Sections Congress 2011 Recommendations

The Primary Section Delegates voted on the IEEE Sections Congress 2011 Recommendations during the Closing Ceremony on Monday, 22 August.  The following are the top 5 recommendations:

1. IEEE to develop a comprehensive long-term strategy to increase the number of next generation youth pursuing science and engineering careers.
2. As members maintain their IEEE membership over their years, IEEE must reward them for their loyalty. Rewards ought to be tangible and useful and can be done simply and inexpensively. Create Global Fidelity Programs including: (a) Continue membership Recognition 5-10-15-20 years of membership (b) Bonus for specific Benefits (e.g., reduced fee, IEEE merchandise, etc).
3. IEEE membership (including e-Membership) should include a Society membership as part of the basic membership fee.
4. Increased support to students in technical activities with grants to attend conferences and organization of technical competitions.
5. To encourage interest in pre-university students in engineering careers, IEEE to publish a subscription periodical (paper or electronic) targeted to high school students that highlights engineering activities of interest to those students. The periodical should also have articles promoting the benefits of an engineering career and what the students can do in college to get involved with IEEE.

The following recommendations (with categories) have been submitted by the ten IEEE Regions.  SC2011 attendees are encouraged to discuss the recommendations using the SC2011 blog page.  All SC2011 attendees will be asked to vote on the recommendations before SC2011.  Primary Section delegates will then vote on the recommendations during the Closing Ceremony on Monday.  The top 5 prioritized recommendations will be presented to the MGA Board for action and reported to the IEEE Board of Directors.

Further information is provided in the attached SC2011 Recommendations document (PDF, 259 KB), including the reason why the Recommendation was submitted, potential measures of success, and the relevant MGA goals and strategies.  

