Generating Income and Improving Communications Within Your Local

Generating Income and Improving Communications Within Your Local Section -for Medium to Large Sections Paul Wesling, IEEE Life Fellow Past Communications Director, IEEE SF Bay Area Council Past Editor, e-GRID nsltr and GRID. pdf Magazine San Francisco Section Oakland/East Bay Section Santa Clara Valley Section San Francisco Bay Area Council, IEEE The IEEE GRID Magazine

Resources Download this talk, and the extensive background material, templates, etc, at: learn. e-grid. net/docs/1401 -grid. zip You can view these slides at learn. e-grid. net/docs/1501 -sandiego. pdf Subscribe yourself to our e-GRID: www. e-grid. net/subscribe To contact me: Paul Wesling p. wesling@ieee. org +1 -408 -320 -1105

Outline Chapter Chapter 1: How the SFBA Council Does It 2: How You Can Do It 3: Where is the Money? 4: Viewing Your Resources 5: The Right Person 6: Selecting Tools (keeping them simple) 7: Getting Paid 8 : Some Examples

Chapter 1: Medium to Large Sections Who we are – S. F. Bay Area Council: – Three Sections (SF, OEB, SCV) – Three Sections combined (~18, 000 members) § Includes Largest Section in the world § About 48 chapters/groups – SFBA Council (board) reports to the Sections – Serving Silicon Valley (entrepreneurial environ. ) Our GRID Magazine was started in 1953 – Printed as a monthly magazine until 1998 – Now Web, email, blog, RSS, e. Notice, List. Serv

Focus of Talk Sections with 4 or more active Chapters – Each with 5 or more meetings/year – Perhaps also with PACE, YP, Life, WIE group(s) Willingness to Improve/Expand Top-Level View, for your awareness: – You Section Officers are “decisionmakers” – You’ll find other volunteers, for implementation – The downloadable examples and resources will give your helpers a good start

Your Job Today As a Section leader, you should focus on: – The VISION – can you do this locally? – What RESOURCES you may already have When you discuss this – the challenges: – Who can work with you to implement this – See it as a Multi-Year project – Ideas about what your “Comm’ns Director/ Editor” would be like; who could do it – How to leverage what I’ll be telling you

Your IEEE “Franchise” Each Section (or Group of Sections): – Geographical monopoly – We don’t compete for advertising funds – We can share freely and help each other to improve the IEEE “where we live” So, sit back and “think broadly” about what can be accomplished …

An Overview of our S. F. Bay Area Council Chapter 1: We’re bigger than you – thus, different: – Opportunities; challenges We’ve been doing this for some decades We will review our recent developments: – 10 years to develop our Internet-based “system” – Do it a few steps at a time – Gather ideas, for consideration – Implement what works in your locale

The GRID “System” The GRID is a powerful publicity utility/ service for Chapters in the Bay Area Sections: SCV, OEB, SF – As a monthly PDF – the GRID. pdf – As a twice-a-month e-GRID email to Members & others (circulation of about 33, 000 engineers/managers) – As a website (events come up in Google searches) – As a web log (blog) and RSS feed - Google indexing in <30 minutes – www. e-grid. net/Bay. Area. Tech As a Google Calendar that people can integrate into their own Calendar As i. OS and Android Apps (look for “IEEE GRID”) Aimed at both Members and non-Members (to encourage non-members to attend and get involved)

GRID services: the GRID. pdf (demo) Front cover of the GRID. pdf is a hyperlinked index to the issue Each Chapter mtg is profiled, linked to the full details inside Paid Conferences are profiled and linked to internal ads Chapter Seminars, Paid University Courses are highlighted, linked to internal descriptions

GRID Services: the GRID. pdf Each Chapter meeting has its own feature page with overview of talk, details, bio sketch, and space for our advertisers These can be “extracted” from the full PDF to provide a Chapter with a small document (~60 k. B) that can be circulated separately to Members

GRID services: the e-GRID e- Newsletter First Screen “Push” Technology – Sent as an email to all Council Members twice a month • All future upcoming meetings, Webinars, chapter seminars • Sent also to non-Member subscribers (List. Serv) • There is also a text-only version, for those who • The e-GRID tends to be forwarded to request it co-workers around the company/lab

