IEEE · Web viewThe Society acknowledges significant overlap with three other societies (Industrial Electronics Society, Power Electronics Society, Power and Energy Society) but has

Confidential, 2012

CONFIDENTIALITY AND NONDISCLOSURE STATEMENT AND AGREEMENT

This report is the property of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE). The report contains proprietary information of the IEEE and is solely for the use of IEEE volunteers and staff. This confidentiality and Nondisclosure Statement and Agreement is for the purpose of protecting such confidential information from being made available and disclosed to unauthorized persons.

TAB SOCIETY REVIEW COMMITTEE

Review Report

IEEE Industry Applications SocietyDate of Review: 28 June 2012

Initial data sent to Society: 01 Mar. 2012 Draft report to Society: 16 Aug 2012Data returned by Society: 25 May 2012 Report Comments returned by Society: (Date)Review performed: 28 Jun 2012 Final report submitted to TAB Management

Committee: (Date)

TAB Society Review Committee Members:Edward Rezek, ChairDavid A. Castañón, MemberSusan M. Lord, MemberJohn H. Marsh, MemberMark Nelms, Member (recused self from review due to conflict of interest)S. Kathy Land, MemberJim Isaak, Member

Society Representatives Present at Review:

Bruno Lequesne Industrial Applications Society President, [email protected] Nelms Industrial Applications Society Meeting Chair, [email protected] Bernstein, Industrial Applications Society Senior Administrator, [email protected] Nondahl, Industrial Applications Society Past President, [email protected] Lloyd, Industrial Applications Society President Elect, [email protected] Zinger, Industrial Applications Society Treasurer, [email protected]

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IAS Draft Report

Table of Contents

1. Society Review Committee Summary Comments2. Society Comments3. Purpose of Society

Field of Interest4. Strategy and Operations

Society Strategic Plan Society Operations Plan

5. Conferences, Publications, and Education Conferences and Technical Meetings Publications Education

6. Membership Membership Data Membership Recruitment and Retention Volunteerism and Society Leadership Member Recognition Member Feedback Society Communications

7. Finance Budgeting Process Society Reserves and Watch List

8. Governance Governing Documents and Compliance Administrative Committee/Board of Governors Relationship with IEEE Technical Committees

9. Previous Review10. Society Successes

1. Society Review Committee Summary Comments

The Industrial Applications Society has a very broad scope and Field of Interest and is very active at reaching out to and collaborating with non-IEEE entities worldwide that have technical overlap. The Society also acknowledges significant overlap with three other societies (Industrial Electronics

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Society, Power Electronics Society, Power and Energy Society) but has chosen to reach out to them and structure an informal working relationship rather than inwardly work to protect the interests of IAS. This has been beneficial to IAS.

The Society takes strategic planning seriously but has not developed a mission and does not have a formal, written strategic plan or a formal, written operations plan. Nevertheless the Society does practice strategic planning and has many instances of success.

The Society is entirely volunteer run but is supported by a Senior Administrator. The Society has developed specific strategic goals and corresponding activities to support IAS membership sustainment, vitality and growth. The retention rates for IAS are among some of the highest in IEEE TAB and the society is to be commended for their longstanding maintenance of these high retention numbers.

The Society acknowledges significant overlap with three other societies (Industrial Electronics Society, Power Electronics Society, Power and Energy Society) but has chosen to reach out to them and structure an informal working relationship rather than inwardly work to protect the interests of IAS. This has been beneficial to IAS.

The Society has a broad portfolio of financially and technically cosponsored conferences, and uses its technical cosponsorship as a part of the Society global outreach and promotion. A large percentage of its financially cosponsored conferences are developed and managed by IAS Technical Committees.

The Society has a rich, diverse education program that includes a broad range of tutorial offerings at major conferences, a robust Distinguished Lecturer program that includes a formal process keep retiring DLs active in the Society as Prominent Lecturers. In particular the Society has an outstanding suite of activities under the Zucker Program which are focused on student members

The society has a reasonably diverse governance structure and is seriously trying to further diversify its AdCom to better reflect the membership demographics. The Society has a relatively large number of Technical Committees and allows them to operate in a quite independent manner. There are term limits for the Technical Committee Chair, but these are different for different Technical Committees. The Society does not apply metrics to Technical Committee activities, and is therefore unable to accurately assess the activity level of its Committees. Nevertheless, the IAS did sunset one (1) Technical Committee since the last Review.

