Viginia Council Report to Region 3 for December 2008

The Virginia Council continues to flounder.  

I have been preoccupied with our Hampton Roads problems. For the forth year
in a road, we have major turnover in our executive committee. This year we
were not able to field a slate of new officers to include our next Virginia
Council representative. Most of the departures were unplanned ranging from
new employment out of the area to waiting on the results of medical tests.

The situation is not much different in the rest of the council. Central
Virginia is still struggling to find their new center of gravity in response
to the plant closings that have been troubling them for years.

We still do not have a Vice Chair from Central Virginia and Hampton Roads
has not identified a replacement for me in the next rotation. Next years
slate of Virginia Council officers has not been worked out.

All the sections have significant turnover in officers. As we find new
volunteers, we struggle to train them and integrate them into the region
leadership. For the past several years we have requested tailored training,
preferably on line, targeted to each of the elected offices. We have yet to
work out a suitable schedule.

The transition from RAB to MGA has compounded the lack of training. For
those of you who have been around forever, there is little change. For
someone new to the system, little inconsistencies like name changes create a
level of confusion that is overwhelming. One of the best examples of this is
core to the effective operation of a local section: bylaws.

Changes, for example the introduction of the Graduate Student Member, have
made every Virginia Council bylaw obsolete. At the same time, every bylaw is
linked to the RAB operations manual which has been replaced by the MGA
operations manual. As part of the MGA transition, sections are encouraged to
to develop section operations manuals in lieu of bylaws. This seems to be
uncharted territory. What should be covered in the section operations
manual? Will a recommended format be developed? Sessions we attended in
Quebec City only created more confusion. The legal staff seemed unfamiliar
with the contents of the MGA manual and could only promise to get back with
us.

The transition from RAB to MGA is fairly radical. Socialization of the
related concepts and development of a new, improved culture within the
Institute has necessarily preoccupied the Region leadership, myself
included. However, no job is finished until the paperwork is done. We need
to develop training and policies that help the sections move to the new
world order with minimum effort.

Bill Clayton
w.clayton @ ieee.org
Virginia Council Chair