Feedback to Section Requests for How Region 4

Feedback to Section Requests for How Region 4 Can Help Sections Bob Parro, SMIEEE Region 4 – Central Area Chair IEEE Rock River Valley Section River North Solutions – VP Business Development 24 -Jan-09

Approach to This Interaction R 4 flexibility Want YOUR feedback to our solutions/plans YOU are the reason why Region 4 exists! We want to develop real solutions to section challenges/issues 2 24 -Jan-09

Path To This File http: //ewh. ieee. org/reg/4/wintermeeting 2 009. php Available 5: 00 pm today, 1/24/09 3 24 -Jan-09

Region 4 Mission Help the Sections in Region 4 to be Successful in serving the IEEE members in the Section and helping IEEE members in the Section to be successful… 4 24 -Jan-09

Section Requests for R 4 Help Region 4 Meeting (Jan ‘ 07) Region 4 Meeting (Jan ’ 08) Sections Congress 2008 (Sept ’ 08) 5 24 -Jan-09

9 Categories Recruitment & Retention Training Funding Communications E-Commerce Students Regional Speaker Database General. Conferences 6 24 -Jan-09

Recruitment & Retention Best Practices for the recruitment and retention of volunteers for section leadership and building section membership. (East Area, Central Area – NE WI, West Area) – Solution § § § 7 Increase awareness through communications Recruit by motivation and incentives Make members feel inclusive: understand the values of belonging to a society 24 -Jan-09

Recruitment & Retention – Plan § Review and improve the communication process: – – – § Be creative in developing motivation and incentive – – – § 8 Every section MUST have a Membership Development chair Section and Region MD chairs should work together to collect and/or create membership development material: CDs, update local section website with MD material Every section should create MD web pages, which facilitate access to MD material. Every section Ex. Com member should make at least One presentation to local industries. Use Membership Invite local industries and universities to section Ex. Com and seek feedback Send new members to conferences (e. g. Annual Meetings, Leadership conferences) Participate and promote local competitions (e. g. Robofest in SEM) Each section should take advantage of PDS, at least One PDS every quarter Events to encourage gathering and networking – 24 -Jan-09 Quarterly social event

Recruitment & Retention Greater than 40% student members—how do we leverage this? How do we keep them as IEEE members? (Central Area – Central IL) – Solution § § § – Plan Increase Student Professional Development Seminars (4 per year) § Section leadership should visit all universities and meet with professors and department heads to discuss opportunities § Engage Section Counselor in Ex. Com activities § Encourage local chapters to get students involved in their activities: at least one meeting with student branches for each chapter. 24 -Jan-09 § 9 Promote value of membership Encourage university staff (professors, departments) to promote membership Provide Student Branch Counselors with more resources and keep them current with events

Recruitment & Retention Aids In Finding and Engaging Volunteers (Individual Contact [One-on-One], Request [Small, Clear, Achievable]) (Central Area – Fox Valley Subsection, Central IL) – Solution – Plan Successful methods in reaching out to “lost” members. (Central Area – NE WI) – Solution –See No. 1 – Plan – See No. 1 Need financial incentive for people to join IEEE, Special membership programs. (East Area – SE MI) – Solution – See No. 1 – Plan – See No. 1 10 24 -Jan-09

Training Develop a training program for new/current officers (Central Area – Calumet, Central IL) – Solution – Training program in place on R 4 website, both slides and previously recorded training sessions. Sections should include in officer transition plan. – Plan – R 4 Area Chairs will update training material on R 4 website by January Region 4 meeting each year. Area Chairs contact local Section leadership in Q 1 every year to coordinate training either via Region meeting or online training materials. Provide follow-up by Q 2 to verify training is complete and understood by Section Leadership. – Deliverable – R 4 website training material updates by January R 4 meeting each year 11 24 -Jan-09

Training GOLD members to move into section officers. (East Area) – – – Solution – Region GOLD coordinator provides coverage of opportunities to volunteer in their Section during GOLD training. GOLD volunteers should also attend training program for new/current officers. Plan – Annual GOLD training. Direct R 4 contact to local Section GOLD members when no GOLD chair exists in the Section (i. e. GOLD volunteer recruitment). Deliverable § § § 12 Plan ready for execution 2 Q 09 Update existing Job Description for R 4 GOLD Coordinator R 4 website GOLD training material updates by January R 4 meeting each year 24 -Jan-09

