Feedback to Section Requests for How Region 4

Can Help Sections

Bob Parro, SMIEEEIEEE Region 4 – Central Area Chair

IEEE Rock River Valley SectionRiver North Solutions – VP Business Development

24-Jan-092

Approach to This Interaction R4 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

24-Jan-093

Path To This File http://ewh.ieee.org/reg/4/wintermeeting20

09.php

Available 5:00pm today, 1/24/09

24-Jan-094

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…

24-Jan-095

Section Requests for R4 Help Region 4 Meeting (Jan ‘07) Region 4 Meeting (Jan ’08) Sections Congress 2008 (Sept ’08)

24-Jan-096

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

24-Jan-097

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 Increase awareness through communications Recruit by motivation and incentives Make members feel inclusive: understand the

values of belonging to a society

24-Jan-098

Recruitment & Retention– Plan

Review and improve the communication process:– 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 ExCom member should make at least One presentation to local industries. Use Membership

– Invite local industries and universities to section ExCom and seek feedback

Be creative in developing motivation and incentive– 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

– Quarterly social event

24-Jan-099

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 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– 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 ExCom activities Encourage local chapters to get students involved in

their activities: at least one meeting with student branches for each chapter.

24-Jan-0910

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

24-Jan-0911

Training Develop a training program for new/current officers

(Central Area – Calumet, Central IL)– Solution – Training program in place on R4 website,

both slides and previously recorded training sessions. Sections should include in officer transition plan.

– Plan – R4 Area Chairs will update training material on R4 website by January Region 4 meeting each year. Area Chairs contact local Section leadership in Q1 every year to coordinate training either via Region meeting or online training materials. Provide follow-up by Q2 to verify training is complete and understood by Section Leadership.

– Deliverable – R4 website training material updates by January R4 meeting each year

24-Jan-0912

Training 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 R4 contact to local Section GOLD members when no GOLD chair exists in the Section (i.e. GOLD volunteer recruitment).

– Deliverable Plan ready for execution 2Q09 Update existing Job Description for R4 GOLD Coordinator R4 website GOLD training material updates by January

R4 meeting each year

24-Jan-0913

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 Add ‘Best Practices’ to the R4 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 R4 website

24-Jan-0914

Training Train Section Officers Commensurate with

Plan. (West Area – Cedar Rapids)– Solution – Item has already been completed

24-Jan-0915

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

Get requests to R4 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-0916

Funding Provide information on funds available to pre-

college programs that Sections can obtain for students in our area. (Central Area – NE WI) – Plan – Publish R4 budget on R4 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.

24-Jan-0917

Funding Explore joint section support for technical

conference. (West Area – Coulee) – Uncertain if this refers to strictly financial support

24-Jan-0918

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)

24-Jan-0919

Communications Encourage more R4 discussion and build sense of

R4 community on forums. (West Area – IA IL)– Solution

Virtual Communities Locating resource information at R4 website For serving remote members better, can also hold mtgs

in other cities within sections Attend R4 meetings live or remotely Webcast section meetings using InstantPresenter

(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-0920

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 2Q09

24-Jan-0921

Communications Use the calendar functionality of v-Tools and

publicize on R4 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)

24-Jan-0922

Communications Regional newsletter (Central Area –

Central IL)– Plan

Meeting awareness component – Sections use calendar functionality of v-Tools to publicize meetings on R4 and section websites; Begin now with goal of all R4 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

24-Jan-0923

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

24-Jan-0924

Communications Providing the ways to establish the tele-

conference 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-Jan-0925

Communications Streaming service for remote broadcast

with playback (at reasonable price). (West Area – Southern MN)– Solution – Use web-conferencing tool such

as InstantPresenter (instantpresenter.com) (Dave Paulsen in Southern MN section) – remote Broadcasted meetings

– Plan – R4 to buy web conferencing tool (30 seats) and FREE region-wide use for webcasting meetings

– Time – 2/28/09

24-Jan-0926

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

24-Jan-0927

Communications More visits from R4 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 R4 ExCom members interact

with own sections and obtain coverage from respective Area Chairs and R4 Director for sections that do not have a member on R4 ExCom, subject to budget limitations

24-Jan-0928

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

24-Jan-0929

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 PayPal.

