Issues

Since IEEE-USA stopped hosting its own annual meeting, the Regions have diverged in practice, and need greater integration/interaction.   While the Regions' senior leadership (ExComs and CoComs...) do interact, the only time that Sections get broad reach is at Sections Congress every three years.  

I believe we need to re-establish meetings in non-SC years to allow for cross-pollination of ideas and help develop our volunteers as leaders.

IEEE is a VERY diverse organization, which has many separate bodies that manage their resources differently.  To name a few, there are the Technical Activities (TA), Membership and Geographic Activities (MGA), Publications, Educational Activities (EA), Standards Organization, and our own IEEE-USA.  Each provides valuable community offerings and opportunities for collaboration and interchange.  The issue is that funding for these bodies is handled differently in every case.  

If elected to lead IEEE-USA I will work to try and ensure that the necessary funding for USA programs such as Government Relations, Career and Member Services and Communications/Public Awareness.  The fact is that US Membership is not keeping pace with growth in the larger IEEE, and part of that is the reduction in program activities IN the US.  This is primarily a resource problem - IEEE is not about making money, but about enriching the lives and careers of its members.  In my opinion these services should not try to be self-funding, but should be performed to support those members

Over the course of the next several years, IEEE in the USA will reach a milestone...the population of Life Members will reach a significant portion of the total USA membership.  While it is powerful to have a large cadre of senior members to mentor the broader community, the change comes with two challenges...

  1.  Life members have paid their dues - literally.  Upon reaching the status, you are no longer required to pay for membership.  This is a well-earned perk, as it takes in excess of 30 years as a member to reach the status, BUT it means that a growing portion of the member-group are not adding funds for sustainment.

  2.  IEEE-USA is not attracting the volume of younger technical professionals in the US that they are elsewhere in the world.  

If elected, I plan to work to ensure that the benefits for Life Members are appropriate to their needs, AND to actively solicit younger members by working to offer programs relevant to THEIR needs.  While there is a large difference in these two models, they are by no means incompatible - effort just needs to be make to appropriately tailor the "package" and price.