Region 3 Director's Report
22 May 2006
 
 
This report is sent in anticipation of tonightâs e-conference, where
some of the items mentioned will be discussed further.
 
A progress report from Regional Activities IT notes that the electronic
L-31 report is being upgraded to correct some flaws that have been
noted, such as inability to insert common punctuation, such as in
hyphenated names. This work has been ongoing since Sections Congress
2005.

The Region 3 web site is being upgraded under Eric Ackerman, Webmaster.
All members of the Region Committee are urged to supply Eric with a low
resolution snapshot to go in the gallery section of the web site. This
is in response to comments at the Spring region meeting in Memphis, that
members would appreciate having a set of Îmug shotsâ so that they could
identify other volunteers at meetings.

We have four issues of the Region 3 Newsletter planned each year, the
first one in print copy with snail mail distribution to all members and
the other three web-based. There are two issues to discuss with respect
to the newsletter: setting a policy on input deadline compliance, and
notifying all region members via a e-note when a new issue is posted.
Since material submitted for newsletter publication is timely, holding
up the newsletter for later submittals is counter-productive. It delays
receipt of the material submitted timely. Two alternatives come to mind:
1) adhere to the published deadline, and hold late material for the next
newsletter; or 2) explore ways to append later content to already-posted
newsletters. The second alternative defeats the purpose of the e-note
advising of new content, but could be used as a reason to encourage
members to visit the web site more often if new content is posted on a
regular basis.

At the Spring region meeting, the overwhelming majority of the region
committee voted to convene a second region meeting in the Fall. That
meeting will be held in Atlanta, the weekend of 27-29 October. To
maximize the value of the second region meeting, changes in format are
under consideration.

Should there be a leadership workshop held? If on Friday afternoon, what
attendance can be expected?

Some PACE training for all attendees is being considered. If that is
done, the usual time for committee meetings on Saturday morning would be
pre-empted. How many committees can transact their business in advance
of the October meeting, by e-conference, teleconference, or email, so
that the purpose at the October meeting for committees would be to
communicate their status and/or initiatives more widely, to the region
committee?

The Friday evening agenda would including holding the Area/Council
meetings in parallel with the Strategic Planning Committee meeting. A
meeting of the area/council chairs would follow.

Not least in importance, the role of awards and recognition in
spotlighting contributions by our volunteers to IEEE Region 3 needs to
be emphasized. Mary Ellen Randall, A&R Chair, has tried to focus our
attention on this program. Contact her for details on the categories of
awards available, and the deadlines for submitting nominations. Many
sections have developed a program that generates nominations at the
section level that can then move to the area/council level, and onward
to the Region level.

The nine major Region 3 initiatives will be statused at our e-conference
tonight. See Bill Ratcliff's report for details.
 
George McClure