To: Region 3 Executive Committee Subject: Communications Committee Status Report - July 2005 From : Region 3 Communications Committee The 2005 Objectives continue to drive the activities of the committee: 1. Provide support to R3 Committees: 2. Conduct critical review of all communications capabilities currently available. The last 5 years have yielded significant change in our meetings and communications methodologies. 3. Increase the Internet based Capability... Training, R3 Meetings, Remote Meetings, e-conferencing , collaborative work groups, etc. Utilize documented and widely accepted standards in order to have a variety of collaboration tools and data store that can be easily modified for future requirements. The following are the areas of concentration since SoutheastCon 2005 Meetings: e-conferencing 101 web based training ------------------------------------- On June 1,2005 an e-mail was sent to everyone on the Region 3 ExCom outlining the need for a renewed commitment to making e-conferencing a apart of our operation in Region 3 ( attached). Subsequently training schedules have been issued for web based training on June 28 and July 16. Charles Lord delivered an outstanding session using MS Live Meeting on June 28 with 10 people in attendance (see for details). Your commitment to using e-conferencing is essential if the impact of the volunteer's time is to be optimized. Communications Requirements to support Region 3 Meetings -------------------------------------------------------- The development of the communications requirements to be included in contracts with hotels continues to be developed with Don Hill, Conferences Committee Chair and the SECon 2006 Team. Please add your comments to the discussion on the Region 3 Virtual Community Preparation of electronic Newsletter ------------------------------------ Quang Tang continues to issue calls for articles to be submitted for the Region 3 Newsletter. This is one of the mechanisms for all Region 3 Committees, Areas/ Councils, etc to communicate with the sections and members throughout Region 3. The schedule for completion of the next electronic version of the R3 Newsletter was delayed ( waiting on articles to be submitted). Your cooperation in providing content and timely submission to Quang will maximize the impact of information delivered to the members. Archive Management ------------------ The discussion of the requirements for managing the archives of information all of us have developed and stored over our years of service in IEEE continues . Please add your comments to the discussion in this critical area that affects our operation. Support to IEEE strategic Direction of Information Technology ------------------------------------------------------------- David Green and Bill Ratcliff attended an Information Technology Strategy workshop on May 9,2005 at IEEE HQ. Our ability to manage and deliver information is a critical component of IEEE's ability to provide service to the member. If you have any questions or desire additional detail please contact me or any member of the Communications Committee. Respectfully submitted by: _ |_)0 |_)||_|_ William B. Ratcliff Region 3 Communications Committee Chair 2005 e-mail w.ratcliff@ieee.org -------------------------- Attachment: From: William B. Ratcliff [wratcliff2@comcast.net] Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 2:13 PM To: William B. Harrison; George McClure Cc: r3-comm; r3-excom2005; Sec-R03 Subject: e-Conferencing 101 - IRC Training To: William Harrison, George McClure, R3 ExCom, Sec-r03 From: William Ratcliff, R3 Communications Committee Chair-2005 Subject: e-Conferencing 101 - IRC Training Electronic conferencing, particularly the use of Internet relay chat (IRC) over the IEEE IRC server, has become a key element of increasing the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of R3 operations over the last 5 years. This is not an intuitive method of holding meetings for many, and there is no "shrink-wrap", off the shelf application for new users to load and instantly operate at full speed. We have had training for these methods and the use of these tools in the past, and it has seemed effective. The R3 Excom has proven the effectiveness of this method of working together in making the best use (and highest productivity) of the volunteers' time and we need to drive this to all levels. Normally, the individual committee chair introduces the e-conferencing process to the few who cannot attend the training sessions. However, we are getting reports of difficulties by some groups that are trying to use this method and have not seen the common usage that all of us anticipated by now at all levels of R3. For a multitude of reasons, that won’t be explored here, this approach has failed to alleviate the problems associated with installation and initial logon. After discussion, the R3 Communications Committee has determined that successful use of e-conferencing relies on three critical elements: 1. A top-down drive by all R3 leadership making it clear that this is the way that we do business and that everyone should strive to make this a part of their organization's operation; 2. The common and regular usage of electronic conferencing within their organization (committee, area, council, section, etc) to not only encourage regular communications and greater productivity, but to keep communications and collaboration skills keen with regular usage; and 3. regular training and updated manuals / documentation to help volunteers that are new to these methods and tools get up to speed quickly. The first two elements are up to you, the leadership within R3, to endorse, embrace, and encourage. The Communications Committee is dedicated to providing the third element, beginning with a series of on-line training classes using the LiveMeeting (Placeware) server. These will be short sessions of approximately one hour, each to be followed by a practice time on-line for attendees to instantly try the new skills in a "safe haven" without the pressure of being in an actual meeting or discussion. The dates for these sessions will be announced shortly and will include both day and evening sessions on various days of the week to allow all the opportunity to participate. We will also be re-examining our documentation and other resources for possible revision and update. However, the most critical element of this drive will again be the push from you, the leadership, to make this happen. Can we count on you to: 1. Develop a list of volunteers to attend the training and securing their commitment to participate. 2. Utilize the e-conferencing methodology on an on-going basis. (Training volunteers without utilization of those skills is not a cost effective return on investment.) Please supply a list of candidates by June 10 by replying (reply to All) to this message. I know we all are leading busy lives and IEEE is only a part of our commitments -- by implementing e-conferencing, properly, the impact to the volunteer can be minimized. _ |_)0 |_)||_|_ William B. Ratcliff Region 3 Communications Committee Chair 2005 e-mail w.ratcliff@ieee.org