Region 3 Director’s Message September 24, 2007 As we approach our Fall Region Meeting in Birmingham, Sections will want to be sure that they have representation there. See the recent announcement. Registration is now open. https://ewh.ieee.org/reg/3/excom/meetings/2007-0910/ Volunteerism is the core of our slogan that “IEEE is the Member and the Member is IEEE”. More than any other professional engineering organization, IEEE is led by its volunteers. The path followed by many starts with a section or chapter office, followed by area/council positions and Region activities. We are always on the lookout for new volunteers. Past surveys show that most members start volunteering because they were asked by a colleague. For the many sections that have unfilled positions on their Excom, some thought to asking colleagues to fill a position could pay dividends. Starting with a small request oftentimes gives satisfaction to the new volunteer so that s/he will respond to another call to fill a different need later. If you have been through the chairs at section and area/council level, your experience and insight will be useful at the Region 3 level. Let a member of the Region 3 Excom know that you would be open to another assignment. A compilation of Best Practices can aid chapter/section officers as well as those further in higher offices. We need to collect the experiences of volunteers on what works on planning meetings, field trips, local tutorials, job fairs, pre-college interaction and other events. What went well? What could be improved for next time? One area where best practices can be very helpful is in planning PACE projects, such as S-PACs and Member Professional Development Symposia. I hope you will share your experiences with us between now and the Birmingham meeting, where the topic will be discussed further. The small amount of time required to document a project can pay big dividends to your fellow volunteers who may want to use your experience as a recipe for a similar project in their section. Recognition of our volunteer leaders is one way of rewarding them for a job well done. At the IEEE-USA Awards and Recognition Program held in Scottsdale earlier this month, we had several Region 3 awardees. Carl Hussey received a Regional Professional Leadership Award for promoting PACE activities in Region 3. Grayson Randall received the IEEE-USA Citation of Honor for inspiring pre-college and college engineering students in the area of robotics. Key staff from a Central Florida television station, WESH 2 News, received an award for distinguished contributions furthering public understanding of the profession, from accurate reporting in the Return to Flight series, chronicling the contribution of engineers to the space program. In all these cases, as with section and Region 3 awards, an IEEE volunteer started the ball rolling by nominating potential recipients. Our Awards and Recognition chair, Mary Ellen Randall, has done an outstanding job in processing nominations, but we all need to support her by pointing out meritorious award candidates. Region funding allocations will be increased in 2008 – for the first time since 2003. For Region 3, this will amount to an additional 18 percent. Funding for Sections Congress 2008 will be increased by $100,000 overall - $3,315 for Region 3. Sections should be making plans to fund their contribution to SC08 and to identify their delegates who will travel to Quebec City to participate. www.ieee.org/sc2008 In January 2008, the name of Regional Activities will change to Member and Geographic Activities, as the focus for member activities becomes totally centered within our organization. Director-elect Bill Ratcliff has been very active in the group planning the organizational transition, and will be giving us an overview of it in the Birmingham fall meeting. The cutover to the new Business Management System has been accomplished for membership renewals in the present cycle, and further enhancements will be forthcoming. The SAMIEEE membership database will change, with some new features. There is a continuing series of Live Meeting presentations about the SAMIEEE changes, and I hope all volunteers will take advantage of them to learn the new capabilities. Finally, a reminder to vote before the end of October, to be sure your voice is included in selecting IEEE leadership. George F. McClure 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