When issues of interest to the IEEE are
considered by government bodies, the
concerned IEEE organizational units whose
charters encompass the issues are
encouraged to develop formal testimony.
When an IEEE Position Paper is available on the
issue, this document should form the
basis for such testimony. When such a position
has not been previously developed, the
person(s) preparing the testimony should
derive material for the testimony from concerned
organizational units within the IEEE as
much as possible. Any existing
Organizational Unit Position Statements
shall be considered in the preparation of the
testimony. Such testimony should be
sponsored by the Committee, Task Force,
or Society responsible for the matters covered,
if such exists. The proposed
testimony should clearly identify the
organizational unit whose position the testimony represents.
For testimony before United States
government bodies, the copy must be
reviewed and approved by the Chair of the
IEEE-USA (or his/her IEEE-USA member
designate) and one Delegate/Director member of
IEEE-USA, selected on the basis of the
relevance of his/her background or current
responsibility to the issues being considered.
If the testimony involves matters
specifically within the purview of MGAB, TAB,
PSPB, or Standards, the testimony shall
also be subject to review and approval
by the Chair of the appropriate Board or, at
his/her direction, other members of the
Board, whose scopes cover the technical areas
involved. In the event the IEEE-USA
Chair shall fail to approve a testimony, the
said testimony with the Chair's written comments
shall be referred to an Ad Hoc
Committee, composed of an equal number of
volunteers appointed from IEEE-USA OpCom
and the management body of the
organizational unit preparing that testimony,
for a telephone conference, discussion
and resolution of the matter in a speedy manner.
The IEEE Washington office will keep a record of
all testimony, written and oral, that is
submitted to United States government bodies.
None of the procedures required in
paragraphs A and B above shall be
interpreted to be required for the normal
private working interactions between TAB
bodies and related government groups on purely
technical matters or similar
interactions between bodies of the Standards
Board and related government groups on
the development of Standards.
For testimony before government bodies,
other than the U.S. Government, the
highest ranking volunteer (or his/her designate)
for the geographic organizational unit
encompassing that government's jurisdiction,
along with one other volunteer officer
from that geographic organizational
unit, should review and approve the
testimony. If the testimony
involves a field of technology, then an
additional IEEE volunteer, who shall be
a designated representative of that field of
technology, shall review the testimony
for its technical content. Such technical
representative shall be designated by the Vice
President - Technical Activities.
Section 15 - IEEE Position Papers,
Organizational Unit Position Statements, and Testimony
Before Government Bodies
