Over the last 12 months, the Board of Governors has discussed ways of making LEOS more effective within IEEE.
The IEEE and its Societies are major businesses, with LEOS alone having revenues of more than $6M this year. Although the Societies enjoy considerable autonomy, they are divisions of IEEE and report to the parent Institute through the Technical Activities Board (TAB). Part of the fallout of the financial crisis of the past three or four years has been a tightening of the organization and some erosion of the autonomy of individual Societies, including LEOS. The TAB and its sub-committees set policies which have a large effect on LEOS, with examples being LEOS' share of IEEE infrastructure expenses, and LEOS' access to its financial reserves.
The role of the Board of Governors, and particularly of the Presidential team, is to provide the most effective leadership and management possible for LEOS. A principal duty of the President is to promote and represent the interests of LEOS throughout IEEE, and particularly within TAB. As in all complex organizations, it requires time for an individual President to become effective, and the BoG has been questioning whether a one-year term is sufficient. Most other IEEE Societies have a two-year presidential term, and last year the IEEE Society Review Committee recommended that LEOS also consider adopting a two-year term.
The Board of Governors has therefore reviewed and approved changes to the LEOS Constitution and Bylaws that will result in a two-year Presidential term. As part of this review, the BoG has examined the structure of the Presidential team. LEOS currently has a President-Elect, President, Junior Past-President and Senior Past-President, with the same individual filling the four offices in sequence. If all of these posts were to be two-year appointments, a candidate for President-Elect would have to make an eight-year commitment to LEOS, which the BoG recognizes could be unacceptable in some cases. Therefore, as part of the proposed changes, the President-Elect will serve for one year, and a single post of Past-President will be created, giving a total time commitment of five years (1+2+2). A number of minor amendments have also been made to update the Constitution and Bylaws.
These new documents have now been approved by the both the LEOS BoG and TAB. It is a requirement of the LEOS Constitution that all amendments should also be scrutinized by the LEOS members. The documents can therefore be viewed on the LEOS portal (http://www.i-leos.org) under the "About LEOS" tab.
The proposed changes will go into effect unless at least 5% of LEOS members object by 30 September 2005. If such objections are received, the proposed amendments will be submitted by a mail ballot to all voting members of LEOS, in which case a two-thirds majority of returned ballots will be necessary for the amended Constitution to come into force.
Please take time to look at the web site and understand the new LEOS Constitution. Please e-mail any comments to g.walters@ieee.org or p.shumate@ieee.org.