FUNCTIONAL COMMITTEE REPORT

REPORT FROM THE CHAPTER AND MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEES

Vernon G. Price Chair, Chapters and Membership Development Committees

Membership:

  Headquarters for IEEE has released information showing the growth in membership for the year ending March 2001. This is seen in the following table:

The number of students for March 2001 at 64,614 represents a growth for the year of 5.9%. Growth in IEEE membership continues to take place for the most part in areas outside of the US. If ones wishes to view a more detailed list in the complete report, visit: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/rab/md/apr01prog.html  

Our society encourages people to join the IEEE and NPS. Most of our growth in membership comes from attracting engineers and scientists to join when these people attend our yearly conferences and symposia. As members, these people enjoy important benefits when they receive our peer-reviewed journals, when they attend our annual conferences at the member rate (typically ~100 USD less than for non-members) and by participation in our technical committees, chapter activities, etc.  Access to electronic versions of intellectual information through membership is one of the most important benefits available. Many members use the valuable Financial Advantage program for insurance needs, financial loans, etc.

New members are attracted when attending our conferences by the subsidized introductory membership offered to promote our Society. The subsidy amounts to about 65 USD and includes part of the cost for IEEE membership as well as the cost for membership in our Society. It is believed that once a member experiences value of membership then that person will continue each year on his or her own to retain that membership for years to come. The person, of course, recovers much of the annual cost of membership when he or she pays the reduced rate for conference attendance.

I have often been asked whether our Society gains a benefit when offering such a subsidy. I believe that we do. I see people in attendance at our conferences whom I have signed up as new recruits several years ago. Better information is obtained, however, by looking at some real data. I looked at just one conference held in 1998. Those new recruits were members throughout 1999. Then, I noticed that only 85% of them continued their membership into the year 2001. Some of the lapsed people were students. Some others were from Region 8. My observations, however, were very similar to what is observed in IEEE as a whole. Not all of the lapsed people, of course, leave the IEEE. Some just leave our society. It would be interesting to query the dropouts to find out why they left. We might ask, “What should our Society do to keep a valuable person like you as a member? Some 300 people depart our Society each year to be replaced by approximately the same number of people. A great challenge is to try to reduce this number.

Chapters:

 I have set up a majordomo arrangement for our chapters to permit ready communication amongst the chapter leaders. It is my hope that the NPS chapters may use this facility to report their activities for the benefit of other chapter leaders. The primary reporting done by our chapters is made to the Sections of IEEE where the chapters reside. For that report, the chapters receive financial support from the Section. The support is based upon the number of attendees at each chapter meeting.  Nevertheless, use of the majordomo facility allows the leaders to observe “What Works Best” when reported by others and it helps me to keep the NPS AdCom aware of chapter needs as well as of their successes. I encourage the leaders to use this informational tool.

IEEE offers a valuable facility to our chapters by hosting a Web site for them to use if they desire. Using the majordomo, I will try to publicize this information so that those chapters who choose to use it may know how to find the host and begin to set up their site. I hope that such sites can be linked properly to our main NPSS site so that the sites may be easy to find and to navigate to. Some of our chapters already have set up their own sites. I would hope that links to those could be available to other members.

Senior Grade Members: In a separate part of this Newsletter, the names of NPS people who recently were elevated in grade to “Senior” are listed. Headquarters IEEE has set a goal for this year to make some 1500 such elevations and has encouraged me to set a goal for our Society to do our part in the overall plan. The motive from the Headquarters standpoint comes from the observation that “Senior” and higher level people retain their membership for many years compared to people in lower level categories. Years past, the fraction of “Seniors” was much higher than it is today. It is especially true that NPSS should have more of its members in the elevated grade status. Our members are older and many of them have years of experience in high-level jobs in academia, in industry and in government laboratories. I believe that a goal to have 50 NPS members this year to be nominated for advancement is a good choice. I will do my part to help to achieve that number and encourage others in our Society to nominate their friends. In addition to the nice plaque the accepted person receives after nomination, IEEE also now offers a voucher valued at 25 USD that the person may use to purchase IEEE products or to pay for Society publications, memberships, etc. My report in the last Newsletter offered information about how to initiate the “Senior” action. Visit the site to nominate one of your friends: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/rab/md/smelev.htm

Vernon G. Price can be contacted at 22151 Berkeley Ct, Los Altos CA 94024-7452: Phone +1 408 737-0778: Fax: +1 408 737-1922: E-mail: v.price@ieee.org 

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