Training Running a successful section. (East Area) Offer suggestions/provide information on methods that have succeeded in the past. (East Area – Toledo) Include ‘meeting ideas’ as a training topic for new officers. (West Area) – Plan § § § – 13 Add ‘Best Practices’ to the R 4 website section officer training Include Distinguished Lecturers and data mining of successful/unsuccessful meetings from other Sections Direct contact with members of inactive Sections by Area Chair Deliverable – ‘Best Practices’ and meeting ideas content in office training on R 4 website 24 -Jan-09

Training Train Section Officers Commensurate with Plan. (West Area – Cedar Rapids) – Solution – Item has already been completed 14 24 -Jan-09

Funding Money. (East Area) Provide financial assistance, as may be needed. (East Area – Toledo, West MI) Financial support to do more educational activities with High Schools (Central Area – RRVS) Expand support of section PACE activities. (East Area – Central IN, West Area – Coulee)) How to get funding for officers and students to attend conferences and workshops. (East Area – , West MI) Award grants to section activities related to PACE and GOLD. (West Area – Nebraska) – Solution § § 15 Get requests to R 4 in as early as possible in calendar year to have best chance of getting funded…PACE, GOLD, Technical & Educational Activities. PACE funding request form: http: //www. ieeeusa. org/volunteers/pace/funding. asp After budget is exhausted, attend conferences/workshops via webcast 24 -Jan-09

Funding Provide information on funds available to precollege programs that Sections can obtain for students in our area. (Central Area – NE WI) – Plan – Publish R 4 budget on R 4 website, update budget vs. actual monthly Expand support to send more volunteers to PACE leadership meeting and annual meetings. (East Area – Central IN, West Area - Nebraska) – Plan – Employ webcasts to enable remote participation Continue to support training 2 delegates per Section at Region meetings. (West Area) – Plan – January mtg face-to-face, October mtg via webcast. Implement now. 16 24 -Jan-09

Funding Explore joint section support for technical conference. (West Area – Coulee) – Uncertain if this refers to strictly financial support 17 24 -Jan-09

Communications Methods other sections use to promote themselves (Central Area – Madison) Need to share experiences with E-newsletters and website development--Best practices (Central Area – Chicago) Expedite Communication among Sections and with Region 4 Directorship. (West Area – Cedar Rapids) 18 24 -Jan-09

Communications Encourage more R 4 discussion and build sense of R 4 community on forums. (West Area – IA IL) – Solution § § § – – 19 Virtual Communities Locating resource information at R 4 website For serving remote members better, can also hold mtgs in other cities within sections Attend R 4 meetings live or remotely Webcast section meetings using Instant. Presenter (instantpresenter. com) (see Dave Paulsen dpaulsen@ieee. org from Southern MN section) Plan – Encourage and train sections to utilize the Region 4 Community Time – Implemented on completion of virtual communities training, 1/24/09 24 -Jan-09

Communications Provide web services support to sections. (West Area – Southern MN) Help with web site development. (Central Area – NE WI) – Plan – v-tools – Web-In-A-Box in pilot – Time – Production 2 Q 09 20 24 -Jan-09

Communications Use the calendar functionality of v-Tools and publicize on R 4 Website Continue Support of e-notice (Membership Database, Prompt response to request for notice) (Central Area – Fox Valley Subsection) – no evidence feature is going away Publicize Technical and PACE Activities of Neighboring Sections (Central Area – Madison, West Area) Promulgation of event ideas and networking opportunities with other sections is probably the most helpful. (East Area – Central IN) Providing information on upcoming webinars for possible meeting events (Central Area – NE WI) 21 24 -Jan-09

Communications Regional newsletter (Central Area – Central IL) – Plan § § Meeting awareness component – Sections use calendar functionality of v-Tools to publicize meetings on R 4 and section websites; Begin now with goal of all R 4 sections engaged by Oct ‘ 09 MGA-ITV (Implementing The Vision) committee – planned work item at MGA level. Seeks consistent communications across all regions including region newsletters. – Time – In progress, do not yet have timeline 22 24 -Jan-09

