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is with mixed feelings that I write this – my last - newsletter
report as President of the IEEE NPSS. The past two years have gone
by quickly and it is near the time for me to turn the reins over
to our next President, Dr. Craig Woody. Craig is a scientist at
Brookhaven National Laboratories and comes from the Radiation Instrumentation
Technical Committee where he has served in a wide variety of roles,
including General Chair of the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical
Imaging Conference. The IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society
is in good hands!
I have just returned from the second of the three scheduled IEEE
Meeting Series for 2008. IEEE is financially very sound. Some of
you may remember that there was a financial crisis at the turn of
the millennium which caused many of the models to be revised. At
the beginning of my term, the last of the algorithms determining
how to pay for overhead (called infrastructure in IEEE parlance)
was put into place. Now, I am happy to report, IEEE in general,
and the Technical Activities Board in particular, are really looking
toward the future and how to thrive in the changing world.
One of the changes in our world is membership. IEEE has always been
an international organization, but centered in the United States.
In recent years, however, the largest sector of membership growth
has been outside of North America. In 2005, the Membership Development
Committee initiated the idea of changing the membership model, and
in 2006, several studies were conducted, including a “Member
and Volunteer Values Study” and an “Online Focus Group”
which resulted in a Board of Directors Directive in November, 2007.
The results of these studies are enlightening. Most IEEE members
find value in relatively few IEEE offerings and feel, accordingly,
that they pay for “benefits” they do not want, use or
need. Complicating matters, no membership benefits have universal
appeal; but all have appeal to some members. A significant number
of members find membership unaffordable and members expect some
“exclusivity” in their membership.
The study resulted in two alternative membership models: the Tiered
Model and the Point Allocation Model. The Tiered Membership Model
allows members a choice of joining or renewing at one of several
different levels. Each higher tier provides additional benefits
with the pricing scaled accordingly. In the Point Allocation Model,
respondents had an option to join IEEE or renew their membership
at a base level and could then also purchase additional tiers of
“points.” The points could then be used to purchase
other individual benefits as desired. Individual offerings include
Society Memberships as well as other benefits such as the Women
in Engineering, Online Communities and The Consultants Network.
The survey results indicate a strong preference for the Tiered Model.
The Alternative Membership Model is encouraging but requires further
study. The most optimistic implementation is for the 2011 calendar
year.
In my first NPS Newsletter article, I reported that I had inherited
a Society which was in excellent shape. My predecessor, Bill Moses,
had made some organizational changes to distribute the workload
of running the society across even more competent people as well
as starting some great initiatives. I am happy to report that under
my stewardship, NPS is continuing in this direction and by any metric,
our Society is doing well- not that it will stop us from striving
to do even better! For this I need to thank the many layers of talented
and hard working people who contribute to NPS’s success. It
has been an honor and a privilege to be your President.
Jane Lehr, IEEE NPSS President, can be reached at Sandia National
Laboratories, MS1152, PO Box 5800, Albuquerque, NM 87185-1193; Phone
+1 505 844 8554; E-mail: jmlehr@sandia.gov.
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