GRID services: the e-GRID Second Screen Upcoming Chapter meetings – summaries, links • The e-GRID Conference Calendar lists upcoming conferences, workshops • Paid Conferences – plus Chapter seminars, classes and workshops – are profiled for 6 to 8 weeks before the event (demo)

Sending out the e-GRID • Use IEEE’s e-Notice system to send to all your Section members • Removes those not wanting emails • Fill out the Web form • Set up an IEEE List. Serv Dlist for non-Members (eg, past members and unaffiliated engineers) to self-subscribe • The “other 95%” of engineers • See www. e-grid. net/subscribe

Sending out the e-GRID • We have arranged to send a reduced-content e-GRID quarterly to a neighboring Section: • Sacramento Valley Section • For their awareness, since some Chapter meetings are within driving distance

GRID services: the GRID Website Links to the Marketplace, Quick. Ref Calendar, “contact us” Each Chapter meeting is profiled, and linked to details on chapter’s own website Banner ads for paid advertised University Courses Paid banner ads for upcoming conferences

The GRID Blog and RSS Feed Meeting Title, Details All, or “Category”: Eg, Bio. Eng, Comm’ns, Computers/SW, Power, Design, Engng Mgmt, Nano, Optics, semiconductors Search function Paid Conf ads Word. Press automatically creates an RSS feed … Used for i. OS, Android Apps www. e-grid. net/Bay. Area. Tech

The GRID RSS Feed eg, SAGE in Firefox browser (sidebar) Various. Subscriptions (CNN, NYTimes, CNET, IEEE, etc) Most recent 10 “Stories” in selected blog Story Summaries www. e-grid. net/rss August 21, 2011

Google Calendar Webinars Paid Conferences Chapter Meetings August 21, 2011

Blog Posts / RSS Stories For the GRID: – I average about 50 Posts per month – Google “camps on” our RSS feed; response is about 30 minutes from “post” to a Google “alert” An RSS Feed for your Section? – Subscribers expect news at least a few times a week – Probably not needed until you create Android, i. OS Apps

Tracking Activities Even with 48 Chapters/Units, I use paper: – A single sheet for each month – Tracking sheet for advertisers – Keep it simple! Sept 3 D Arch Dec 12 -14 UC-Berkeley Winter Masters of these sheets are in the ZIP file Oct Nov ½ pg

GRID Success? Revenue of ~ US$ 75 000/year – Detailed breakdown later Expenses of ~ US$ 45 000/year – Therefore, $30 k surplus for our Sections While IEEE membership is declining: – e-GRID IEEE List. Serv Dlist is increasing: < 1 000 (2004), 8 000 (2011), 15, 000 (2014) -- 5% CAGR – Adding 3 500 each year (non-members) – From ASME, ACM, unaffiliated engineers – Drawn by the services that we provide to the profession

“Magazines” from other Sections Boston: e. Reflector Twice a month email

Gujarat Section Techno. Report Meetings, Student events Rochester (NY) Section SE Michigan Sec. Wavelengths August 21, 2011

Dehli Section Beacon Toronto Section Connection August 21, 2011

Your Section? There are many existing examples: – Look at what other similar Sections are doing – Adopt some of the others’ Best Practices Your Section may already have a Newsletter or Magazine to “monetize” – What could be your “expansion” plans?

Chapter 4: Where is the money? Major Sources (results from SFBAC GRID: 2010) – IEEE Conferences (18) US$ 17 225 (24%) – Non-IEEE Conferences (19) 32 875 (46%) – University/Extension Classes (3) 6 000 ( 8. 5%) – Employment Ads (2) 1 400 ( 2%) – Chapter Seminars, Wkshops (4) 5 000 ( 7%) – “Marketplace” (9) 4 900 ( 7%) – Misc (7) 3 625 ( 5%) TOTAL, for 2010: $ 71 035 Of 37 conferences, 29 were “local” and 8 were out-of-area: San Diego, Anaheim, Beijing, Portland, Dallas, Boston

Targets for Advertising Non-IEEE conferences (about 50%) – Includes ASME, ACM, SPIE, others – Charge them 33% more than IEEE ones – For access to your Section’s members IEEE Conferences coming to your area – Work directly with their volunteer leaders Universities and Univ. Extensions – Publicizing technical courses Employment ads, local seminars/workshops

