Sydney, Australia; August 11-13, 2017
Primary Delegate Report by
Jacquelyn D. N. Cunningham, Primary Delegate for the IEEE Columbia Section
Thank you, IEEE Columbia Section, for the opportunity to serve as your Primary Delegate. The experience allowed me to view the operations of IEEE half a world away and to bring as many benefits to the Columbia Section as possible.
IEEE Sections Congress 2017 was held in Sydney, Australia and was attended by Primary Sections Delegates and other regional representatives from around the world. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to serve as the Primary Section Delegate for IEEE Columbia Section in Region 3 of IEEE USA.
As a USA Primary Delegate, I was fully funded by IEEE USA to attend Sections Congress.
Overall, the experience was beneficial, as every participant could find tools, resources, new information, and new peers with whom to share this triennial learning and governance experience. Sections Congress provided insights into how IEEE operates as a global organization and the roles of the various organizational units (Sections, Chapters, Affinity Groups, Societies, Communities, Student Branches, etc.). It was a very valuable opportunity to network with colleagues from around the world, learning from their experiences, sharing my own and that of Columbia Section, and discussing our experiences for moving forward and bringing new benefits to members. Above all, it was an excellent opportunity to gather tips and techniques for inspiring and training the next generation of leaders from within IEEE Columbia Section and its subunits, namely, its Student Branches and Branch Chapters. It was also an opportunity to continue to pursue ways to perhaps finally establish Society Chapters of Columbia Section.
Sections Congress began on Thursday afternoon, August 10, 2017, following 25 hours of travels from the USA to Australia. Registration and regional meetings were held, followed by dinner (on our own) and an opportunity to tour the city and to prepare for the Congress Opening Session on August 11th.
Primary Delegates from Central Savannah River, Columbia and Santa Clara Sections above (waiting at the airport for the shuttle to conference hotels)
The Sections Congress App was a tremendous aid for navigating the wealth of information, meeting new friends, identifying resources, and more!
On Friday, Regional group photos were taken on the steps of the Convention Center and followed by the Opening banquet.
The Congress hosted sessions to introduce IEEE activities and membership benefits. Special talks from IEEE Senior Members and IEEE Fellows allowed everyone to view the organization’s role in developing their professional careers. There were core sessions as well as sessions for Regions, Young Professionals and Women in Engineering.
Exploring the exhibits!
Throughout the Congress Primary Section Delegates voted via the app on the IEEE SECTIONS CONGRESS 2017 Recommendations for future directions of IEEE, regarding members engagement. The IEEE Sections Congress Recommendations were the below, with #2, #5 and #16 being selected by Primary Delegates as future actions for IEEE.
- Review the Women in Engineering membership model – including dues structure – with the goal of sustainable increased member outreach globally.
- Develop an incentive program for corporations to join IEEE as ‘Corporate Member’.
- Improve IEEE service to industry professionals by offering reduced-cost access to standards with the goal of increased industry member satisfaction.
- Continuing education could be based on short courses presented by members. The implementation would provide the means for members who are current in academics or expert in tools, to enter a database for scheduling short courses by Sections. Funding might be provided to expand venues and extend to disadvantaged areas.
- Develop (or expand existing) training programs and/or create partnerships with external organizations to allow members to provide STEM activities to pre-college students. Provide ‘canned’ or ‘in a box’ style demonstrations and presentations that local Sections can deliver to pre-college students. Re-evaluate a ‘Junior IEEE’ membership program targeted at pre-college students.
- Create partnerships with successful online course providers (or develop courses in-house, based on the input of high-profile experts in all technical skills/fields) to offer members looking for specialized training with discounted professional educational opportunities.
- Create an IEEE training and mentorship program for members who want to translate their ideas into sustainable businesses.
- Create a mobile application, which provides general information, receive notification of preselected topics and pre-selected frequency and selected IEEE links.
- Assist Sections to develop a visibility campaign that reaches out to non-engineers to let them know what IEEE has done to make the world a better place; the result being that IEEE would be known in key countries for its wide breadth of fields of interest.
- Facilitate creating an array of MOVE Disaster Response solutions (i.e., vehicle, kit, or other appropriate capability) tailored to each geographic location to increase the visibility of the profession across the globe and provide disaster relief, STEM education, networking, and public service to our local communities.
- Identify technologies useful for prevention and relief of natural disasters and educate community leaders on operation and maintenance of those technologies. Identify opportunities for the development of low-cost technologies.
- Develop a knowledge base (best-practice guides, success stories, protocols) of solutions to common problems worldwide, based on the knowledge of different entities within the IEEE. The final product would be shared with public institutions through the Sections.
- IEEE recognizes members for seniority (Senior Member, Fellow, Life Member), but there is a large gap in recognition before senior membership. Create a merit-based system that recognizes young professionals by their publications and professional achievements and make the recognition easy to apply for.
- When getting nominated for IEEE Fellow, members outside the ‘Research Engineer/Scientist’ category such as industry, government, and military backgrounds, may encounter challenges due to proprietary or non-publishability constraints. To increase recognition and elevation of such members, the Fellow grade nomination form and process should be modified to fit each category.
- Invest in continued development/improvement of vTools beyond its current functionality to improve volunteer experience.
- Strengthen and recognize Industry/Academia/Government Collaboration/Partnerships
- Create a Section Award for Industry/Academia/Volunteer collaboration
- Organize multidisciplinary Industry/Academia/Government events focused on ‘hot’ issues – Develop a public communications platform to develop projects and share results
- Create a ‘dating’ platform to communicate industry issues searching for solutions and possible ‘applications’ of research results.
Participants learned about IEEE INSIGHT, IEEE Standards University, and IEEEXTREME. From Sections Congress 2014 were IGNITE sessions. I attended as many sessions of various kinds as possible! All were very beneficial and well planned. Additionally, many videos of the Congress were recorded in-studio or posted in IEEETV for everyone to enjoy.
The Sections Congress 2017 showcase of videos can be found at https://ieeetv.ieee.org/event-showcase/sections-congress-2017.
The Sections Congress 2017 website can be found at http://sections-congress.ieee.org/.