Communications Update the IEEE e-mail list (Many members report that they consistently receive e-mails from IEEE National, but not from the Milwaukee Section) (Central Area – MKE) – Solution – Make sure section updates their SAMIEEE email list each month because data becomes stale quickly – Plan – If that doesn’t work send the problem to IEEE SAMIEEE 23 24 -Jan-09

Communications Providing the ways to establish the teleconference meetings which will supplement standard meetings. (Central Area – Central IL) Foster/Support Remote Shared Meetings. (West Area – Coulee) Methods other sections use to serve their more remote members (Central Area – Madison) 1. Audio/video conferencing for service for section excom meetings. (West Area – Southern MN) 24 24 -Jan-09

Communications Streaming service for remote broadcast with playback (at reasonable price). (West Area – Southern MN) – Solution – Use web-conferencing tool such as Instant. Presenter (instantpresenter. com) (Dave Paulsen in Southern MN section) – remote Broadcasted meetings – Plan – R 4 to buy web conferencing tool (30 seats) and FREE region-wide use for webcasting meetings – Time – 2/28/09 25 24 -Jan-09

Communications Reduce communications costs (Web Page, Web based newsletter, Year-In-Review- paper) – share other’s experiences in costs, getting advertisers, sources of funding (Central Area – Chicago) – Solution – Make newsletters all-electronic and use students, for web page, use volunteers and/or students; year-in-review – show RRVS example, perform cost vs. benefits analysis 26 24 -Jan-09

Communications More visits from R 4 leadership to build relationships with new officers; more interaction; attend section meetings and discuss region activities (East Area, Central Area – Madison, West Area – IA IL) – Plan – Have R 4 Ex. Com members interact with own sections and obtain coverage from respective Area Chairs and R 4 Director for sections that do not have a member on R 4 Ex. Com, subject to budget limitations 27 24 -Jan-09

Communications Ideas for engaging non engineering disciplines in joint events and programs. (East Area – SE MI) – Plan – Virtual Communities – on a virtual community ideas can be shared where all can benefit – Time – If agreeable, can be implemented immediately 28 24 -Jan-09

Communications Provide a preferred printer that could send paper mailings for sections, with electronic service unless the section can find a more economic source. (West Area – Central IA) – Solution – Postcards. com – use this method for each meeting instead of snail mailing newsletters each month; some sections mail postcards once/year containing all meeting dates/locations/topics. Excellent candidate that supports at least postcards. It is a web interactive page designer, very inexpensive and paid by Pay. Pal. – Time – Available now. 29 24 -Jan-09

Communications Continue with out-reach programs to educate members on services IEEE has to offer. (West Area – Nebraska) – Solution § § IEEE member benefits – http: //ieee. org/web/membership/benefits/index. html Also, Tarek’s CD – Plan – Add links to R 4 website by 3/1/09 30 24 -Jan-09

Communications Share success/failure/in progress stories on how other Sections are dealing with “brand recognition”. (West Area – Twin Cities) – Solution – use IEEE Guidelines on the web/virtual communities – Plan – On a virtual community ideas can be shared where all can benefit – Time – Available now 31 24 -Jan-09

E-Commerce Solution for real time credit card processing when signing up for events via the web. (East Area) – Plan § § 32 v-tools – Meetings – phase 2 Interim approach – capture credit card info, then use IEEE to process card transactions http: //www. ieee. org/web/volunteers/webconf http: //www. ieee. org/web/conferences/organizers/r eference_materials. html 24 -Jan-09

Students Find a way for students at non-Branch colleges to have a group Branch without requiring them to join with a present Branch. (Central Area – Northwest Subsection) – Solution – Invite them to Student Branch Leadership Conference where they learn about benefits and “how-to’s” of forming IEEE student branch. Provide them with resource material and info needed to complete formation of their branch. – Plan – Inform them of how to collaborate with other colleges in area to help reach critical mass for branch 33 24 -Jan-09

