We know that many members never take the time to apply for Senior Membership, either because they think the requirements are too high or they think it would take too much time.We would like to show you that neither of these reasons should be an obstacle. First of all, the basic requirement for Senior Membership is 10 years in the profession with 5 years of significant performance. Significant performance can include responsibility for, or major contribution to, important scientific or engineering work, publication of engineering or scientific papers, books or inventions, development of courses and related activities. Most engineers with 10 years in the profession will meet these requirements. Details and examples are given on the IEEE web site Secondly, your application can be done quickly.The IEEE web site has forms and instructions available for download and completion off-line. And finally, to make the submission as easy as possible, the Central Texas Section is holding this Senior Member Upgrade Event in El Gallo Mexican Restaurant in south Austin, TX from 6-8:30 PM.

We will have computers available to review and complete you application. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO COMPLETE ALL STEPS IN THE APPLICATION PROCESS DURING THE EVENING. Senior and Fellow members who have been through this process will be at the meeting to review and provide assistance in completing the application. After the event, the CTS will provide Senior and Fellow members to provide the required references. For those interested, dinner and/or desert can be purchased at the restaurant.

Things to Do

• Call, 522-3729, or email Joe Redfield to let us know you will be coming.
• Bring the following to submit your application at the event:
1. Electronic copy in MS Word format of your application filled out with the following:
• IEEE member number
• Degrees, schools and dates
• Current position, company, and title
• List of professional experience
• List of achievements demonstrating significant performance
2. Electronic copy of a recent resume (to be submitted with the application)

Plan to join us and UPGRADE YOUR MEMBERSHIP.

Senior Member volunteers are needed to coach members on the filling out of the SM application at the event AND/OR the writing of references for members submitting applications at the Senior Member Upgrade event listed above.

The coaching of the application process is at the event on Wednesday night and will involve being a the event location starting at 5:30 till completion which I suspect will be around 9 PM. The event is scheduled to start at 6 PM and complete at 8:30 PM. ( v Technically it is not required for you to be a senior member to coach at the event. If you are not currently a Senior member, I will brief you in all you need to know to fill out your own application and to coach others.)

If you are able to come to support the event, the Section will pay for your dinner.  As the event is scheduled to start at 6 PM. I am asking that event volunteers come no later than 5:30 to get briefed on the process and eat your dinner. 

If you are interested in serving, or need further information, please let Joe Redfield know.

Join us on Tuesday, May 24, 6 PM for M. N. (Mike) Filley's presentation on Critical Power Distribution Systems. Distribution systems for providing reliable electrical power at industrial facilities, data centers, and telecommunications centers have evolved considerably over the past few years. Mike's presentation will discuss some of the latest distribution systems, their pros and cons, and the difficulties in achieving the "perfect" system--reliable, selective, safe and cost-effective. Mike is a P.E. with the Austin field office of the Square-D Company. For more information, please see the announcement.

The meeting will be held in El Gallo Restaurant in south Austin, TX from 6-8:30 PM. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Stacy Smith.

Certificates. Please pick up your CE certificates for IEEE meetings at the next meeting.

If you have questions about your certification for certification for the NEC seminar, please email Beckey Stallcup at grayboy02@aol.com

On Tuesday, April 26, Mark Hunter presented a summary of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, distributed control systems (DCS), and programmable logic controllers (PLC). His talk included technologies, advantages, and disadvantages. Mark showed how hybrid control system architecture fills the gap between DCS and PLC systems. He concluded his presentation with an overview of system security issues, including physical security, control system security, network security, and integration legal mandates. He was also kindly proficed a copy of his presentation slides. Mark is with Invensys Process Systems .

We really appreciate Mark traveling from Chicago to for this presentation. Thank you.

2005 National Electric Code ® Changes--Thank you

A big thank you to James Stallcup, Sr., President of the Electrical Section of NFPA, Chairman of Code Making Panel 14, and principal member of several technical committees, for conducting the February seminar on the 2005 changes to the National Electric Code®. Here are a couple photos of the event.

Also a round of thank you applause to our sponsors, without whom this seminar would not have taken place.

• Siemans Energy & Automaton, Inc.
• Square D--A brand of Schneider Electric
• 3 M Electrical Products
• Toshiba
• APC

Finally thank you to the over 100 participants who helped make this seminar a big success.

Jules Campbell was kind enough to send us the slides for his and Walter Hornaday's fascinating presentations on wind power from February 2004.

Jules Campbell presentation
Walter Hornaday presentation