Rate Sheet and Options August 21, 2011 Full Flyer: www. e-grid. net/docs/conf-flyer. pdf Full-List Price

Rate Sheet and Options SFBAC has 17, 000 Members & 15, 000 on List. Serv - You will have fewer (but, build it up) - Scale down from our pricing - Sq. Root scale (1/4 the members: 1/2 price) - Depends on your local conditions, costs - below some price, not worth the effort Remember: Conferences want access: - to your members and their companies - You have a valuable resource, for them - Do not under-price your services

Why charge IEEE conferences more than local events? Most IEEE Conferences belong to Societies They leave no money in your local Section – It all goes to their Society office Our objective - give them a choice: – They can partner with a local Chapter/Section: § Typical: 5% of surplus goes to Chapter (no loss) August 21, 2011 § They get an additional 33% discount on Generating Income and Improving

Where to find Conferences IEEE Conferences: – www. ieee. org/conferences_events – computer. org/portal/web/conferences /calendar – www. comsoc. org/conferences/conf erencesearch Non-IEEE Conferences: – Keep adding websites to your Bookmarks – ASME, ACM, AIEE, local Convention Center … Check them every 1 to 2 months (for new ones) Get on organization e. Mailing Lists (yeah, looks like spam …)

Deciding WHICH Conferences For IEEE ones: look at projected attendance – Less likelihood, for attendance < 300 – Best chances: for 500 or more – Best for 2. 5 - and 3 -day events; Less for 1 -day – Best: Convention Center, large hotels Conference budgets are ~US$50 000 - $250 000 – Charging $500 - $1 000 is a small portion – About equal to 1 or 2 additional attendees

How to Approach a Conference Do your homework: – Review website, Program, Earlybird date, etc – Get names/emails of people on the Committees – Develop std. “Worksheet” for your quote – Make it look semi-formal – We are a “Volunteer organization” In Full Flyer: www. e-grid. net/docs/conf-flyer. pdf Show “full list price”, then give them the discount (if appropriate)

Send Proposal to Conference Introductory email, customized Attach Worksheet, Rate Sheet, Example

Technical Classes; Skills Classes University Extensions Local Providers They value access of classes to our Members! They can be good, regular clients

Chapter Seminars, Workshops Low-cost Chapter seminars get free publicity - Above ~US$75/day, they purchase their publicity Financially Strong Chapters make a strong Section.

Conference Tutorials/Courses One- and Twoday Classes Associated with a Conference Can get additional Every service you offer revenue by publiadds value for your client cizing them -- and earns its fee! separately They add value for your members, too.

What does your Section Have to Offer? Chapter 4: Key to developing a community, loyalty, readership is having content: – Several Chapter Meetings each month – Maybe Section technical meetings occasionally – Open meetings/lectures from your Student Chapter or University – But, might need more, to make the content “rich”, relevant for local engineers

Expanding your Chapters Your Job: to select two or three Chapters that might be started in your Section – Challenge: grow your services to local IEEE members by one new chapter each year …. – Perhaps appoint a past Section Chair to be in charge of new-chapter formation

Bi-Weekly Content for your e. Nsltr Free! What else to add? (to make it more useful): SPECTRUM Webcasts – Subscribe to notifications Free! IEEE-USA Webcasts – Subscribe to notifications Local Science Fairs, Maker Fairs

Other Local Publicity Opportunities “Adopt” chapters from a nearby Section: – Publicize their meetings, if within driving distance of many of your own members Partner with a neighboring Section Involve any Student Branch Chapters – Some of their activities, lecture series may be open to local engineers Remember: Content is the Driver – you need it, to be relevant – This is why engineers access your news

Other News to Publicize IEEE “corporate” news – Xplore updates, renewals, RSS, IEEE. tv – Jobs website Society resources – CS: Cloud Computing videos; “Silver Bullet” Podcast series – Com. Soc: periodic free archived webinars – SPECTRUM: Science & Tech podcasts – IEEE-USA: free Wiley e-books

Getting Advertising Remember: non-IEEE conferences contribute twice as much revenue as IEEE ones – focus on these. IEEE conferences can be easier to find Focus first on conferences coming to your location – Then, reach out to regional conferences – For GRID, “West Coast of USA” works well § San Diego, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle, Anaheim § Even Boston, Beijing, Singapore, Taiwan

