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Chapter Formation Rules & Benefits
The advantage in having chapters lies in keeping a section's technical
activities vital. Additionally, the IEEE compensates sections with an extra
$180 US per chapter. However, there is no need to have separate
one-society chapters. I believe there is a great opportunity to increase
IEEE Canada's exposure to the funds available within the societies by
creating joint chapters. For example, joint chapters still only need to
hold two meetings per year to qualify for these funds. However now the
section can draw upon multiple distinguished lecturer or visitor lists.
This is one of the major benefits of having a joint chapter.
Financial Help Available from Societies
Here is a partial list of the societies offering financial help to their
chapters. Society benefits are indicated for information only - please
contact each society for their latest funding possibilities:
Here are some of the specific benefits:
- COM - up to $500 US funding per year per chapter; one distinguished lecturer tour approved per region per year; one chapter chair meeting per year.
- C - $150 US rebate on top of the IEEE's $180 chapter rebate; society pays up to $750 US per distinguished lecturers visit to a chapter; chapter tutorial program pays for travel for a 1-day short course by a DL speaker up to $1000 US (not used very much).
- ED - up $1000 US funding per year per chapter; DL program with limitations.
- EMB - up to $1000 US in matching funds in a 2:1 ratio (i.e., need to raise $500 US from section, chapter or other source) for DL visit.
- GRS - up to $400 US per chapter per year for a DL speaker.
- SP - up to $1750 US per chapter per year for distinguished lecturers (DL) and up to an additional $1750 US per chapter per year for pre-approved speakers not on the DL list.
- PE - financial support on a per project basis and DL visitors' travel subsidised; one chapter chair meeting per year.
For a full list of society acronyms view here .
Chapter Formation Opportunities
For single chapters the best opportunities are in Hamilton and London.
Perhaps it would be good to form chapters in those sections to
revitalize them. The key obviously is finding some volunteers. This
might involve first creating a super-chapter encompassing five or more
societies and splitting it at a later time. Other opportunities include:
Montreal (EM, CS, RA, PEL), Kitchener-Waterloo (PE, IA), Ottawa (CPMT),
Quebec (PE), Toronto (CE, IT, IE, EMB, CS, RA, IA, PEL, LEO), Southern
Alberta (SP, CAS, CS), and Vancouver (SP, CAS, EMB, RA, SSC). These
represent the best potential cases (approx. 3 times the required number
of members) for section ExCom's to pursue if they are interested.
I see an opportunity to create joint chapters in the following sections
for various society combinations (i.e., either creating a new joint
chapter or attaching new society chapters to existing single society
chapters). Creating a new single or joint chapter requires submission of
a petition while transforming a single chapter into a joint chapter just
requires a letter to RAB (see rules outlined below). The joint chapters
could link 2 societies or more in the list provided as appropriate for
each section (i.e., these are potential combinations that I feel would
work well together):
- Canadian Atlantic: OE-SP
- Kingston: SP-EMB
- Kitchener-Waterloo: SP-EMB-GRS, COM-VT-IT-BT, CAS-ED-SSC, MTT-AP, C-RA-CS-SMC, PE-IA
- Montreal: CS-RA, SP-GRS
- North Saskatchewan: CS-RA-IA, C-COM-SP
- Northern Canada: SP-EMB, CAS-ED-SSC,
- Ottawa: SP-GRS, IA-PEL
- Peterborough: C-PE
- South Saskatchewan: C-COM
- Southern Alberta: SP-EMB-GRS, MTT-AP, CAS-SSC, COM-VT, RA-CS
- Toronto: SP-EMB, COM-IT-BT, CS-RA
- Vancouver: SP-EMB-GRS-OE, CAS-ED-SSC, AP-MTT, COM-IT-BT, CS-RA
- Victoria: C-COM-SP
- Winnipeg: C-COM-SP or EMB-SP
Chapter Approval Process and Help
Joint-chapters are usually approved if they cover related societies
(i.e., within the same division). However, there are cases in Region 8
where a chapter may span multiple divisions, which means if a section
wants to have a chapter with many different societies they usually can.
Sections need to identify the chapters they would like to form and I
will help them with the paper work. I cannot find the volunteers but I
can certainly help in bringing more resources to sections by helping
identify which societies could be represented in an existing chapter and
putting a good case for creating the joint chapter.
To create a joint chapter starting from a single chapter, one does NOT
need to obtain a petition. It is only necessary to have enough members
of the particular society in the section (12 - for full chapter, 6 - for
joint chapter). The rules are listed as follows:
To Change the Status of an Existing Chapter
The status of an existing Chapter may be changed from single to joint,
or vice-versa, or from one joint combination to another without
submission of a petition. The change in status will become effective
following approval of the change by the Regional Director, the Society
Presidents and the involved Section Executive Committee(s).
- The written request, with full details on the proposed change in
Chapter status, shall be submitted by the Section Executive Committee.
This request should include the name and address of the Organizer of the
restructured Chapter who will act as its Chairman, and be faxed to:
1 732 463 9359 or mailed to: IEEE Regional Activities Department,
Section/Chapter Support, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08855 USA
(Email: sec-chap-support@ieee.org)
- Action will be taken by Regional Activities staff to obtain
approval of the change in status by those concerned.
- When the necessary approvals have been received, the Section
Chairman, the Chapter Organizer, the Regional Director and the
Presidents of the Societies concerned will be notified.
- The Chapter formation will be noted in the Report of the Managing
Director at the next meeting of the Regional Activities Board.
Once joint chapters are in place and there is interest in splitting them,
it is very easy to do as per the rules above. I believe the only
condition is that there are at least 12 society members in that section.
As you can see in the table,
many single society chapters can be now formed in all sections (except perhaps
for the St.-Maurice Section) as long as there is volunteer will.
Furthermore, sections should avoid disbanding chapters altogether and
rather should merge inactive chapters into existing active chapters as
volunteers might be found later on to run that particular chapter.
GOLD Affinity Groups - Advantage for Chapter Management
Finally, I would urge every section to create a GOLD affinity group.
This can be done even with just the signatures of the section ExCom once
a willing volunteer is found to run this group. Establishing a GOLD
Group can be a very effective volunteer recruitment tool for finding
people to run technical chapters. There are many young engineers, when
asked to participate, that would gladly do so but they are often not aware of
the possibilities. All sections have more than 6 GOLD members which
means that they can all form GOLD groups.
Furthermore, the data seems to indicate that all sections, where
chapters could be created, have GOLD members in the disciplines covered
by the chapters (see the table at the end *).
Furthermore, each section can identify through the member database (ask Cathie Lowell for more information) the
actual name and email address of these GOLD members - should you want to
ask them to chair the chapter/joint chapter.
Can I Help You ?
If you have any questions or would like me to help with anything please
do not hesitate to ask. I am here to assist you in forming more chapters
and distributing society resources to as many sections as possible
within IEEE Region 7.
Ferial El-Hawary
Chapters Coordinator
Email: f.el-hawary@ieee.org
Chapters Coordinating Committee
Chair - Ferial Elhawary
CC Representative - Kostas Platanoitis
EC Representative - John Greford
WC Representative - Gruja Blagojevic
GOLD Representative - Verona Wong
Life Members Representative -
Useful Links
Society Chapters webpage
Volunteer resources webpage
Technical Society webpages
IEEE Canada Societies by Section excel file *
IEEE Canada help with managing Sections, Chapters and Branches
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