The Society is strong financially and has adequate funds that could be put toward society initiatives; the Society is considering initiatives that could be funded.

2. Society Comments

Comment 1: Publications (Section 5, Pages 8-9):The SRC is providing valuable feedback and helpful suggestions concerning papers finding their way in two publications. However, a misunderstanding arose. There is no intention for papers in the proposed Journal of Selected and Emerging Topics in Power Electronics (joint publication with PELS, actually, not PES) to be also published in the IAS Transactions, or vice-versa. The issue of a same paper in two publications exists only if a paper is presented at a conference is later on published into the Transactions, with little or no changes required by the review process, or made by the authors. In

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such a case, that paper may be found on IEEE Xplore as both part of the conference proceedings, and the IAS Transactions. The IAS plans on following up with the SRC’s suggestion to obtain a single Digital Object Identifier for those papers, and will appreciate any further help from IEEE in this regard.

Consequently, the recommendation to TAB: “The SRC recommends that TAB take a position on a policy for joint publication of a single article in two publications. Papers in the proposed Journal of Selected and Emerging Topics in Power Electronics would also appear in the IAS Transactions. The Digital Object Identifier could be an unambiguous identify for the paper. “ is not necessary as regards journals and transactions, although the idea of a single DOI could be generally of interest.

Comment 2: The following statement (page 7) perhaps applies to the Industrial Electronics Society, but not to the Industry Applications Society. Industry participation at conferences is not a problem for IAS, with some conferences (particularly the Cement Industry Conference, and the Rural Electric Power Conference, for instance) reaching near 100% industry participation.

- The creation of an Industry Forum at major IES conferences to increase industry participation. These are either parallel sessions or special sessions, depending on the conference. Participation has increased from 3 – 4% of conference attendees participating at an Industry Forum at inception to 10 – 15% at the most recent conferences.

3. Purpose of Society

SRC Committee Comments:

The Society’s purpose reported matches the TAB Operations Manual. It slightly exceeds the maximum 75 word TAB guideline, being 82 words long.

The SRC was unable to locate the Society scope on its web site, either on the home page or an ‘about us’ page.

On the Society LinkedIn the Society notes that “Our purpose is to promote the IEEE IAS vision / mission statement”. However, the LinkedIn page does not expand that purpose or provide a link to greater detail.

The SRC notes that the Society webmaster is active and engaged. This observation results from a comment made by an SRC member to the webmaster during the Society Review about the web page layout. The comment was implemented the next day.

The Society is very active in establishing relationships with non-IEEE professional organizations worldwide. The SRC considers this to be a Best Practice that needs to be publicized to TAB.

The society maintains an excellent although informal working relationship with three sister societies with overlapping fields of interest (Industrial Electronics Society, Power Electronics Society, Power and Energy Society). The societies meet at each BoD series to discuss specific goals and objectives. Furthermore, these sister societies invite representatives to their respective executive meetings as non-voting members. This sister society relationship has served the Society well. This is a Best Practice that addresses part of the challenge TAB faces with emerging areas that span societal segmentation and could serve as a model for other TAB S/C’s.

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Recommendations to Society

The SRC recommends that the Society incorporate the scope into its web site since the scope does contain useful information.

The SRC recommends that the Society explore a wider use of online environments – LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, and perhaps others. This can maintain visibility for the society beyond IEEE. This provides an opportunity to surface new areas that might belong in the Field of Interest, or opportunities to address emerging technologies.

The SRC recommends that the Society enhance its LinkedIn page to expand on the Society purpose and possibly add a link to the Society web page section on its mission and vision.

Recommendations to TAB

None.

Recommendations to IEEE

None.

4. Strategy and Operations

SRC Committee Comments

Overall, the IAS takes strategic planning seriously. However, this does not appear to have included the development of a mission. No mention of the IAS mission is found in the Report, or is found on the IAS website.

