Region 2 Issues and Solutions

Serve the members. We need to make our members realize the value of their membership by offering local events such as technical Chapter meetings, technical symposia, educational and professional development courses. As the Director, I will create a set of model events that can be replicated across the Region. We also need to address the career issues that our members face such as out-sourcing, intellectual property protection, health care and retirement benefits. In this regard, I hope to bring IEEE-USA efforts in Washington closer to the Sections. This may include, for example, an “IEEE-USA Day” of events in each Section once a year.

Grow the IEEE membership in Region 2. We need to reverse the continuing decline in Higher Grade membership as well as Student membership in our Region. We need to redouble our efforts to retain our existing members, recruit new members and bring back those who have let their memberships lapse. As the Director, I will use the resources of IEEE to launch a major push for membership development. This may include some pilot experiments in membership recruitment and retention. I will also encourage stronger relationships between Sections and Student Branches to encourage more students to see the value in IEEE membership. I will also promote a more active role for GOLD members in Section and Region activities.

Build a tight-knit cohesive team of IEEE leadership in Region 2. Our geographical area includes small sections such as Youngstown and large sections such as Philadelphia and Washington. We need to share our resources across the region and create a well-trained leadership team that will ensure continued growth of IEEE. This will require some significant commitment of time and energy from the entire Region 2 leadership team.

Enhance the value of membership. There have been quite a few surveys that addressed this issue. While I am sure this issue is getting attention among the senior leadership of the Institute, I am not, in my present capacity, aware of the actions in progress to explore alternatives to the current membership model. We need to make the existing or prospective members feel that they are getting “their money’s worth”. We also need to be mindful of the observation made in the 2005 IEL Impact Study that, “potential members …do not see the value of social capital that professional societies provide generally”. We need to create a vision of such value which could be different across different parts of the world.

Provide the right tools for local leaders. The organizers of local technical and professional meetings are hampered by lack of management tools such as meeting invitation and management software (that would let the members respond to and add meeting invitations to their calendars). The quality and timeliness of local IEEE websites also varies widely. The local Sections also face difficulties in accepting credit cards for their events. The easier we make it for local leaders to organize events, the more enthusiastic they will be in organizing more events and the spirit catches on.

Promote stronger Technical Society – Geographic Area Relationships. This may include, for example, rejuvenation of local Chapters and involvement of local Sections in technical conferences. Some Societies are better at these than others and sharing of best practices will be helpful. I also believe that this might help reverse the decline in the Society memberships.