The meeting was preceded by an hour-long session on PACE (see details at the end) and a session of the Washington Section AdCom (to be reported separately by the WS Secretary).

1. Preliminaries. Ron Aasen called the meeting to order at 7:45 pm and welcomed the attendees. Since Don Rickerson was on travel, Ron asked for a volunteer to take the minutes; Saj Durrani offered to do so. The proposed agenda was approved.

2. Minutes of the June 9 meeting were approved, with the following correction: The date of the ITC Conference was June 28, not July 28.

3. Treasurer’s Report. Bill Kelly presented the report, which was accepted after discussion. It showed a net balance of $ 182.39 after completing outstanding transactions. Several advertisers had still not paid their bills totaling about $ 6,000, while expenses for the next issue of the SCANNER (vol. 14, # 4) were estimated at $6,200. There were many suggestions to collect the outstanding bills, such as repeated phone calls, written reminders, and referral to legal counsel. It was also noted that a minimum balance of $ 3,000 was required in the NCAC bank account, so additional funding was needed from the two Sections.

Actions:

(a) Bill will work with Dave Booth (SCANNER Advertising Manager) to expedite the collection of outstanding bills.

(b) It was moved that “NCAC requests Washington and NOVA Sections to pay an assessment of $ 1,500 each, in order to support SCANNER publication costs.” The motion passed, with all voting in favor, except for Satish Aggarwal abstaining.

4. Chairman’s Report.

a. PACE Meetings. In addition to the meeting on 7/6, there will be three other special meetings for PACE, on 7/24 in Greenbelt, and on 8/11 and 8/28 in NOVA. Details are available in the SCANNER for July/ August. Satish asked Saj to write up a report at the end of the series.

b. Kaplan Job Fairs. NCAC should set up a booth at Embassy Suites, Tysons Corner, at the Job Fair on July 19 and 20. John Margosian and Saj Durrani said they would man the booth, along with other volunteers. Jim Allen said he would attend, depending on his other commitments.

c. Millennium Medals. The IEEE will award 3000 medals next year to mark the 3rd millennium. The criterion is service to IEEE or society. Although NCAC has not been given a quota, NOVA and Washington Sections can nominate 24 persons each. All members who qualify were urged to send in their names to the two Section Chairs as soon as possible.

d. National PACE Conference. It will be held in Dallas on September 4-6. Ron will attend as NCAC Chair; since Saj will be on vacation, Harold Stinger will attend as NCAC’s PACE Representative. Satish will attend as WS Chair. They were asked to make early reservations to save on air fare and hotel costs. The Region will pick up a part of their expenses; NCAC and the Section will reimburse the balance. Ron said additional delegates would be welcome, especially if they planned to be active in PACE next year. A leaflet from Ann Hartfiel of IEEE USA was circulated; it said one delegate from an educational project could be funded for travel to Dallas and Conference registration, if the project entered a competition by mid-July and won.

e. Sections Congress. It will take place in Minneapolis on October 8-11. Ron and Satish will go as NCAC and WS Chairs. Additional delegates are encouraged; they should contact Ron.

f. Candidates for NCAC-2000. The Nominating Committee is chaired by Nino Ingegneri, with Jerry Gibbon as member. Nino reported that Don Rickerson has agreed to continue serving on the ExCom, and two (or possibly three) other positions on the ExCom for 2000 will be vacant. They had found 3 candidates but are still looking for others. They will finalize the slate by July 15. Satish asked them to send it for publication in the next SCANNER, which has a July 22 deadline.

g. Conferences. Plans for Radar 2000 and PES 2003 are proceeding smoothly. Nothing to report.

5. Standing/ Ad Hoc Committee Reports. Only two reports were presented. Awards Banquet. Ron/ Satish said the choice of location reported last month was tentative, and it may be changed if better facilities are identified in the next few months. Membership Development. Howard Needham said one new application for Senior Member was received. Three attendees agreed to act as references.

6. Liaison Reports. Jim Allen said that the Consultants Network will meet on 7/20 at the University of Maryland and on 8/3 in Tysons’s Corner. Details are available in the SCANNER.

7. Unfinished or New Business. John Margosian said the MTT Chapter would like ideas for free meeting space near the Beltway in NOVA. Suggestions included contacting AFCEA, TRW, MITER, etc., through Chapter members who belong to these organizations. On another matter, Satish said he had asked HQ for e-mail addresses of all WS members. This could help send timely notices, since the SCANNER is published every two months and has a long lead time.

8. Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 pm. The next meeting will be held jointly with the NOVA Section AdCom on August 11, at 6:30 pm. It will be preceded by a PACE session starting at 5:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted, Saj Durrani,
July 13, 1999

Report of the PACE Session, July 6, 1999 (5:40 to 6:40 pm)

Ron Aasen welcomed everyone and asked Saj Durrani, as the NCAC PACE Chair, to conduct the session. Saj said that this was the first in a series of four such sessions. The purpose was to describe various Professional Activities Projects underway in the two Sections, expand the base of participants, and find new volunteers to lead future Projects. Two sessions were being held in conjunction with NCAC AdCom meetings (on July 6 and August 11); in these, current PACE leaders would give brief overviews of their Projects. In the other two sessions (on Saturdays July 24 and August 28, from 11 am to noon), some of the Projects would be discussed in more detail.

Harold Stinger described his work with the Duval High School in Greenbelt. The students have developed Get-Away Special (GAS) experiments for the Space Shuttle, under the guidance of NASA-Goddard personnel. IEEE could also help initiate similar projects in other schools. Saj said that George Rodgers had been teaching advanced mathematics to students of Jefferson Technical High School for more than 10 years and had written many papers about the Project.

Dave Weiss said he was running Project “RESEED” (Retirees Enhancing Science Education through Experiments and Demonstrations) in Montgomery County, as part of an IEEE activity started in Boston in 1991. Last year he sent mailings to about 500 retired IEEE members and put an ad in the Washington Post. He got 18 volunteers (two are MDs), who spend one or two days a week to support science teachers in local middle schools. This year he wants to expand the project, with funding from NCAC and Region 2 for mailings and training of participants.

Ron Hira discussed the activities of Technology Policy Committees of IEEE-USA. There are five Committees, dealing with policy issues in Aersopace, Communication and Information, Energy, Medical Technology, and R&D (DoD, NASA, etc.). The Committees prepare position papers and testify before Congress, Administration, and other bodies; he had just come after giving such testimony to a panel. Any interested IEEE member can serve on one or more Committees.

Jim Allen said he attends meetings of the Technology/ High Technology Councils in Virginia and Maryland as a representative of the Consultants Network. By participating, IEEE members can interface with government officials and industry leaders, get to know their crucial needs, and determine a role for IEEE in fulfilling them. He can provide more information to those interested.

Jerry Gibbon said that he, Mike Violette and Don Rickerson often speak to college students on Job Search and Career Planning techniques. The talks focus on how to prepare a resume, handle an interview, land a job, and set goals for a 40 year career. He said they would welcome and assist additional speakers who wish to give similar talks to colleges in the area.

In closing, Saj Durrani thanked the speakers for an excellent summary of their work. He said a larger attendance had been expected but unfortunately the SCANNER came out late -- only a few members had received it by July 6. Therefore, he asked everyone to spread the word and try to get better attendance in the next three meetings. They are on July 24 (11 am -12 noon) at SGT Inc., 7701 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt; August 11 (5:30-6:30 pm) at the Marriotts in Tysons Corner, and August 28 (11 am -12 noon) at UTA Inc., 950 N Glebe Rd, Arlington.