The IAS does not have a written strategic plan, but does identify a number of strategic plan elements in the Report. The elements include some that are quite general, and some that are very specific. However, none of the elements of the strategic plan are associated with metrics. The elements of the strategic plan are intended to cover a period of 3 – 5 years into the future.

The IAS Executive Board has the responsibility to develop and execute the strategic plan. The IAS Vice President’s only official responsibility is strategic planning and is tasked with reviewing and keeping current the strategic plan, this shows a strong commitment for strategic planning. IAS conducts membership surveys, which are reviewed by the IAS Board. The IAS noted that a membership survey identified a need for a new IAS publication; IAS has responded well and has a proposal for a new publication in the Phase 2 stage of review and approval. In addition, the IAS website has been updated based on comments obtained from a membership survey. The Society Review Committee considers this response to membership surveys as a Best Practice that other S/C’s should consider. The IAS President-Elect is a corresponding member of the TAB Strategic Planning Committee and attends via telephone; the VP reports TAB SPC activities and business items to its BoG. This has served the Society well. This is viewed by the Society Review Committee as a Best Practice that needs to be publicized to other S/C’s.

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The IAS does not have a written operations plan but is diligent in implementing activities and initiatives for the betterment of IAS. The Executive Board has responsibility for the IAS operations plan and meets to review status. The list of innovative activities in the last 5 years is significant, and can be correlated to the strategic plan. The items highlighted by the Society are:

- The use of Technical Committees to expand the global presence of IAS.- The expansion of its Technical Committee activity to cover new technical areas. IAS has

added several Technical Committees since the last review: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Conversion Systems, Transportation Systems, and Electrical Safety. IAS uses these as new technical opportunities for its diverse society membership.

- The development of a plan to expand its conference activity globally without risking revenue or attendance of US-based conferences. IAS has decided that rather than move established US-based conferences overseas and risk attendance and revenue loss that a better approach is to ‘clone’ successful US-based conferences to Regions 8 – 10. This has served the Society well. This is viewed by the Society Review Committee as a Best Practice that needs to be publicized to other S/C’s.

- The creation of an Industry Forum at major IES conferences to increase industry participation. These are either parallel sessions or special sessions, depending on the conference. Participation has increased from 3 – 4% of conference attendees participating at an Industry Forum at inception to 10 – 15% at the most recent conferences.

- The implementation of activities to increase involvement of undergraduate engineering students in IAS technical conferences and supported industries. Two (2) programs (the Myron T. Zucker program and the Rooks Fund) have been successful at creating opportunities for undergraduate student involvement in flagship IAS conferences.

The Society is run exclusively by volunteers.


The SRC recommends that a Society mission be formally developed, included on the website and otherwise publicized to Society membership for feedback.

The SRC recommends that the Society develop a formal, written strategic plan which would include metrics to evaluate Society progress against the strategic plan.

IAS has an excellent program that services undergraduate students but has no connections to EAB, which itself has a significant activity to service undergraduate engineers. The SRC recommends that IAS connect with EAB to discuss possible collaborations that could benefit both bodies.

The SRC recommends that the Society consider publicizing a summary of the membership surveys in its Magazine to better communicate with membership.


The IAS President-Elect routinely attends the TAB Strategic Planning Committee meeting via telecom and reports on its activities to the IAS BoG. The SRC considers this to be a Best Practice that needs to be publicized to TAB. The SRC recommends that other S/C’s consider a similar methodology to stay connected to the TAB strategic planning activity.


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None

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Conferences, Publications, and Education

Conferences

Remarks:The Society has nearly equal split between financially technically cosponsored conferences. However, all financially cosponsored conferences are located in Regions 1 – 7. The financially cosponsored conferences are all profitable. The Society uses its conference technical cosponsorship as part of its globalization strategy. The Society also purposefully uses conference technical cosponsorship to promote Society membership and support Society chapters. The Society plans to move as many of the technically cosponsored conferences to financially cosponsored conferences as it can. However the Society did not present a plan or a schedule for this, nor was it asked to do so by the SRC.

