REPORT FROM THE CHAPTER AND MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEES

A new member of our society recently complained at one of our NPSS conferences. He told me that while he was happy with his membership, he was not happy with the fact that although he had subscribed, he had not received any copies of the IEEE journal Transactions on Plasma Science in the mail. He asked me to look into this and to rectify the problem. I checked with Headquarters and found that indeed, he did have an active subscription. His subscription, however, was for an electronic version of the journal rather than for a printed one. Had he selected the printed version, copies would have been mailed to him. His electronic subscription, however, had been available to him all that time on the Web but he had forgotten that this had been his choice. Further, he was not aware just how to gain access to his journal selection on the Web. Perhaps the welcoming letters that are sent to each new member should include concise instructions to help our new members when using Xplore®.

I remind each new member who joins IEEE/NPSS at our conferences that the choice for electronic subscriptions requires the creation of a Web Account with IEEE. This free service allows Headquarters to qualify our members to access those subscriptions to which they are entitled through a password-protected process. Some readers may not have set up such an account and the following paragraph may help them. Each IEEE member should have a Web account as this is the preferred means for one to make contact with IEEE member services. Any changes in a member’s contact information, any orders for IEEE materials, renewals of membership, additions or deletions of societies, subscriptions to society publications, etc., are best handled by means of the Web account. Setting up one’s private Web account is initiated by visiting the IEEE home page at: www.ieee.org.

On that page, one clicks a link found on the upper row entitled ‘Web Account’. That link brings up the opening page where one can register one's name and member number and obtain a Pin number for using the account. Cookies are placed on the person’s local machine to facilitate entry at each session. Once the Web Account is setup, the member may then select the ‘Publications’ link in the IEEE masthead to go to that opening screen. From there, at the top of the table of contents will one sees IEEE Xplore® and clicking on that link brings up the main page for this valuable capability. A new release (1.6 dated December 2003) was announced, adding new features to this program. Logging in to one of the boxes in the table of contents brings up pages as desired and entry is permitted with the Web account information for the member.

Increasingly, new members recruited at conferences are selecting the Web version of our journals. The keyword search capability, permitting access to journals dating back to 1988, is a great incentive that expands the realm of research for many NPSS members. IEEE now has close to one million journal articles in its master database. The titles to all of those are widely available including an abstract. One has to be a subscriber to see a PDF version of any of the articles, however. There are some ‘free’ articles available.

NPSS members are encouraged to take advantage of another free service provided by IEEE. Each should obtain an Email alias. The alias has the form ‘member.name@ieee.org’ in my case, it is v.price@ieee.org. Mail going to that address first passes through a mail server at IEEE headquarters before it is forwarded to the member’s actual address. At least three important benefits accrue from using this service. First, IEEE provides additional protection (updated daily) against attacks from viruses. Last year, some 500,000 email messages to members were rejected by the filters in the IEEE servers. Many of those viruses may have been rejected anyway by the members own protection but it is comfortable to know that IEEE is helping out. Second, it is nice to have a simple address that can be used for many years without change since one can easily redirect the alias to a new ISP if the member makes a change. With that available, a member needs neither to change their business cards nor to notify an addressee of a local change. One’s IEEE address is permanent. I recommend it. Finally, spam can be identified and, if desired, deleted by IEEE before it gets to you.

NPSS has ended the year (27 December 2003) with a population of 3006 members, a total that is very close to the average end-of-year for our society for more than a decade. Rosanne Loyal at IEEE headquarters publishes a monthly Society Membership Renewal information sheet which includes data for each society. The numbers in the report change as members renew (or fail to renew), so a periodic review is necessary. The report shows that 135 people who were members of NPSS in August 2003 did renew their IEEE membership but did not renew their membership in NPSS by the end of the year. As the months go by, that number may change as renewals for 2004 continue to be made.

The non-renewals represent some disaffection with our society. This may be consistent with the findings of Dr. Elena Gerstmann, Director of IEEE Research. Last year, Dr. Gerstmann’s research group studied the IEEE membership (publishing the IEEE All Society Research Project 2003) whose purpose was to a: measure satisfaction of members toward their societies, b: develop strategies for growth and retention, c: assess values of existing programs, d: highlight “hot” content areas and e: look at demographic information for each society. A PowerPoint presentation of her results is posted on the NPSS Web page for review. Our members are encouraged to view that presentation as it provides an insight into the level of satisfaction our members have toward NPSS.

Starting a new chapter of NPSS is a daunting task. Keeping it going once started is an even greater challenge. Yet, chapters of our Society provide many benefits for our members including the opportunity to learn how to be a volunteer officer in the work of NPSS. Once or twice a year I am asked at our various conferences just how one should go about setting up a local chapter of NPSS. The most recent request came from a member in Mexico City. Recognizing the need for chapter management guidelines, IEEE has just published IEEE Chapter Chairs’ Reference Guide. This manual not only describes how to start a chapter, it also tells how to run one. The manual will be of great value to our present NPSS chapter officers as well as those contemplating a new chapter. The PDF file of this guide is found at the following web site: www.ieee.org/chapters. For questions about the document one can contact April Nakamura, a.nakamura@ieee.org at Headquarters. The guide is based upon work done by several societies and is a valuable addition for our chapter chairs. It is arranged so that we may customize the guide for particular needs of NPSS.

Vernon G. Price, the Chair of the NPSS Chapter and Membership Development Committees, can be reached at 22151 Berkeley Court, Los Altos, CA 94024-7452; Phone: +1 408 737-0778; Fax: +1 408 737-1922; E-mail: v.price@ieee.org.