IEEE Region 3 Meeting
                       Professional Activities Report
                           Sunday March 8, 2009


IEEE-USA Annual Meeting, February 26 – March 1, 2009
Salt Lake City, UT

Theme:  "Engineering the Alternative Energy Debate"

The Annual Meeting was very well attended, and there were ample
opportunities to network with fellow members and leaders from other
regions. Information about the sessions, keynote speakers, and other
details are on the IEEE-USA Web site. Here is the link:


https://www.ieeeusa.org/calendar/conferences/2009annualmeeting/


There were 28 Region 3 representatives, who shared this rich experience.
The meeting format consisted of three parallel tracks and poster
sessions, addressing volunteer tools, pressing alternative energy
issues, and engineering careers during these hard economic times. Poster
sessions highlighted successful projects. The meeting agenda was
designed to:
·  Provide a basic volunteer and leadership training through interactive
workshops.
·  Host exhibits and pre-conference webinars focusing on the latest IEEE
activities, products and services.
·  Offer discussions and workshops from experts on engineering career
development and lifelong employability.
·  Provide updates on the IEEE-USA's current legislative priorities
affecting technology and engineering careers, and information on how
members may take part in an effective grassroots lobbying network.
·  Highlight outstanding programs and services for local members
provided by Section, Chapters, and Regions & Societies through poster
sessions, panel discussions and awards.
·  Provide outstanding opportunities to network with IEEE leaders and
volunteers at all levels to exchange ideas and discuss issues of
importance to the U.S. engineering profession.
During the Region3 Breakout Session, Friday night, participants
deliberated three issues to present to IEEE-USA, during the Sunday
Wrap-up session.  They are as follows:

1. Better publicize existing career and benefits websites.  Setup a
single location on IEEE-USA page to find all IEEE member career and
benefits; include a search engine to aid in finding the various modules.
Publicize the web information to IEEE Regions, Sections, and Societies
for easy access.

2. IEEE USA to develop Web-based seminars in subject areas such as
engineering management and communication skills. If these seminars are
already available, then setup a single location to find all IEEE
web-based seminars; include a search engine to aid in finding the
various modules. Promote these seminars to IEEE Regions, Sections, and
Societies for easy access by members.

3. Develop an "IEEE Jobs" website specific to Electrical Engineers for
companies that hire Electrical Engineers; i.e. Monster.com type
environment, specific to the electrical engineering community. Let this
be the premier place for engineering managers to look for all types of
Electrical Engineers.

At the Awards Banquet, we had the pleasure to cheer on one of our own,
Mr. Don Hill, who received the IEEE-USA Regional Professional Leadership
Award. Congratulations to Don. We are all proud of him and grateful for
his professional contributions across the board.

REGION ACTION PLANS

On Sunday morning, the Annual Committee circulated a Region Action Plans
document highlighting issues for Regions 1 – 6 to address. These issues
were the result of the roundtable discussions, Friday afternoon. Regions
are encouraged to address some of these issues and report on them, from
a region’s perspective, at next year’s IEEE-USA Annual Meeting March 5 –
7, 2010, in Nashville, TN. The categories and related issues are as
follows:

Note: Region 3 expressed reservation regarding the timing of this
distributed document. It should have been distributed prior to the
Friday Regions Breakout Session, to allow meaningful input to such
important road map.

CATEGORY 1:  GLOBALIZATION

Understand cultural differences
·  Learn a foreign language
·  Geography, politics
·  Customs

Understand forces behind globalization of business
·  Market trends
·  Being aware of your organization, your place in it, and its place in
the world

Legislative action
·  CVD
·  Improve immigration laws (students to citizens)
·  Understand/debate ITAR (trade laws)

Continuing education and skills – keep yourself competitive
·  Develop diversity in your career
·  Communication is critical; cross-culturally, etc.
·  Cross training opportunities
·  Global networking
·  Personal skills assessment and gap analysis

Promote, develop global standards

Improve STEM education

CATEGORY 2:  ENERGY DEBATE

Legislative action
·  Promote alternative energy
·  Bring sanity to the discussion
·  Be the technical resource

Providing community awareness
·  Educate on energy conservation
·  Facts vs. myths
·  Pros and cons of being green\k-12 education on energy

Promoting energy awareness to members
·  Local meetings, conferences

Solutions to alternative energy problems
·  Engaging industry in dialog about energy solutions
·  Standards for new technologies

Inter-organizational collaborations
·  Habitat for humanity – work to design/build energy efficient homes
·  Engineers w/o borders, Green Building Council, AIA

CATEGORY 3: VOLUNTEERISM

Officer training
·  Innovative methods
·  Develop leadership skills
·  PDH

Employer support
·  Win-win…employer support for IEEE volunteerism – what does the
employer get in return

Re-define volunteer position
·  Work-life balance

Motivation
·  Redefine success (is a meeting that only draws 5 people
unsuccessful?)

Recognition
·  Certification/accreditation
·  Recognize employers for support
·  Community recognition

Advancement
·  Mentoring

Sunday morning wrap-up session was thinly attended, as most of the
Meeting attendees had to catch their flights going back home. A handful
of Region 3 representatives at the Region 3 Session, briefly discussed
the Region Action Plans document and decided to present the three issues
agreed upon during the Region 3 Breakout Session, Friday night, loosely
linked to the document. The issues offered by the Region Action Plan
will be submitted to Region 3 Committee for possible action. Severe
weather conditions of snow storms in the eastern states, complicated
matters even further.

End of Report

Adeeb Hamzey
Susan Ronning
Region 3 Professional Activities