The Society has a conference approval process and also a conference oversight process. As noted elsewhere in this report, the Society has a large number of Technical Committees. The IAS Technical Committees are heavily involved in Society conferences. Many, if not the majority of, Technical Committees develop, plan and manage their own conferences, with oversight provided by the Society.

Recommendations to SocietyThe Society has a successful strategy of offering parallel conferences to reach different regions. However, its general meeting is held in North America. The SRC recommends that the Society should consider establishing a program to provide travel assistance to attend the general meeting for members from low-income countries.

Recommendations to TABThe Society noted that the ‘20% surplus rule’ is a barrier to acquiring financial cosponsorship of conferences; it was not clear whether this applied to conferences in Regions 1 – 7 or only Region 8 – 10. However it is not clear to the Society that the 20% construct is a goal, and not a requirement, and that the 20% more accurately applies to the overall conference portfolio and not individual conferences. The SRC recommends that TAB prepare a white paper that more clearly specifies the 20% construct.

The SRC further recommends that the IEEE conference committee (which reports to TAB) be tasked with doing an investigation of the implications of requiring any surplus on events cosponsored in Regions 8 – 10 and report its findings to the TAB Management Committee.

Recommendations to IEEENone.

Society Comments:

Publications


The Society maintains two publications – a Transactions and a Magazine. The Society is working with one of its sister societies, PES, to develop a new Journal of Selected and Emerging Topics in

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Power Electronics. Papers in the Journal would also appear in the Transactions, consistent with PSPB publication policies. The SRC raised a concern that this might lead to confusion over the pedigree of the paper, since the same paper would be in two publications. The SRC recommendation is given below. The Society is also working to become a co-sponsor of an existing publication entitled the Journal of the International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems, which is primarily based at Asian locations The PRAC review of periodicals should raise any issues with respect to Impact factors, paper review practices and submission to publication time.

The Society maintains a “Presentation First” for its Transactions, which requires that papers be presented at an approved conference prior to publication. This practice is strongly supported by industry in some areas where the presentation discussion is considered to be a key value, and archival publication is not the critical concern.


The SRC recommends that the Society continue addressing any remaining PRAC recommendations.

The prior SRC review expressed concerns over the Presentation First policy, which were shared with this current review. The Society noted that its leadership reviews this policy yearly. The SRC recommends that the Society continue to review this on a regular basis to affirm it is meeting the Society objectives, including consideration of impact on conference attendance, etc.

The SRC recommends that the Society take the lead in reaching out to TAB and PSPB to address the concern raised over joint publication of papers in two publications. The SRC recommends that the Society consider whether the use of Digital Object Identifiers (DOI’s) could create a single identity for such a paper. Some methodology is needed to assure a single reference for a given technical document. This would consolidate citations and improve the article impact factors.


The SRC recommends that TAB take a position on a policy for joint publication of a single article in two publications. Papers in the proposed Journal of Selected and Emerging Topics in Power Electronics would also appear in the IAS Transactions. The Digital Object Identifier could be an unambiguous identify for the paper.


The SRC recommends that PSPB take the lead in evaluating whether the DOI features could be used to associate multiple documents with a single DOI. For example, the ”Original Conference Paper”, and ”Final Transactions Paper”, and perhaps also non-document products like “Video of conference presentation and discussion”. The ability to identify non-document products could be of particular value to industry participants for some topics/conferences.

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Education


The SRC noted that IMS has an Education Department, which is composed of five (5) committees each focused on a particular aspect of IAS educational activities. The educational items highlighted by the Society are:

- A Distinguished Lecturer program. There are 6 DLs, with a 2 year term limit which cannot be renewed. Since the last Review, the IAS has removed the requirement that DLs be IEEE Fellows, which was a recommendation from the SRC at that time. This change was also an element of the IAS strategic plan. Retiring DLs are encouraged to remain active as ‘Prominent Lecturers’. This Prominent Lecturer program is active and is serving the Society well. The Society Review Committee considers this to be a Best Practice that needs to be publicized to other S/C’s. The IAS has a thorough evaluation process to select its DLs. Former DLs and the IAS Chapters & Membership Department are involved in the evaluation process. IAS funds the DL travel while the local entity (usually a Chapter) handles the local expenses. The IAS noted that it believes that the number of DL’s is too small to best serve the Society and will expand the program in 2013.