– Time – Available now.

24-Jan-0930

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 R4 website by 3/1/09

24-Jan-0931

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

24-Jan-0932

E-Commerce Solution for real time credit card processing

when signing up for events via the web. (East Area)

– Plan 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/reference_materials.html

24-Jan-0933

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

24-Jan-0934

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.

24-Jan-0935

Students Share Region 4’s Educational Outreach

Initiatives (Central Area – Madison)– FYI – Currently R4 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.

24-Jan-0936

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– 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.

Encourage sections to announce events and training opportunities to the universities to share with their “non-member” students to encourage them to attend and join IEEE.– Deliverables: Ask sections to do this, and ask them to report how

many they did. – Dates: Pilot this with R4 sections over one year.

24-Jan-0937

Students Improve our relationship with Universities

(East Area – SE MI)– Student and academic sponsored events

Solution – See previous item

– Engage high level academic directors 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-0938

Regional Speaker DB Provide leads / contacts to possible guest

speakers for our monthly dinner meetings (Central Area – Calumet Section and NE WI)

24-Jan-0939

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 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

in our list that they would like to see

24-Jan-0940

Regional Speaker DB

– Plan (cont.) 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-0941

Regional Speaker DB Expand Regional Database idea to include

PACE & GOLD activity ideas & resources (Central Area – Chicago, Milwaukee, West Area – Red River Valley)

24-Jan-0942

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:– Technical– PACE– GOLD (Speakers + Activity ideas and resources used)– Educational

The database will include (with permission from the speaker) the following:– 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-0943

Regional Speaker DB Topics and Lecturers – Aids (Distinguished

Lecturer Programs) (Central Area – Fox Valley Subsection)

– Plan Link to distinguished lecture programs List of our own Region 4 Speakers as mentioned

above.

24-Jan-0944

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

24-Jan-0945

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

24-Jan-0946

General Contacts at NASA. (East Area)

– Solution – NASA speakers bureau : http://www.nasa.gov/about/speakers/index.html

24-Jan-0947

General Employment services. (East Area)

– Solution – Tarek’s CD – Plan

Add links to all services into Best Practices Add to Best Practices (end of February) - Mark

Ciechanowski/ Bob Evanich

24-Jan-0948

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)

24-Jan-0949

General Lobby for simplification of L50 report. Make

it more like Turbo-Tax (Central Area – Chicago)– Solution – vTools Financial tool– Plan – This is an active project in vTools (pilot

in 2009) - Mark Ciechanowski is project manager

24-Jan-0950

General Allow all needed Concentration Banking data

to be imported to L-50. (West Area – Central IA)– Solution – vTools Financial tool– Plan – This is an active project in vTools (pilot

in 2009)- Mark Ciechanowski is project manager

24-Jan-0951

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

24-Jan-0952

General Highlight any specific activities IEEE has

found be successful (Central Area – Milwaukee)

– Solution Best Practices for Distinguished Speakers vTools meetings allows visibility to all meetings in

the region

– Plan – action items from SPC (July 1, 2009)

24-Jan-0953

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)

24-Jan-0954

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)

24-Jan-0955

General Ideas for encouraging cross-section

meetings and events. (West Area – IA IL)– Solution

vTools meetings allows sections to show calendars of neighboring sections or chapter

Webcasts of meetings allow for members to remotely attend

– Plan Utilize vTools in all Region 4 sections Encourage sections to use webcasts; provide tool

access Add to Best Practices (April 1)

24-Jan-0956

General Need an improved query for L31 (search,

filter, sort). (West Area – Twin Cities)– Solution – the vTools meeting project has all

L31 data in XML format which can be loaded into a spreadsheet where it can be searched, sorted, filtered

– Plan – Sections to use vTools meetings and add methodology to Best Practices (April 1)

24-Jan-0957

General Improve vTools to include blog / forums.

(West Area – Southern MN)– Solution – Sections Congress

recommendation includes this function in vTools, Region 4 community supports this type of activity

– Plan – vTools pilot (will probably occur in 2009). Region 4 community exists now.

24-Jan-0958

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 WebInABox 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 vTools survey in 2009, sample questions by July 1).

24-Jan-0959

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