Success Rate For IEEE conferences: about 40% For non-IEEE conferences: about 50% For local Chapter seminars: about 70% For University extensions: about 50% You can get several proposal turndowns for each proposal accepted Key: scouring the web for coming events, CFPs; being pro-active in sending out bids

Chapter 5: The “Right Person” Yes, a permanent paid staff of several people would be nice – but not practical Need to be dependent on one part-time person (maybe a retired Life Member) – Yes, creates uncertainty about continuity – What about succession? Training someone new? – Limited capabilities, dependent on person Need to live with uncertainty – Solves the problem for a few years … Alternative: Stay the same

The “Right Person” Your “person” becomes “Mr/Ms IEEE” – For your Section and Chapters – Emphasis on customer service – Helpful, Positive, Enthusiastic – Your representative for the IEEE Support your Comm’ns Director/Editor: – Help invigorate current chapters – Start new chapters, based on local skills/needs – Don’t micro-manage – delegate – Set up access: SAM*IEEE, CBRS, etc. – Be there to help

Formalizing the Contract Use IEEE “Independent Contractor” form – Candidate must have “other income” (USA’s IRS) – Cannot work solely for your Section – Work with MGA staff on details for your locale Annual contract, renewable Two main parts to job: 1. Publicizing local activities, keeping up the website, editing the magazine and e-Newsletter 2. Selling and composing ads (revenue)

Part 1: Publicizing Local Activities This portion generates no revenue Decide on a fair “monthly fee” based on: – Amount of work (approx 1/5 th time: 30 hrs/month) – Expected coverage and output – Start with PDF magazine and 2 X/month e-nsltr – Also website editor, Dlists, chapters support May expand, as more publicity methods added: – Blog/RSS feed, Calendar, i. OS/Android App, etc.

Part 2: Selling and Composing Ads Suggestion – pay a commission: – Contractor earns 20% (or 25%) of revenue – Shared-Success model (win-win) § The more he/she gets, the more the Section gets Encourages strong focus on selling advertising: – – – Being pro-active, continuous improvement, etc. Watching for coming conferences (IEEE, non-) Local universities, extensions, course providers Local chapter seminars, workshops Local Employers, Recruiters

Monthly Payment Amount Depends on your Section – Based on what would be appropriate – What can your Section budget allow In USA, might be: – Monthly editing/webmaster fee: perhaps $500 – Monthly 20% commission: $400 to perhaps $800 § Based on sales of $2 000 to $4 000/month In my case (supporting 48 chapters, 3 Sections): – Monthly fee: $2 350/month (~ 60 hours/month) – Commission: 20%; varies from $600 to $2 000

Your Editor’s Title Make it authoritative: – You’re free to “invent” – Helps establish authority with clients § Clients can work with your DIRECTOR … – “Communications Director” Local phone Twitter handle

Formalizing your Section’s Office Request that your new office be added to the IEEE Staff Directory So IEEE staff, Society staff will be aware of your office – They can contact you for advertising, local support and referrals, etc.

Resources To help your contractor get started: – “How to Start a Home-Based Business, ” Bert Holtje and Susan Shelly (2010 - about $20) – “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being a Successful Entrepreneur, ” John Sortino ($5) Let contractor purchase own tools: – Computer, laptop, broadband, phone (Vo. IP), software (free? ), licenses, business cards … – Work from home (or his/her own office)

Your Contractor In USA: Sole Proprietorship or LLC Advantages of Schedule C (on Tax return) – Write off medical, dental, long-term care, Medicare premiums – Set up tax-advantaged retirement plans – Write off tools, equipment, licenses, costs It helps if your contractor is an engineer: – Understand technical talk, language – Knows IEEE, conference/chapter volunteers … – Might be retired Life Member

Chapter 6: Suggested Tools Website and ISP (Server) – 1 and 1 (German company): $10/month – Apache, My. SQL, CGI, PERL, PHP, Javascript, AJAX – Basically unlimited hosting (Domains, Email) - $15/year per domain FTP Client: – Stand-alone – File. Zilla (no cost) – For FTP uploads/downloads, file manipulation

Editing, Graphics Tools I prefer Adobe Dreamweaver – Part of Adobe CS 5. 5 for Web – Can usually get it donated from Adobe employee – I use HTML mode (write in native HTML) – Has built-in WYSIWYG editor, FTP agent Graphics (banner ads): Also Photoshop Elements, for JPGs Adobe Fire. Works – Part of Adobe CS 5. 5 for Web – Also in CS 5: Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Acrobat 9 Pro, Distiller, etc.