- Tutorials are held during most of the Society’s conferences; the tutorials are not recorded. The IAS has a formal and detailed process for reviewing and approving tutorials before they are offered at conferences. Attendees can earn Continuing Education Credits for some tutorials. The development of tutorials is a response to member surveys, which highlighted the need for educational materials.

- The IAS has a separate committee within the Education Department with the responsibility for eLearning module development. The IAS has developed a total of four (4) modules since 2009. The modules are not publicized on the IAS website.

- The IAS has a very strong program for travel support for students interested in attending various Society conferences, the Myron Zucker Travel Program. The program covers up to $600 USD for travel as well as hotel and registration expenses. Priority is given to undergraduate students having no paper at the conference. The IAS has a student Competition Committee tasked with the responsibility for selecting students to receive the Travel Grant.

- The IAS has a very strong program to recognize student design accomplishments, the Myron Zucker Undergraduate Student Design Contest. The Contest is open to undergraduate students only and recognizes three (3) student teams and three (3) individual students each year. The IAS has a very thorough and detailed selection process. Cash honoraria are given to both the students and the University academic department.

- The IAS has a very strong program to recognize student attendees at its annual flagship conference, the Myron Zucker Luncheon. The objective is to give students an opportunity to mingle with IAS members and other students. All student attendees are invited. The IAS describes its student support activities at the luncheon. Student award recipients present their award-winning projects. The IAS BoG members also attend the luncheon.

- The IAS financially supports an ongoing and strong student design competition, the International Future Energy Challenge. The Competition is led by an IAS sister Society, The Power Electronics Society. This is an example of the benefits of the sister Society arrangement. The competition is held biennially, with multiple design topics selected by the IAS for that year. 2011 was the first year of the competition and > 10 teams participated.

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The SRC noted that IMS does not have any educational activities that are specific to GOLD members. However, the IMS is active in involving GOLD members in its governance structure as well as membership development activities.

The Society is to be commended for the breadth and depth of its educational program.


The IAS has an extremely strong student educational program. The SRC recommends that the Society be proactive and contact EAB regarding potential collaboration on university activities such as its design contests.


None


None

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5. Membership


The Industry Applications Society (IAS) is to be commended for the development of specific strategic goals and corresponding activities to support IAS membership sustainment, vitality and growth. Membership activities are conducted in a ‘decentralized’ and as stated in the report is fostered at the committee or chapter level. While this provides for distributed member engagement, no description was provided to support leadership training. It is understood that IAS provides an annual chapter and regional workshops. However, the society may want to invest in standardized online training for its global leadership.

Although significant growth is recognized in region 8 and 9, there is acknowledgement from IAS that these increases offset membership losses in regions 1-6. The retention rates for IAS are among some of the highest in IEEE TAB and the society is to be commended for their longstanding maintenance of these high retention numbers. However, the lowest retention rates are reflected by their highest growth region, and it is unclear from the report (no explanation provided) regarding possible cause and effect for the retention rates in region 9.

IAS has an active awards program which includes society/chapter recognition. IAS is to be commended for removing barriers to their Distinguished Lecturer program, removing the requirement that IAS DLs be Fellows (May 2012) should provide additional vitality for this program.

Opportunities for IAS member and leadership social networking are limited.


The SRC recommends that the Society perform a causal examination to support Region 9 membership retention anomalies as well as significant increases in Regions 8 and 9. Provide for committee and chapter leadership training.

The SRC recommends that the Society look at specific programs to facilitate social networking for new and existing members.

The SRC recommends that the Society consider development of formal program to promote and measure chapter vitality – take outputs of reporting to MGA to proactively mitigate problems with chapter making this a standardized process rather than ad hoc reaction to non-response from chapter.


The SRC recommends that TAD staff help the Society develop targeted leadership training for its committee and chapter chairs. The Society may also consider adopting existing TA, MGA, and IEEE leadership training.

