Director’s Message

Is your section healthy? Is there something Region 3 could do to help
your section benefit its members more?

At Sections Congress 2005, Charles Rubenstein delivered a presentation
on section/chapter activities to deliver value to members. While his
focus was on societies, Region 3 is delivering the soft-skill programs
he talked about – leadership skills development workshops and project
management workshops. You can revisit his presentation at
www.ieee.org/.../rab/sc/2005/presentations/SEC-CHAP-SOC-RELATIONSHIPS-SECTION-PERSPECTIVE-Rubenstein.ppt
It included numerous program topic ideas. Please take advantage of the
leadership training in Atlanta for section officers and PACE chairs,
starting at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 27. As Dr. Rubenstein notes, a
leader is a communicator, an educator, and a motivator. We want to help
you with your leadership in all three areas.

Relevant programs can improve section/chapter vitality. Region 3 can
help with professional awareness conferences for students (S-PACs) and
mid-career members (M-PACs). Societies can help chapters with
distinguished lecturers and (in some cases) stipends for meeting support
or even for organizing new chapters.

Continuing education is a high priority for many members. IEEE’s
ExpertNOW has 31 courses available this month, and more are planned.
Cost to members is $69.95 each. For the course catalog see
https://www.netg.com/ieee/courselistings.asp

Two years ago, a breakout session at a Region 3 meeting brought out
numerous ideas for improving section vitality. These were reported in an
earlier Newsletter. Some sections have multiple locations with member
concentrations. These sections are candidates for webcast meetings, as
an alternative to alternating meeting locations. Region 3’s
Communications Committee has been exploring various forms for remote
meetings.

Bring your ideas to the Region meeting later this month in Atlanta. What
has worked for you? What unmet needs does your section or area/council
have that the region can assist with? In addition to our nine major
initiatives, we are compiling Best Practices for use by other sections
and chapters. Bring or email your successful practices to add to the
list that can be accessed by other sections.

And tell us about your problems, too! That’s the first step to
developing a solution.

Do you know what your members want/need that will improve their
perception of value from their IEEE membership? What would your
non-member colleagues find attractive to convince them to join IEEE? The
diversity of IEEE resources means that most members are not aware of
what is available to them, to say nothing of non-members.

The focal point for membership development is your section membership
chair and committee. If your section lacks a membership chair, appoint
one now, so you can report that at the Region 3 meeting. At every
meeting of a section or chapter, there should be a welcome including a
20- to 30-second “elevator speech” summarizing the benefits of
membership, continuing education, professional programs, technical
meetings, access to your section activities, etc.

Tell us what you need. Region 3 is here to serve YOU.
George McClure
g.mcclure@ieee.org 
George F McClure
g.mcclure@ieee.org
1730 Shiloh Ln
Winter Park, FL 32789
407 647-5092
Fax 407 644-4076
Mobile 407 758-0321