Students Request that IEEE create a member Grade Code of US and GS (or SU and SG) so that we can identify Graduate students for volunteer chapter officers using SAMIEEE (Central Area – Northwest Subsection) – Solution – Already in place. SAMIEEE currently lists graduate students as GM. 34 24 -Jan-09

Students Share Region 4’s Educational Outreach Initiatives (Central Area – Madison) – FYI – Currently R 4 sponsors Student Leadership Conference, Ethics Competition, Website contest. . other such competitions conducted by IEEE. There are no other initiatives, but maybe there could be more? – Solution – Ask sections what activities or initiatives they are looking for or are already aware of that they would like help with. – Plan – Ask the sections – via contact (Email/in -person) – about their needs. 35 24 -Jan-09

Students Provide colleges with incentives to promote IEEE to increase student participation (Central Area – Calumet) – Solution – (Goals) § § Sections can provide speakers on current topics, and careers & professional development to universities to promote IEEE recognition and EE as a profession. Sections can reach out to EE and ECET department chairs to request they promote IEEE to their students and provide them with membership materials – – § Encourage sections to announce events and training opportunities to the universities to share with their “nonmember” students to encourage them to attend and join IEEE. – – 36 Deliverables: Collect list of department heads for sections (if sections need help doing this), the provide membership materials to section to deliver to university departments. Dates: Pilot test this idea in Central Area – Calumet Section and one or two more. 24 -Jan-09 Deliverables: Ask sections to do this, and ask them to report how many they did. Dates: Pilot this with R 4 sections over one year.

Students Improve our relationship with Universities (East Area – SE MI) – Student and academic sponsored events § Solution – See previous item – Engage high level academic directors § § 37 Solution – Recruit section leadership from university engineering departments – if you need help ask us. . we will find a connection. Attend university events in order to meet the leadership of the departments and seek out how to promote IEEE events within the university 24 -Jan-09

Regional Speaker DB Provide leads / contacts to possible guest speakers for our monthly dinner meetings (Central Area – Calumet Section and NE WI) 38 24 -Jan-09

Regional Speaker DB Provide list of subjects and speakers available for presentations. Indicate ones that proved effective/successful. (East Area – , Toledo, IA IL, West Area – Missouri Slope, Red River Valley) – Plan § 39 E-mail the section chairs once per year. Ask them the following questions: – Please provide a list of (maximum) top five topics/speakers in your section – Who were the speakers? – Type of meeting? Workshop, lecture, conference, etc? – How long was the talk? – Submit suggestions for speakers/topics that are not 24 -Jan-09 in our list that they would like to see

Regional Speaker DB – Plan (cont. ) § § § 40 Encourage speakers traveling to a particular area, to contact other sections in that area for making possible presentations Make sure v-tools will include this information in the local members’ profile. Advertise the speaker schedules in the neighboring sections using v-tools and Region 4 calendar 24 -Jan-09

Regional Speaker DB Expand Regional Database idea to include PACE & GOLD activity ideas & resources (Central Area – Chicago, Milwaukee, West Area – Red River Valley) 41 24 -Jan-09

Regional Speaker DB Regional speaker database on topics of wide interest, e. g. , patent law (Central Area – Central IL) – Plan § Create a database with help from Jack Sherman in four areas: – – § The database will include (with permission from the speaker) the following: – – – § 42 Technical PACE GOLD (Speakers + Activity ideas and resources used) Educational Name of the speaker Professional and technical Affiliation Area of specialization Contact Jack Sherman for the speaker contacts or if a topic of need was not found in the database. 24 -Jan-09

Regional Speaker DB Topics and Lecturers – Aids (Distinguished Lecturer Programs) (Central Area – Fox Valley Subsection) – Plan § § 43 Link to distinguished lecture programs List of our own Region 4 Speakers as mentioned above. 24 -Jan-09

Regional Speaker DB Hire good speakers to go on a “Region 4 Tour”. (West Area – Siouxland) – Plan – Train a person in communication area (and others) to provide lectures and training to the local sections 44 24 -Jan-09

General Contacts for all sections world wide (all 306 sections). (East Area) – Solution – Region rosters contain all section volunteers – Plan – Distribute URL for roster access, add to Best Practices – Ron/ Bob Evanich – Time – Complete by 2/28/09 45 24 -Jan-09