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None.

Remarks:

The IAS is commended for its excellent membership retention rates. There are no perceived problems with membership.

6. Finance


The Society has a very good process for budget development. The budget is prepared with inputs from multiple committees and is reviewed by the BoG for final approval. All entities have an opportunity to be involved in the budget development process. The Treasurer reports financial status to the BoG at each meeting. The IAS noted that there was not a lot of discussion about the IAS forecast during these meetings. The IAS relies on the Treasurer to manage the forecast during the year, and note deviations as appropriate.

The IAS notes that its Expense-to-Reserves ratio is 0.625 while TAB Finance recommends a ratio of 0.5 or less. The IAS intends to keep the ratio approximately at the current value.

The IAS noted that it is considering various initiatives and noted that in the past it had created a new conference (ECCE) as part of an initiative activity.

The IAS created two large endowments, both associated with the Myron Zucker activity. The IAS administers these endowments and the planning and implementation of awards, grants etc. that are a part of the endowment. The IEEE Foundation manages the funding, investment, etc. This has served the IAS and its constituency very well.

The SRC commends the IAS for its sound fiscal management.

Recommendation to Society

None.


None.


None.

7. Governance

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The SRC noted that the Constitution and Bylaws were compliant with TAB requirements except for the new requirement to have 1.5 candidates per elected position. The IAS has two (2) governance positions (Member-at-Large positions) that are subject to this requirement. For the 2012 election cycle the IAS has 1.43 candidates for the only open position. The SRC noted that the IAS is practicing due diligence toward meeting the spirit of the 1.5x requirement. SRC also noted the Society has a Society Policies and Procedures Manual, which was included as a part of the Report.

The IAS also noted that it does not comply with Section 4.2.B.9 of the TA Manual which states “Each Society shall forward to the Managing Director, Technical Activities Department, a copy of each meeting minutes of the Society, an annual report, and a financial statement. Financial statements shall be prepared for each IEEE fiscal year and shall be submitted immediately following the end of that year.” The IAS committed to provide the meeting minutes.

The Society AdCom in general has good regional diversity but remains heavily weighted toward Regions 1 – 6. The demographics of the IAS leadership does not well match the IAS membership, being over-represented by Region 1 – 6 AdCom members and under-represented by Regions 7, 9 and 10 AdCom members. However, the AdCom demographics by professional interest are a closer match to the IAS membership. The SRC notes that the IAS is acting in good faith to diversify its AdCom to better reflect the membership demographics. The IAS practices a ‘rotation’ of top leadership positions: once the Vic-President is appointed by the BoG, the Vice-President rotates into the President-Elect position and then the President position.

The IAS governance does not include a GOLD representative, but informally places a GOLD member in its Electronic Communication Committee.

The SRC noted that the Society has a large number of Technical Committees – 20. The IAS allows the Technical Committees to operate in a quite independent manner, even allowing each committee to maintain and administer a budget or organize a conference. There are term limits for the Technical Committee Chair, but these are different for different Technical Committees. However the maximum term for any Technical Committee Chair is two (2) years. The IAS does not apply metrics to Technical Committee activities, and is therefore unable to accurately assess the activity level of its Committees. Nevertheless, the IAS did sunset one (1) Technical Committee since the last Review.


The SRC recommends that the Society consider formalizing a GOLD representative in its governance structure.

The SRC recommends that the Society develop quantifiable metrics by which to assess Technical Committee activity, and then begin a review of the Technical Committee activities.


Section 4.2.B.9 of the TA Manual states “Each Society shall forward to the Managing Director, Technical Activities Department, a copy of each meeting minutes of the Society, an annual report, and a financial statement. Financial statements shall be prepared for each IEEE fiscal year and shall be submitted immediately following the end of that year.” It seems that providing the minutes is a

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reasonable requirement, but that providing an annual report and a financial report may not be necessary, since the financial statement is no different than the IAS financial actual, and the content of the annual report is not defined. The SRC recommends that the TAB Management Committee reconsider this section.

