Past Director's Report

1. The Third IEEE RFID Conference will be held in Orlando , April 27-28.
https://www.ieee-rfid.org/2009/index.html Student IEEE members are being sought to volunteer
to aid staff for this conference. In exchange they get lunch, free admission to exhibits, a
CD of the program, and paid parking. The normal registration fee for students is $250 to
$300, so this is a win-win all around. but the question of technical co-sponsorship by
Region 3 and the local section came up, and a standard policy should be promulgated. Strict
constructionists believe that you have to exert influence over the technical program to be a
technical co-sponsor, but others believe that it is sufficient to use technical
co-sponsorship as a way to lend support to the conference objectives.

Either way, I have agreed to be publicity co-chair to encourage attendance. The RFID Journal
is in charge of the exhibits. IEEE-USA and ComSoc are the conference producers.

2. The Life Member Committee met last weekend in Orlando. There was agreement that there
should be better publicity given to the opportunity to seek grants from the LMC for student
development, for the benefit of older members, and to promote public understanding of
engineering. Two initiatives are www.tryengineering.org, devoted to the cultivation of
pre-university students to consider engineering careers, and the Global History Network
www.ieeeghn.org intended to showcase engineering achievements. There is a wiki-like feature
where experienced engineers can describe their work,where OUs can post archives showing the
history of their section or society, and where some of the material will be selected for
IEEEtv features. Sections that have scanned in their historical documents are encouraged to
consider posting them as a historical archive. Point of contact is Michael Geselowitz,
director of the IEEE History Center. m.geselowitz@ieee.org

3. The Daytona Section demonstrated for the LMC, which provided an $11K grant for the
project, their Small Radio Telescope that will be located at the Museum of Arts and Sciences
and accessible to several thousand visiting school children per year. In addition, future
plans call for it to be controlled remotely through the Internet so that students at
colleges and universities can use the tool. Another SRT is located at Stetson University in
DeLand, making the prospect of an interferometer with a 25 mile base leg possible. By doing
that with one in Arizona, the base leg can be 2,000 miles. There are 300 SRTs now, most in
the U.S., with several in Canada.

Respectfully submitted,
George F. McClure