By Harold L. Flescher
Division IV Director-Elect Candidate
I believe that it is incumbent on people who run for office to state clearly why they are running and exactly what they would do if elected, rather than mouth the usual uncontroversial, semi-meaningless statements concerning motherhood and apple pie. First the what, then the why.
The most important issue facing IEEE today is how we bring our vision of globalization to reality. Globalization means that IEEE membership in every country consists of a substantial percentage of each country’s electrotechnologists, people for whom dues must both provide value and be affordable. Past volunteer and staff activities have focused on increasing the value of membership without lowering its cost. This has produced benefits like free virus-scanned e-mail aliases and substantially enhanced financial advantage programs. Yet our penetration of our market is low, even in the more wealthy countries. Although our membership is rising slowly, we have a large turn-over each year indicating that many members don’t see adequate value for their dues. While we must continue to find new ways to add value for our members we must also look for ways to make membership more affordable for everyone, everywhere. To do that we must do two things.
First we must go through our expenses with a fine-tooth comb, eliminating activities that don’t provide substantial value. As a member of the Ad Hoc Financial Committee that did this for the Technical Activities Board (TAB) in 1995, we cut 3.6% out of our budget without noticeable effect. This year we completed another similar activity, cutting our expenses by almost another 3% without noticeable effect. Identical activities must be carried out by all IEEE entities. After being elected to the TAB Administrative Committee and elected chair of the TAB Liaison Council, I put motions in front of TAB to eliminate both of these entities (as well as my jobs) because it was clear that these entities did not add enough value to justify their expenses. Their absence has not affected TAB’s effectiveness or usefulness. There will be difficult decisions to make in order to cut expenses, but they must be made for our future success. I am committed to making this happen.
The second thing we must do is drive down the cost of membership. This can be done by unbundling our services; by not having membership dues include everything they do today. We must determine which of our current services are absolutely core to membership, services our members and the organization want and need, and set our dues at a level that will pay for those services. Members can select any additional services they both want and find cost-effective. That is the way membership in IEEE technical societies works; one doesn’t have to join any society but may join as many as desired. I believe that we can lower our basic dues to 50% or less of the current level, and I believe that this would mean that IEEE would gain many more members as a result. It worked with students when we cut their dues in 1998, resulting in a 21% increase in student memberships.
Wouldn’t unbundling create an end to some services? Perhaps, but not if members perceive that they are getting value for money from those services. If members don’t perceive value, then why is the IEEE continuing these activities? Let me use IEEE-USA as an example. Some say that were membership in IEEE-USA voluntary, too few people would join to keep it as a viable activity. Let’s ask that question differently: were IEEE-USA dues voluntary, what would be necessary for American IEEE members to happily pay the $24 they are currently assessed? Those of us who live in the USA generally feel that we need national representation. So the real trick is to make IEEE-USA responsive to us, its customers, by providing services we value. Unbundling dues would not mean an end to entity services but a new beginning for membership sensitive and supportive IEEE entities.
Doing these things won’t be easy. They will require hard work, difficult decisions, and a well thought out and rigorous transition plan for implementation, but they must be done if we are to attain our stated vision and continue the successful progress of IEEE.
Now, why? I feel very strongly that the program I advocate would be in the best interest of electrotechnologists world-wide and the IEEE. A stronger IEEE can help us for the future. My background in industry says that my proposals are feasible and achievable. I ask for your support and your vote to begin this journey. Thanks!
by Peter Staecker
Division IV Director-Elect Candidate
Statement: As a working engineer in a global electronics company, I have experienced the cultures of the engineering workplace and the demands it places upon the individual contributor and technical leader to continue learning while adding value to the company. These demands exist at all levels within any organization, including IEEE. The challenge to IEEE is to offer information and interaction to ALL its members as quickly as the communications technology infrastructure allows.
I have had the opportunity to serve the MTT Society in areas that affect its global membership - in Meetings and Symposia, Publications, and Awards - and am still active in all three areas. I understand the needs for, and challenges of, rapid communication.
My primary goal is to facilitate global connectivity among the membership, by enabling and communicating best practices among the Societies of Division IV and of the Institute.
I look forward to sharing the results of these efforts with you.
Membership Satisfaction (Why Join IEEE?): The manner in which information is provided and the facility with which we access it (connectivity) will transform the way we live in the next decade. Learning, career paths, technical achievements, and volunteer efforts, all of which are components of membership satisfaction, will be profoundly impacted. How can we give members a competitive edge in their profession, career, or volunteer activities? I think the answer lies in access to technical information (connectivity) in its many forms (face-to-face, hard-copy, or electronic; real-time or archival), and making the tools and data readily accessible to our membership as quickly as the technology allows. (This vision drives growth. Cost-cutting serves a useful support activity, but is not a vision.) Here are some examples:
Accessibility of archival technical information to Society membership. Many of the methods and techniques captured in the archival journals of the MTT Society are of permanent value. Because of the recent efforts by an individual MTT member, MTT’s entire set of Transactions (1952-1999) is now available to IEEE members as a 22 disk CDROM set (https://www.mtt.org/pub/cdrom.html).
Rapid and timely review of papers for large conferences. MTT is embarking on electronic submission and review of paper summaries (task: distribute 800 – 1000 summaries among a 250 person international Technical Program Committee) for its upcoming International Microwave Symposium in June 2000. This exercise will be easier to implement because of the lessons and successes of AP, MAG, and NPS Conference Committees who have completed similar efforts.
Chapter meetings, local technical conferences, and visits by distinguished lecturers. Global connectivity takes on quite different meanings depending on where you live. Communications infrastructure does not exist in some countries or is prohibitively expensive in others. A Region 8 (including Europe, countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU), Middle East, and Africa) colleague relates that a 100kB transmission in Ukraine costs the receiver US$ 5, a sizeable fraction of a professional’s monthly salary. In Eastern Europe and FSU, therefore, global connectivity addresses, at least for the moment, very basic networking needs: chapter meetings, local technical conferences, and visits by distinguished lecturers. Membership growth is booming, but needs the basic IEEE infrastructure to flourish.
Aside: Financial support and action at the local level addressed this issue in a decisive manner when the growth prospects and fragility of technical communities in this area of the world were first recognized. In late 1993, MTT, ED, and later AP, joined forces to subsidize chapter and membership growth in countries of Eastern Europe and the FSU. By the end of 1996, 12 Joint Chapters in FSU countries had been established, with membership dues for 154 Members subsidized. As a result, in 1998, Region 8 was the fastest growing Region, not only in terms of MTT membership, but also in technical events such as conferences, workshops, lectures and educational activities
Communicating the Process (the Task of the Division Director): The Societies are a rich source of practices that enhance Membership satisfaction. Implemented locally, as they are today, these practices are quick and effective. Modifications gained by sharing and interacting with other Societies will yield improvements and lead to best practices. The Division Director should serve as a clearing house for reporting continuous improvement in membership satisfaction, by reporting his own personal activities in this area as well as those of the Societies. He should be responsive to inputs from individual Members.
Improvements in information access and interaction (connectivity) will change our lives in the next decade. If elected your Division Director, I will work with the Committees of TAB, the Societies of Division IV, and the Institute to identify, modify, and deploy best practices in these areas to keep pace with rapid technology improvements for the benefit of the membership.