IEEE Region 3 Remote Conferencing/Meetings Ad Hoc Committee
Status Report 05 August 2013

I. Mission:
The mission of the committee is to investigate the feasibility of 
generating, and if possible, generate a list of equipment and 
procedures that would facilitate the publicizing, recording, and 
sharing of Section meetings across the Region.

II. Committee Members: 
– Bill Ratcliff 
– Gregg Vaughn 
– James Imanian

III. Status:
A. Actions to Date:
1. Review of WebEx capabilities, in particular the WebEx Event 
    Center as configured by IEEE IT for the local geographic units. 
2. Research into recommended or supported hardware 
3. Research into WebEx options & capabilities currently available, 
    or to be made available, to IEEE local geographic units 

B. Concerns:
1. Currently, the only IEEE provided WebEx option available to the 
    local geo unit is the WebEx Event Center 
    - The availability to the local geo units of the WebEx 
       Meeting Center has been discussed but not yet determined 
2. Currently, a VOIP option is not configured for IEEE WebEx Event 
    Center use 
    - Currently, only a (very costly) telephone conference bridge
       is available as an option 
3. Currently, video is not an option for IEEE WebEx Event Center 
    use

C. Recommendations:
1. The WebEx Event Center, with currently configured options, is 
    not a viable platform for IEEE local geo unit distributed 
    meetings or conferences 
    - No VOIP option – use the telephone conference for 
      distributed events would prove cumbersome and very costly to IEEE 
    - A video option is not currently provided 
2. If the WebEx Meeting Center, as currently configured to IEEE 
    Region use, is made available to the local geo units, the WebEx 
    Meeting Center made prove viable for this use 

D. Possible Future Actions
1. Confirm future availability (and time-line) of IEEE provided 
    WebEx platforms and options 
2. If not provided by the IEEE vTools team, provide comparisons of 
    the WebEx platforms and their recommended uses 
3. If not provided by the IEEE vTools team, provide a list of 
    equipment and procedures that would facilitate the publicizing, 
    recording, and sharing of local geo units meetings / conferences