The Society noted that although there is widespread availability of TAB policies and proposed changes, these are not communicated to the IAS in an efficient manner. The SRC recommends that TAB review its practices and develop a methodology to communicate relevant information in a timely manner.


None.

9. Previous Review

Committee Comments

The society is to be commended for its diligence in addressing recommendations from the last review.

In the prior review it was recommended that Society change its mission statement to better reflect the Society goals and objectives. The Society considered this recommendation and has chosen not to modify its mission statement

In the prior review the SRC recommended that some members of the Society governance be elected by the general membership. In response to this recommendation, the Society is now having contested elections for some governance positions including members-at-large. The majority of governance positions remain appointed. The Society noted that this practice has served the Society well.

In response to the prior review, the Society has created multiple Society events in Regions 8 – 10. While this does not address the specific recommendation to move the Annual Meeting outside of Regions 1 – 6, the Society has satisfied the intent of the SRC recommendation. Furthermore, the scope of the Annual Meeting has changed over time and has become more of an administrative meeting rather than a broader Society meeting. The Annual Meeting is located in the geographic location where most members of the governing council reside.

In the prior review, the SRC expressed concerns over the “Presentation First” policy and recommended that the Society reconsider this policy. The Society noted that it evaluates the policy annually and at this point takes the position that this policy is serving the Society well. The prior review also noted that the “Presentation First’ policy was limiting paper submissions from outside of Regions 1 – 6. In response the Society has created multiple conferences in multiple regions which do not have the “Presentation First” policy.

In response to the prior review, the Society has been very active in promoting chapter activities, and creating new chapters

In response to the prior review, the Society has modified its Distinguished Lecturer policies and no longer requires that they be IEEE Fellows. The Society is further modifying its policies so that it will increase the number of Lecturers from industry.

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In response to the prior review, the Society has significantly strengthened its student member program in multiple ways. Furthermore it has grown the number of student chapters from 2 to 24 since the prior review.

In response to the prior review the Society has taken steps to bring a higher percentage of Region 7 – 10 members into its governance structure. Demographic changes have occurred as a result.

In response to the prior review, the Society is specifically taking steps in multiple areas to increase industry participation in Society activities. Similar steps are being taken to increase the participation of members from Region 7 – 10.


The SRC recommends that the Society continue its activities to increase participation and representation of members from Regions 7 – 10. The Society is making good progress and the SRC encourages the Society to continue its activities.

The SRC recommends that the Society continue its annual review of the “Presentation First” policy to assure that the policy continues to meet the needs of its members and its constituency.


None


None

Society Comments

10. Society Successes

Successes

The Society highlighted several successes since the last review:

The Society approach towards expanding its conferences presence outside of Regions 1 – 6. The Society has several successful conferences in Regions 1 – 6. Rather than risk attendance, income and member satisfaction by moving these events, the Society has elected to ‘clone’ successful conferences in Regions 7 – 10 and hold essentially parallel events in the same year. This retains exposure to current attendees while encouraging new attendees outside of Regions 1 – 6.

The Society governance is held by a rather small group, but the Society operation is heavily decentralized. Many key Society activities are managed by technical committees, chapters, working groups etc. This structure provides a much larger (geographic and function) base to engage interested volunteers.

The Society has expanded its conference scope to include student activities.

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The Society has grown its student chapters from 2 to 24 since 2008 and many of these student chapters are in Regions 7 – 10.

Best Practices

The SRC notes a number of best practices in the Society that would be of interest to other Societies.

The Society is very active in establishing relationships with non-IEEE professional organizations worldwide.

The development of the ‘sister society’ relationship where Societies that have an overlapping Field of Interest reach out to each other and try to create cooperative activities.

Consistent use of membership surveys coupled with placing survey results on the Society web site to solicit feedback and additional commentary.

The Society governance representative responsible for strategic planning participates via telephone in all TAB Strategic Planning Committee meeting.

The practice of ‘cloning’ successful conferences from Regions 1- 6 into Regions 7 -10 The Prominent Lecturer program which keeps retiring Distinguished Lecturers active in the

Society and its chapters The Zucker Program is a broad program focused specifically on student member development

and satisfaction.

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