Region 4 Section Reports

19. Red River Valley Section

Red River Valley Section Report

IEEE Region 4 Meeting - Oct 16/17, 2004

Red River Valley Section Demographics

• Total Members: 267– Members 158– Student members 67– Senior members 16– Life members 13– Affiliates 13

• Meetings– Section meetings per year 6 or 7– Format Dinner & talk and/or tour– Type 80/20 technical/PACE– Section vs Chapter Section Only– Excom meetings were by phone only– % quorum Excom meetings 80%

Red River Valley Section Demographics

• Section Leadership for Red River Valley Section– Term: Calendar Year 2004– Chair – Ken Lien, kenlien@prtel.com , 701-671-7682 office– Vice Chair – Jodi Bullinger, jbullinger@kwh.com, 701-356-4475– Secretary/Treasurer – Saleh Faruque,

saleh_faruque@mail.und.nodak.edu, 701-777-4428 office

• Neighboring Sections– North: Canada– South: Siouxland– East: Arrowhead, Twin Cities– West: Missouri Slope

• Joint Meetings Held with Neighboring Sections - None

Red River Valley Section Demographics

• Section Organization– Subsections - None– Society Chapters - None– Affinity Groups - None– Student Branches/Joint Activity

• NDSU Student Section (ND State Univ.)

• UND Student Section (Univ. of ND)

• No joint activity but we support student sections by: – providing opportunities to attend all IEEE Section Meetings @

1/2 cost– providing financial support for student trips– holding a student presentation contest with cash prizes every

April

Red River Valley Section Vitality

• Meetings/attendance during the last year– Oct03 => Regional Transmission in the RRV by Jason Weiers

and Ryan Retslaff, Ottertail Power Engineers/13– Dec03 => Annual Meeting/Election of Officers/12– Jan => Cellular Communication by Saleh Faruque, UND

Professor/15– Feb => Power Off Receptacle by Chris Skarie, CEO &

President of Power Off Products/18– Mar => Graduate Education in New Product Development by

Richard Schultz, UND Professor/21– Apr => Student Project Contest - 3 projects each from NDSU

and UND/21

Red River Valley Section Vitality

• Meetings/attendance during the last year– Sep => Distributed Generation by Brad Schmidt, Cass County

Electric Engineer/20– Oct => Tour of EERC (Energy & Environmental Research

Center) at UND– Nov => Annual Meeting (election of Officers, budget, etc.)

Other Section Activities

• PACE - – Hosted Internet Conference on topic of

Wind Generation by Dennis Woodford, Chairman of IEEE HVDC and FACTS Subcommittee. Dennis is with the Electranix Corp. in Winnepeg, Manitoba. We received a lot of support from IEEE-Regional Activities - Attendees 22

– Membership Upgrades/2

• New This Year - Section Website

Successes/Best Practices

• Providing a variety of programs for a diverse membership in a vast area where there are no society or affinity group meetings.

• Providing a variety of meeting locations at 3 different sites– Fargo (80 Miles to GF, 60 to FF)– Grand Forks– Fergus Falls (its 140 Miles from GF)

Successes/Best Practices

• We get good results when we get several people involved from across the entire region in planning meetings and other activities.

• Because of the vast distances, we are good at organizing things by phone or e-mail.

Lessons Learned

• Internet Conference was a success and provides us with an important option for future PACE activities.

• 20% of the Internet Conference attendees did not attend a meeting in past year (more involvement).

• Internet Conferences can be an avenue for continuing education in a rural area.

Lessons Learned

• Members are very busy (Membership upgrades are difficult)

• Engineers in our section see the section as an avenue to network with other engineers in the area.

Goals for Next Year

• Initiate GOLD Group if feasible

• Recruit more members

• Identify Members for Grade Advancement

• PACE and/or Internet Conference

• Organize Interesting Programs

Goals for Next Year

• Support Student Participation and the Student Sections

• Increase Participation by Membership in planning Section Activities

Region 4 Could Most Help My Section By…

• Continuing to provide lists of Distinguished Lecturers for conferences (PACE or Internet)

• Communicating announcements of PACE activities in neighboring sections

• Region & National Activities

Region 4 Could Most Help My Section By…

• Since it was the first Internet Conference, R4 Regional Activities helped a lot. Future conferences would require an instruction manual if goal of less involvement from R4 is to be achieved. Technical help by a conferencing hosting group would still be needed.

SUMMARY

• Our section covers a vast area about 250 miles across in both directions.

• Providing services to members is, thus, very challenging

• We find meeting and working with other engineers in our area to be very supportive to us in our profession.