Browser (and setup) Firefox, with add-ins: - Little. Fox - Tab. Mix Plus - Firefox Sync Start up with ~9 Tabs open to key pages Shows local copy of GRID Website Home Page Banner-ad server Local copies of key files Blog Google Calendar IEEE List. Serv

Creating Your Magazine I use MS WORD 2003 on a Windows 7 PC – Home: Fast desktop, large LCD screen – Travel: Simple 15. 5” Laptop Template pages for Ads, for Chapter Mtgs August 21, fonts”: Arial, Times Only use “system 2011

Distilling the Magazine I use my (free) Acrobat X Pro’s Distiller – Set it to not embed fonts (saves ~200 k. B) § Viewer’s system uses “local” System Fonts – Re-sample graphics to 150 dpi (saves ~2 MB) – Achieve 40 -page magazine in 800 k. B file – So, easy for people to email it around Not “Print Quality”, but utilitarian – Perfect, for your Section’s purpose – Good enough for engineers!

Blog and RSS Feed Word. Press Easy to install on your server; No cost (open source); Generates the RSS Feed Categories Edit Publish

Banner Ad Server cs. Banner program (about $40 to own) Runs on Server Statistics

Resources – Summary Conclusion: – Efficient workflow can be set up – Tools need not be expensive – Each Tool has a learning curve – takes time – Dependent on your Editor’s skills, methods – Customized for your own Section Your experience will vary!

Chapter 7: Creating Invoices Any “Business” level of Quicken (I use 2013 Premiere Home and Business) Customized, for each client

Mailing the Invoice Important to send Committee the ad copies Hand mark-up, circle in blue marker

Payments Most payments come to me as checks – Save up for the month – Send to the Section Treasurer Credit card payments – Not preferred (you lose ~3% of the value) – Can be cleared through IEEE Conf Services – Deposited directly to Concentration Bank Acct IEEE Conferences, events: – You can have them transfer directly from their Concentration Banking Account to yours

“Deadline” email every two weeks Chapter 8: Some examples Forming a local IEEE community Email to remind Chapter officers Announcements for Chapter, Section Officers

Your Section’s Contribution … Your implementation will differ from ours Please share your own best practices – Then I can make our GRID better! We can have stronger, growing Sections Better services to our local members Less dependence on funds from MGA

Region 6 Initiative for 2015 Step-by-step tutorials will be made, to show exactly how I do each step Active screen capture plus audio Initial ones should be ready for your volunteer/contractor during January Being funded by SF Bay Area Council and Region 6, for use worldwide

Resources Download this talk, and the extensive background material, templates, etc, at: learn. e-grid. net/docs/1108 -sc 11. zip You can view these slides at learn. e-grid. net/docs/1501 -sandeigo. pdf Subscribe yourself to our e-GRID: www. e-grid. net/subscribe To contact our S. F. /Silicon Valley Office: Paul Wesling p. wesling@ieee. org +1 -408 -320 -1105

Thanks for your attention! Questions, Discussion and Comments Your local experience “Show and Tell” – see my Examples, being passed around

Generating Income and Improving Communications Within Your Local Section -for Medium to Large Sections Paul Wesling, IEEE Life Fellow Past Communications Director, IEEE SF Bay Area Council Past Editor, e-GRID nsltr and GRID. pdf Magazine San Francisco Section Oakland/East Bay Section Santa Clara Valley Section San Francisco Bay Area Council, IEEE The IEEE GRID Magazine

Resources Download the extensive background material, templates, etc, at: learn. e-grid. net/docs/1401 -grid. zip You can view these slides at learn. e-grid. net/docs/1501 -sandeigo. pdf Subscribe yourself to our e-GRID: www. e-grid. net/subscribe To contact our S. F. /Silicon Valley Office: Paul Wesling p. wesling@ieee. org +1 -408 -320 -1105