to develop, bid, and run the conference. Details on this motion are available as noted on the action item agenda.

Submitted by Charles J. Lord, PE, Chair
Region 3 Conferences Committee