General Contacts at NASA. (East Area) – Solution – NASA speakers bureau : http: //www. nasa. gov/about/speakers/index. h tml 46 24 -Jan-09

General Employment services. (East Area) – Solution – Tarek’s CD – Plan § § 47 Add links to all services into Best Practices Add to Best Practices (end of February) - Mark Ciechanowski/ Bob Evanich 24 -Jan-09

General Find a way for Standards Associates to achieve recognition as an Affinity Group (Central Area – Northwest Subsection) – Solution – Determine how significant the problem is – Plan – Assign evaluation and solution to Howard Wolfman (June 1) 48 24 -Jan-09

General Lobby for simplification of L 50 report. Make it more like Turbo-Tax (Central Area – Chicago) – Solution – v. Tools Financial tool – Plan – This is an active project in v. Tools (pilot in 2009) - Mark Ciechanowski is project manager 49 24 -Jan-09

General Allow all needed Concentration Banking data to be imported to L-50. (West Area – Central IA) – Solution – v. Tools Financial tool – Plan – This is an active project in v. Tools (pilot in 2009)- Mark Ciechanowski is project manager 50 24 -Jan-09

General How does IEEE in USA need to change given declining membership, declining rebate, fewer and busier volunteers, event attendance and revenue down? (Central Area – Chicago) – Solution – there are 2 impacts that the region can make: § § Membership development Region director is involved in IEEE-USA strategic planning and renewal – Plan – Membership development to Tarek (12/31/2009) and Region Director- Don Bramlett 51 24 -Jan-09

General Highlight any specific activities IEEE has found be successful (Central Area – Milwaukee) – Solution § § Best Practices for Distinguished Speakers v. Tools meetings allows visibility to all meetings in the region – Plan – action items from SPC (July 1, 2009) 52 24 -Jan-09

General Ideas for improving section relationship with Companies. (East Area – SE MI) Garner corporate support. (West Area – Cedar Rapids) Methods used by IEEE to entice companies to support IEEE (Central Area – Milwaukee) – Solution – Utilize plan from MGA and TAB activities – Plan – monitor MGA and TAB activities, could identify a Region Industry person or we could ask Director/Director-Elect to monitor (define the Region appointment by March and determine the MGA and TAB schedules by April 1) 53 24 -Jan-09

General Appraise IEEE membership marketing plan. (West Area – Cedar Rapids) Justify IEEE membership value. (West Area – Cedar Rapids) – Solution – Review present benefit plans – Plan – assign to Membership Development (July 1) 54 24 -Jan-09

General Ideas for encouraging cross-section meetings and events. (West Area – IA IL) – Solution § § v. Tools meetings allows sections to show calendars of neighboring sections or chapter Webcasts of meetings allow for members to remotely attend – Plan § § § 55 Utilize v. Tools in all Region 4 sections Encourage sections to use webcasts; provide tool access Add to Best Practices (April 1) 24 -Jan-09

General Need an improved query for L 31 (search, filter, sort). (West Area – Twin Cities) – Solution – the v. Tools meeting project has all L 31 data in XML format which can be loaded into a spreadsheet where it can be searched, sorted, filtered – Plan – Sections to use v. Tools meetings and add methodology to Best Practices (April 1) 56 24 -Jan-09

General Improve v. Tools to include blog / forums. (West Area – Southern MN) – Solution – Sections Congress recommendation includes this function in v. Tools, Region 4 community supports this type of activity – Plan – v. Tools pilot (will probably occur in 2009). Region 4 community exists now. 57 24 -Jan-09

General Provide a member survey/template with sample questions. (West Area) – Solution – Understand survey data available from IEEE surveys – is it broken down to region and section? A survey tool is to be added to Web. In. ABox in 2009, Survey Monkey is available. Sample questions need to be developed. – Plan – Add information to Best Practices, assign sample questions to membership development. (Pilot v. Tools survey in 2009, sample questions by July 1). 58 24 -Jan-09

Conferences Guidance on limitations for corporate sponsorship of activities. (East Area) – Solution – We don’t understand the question – Plan – determine the actual problem and review 59 24 -Jan-09