To: Region 3 ExCom
From: William B. "Bill" Ratcliff, R3 Communications Committee, Chair 2005
Subject: Communications Committee Status Report - September / October 2005

The Communications Committee continues to meet using e-conferencing on a
regular basis but have been extending the interval between meetings due
to the workload of the committee members and other personal
schedules.(generally 3-4 weeks between meetings)

Activities Accomplished since July 2005:

* Electronic Version of Region 3 Newsletter was sent via e-Notice on
  August 17. The efforts of Quang Tang, Chip Dawson, Charles Lord and all
  of the authors / contributors are appreciated.

* Preparations for Sections Congress 2005 in October continues to
  consume most of the time.
  
   o Region 3 handout materials and displays
   o Presentations involving committee members
   o Electronic Communications Support

* Participation by Dave Green and Bill Ratcliff in the ITSC and ECCS
  activities.

* Scheduled e-conferencing 101 training on 9/14/2005 - Charles Lord but
  only one person attempted to logon but his AOL configured Browser was
  not compatible with the IEEE Internet Meeting Service. Can we assume
  that everyone that is involved in Region 3 Operations have the
  capability to fully participate in e-conferencing?

The e-conferencing 101 training sessions especially the one that was
scheduled yesterday 9/14 brings up several issues that need to be
addressed. The use of e-conferencing in its varied forms has saved
considerable time and dollars during the last 6 years.

* E-Conferencing has been utilized to provide flexibility for Region 3
  to optimize the operation but has only scratched the surface in
  developing a working environment that utilizes the volunteers time
  effectively.

* The training sessions conducted both live and web based (MS Live
  Meeting) have resulted in most of the Region 3 ExCom and Region
  Committee being trained.

* Currently IRC and e-mail appear to be the "tools of choice" to
  interact in Region 3. These tools are indeed powerful and useful in
  developing a collaborative working environment but do not represent the
  entire toolbox.

* Asynchronous capabilities are not being utilized by the majority of
  committees in Region 3 (newsgroups, TWiki, On Line ( Virtual)
  Communities, as examples).

* Several Councils and even Sections in Region 3 have adopted some of
  the e-conferencing capability. The direction of the communications
  capability in Region 3 is focused to engage as many members as possible,
  develop a collaborative working environment, create a knowledgebase for
  future reference and keep each other informed and "in the loop".

If this is the desired direction of Region 3 then we all need to commit
ourselves to engineering the changes in "culture" as well as methodology
to accomplish that direction. The members of the Communications
Committee stand ready to work with all of you collaboratively (like the
LDO Project as an example).

Respectfully Submitted: 

William B. "Bill" Ratcliff
R3 Communications Committee Chair, 2005

w.ratcliff@ieee.org

9/15/2005