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The Eiffel Tower
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Elya Joffe, Region 8 Membership Chairman, and his wife Anat enjoyed sightseeing in Paris following the IEEE meeting. Here they are pictured at the world-famous Louvre museum. |
I had the pleasure to represent the EMC Society at the IEEE Division I and IV Region 8 Chapters Meeting. The meeting took place in Paris, France on October 1, 2000.
The Mercure Tour Eiffel Suffren Hotel was beautifully situated, virtually at the base of the Eiffel Tower (the Tour Eiffel), which provided a beautiful background to the meeting as well as a distraction (several attendees were "lost" in the afternoon session).
The primary purpose of the meeting was to get a status report of the current Society/Chapter relationships within Divisions I and IV; the fastest growing Region of the IEEE is Region 8. In addition, the representatives were asked to share experiences and ideas on how we can improve these relationships and the Chapter activities.
More than 50 Chapters from 28 different countries in Region 8 were represented at the meeting, in addition to presidents and representatives from the Societies and Region 8 headquarters. The overall attendance exceeded 80 people!
The key to the meeting was the sharing of individual Society experiences, best practices and the compilation of recommendations, conclusions and feedback. Reports were also given on Society/ Chapter communications, Chapter technical activities, membership development and educational activities.
The importance of the meeting was obvious from the large number of attendees and the high rank of the IEEE officers who attended the meeting. Those included the IEEE Division I Director and our very own EMCS member and past president, Bill Gjertson, IEEE Division IV Director, who delivered the opening remarks at the meeting and set its objectives.
Following the opening remarks, reports were given by the Region 8 Representatives and by the Society Representatives of Divisions I and IV. Each were allocated 7 to 10 minutes (although some "borrowed" significantly more time).
Region 8 was represented by the highest ranking officers, including IEEE Region 8 Director, Rolf Remshardt, Region 8 Vice President, Tony Davies and IEEE Region 8 Chapter Coordination Committee Chair, Tony Davies.
From the introduction provided by the IEEE Region 8 Director, it was revealed that Region 8 consists of over 35 countries, some of which are among the lowest income countries in the world. The EMCS is proud to have several Chapters in Region 8, some of which, in fact, are in lower income countries. Apparently, the IEEE has been considering the difficulties arising with this condition, and has established a Region 8 "Help Desk", for assisting in solving administrative and similar problems. In addition, the IEEE has established a Voluntary Contribution Fund (pay attention to that line on your renewal forms) which is used to help low income participants to attend Symposia, for instance.
The importance of meetings such as this should not be minimalized, however, it is considered to hold it only bi-annually, rather than annually. Nevertheless, Societies were encouraged to organize Regional/International Society Chapter Retreats. I would like to encourage the EMCS to hold a Region 8 or even an International Chapter Retreat in conjunction with the 2003 IEEE International Symposium on EMC, in Tel-Aviv, Israel.
Following a short welcome address by the French Section Chair, attending presidents or representatives of the Division I and IV Societies provided a short presentation about their respective Societies. This included the following Societies: MTTS (Microwaves), EDS (Electron Devices), APS (Antenna and Propagation), CASS (Circuits and Systems), CES (Consumer Electronics), CPMTS (Component Packaging and Manufacturing Technology), LEOS (LASER and Optics), SSCS (Solid State Circuits) and EMCS. This latter presentation was given by our very own EMCS President, Joseph Butler.
In his presentation, President Butler described the organization of our BoD with particular emphasis on the globalization efforts and representation on the BoD. He provided some statistics on the EMCS membership; total members number approximately 5,000 people of which 1,200 are from Region 8! There are 48 total EMCS Chapters, eight of which are in Region 8.
The global activities of the EMCS cover Technical Co-Sponsorship of EMC Symposia worldwide, and those were listed by Mr. Butler, along with the International Symposia Program, in the US and abroad, including the 2003 Symposium, to be held in Region 8, in Tel-Aviv, Israel.
