IEEE Conferences Committee (formerly MSC)

Printer Friendly

IEEE Conferences Committee
Minutes

Sheraton Universal Hotel
Universal City, CA - USA
Thursday - 15 February 2007

FEEDBACK & CONTACT: Samantha Padilla, Sr. Manager, Conferences
E-mail: s.padilla@ieee.org or Phone: +1 732 465 5889

I.	Roll Call & Welcome (Engel)
	Chair Engel called to order the 1st meeting of the 2007 IEEE Conference Committee at 8:00am. (List of attendees)

II.	Review & Adoption of Agenda (Engel)
	The agenda was approved as presented.

III.	Approval of IEEE Conferences Committee Minutes - 19 October 2006 (Engel)
	The minutes of 19 October 2006 were approved as written.

IV.	Chairs Report (Engel)

V.	Conference Committee Charter (Engel)
	A.	Additional Administrative Changes
		S. Padilla informed committee of the additional administrative changes made to the charter. Final revision will be placed on the IEEE agenda once all Boards have approved.

VI.	Discussion Items/Reports
	A.	Conference Strategy
		a.	Panel of Conference Organizers (POCO) Planning
		- Check on adding a dinner prior to the meeting (Thursday) - Highlight passport and visa requirement changes in next newsletters - Parallel session for VP Conferences and Reg CC focusing on strategy and admin - Plan two years out 2008 and forward
		b.	Standing committee in operations manual
		- 2007 Ad Hoc Committee: Karl Varian, Mark Karol, Ferial El-Hawary and Bob Rassa
		ACTION
		C. Rubenstein to draft a resolution for review and approval of a standing committee and charter.

	B.	Discussion Items
		a.	Conference 'No-Shows'
		ACTION
		R. Rassa to continue the investigation by reaching out to Conference VPs for data.

		b.	New Registration/E-commerce Guidelines
		Discussion notes:
		- IEEE should consider offering a low cost registration option for geographic units - Committee agreed that IEEE should educate conferences and sponsoring organizational units by using the guidelines and phasing in conferences who are working with non-compliant vendors - Recommendation from the floor that the Region Director be responsible for communicating this information
		ACTION
		S. Padilla to take under advisement to include an end-to-end flow with sample timeline for organizers

		c.	Conference Overhead
		Discussion notes:
		- The objective is to give societies the information and big picture. Know what the numbers are before we can determine how to recover them. - Committee agreed that a specific amount should not be forced on the societies/conferences. Adding a percentage overhead fee to include in a conference budget would be a hard sell. For example, if conferences are forced to pay a specific fee and IEL exceeds expectation, money will flow into the reserves and there will be a huge pushback from OUs that conferences are too expensive and a overhead fee is not needed.
		ACTION
		S. Padilla to determine what the true cost of running a conference is - numbers and categories including Conference Pubs

		d.	Technical Co-Sponsorship
		Discussion notes:
		- Separate out cost concerns from brand control - Need a review and clarification of who can technically-cosponsor a conference
		ACTION
		Chair Engel to investigate what, if anything needs to be done on technical co-sponsorship. Areas of investigation: Is technical co-sponsorship approval routinely given, is a cost involved, what is the impact to societies when geographic units technically cosponsor (chapter sponsors without society sponsorship).

		e.	SRC Conferences Committee Report
		Information Item

		f.	Conference Organizer's Manual Updates
		Chair Engel asked for volunteers to assist in making recommendations for improving the Conference Organizer's Manual.
		ACTION
		Chair Engel will lead an effort getting feedback on recommendations to make more user friendly by June. Dr. Lumpkins offered to volunteer a member of his society to assist in effort.

		g.	Conference Committee to become Board
		Discussion notes:
		In 2005, the conference business was IEEE's largest line of revenue. The publications business was second and standards third. Both have board level representation. The question is whether or not the conference business should have a voice on the Board - a voting board level position.
		ACTION
		Chair Engel and Karl Varian to gather information by June for pro, cons and necessary steps.

		h.	Disclaimers for sponsored conferences
		No action needed

	C.	Conference Business/Operations Report (Padilla)

	D.	Conference Publications Report (Vasquez)

	E.	Currency Hedging Update (Sosa)

	F.	Conference Project List/Prioritization

VII.	Action Items
	Committee reviewed current status of open action items.

VIII.	Information Items
	A.	Strategic Action Plan Summary

	B.	List of Open Conferences

	C.	Conference Closing Graph

	D.	2007/2008 Conferences Listing

IX.	New Business
	A.	Conferences Committee agrees that the Marketing at Conferences Initiative should continue. Someone should take ownership of the program and operationalize the budget.

		MOTION
		Conferences committee wishes to continue the Marketing at Conferences program in 2008 and budget accordingly.
		MOTION APPROVED

	B.	Metrics on society health were discussed.

X.	Next Meeting
	Next meeting will be Thursday 14 June 2007 at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, Philadelphia, PA USA

XI.	Adjournment

top