REPORT FROM CHAPTERS AND MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEES

Chapters
The present set of NPSS chapters includes 15 units located in 6 of the 10 IEEE regions. The chapters are described as follows:

Region 1. A chapter in Boston is under the leadership of Prof. Dikshitulu Kalluri and has been organized for many years. It is struggling but at least it is somewhat active. A new chapter has been established in Long Island NY. The nucleus of this unit is located at Brookhaven National Laboratory. At PAC 2003, I met the chair, Dr. Arlene Zhang and discussed progress she is making with her new unit.

Region 2. A chapter is located in Cleveland Ohio under the leadership of Dr. Zhenghong Lee. Also, a chapter is located in the Washington D.C., Northern Virginia and Baltimore areas under the leadership of Harry Sauberman, P.E. It has been in existence for several years.

Region 4. A chapter is located in the Chicago area with its nucleus at Fermi National Lab. It has been organized for several years but is just now being reactivated with Dr. Jack Sherman as its chair.

Region 6. Four chapters are located in Region 6. One is located in Los Alamos under the leadership of Dr. Rickey Faehl. A second is located in Albuquerque chaired by Gerald Wood. A third chapter is located in the San Diego area with David Strobel as chair. The fourth chapter is located in the Oakland East Bay area with Joe Mauger as its leader. Each of these chapters is active and is well organized. I met with each chair at a recent PAC 2003 conference.

Region 8. Five Chapters are located in Region 8. One of these is located in the Benelux area in Antwerp and is chaired by Dr. Benoit Brichard. I met with Benoit at the recent NSREC and discussed his effort in work with his chapter. Another chapter is located in France and is well organized under the leadership of Dr.Jean-Luc LeRay. I met with him and other chapter leaders at NSREC 2003. As usual, they held a chapter meeting at the conference. A third chapter is centered in Erlangen Germany under the leadership of Dr. Klaus Frank. I met with his vice chair at PAC 2003. He reported that the chapter is also organized and is active. A fourth chapter is located in Bari Italy. Its leader is Alessandro Rizzo. The fifth chapter is located in Ukraine in the Kiev area under the leadership of Dr. Anatoly Kirilenko. It is jointly administered with several other societies.

Region 10. Our lone chapter in this region is located in Japan under the leadership of Dr. Shozo Ishii. The nucleus of the chapter is in the Kawasaki area.

Membership
At the end of June this year, total membership in IEEE was 330,923, a reduction of 16,509 or 4.8% compared to the prior year. Part of the reason for this loss is a sharp reduction in the expected influx of new students in June. Another factor was the loss of about 6000 Life members. These people did not respond to requests regarding their membership and hence were dropped from the rolls. About one third of IEEE members do not belong to any of the 38 Societies that make up the technical activities of IEEE. The rest belong to one ore more societies giving a total society membership 361,066. Total membership in societies has dropped 4.3% compared to last June. Only the Computer, Geo Remote Sensing and Social Implications of Technology societies had positive growth so far this year. All of the other societies lost members. The overall society growth for IEEE compared to last June was —5.5%.

At the end of June 2003, membership in NPSS was 2851, a decrease of 193 members compared to June of the prior year. This total includes 51 Affiliates. This membership may be illustrated in several ways as follows:

Another view of our membership is shown in the table.

Using a population of 2800 (value equals total minus affiliates), 9.3% of our members are "Lifers". The Fellows in NPSS amount to 6% of our population compared to 1.7% for IEEE. We have 14% of our members classed as Seniors compared to 7.7% for IEEE. It is well to note that the "Lifers" are not required to pay the annual fee for IEEE membership (though they are strongly urged to donate to various IEEE causes) nor do they pay an annual fee for NPSS membership if they have been a member of our society for at least five years. They are required to pay no more than the student rate for attendance at any IEEE conference. A new benefit for the Lifers is to permit them web access to all journals published by IEEE. Such benefits should strongly encourage people to retain their membership throughout their useful life. Because life expectancy is increasing and the number of expected life members will grow, IEEE is considering raising the entry limit for life members from the present value (100 = age plus years of membership in IEEE) to some higher value.

Recruitment of IEEE/NPSS members at conferences so far this year has not been as productive compared to previous years. Only four people joined at the PAC 2003. It is reported that 21 people joined at the ICOPS but the application forms did not come to me and at the moment they are held up awaiting my completion of the task. At the Pulsed Power conference, I was able to recruit only eleven people even though the conference was well attended. At the NSREC, 18 people joined including members from France, England, Sweden, Japan and Italy.

Senior Grade Members
Thus far this year, eleven members of our society have become senior members of IEEE. Nomination forms for elevation of several more people have been submitted to Headquarters for evaluation and approval. Each is expected to be approved. The following site provides information on the process used: 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 (408) 737-0778: Fax: (408) 737-1922: E-mail: v.price@ieee.org

Ronald Jaszczak
NMISTC Chair

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