| My
IEEE background
I won’t bore you with a long biographical list of things I’ve
done for IEEE. They are available to you on my web site http://web.mac.com/
halflescher/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html
Here are a few strong points pertinent to my candidacy.
Conferences - My first involvement with IEEE and
with NPS after grad school was serving on a committee of the Nuclear
and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) in 1966. I served
on or chaired several other committees of this conference as well
as serving several terms on the Radiation Effects Steering Committee
of NPSS. I was General Chairman of the NSREC in 1980. I was Technical
Chairman of a technically allied classified conference, HEART, in
1985. I understand our conferences and the desires of the volunteers
that make them so successful.
Publishing – My first technical paper was
published in Transactions on Nuclear Science in the mid-1960s. I
still remember the thrill of my paper being accepted after passing
through our IEEE peer review process. I understand our authors’
desires to publish promptly in a renowned peer reviewed journal,
and our society’s desire to have well-respected and profitable
journals.
IEEE Management – I was President of NPS
in the early 1990s. I know our technical committees and the things
that they need to be successful. Since then I have served on the
IEEE Board of Directors and more importantly served two terms as
TAB Treasurer. I understand the issues IEEE faces today and have
a strong understanding of the issues we are facing in the future.
In the last few years I developed and got IEEE Board approval for
changes to IEEE policies that make our technical societies better
able to survive and thrive, and for the other Operating Units (OUs)
of IEEE to also survive and thrive. The IEEE and our technical societies
are today far better positioned for the future as a result of my
work. During my two terms as TAB Treasurer, I created the spending
rule that permits Societies to budget up to 3% of their reserves
for new initiatives, and created the rule which permits societies
and OUs to spend up to 50% of the previous year’s operational
surplus (the difference between our budget and actual performance).
Both rules give us more money to spend and less that must go into
reserves. I created and still lead the team that developed the policy
that all of the costs of running IEEE (the indirect infrastructure
expenses) will be paid for out of package product revenues with
agreement that these costs will be capped at a maximum of 20% of
this revenue stream, and that a reserve will be built up to pay
for expensive one-time projects rather than have them charged to
the income producing OUs (like technical societies) as expenses.
I supported the policy that will fund the IEEE Foundation, the IEEE
History Center and the IEEE Awards program out of income on investments
rather than being directly paid for primarily by the technical societies.
We all today have more funds to spend for our initiatives and will,
in the future, also have more funds for these tasks.
Why I want to serve as VP of Technical Activities
My experiences in industry and throughout IEEE give me a unique
understanding of our technical activities needs. Our Technical Societies
and Technical Councils produce excellence in conferences and publications;
each are successful businesses that collectively produce over three-quarters
of IEEE’s revenues.
IEEE is entering a difficult time where large-scale change will
be not a choice but will happen whether we like it or not. I am
the right person to help lead us through this change in a manner
that best preserves the functioning of our principal IEEE income-producing
businesses – the IEEE Societies/Councils.
We have a problem with membership.
Full price IEEE memberships and society memberships are slowly declining.
Today’s easy electronic access to journals and the steadily
increasing cost of membership are significantly responsible. We
need to lower the cost of membership by instituting a menu or package
approach to dues – buy what you want to use for a reasonable
price, rather than the whole lot whether or not you want the whole
lot for a lot more money. From our society’s perspective,
in order to add value to our cost of membership, NPS is giving electronic
subscriptions to both of our journals and conference publications
with membership next year. We must continue to increase the value
of membership as well as lower the overall costs.
Our conferences are great
The more than 350 technical conferences that IEEE runs each year
are second to none in quality. Our conference publications receive
as many on-line hits as our technical journals. Conference organizers
must have the freedom to manage their conferences without burdensome
oversight, and IEEE must facilitate this. I know first hand that
our organizational volunteers cherish their independence in running
our conferences, and in spite of the requirements of our auditors,
IEEE needs to preserve as much of this independence as possible.
Our publications are outstanding
Above all we must keep the quality of our journals outstanding.
The multi-governmental push for “open access” threatens
our publication income. We must make our electronic product, IEL,
sufficiently valuable that it is worth buying even if open access
becomes universal.
Summary
I know our technical societies and their activities from the perspective
of a “doer” rather than as an observer. I also know
and value the work of the other parts of IEEE that makes us unique
from other strictly technical societies. I commit to performing
as TAB V-P as well as I have in every job you and IEEE has thrown
at me. I want to be involved in solving the problems currently on
our collective table, but I need your vote to do so. If you believe
that I am the best person to do this job, I would very much appreciate
both your vote and you asking your peers to vote for me.
Hal Flescher can be reached by E-mail at h.flescher@ieee.org
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