IEEE Region 3 RSAC Report
Summer 2004
Bruce L. Walcott, RSAC
Patricia Davis, RSR

While school has recessed for the summer for Region 3 student members,
there are items to document and progress made in student activities
since the last report submitted for Southeastcon 2004 in Greensboro,
North Carolina This report covers the student related activities in
the following areas:

- IEEE Membership Workshop - May 6-8, 2004
- SLTW Plans
- Southeastcon 2005 - Student Activities

IEEE Membership Workshop

On May 6, a group of roughly 40 IEEE volunteers and staff met in
Newark, New Jersey for an intensive 3-day workshop discussion on the
plight of IEEE membership across all ranks. One of the sub-groups was
charged with looking specifically at student membership. The members
of this sub-group were:

Ed Palacio, Facilitator
Bruce Walcott
Bob Tulevski
Basak Yuksel
Enrique Tejera
David Daut
Laura Durrett

Prior to the meeting, input was sought from RSRs from all ten regions
of IEEE. Some of the major issues discussed were the value of student
membership to IEEE, the value of IEEE to student members, the
financial impact of IEEE student membership, improvement of services.

The major recommendations stemming from the workshop can be summarized
in the following broad area:

o IEEE student membership should lead the organization in terms of
  inclusion of emerging technical areas and sense of community. Simply
  put, student membership should not just mirror what IEEE does, but
  should lead the way in terms of attracting and serving members in
  emerging technical areas.

o In terms of better serving our constituents, the graduate student
  members have separate needs/interests from undergraduate members. A
  second grade of student membership was recommended by the committee
  for those student members who have received a bachelors degree and
  are currently enrolled in a graduate program.

o In terms of financial impact of the student membership program, the
  committee recommended to look hard at the actual cost of relevant
  services provided by IEEE to student members with the goal of
  determining the actual cost of IEEE student membership.

o The committee also recommended that the IEEE look at adopting the
  ASME model of global student fees. ASME has three levels of
  membership dues: 100%, 75%, and 50% based upon the economic state of
  the specific geographic area of the prospective or renewing student
  member.

These recommendations along with the entire report from the workshop
subcommittee are currently being disseminated electronically for
discussion amongst the SAC committee in preparation for the upcoming
October SAC meeting.

SLTWs

At the student branch chair workshop held at Southeastcon 2004 in
Greensboro, North Carolina, the students were asked if one single,
centrally-located SLTW would be preferable to the 4-5 SLTWs currently
conducted in the Fall. The overwhelming response was for a single,
SLTW. The student branch at Georgia Tech has agreed to host this SLTW
which is tentatively scheduled for October 2nd, 2004. This SLTW will
also differ from the previous SLTW in that it will be a primarily
student-organized, student-run meeting-similar to the fall planning
meeting of NAESC. Ande Boyer-a long-time NAESC and IEEE active student
member of UAH has agreed to help with the planning.

Southeastcon 2005

Eric Ackerman and his Southeastcon 2005 committee have a good start on
the planned student activities. A preliminary set of rules were
disseminated at the branch counselors and branch chairs meetings at
Greensboro with an additional round of comments/inputs given
electronically for the next revision. The pre-college challenge
started in Greensboro will be continued at Southeastcon 2005 as well
as some improvements to the social awards program. The RSAC and RSR
want to commend Eric and his committee for their enthusiasm and
preliminary work to date!