This year’s annual IEEE election ballot should reach you at about the same time as this Newsletter. In it you will find two races of particular interest and importance to NPSS members; IEEE President-Elect and Technical Activities Board (TAB) Vice President-Elect.
There are two Board-nominated hopefuls in the IEEE President-Elect race and one, Arthur Winston, who is on the ballot by petition. All three have served in many previous IEEE offices, including the Vice President level. Ray Findlay has served as VP Regional Activities, Pete Morley as VP Publication Activities and as VP Technical Activities, and Arthur Winston as VP Educational Activities. So there’s a pretty wide variety of IEEE experience for you to choose from. Remember that IEEE still has a preference voting system so you can vote for as many or as few as you see fit.
Effective two years ago the Technical Activities Board’s Vice President is elected by the entire IEEE membership rather than by the twenty-three member IEEE Assembly. TAB felt that all IEEE members, regardless of whether or not they were Society members, had an interest in technical matters and, therefor, should be given a say in this election. This is in contrast to the Regional Activities Board whose activities affect us all, yet whose Vice President is elected by the ten Regional Directors. The two TAB VP candidates have served as IEEE Society Presidents; Michael Lightner of Circuits and Systems and Roger Pollard of Microwave Theory and Techniques. Both have been and currently are heavily involved in TAB activities.
As is evident from the candidates’ biographies every one of them in your election booklet is a long-term volunteer who has put in lots of time and constructive effort. Their activities on your behalf should be recognized by your taking the time to read what they have to say, mark your ballot and send it in. A number of elections have been quite close, the winning margin being less than 1%. Hence each vote does count and the candidates count upon you to vote!