1. Develop an additional subscription package for the IEEE Xplore digital library which provides a volume option that can be used at any time over a one year period. (Business Financial/Operations)
2. Increase the number of representatives from Regions 7 to 10 on IEEE Major Boards and Major Board Committees, such that the number of representatives on these Boards/Committees should be roughly in proportion to the number of members in a particular Region.  (Business Governance)
3. Review and revise the IEEE conference model to strengthen industrial involvement and participation with the ultimate goal of attaining more collaboration between academics and industry.  (Conferences)
4. IEEE and its Societies should support, facilitate, and increase the number of IEEE technical conferences and events in the developing countries. (Conferences)
5. Develop a regional based Distinguished Lecturer Program to allow regional experts in various fields to shape the regional community and to lecture this community. (Geographic Unit Vitality)
6. Develop a Section Dashboard which can be used to monitor the current health of a Section or Society Chapters. (Geographic Unit Vitality)
7. Expand the capabilities of myIEEE to allow public access to membership data, which would create a public searchable professional profile webpage for each member. (Increase Member Interaction)
8. IEEE to develop a mechanism to allow members to find other members globally for collaboration on such issues as research, innovation, marketing, job hunting, career advice, mentoring, and similar areas of interest, etc. (Increase Member Interaction)
9. IEEE needs to move from pushing info using email to members to employing new tools to allow members to pull info they want. Organize web sites to better reposit and deliver the info desired. (IT Operations)
10. IEEE to develop and organize volunteer resources such that they are centralized, easy to use, employ a standardized interface and intuitive semantic style, and are available in the language of preference of the user. New versions should be rolled out incrementally leading to reduced learning time. (IT Operations)
11. Improve e-Notice by reducing processing time, distribution capabilities (i.e. ,include non-members), and by providing better enumeration and control of available groups. (IT Operations - Geographic Unit Tool)
12. Improve the IEEE Organization Roster to include a more intuitive interface with updates being provided on daily basis. (IT Operations - Geographic Unit Tool)
13. Provide a limited number of free standards to IEEE members (Member, Senior Member, and Fellow grade) as part of the basic membership fee. (Member Benefits)
14. IEEE membership (including e-Membership) should include a Society membership as part of the basic membership fee. (Member Benefits)
15. Members Reward Program (MRP): Program allowing members and volunteers to earn points for involvement in IEEE activities. Points can be redeemed for IEEE merchandises, services, and discounted memberships. (Member Benefits)
16. Improve the member's ability to customize communication received from IEEE and determine status of request submitted to IEEE. Members need a mechanism which allows them to specify exactly how and to what address each type of communication should be delivered, including the options of postal mail, and all forms of electronic communications.  (Member Communications)
17. IEEE should produce a flexible, customizable, self-learning, and non-intrusive e-mail system to communicate with its members (Member Communications)
18. Better tools & programs for unemployed members: Increase tools and programs available to unemployed members and to employed members to improve their careers, primarily practitioner-focused articles and publications. (Member Growth and Development)
19. Provide improved career transition support/resources/tools (a) Provide Section contact information to entities that post jobs (b) Build relationships with professional recruiters (c) Build company relationships to establish IEEE as conduit to find skilled resources (d) Ensure resources exist to prepare members for career transitions (e) Promote to non-members seeking such training. (Member Growth and Development)
20. As members maintain their IEEE membership over their years, IEEE must reward them for their loyalty. Rewards ought to be tangible and useful and can be done simply and inexpensively. Create Global Fidelity Programs including: (a) Continue membership Recognition 5-10-15-20 years of membership (b) Bonus for specific Benefits (e.g., reduced fee, IEEE merchandise, etc). (Member Growth and Development)
21. Implement a mechansim which enables IEEE members to be informed of IEEE activities regardless of geographic boundaries.  (Member Growth and Development)
22. Mission protecting rights of engineering profession: Update the IEEE mission to include a protection of the rights of the engineering profession and take steps to regulate better the engineering profession. (Member Growth and Development)
23. Introduce new membership grade beyond Senior Member to recognize distinguished practitioners (Member Growth and Development)
24. To develop an IEEE international certification board for professional engineers and technicians who practice engineering in IEEE fields. The objective is to certify evidences, competences, experiences, and proof of knowledge to validate engineering and technical skills. This will promote professional mobility of engineers and technicians around the world. (Member Growth and Development)
25. More competitive membership options to cater to regional economic differences, especially for developing countries. e-Membership to be extended to Student grade. (Membership)
26. Implement sustained membership options including recognition for years of membership, and multiple year payment/life long membership, with discounts, for higher grade membership, that includes increased benefits in proportion to the length of renewal. Have payment flexibility with auto renewal. (Membership)
27. Direct support to members in low income countries by a program that enables voluntary payment of one or more e-Memberships during renewal (Membership)
28. IEEE to offer electronic memberships throughout the world, not just in developing nations. (Membership)
29. IEEE to develop a comprehensive long-term strategy to increase the number of next generation youth pursuing science and engineering careers. (Pre-University)
30. To encourage interest in pre-university students in engineering careers, IEEE to publish a subscription periodical (paper or electronic) targeted to high school students that highlights engineering activities of interest to those students. The periodical should also have articles promoting the benefits of an engineering career and what the students can do in college to get involved with IEEE. (Pre-University)
31. IEEE to develop a timely information system available for the community - Decision support tool for different decision takers regarding: new technologies, standards, technical support for managing natural disasters, ongoing research, best practices, etc. (Public Awareness )
32. IEEE should expand and enlarge member benefits and employer recognitions for IEEE members in the industries by working closely with the industries senior managements with IEEE local and also global IEEE bodies (Public Awareness - Industry)
33. IEEE to create a program, and provide the technical support, which actively encourages the use of virtual meetings to engage members in local activities and enhance the member experience by providing better access to information and events across geographic unit and time boundaries.  (Recruitment/ Retention (Membership))
34. Increased support to students in technical activities with grants to attend conferences and organization of technical competitions (Student Growth and Development)