Steve Holt

This article summarizes the report written by Steve Holt (OES Secretary) on the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) Administrative Committee (AdCom) Meeting, held in Houston, Texas, from 2-3 May, 2004. The IEEE OES AdCom Meeting was held at the Guesthouse Inn in Houston, Texas.
Several issues dominated this meeting. The main ones were:

• Most of the business at hand was the reworking of the OES Constitution and Bylaws.
• Consideration of proposed changes to the OES Field of Interest (FOI). The proposed changes were agreed upon by those present and a letter was sent to the IEEE TAB requesting approval.
• Norm Miller’s earlier work in chairing a subcommittee to look at possible Constitution and Bylaw changes was acknowledged.
• Concerns were expressed by Joe Vadus which addressed his concerns over the proposed process to amend the Constitution and Bylaws. He had six issues which were addressed and voted upon by those present. A committee was formed to implement the above approved motion.
• Todd Morrison gave a presentation to the AdCom members. His presentation addressed the review of current practices related to preparation of the annual OES AdCom Ballots.
• Tom Wiener submitted a report as President of the OES.
• Stan Chamberlain submitted four reports as Vice President of Technical Activities. They were (1) his report on his input to the questionnaire for the TAB Society Review Committee, (2) his Technical Committee Report, (3) his OES History Report, and (4) the Oceans Conferences Historical Archive for the years 1999-2003.
• Joe Vadus submitted his report on OCEANS Conferences and Symposia.
• Fred Maltz submitted his Newsletter Editor’s Report.
• Bob Bannon and Pam Hurst gave a briefing on the Homeland Security Technology Workshop in 2003 and the upcoming one in 2004.
• Jim Lynch presented his JOE Editor’s Report.
• Jim Collins submitted a copy of the March 2004 IEEE Membership Development Progress Report.
• Norm Miller submitted information on Student Projects.
  
  In summary, there were six motions generated at this meeting and they are summarized below:
• Mot-Hou-AdCom-04-1. A motion was made to approve the Minutes from the OES AdCom and ExCom meetings in San Diego, California (in September, 2003) and Falls Church, Virginia (in January, 2004) respectively.
• Mot-Hou-AdCom-04-2. A multipart motion was presented from Joe Vadus which addressed the following six issues: (1) The OES AdCom nominate, and approve (by private ballot), a committee of at least six AdCom members to determine the scope and extent of the revisions needed to the present OES Constitution and Bylaws, (2) The AdCom Committee (shall) conduct a study of these Revisions to the OES Constitution and Bylaws following a demographic, parliamentary process, (3) Make recommendations for AdCom deliberation, (4) Vote (via private ballots), (5) The AdCom Committee should then present the results for approval by the IEEE, and then (6) Present it to the OES membership for a ballot vote. Each of the six components of this motion were voted upon separately and approved unanimously by all present, except the first component, which was voted against by Dr. Rene Garello and Dr. Christian de Moustier. It should be noted that since no formal balloting process is yet available by mail (especially for component 6), all voting will be done privately and by e-mail to Steve Holt (OES Secretary), who will gather and record all votes under the strictest secrecy.
• Mot-Hou-AdCom-04-3. A motion was made which called for the members present to select the AdCom Committee to implement the approved motion called for in Mot-Hou-AdCom-04-2. The following members volunteered to comprise this committee: Tom Wiener, Norm Miller, Jim Collins, Glen Williams, Stan Chamberlain, Joe Vadus, Pam Hurst, Christian De Moustier, Steve Anderson, and Todd Morrison (added later). Henceforth, this entity shall be referred to as the AdCom “Committee of Ten” Jim Collins volunteered to serve as the Chair of this committee. A motion was made by Glen Williams to approve this committee by acclamation. Claude seconded it and it was then voted on and approved unanimously.
• Mot-Hou-AdCom-04-4. A motion was made to take the original action proposed by Norm Miller (contained in his 16 April, 2004 letter), which states “We move the adoption of the proposed amendments”, formally off the table for discussion at this meeting in lieu of the formation of the new AdCom Committee which will address the OES Constitution and Bylaw changes. This motion was voted upon by the AdCom members present and was approved unanimously.
• Mot-Hou-AdCom-04-5. The AdCom ballot will include all nominations by petition (those with signatures from 1% of the membership). The ballot will also and independently include all legitimate nominations (legitimate as defined in the current Bylaws) up to a total of 12 (this is in addition to the nominees by petition). If fewer than 12 legitimate nominations are submitted, all of the nominees will be included on the ballot. If more than 12 are submitted, the Nominating Committee with select the 12 candidates from those nominated. Any candidate removed from the ballot by the Nominating Committee will be informed of the change and will be allowed up to 30 days to acquire the requisite number of signatures to be restored to the ballot as a nominee by petition.
• Mot-Hou-AdCom-04-6. There was a motion that the new OES DVD archive to be produced in early 2005 would be offered at the following prices: (1) all OES members will be given a free copy, (2) IEEE members will be charged $100 each, and (3) all others will be charged $1,000 each. The existing CD-ROM’s of the OES archives will be given out at the 2004 Homeland Security Workshop to all OES members in attendance, and the CD-ROMs will also be used to entice attendees to join the OES. Thus, existing CD-ROMs will be given to all new members joining at the 2004 HST Workshop”. This motion was voted upon and passed unanimously.