Mr. Butler put special emphasis on our practices we implement to encourage global participation in the BoD. These include:
It was very enlightening to see what other IEEE Societies were doing, in addition to the EMC Society. There were ideas worthy for the EMC Society to consider. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that, when considering the difference in size of the Societies, the EMCS definitely has much to be proud about in its achievements. Each Society representative had five to 10 minutes to share Society practices and activities. All societies practice common activities such as:
Several of the more innovative Society practices, several of which are worthy of consideration by the EMCS, include:
From MTT:
From EDS:
From APS:
From CAS:
From CPMT:
- International Conferences
- Encourage contribution to Newsletter Chapter Column
- Continuing Education Program (and provide certificates for points accumulated)
- Banner for "Chapter of the Year"
From LEOS:
1. Affiliate group membership
From SSCS:
Interestingly enough, some other Chapters are about to, or have just celebrated, their 50th anniversary, and it is recommended to communicate with them, to investigate what special activities were planned by them for that special event. The 50th anniversary of the EMCS will take place in 2007.
Following the presentation by the Societies present, Mr. Peer Martin Larsen, Region 8 Membership Development Committee Chair, provided a presentation on Membership Development at the Chapter Level. His presentation covered four main aspects (R4):
He described the services the Societies, Region and IEEE as a whole can provide to assist in the recruitment of new members. These include registration material as well as promotional material for display and "give away" in Chapter and section activities (material can be obtained from w.hunter@ieee.org).
For retention of current members, he recommended that chapters appoint a person to be responsible for allocating arrears status members (members who are backwards in their membership renewal), and to stimulate their renewal.
With respect to recognition, he listed the "Senior membership" levels be provided to worthy members, and recognized in the awards program of the Society.
A short presentation on the Publishing Activities of IEEE followed by Mike Lightner. That presentation focused on the improved services the IEEE could provide to its membership, including IEEE Xplore (see the IEEE web site) and e-improvement of other services of the Society to its membership. It was interesting to learn that about 50% of the IEEE revenue comes from "outside IEEE" sources, i.e. from sales of the IEEE publications and services, such as Transactions, Symposia records, etc. That emphasized the dilema of wanting to increase recruitment, on the one hand; however, due to the subsidized cost of services to the membership, that would lead to a significant reduction in the income of the IEEE (which, beyond being a technical organization, as weĠd like to think of it, it is also a "big business" as put by Mr. Wyndrum).
Coffee and lunch breaks took place, and the quality of the French food was noteworthy. But these breaks also gave the participants a chance to "mingle" and communicate, which was really one of the most important achievements of this meeting.
The main part of the meeting consisted of the Chapter representatives reports. Chapter representatives were present from many countries of Region 8 (financial support was provided to representatives of low-income countries). Those included representatives from Eastern Europe and The Former Soviet Union Chapters, Western Europe and Africa Chapters, Scandinavia and Central Europe and The Middle East Chapters.
When invited to give my presentation on the Israel IEEE EMC Chapter, I also provided a complementary report on the Regional involvement and activities of the EMCS. Bringing my activities and responsibilities as a member "wearing several global hats for the EMCS," for example:
I tried to emphasize the international involvement and approach of the EMCS, from the BoD level down to its involvement in the single member and Chapter levels.
Chapter presentations were, in general, a good reflection of their Societies' activities and practices. Some of the best practices presented by the representatives were as follows:
It was interesting for us to find out during the meeting that the EMC-S "had" a Chapter in the Republic of Georgia (from the former the USSR). This was a "self proclaimed" Chapter (jointly with the MTT/ED Chapter).
In a side meeting I held with the Chapter Chair, I recommended that we consider the "EMC Chapter" non-existent and the Chapter will not present itself as the EMC Chapter. I also explained to him the advantages of being a "registered" Chapter of the EMC-S. In parallel, I recommended that the procedure shall be initiated for forming a new Chapter in the Republic of Georgia, an action I have already initiated.
Overall the meeting was deemed a great success and was a well spent day in Paris. EMC
