How’s your PES Chapter Doing?

Maybe you just completed your petition and started as a new chapter…we had six New Chapters former in 2015. New chapters offer excellent opportunities for leadership development, particularly for Young Professionals!

Growing Chapters typically have a diverse, engaged and progressive leadership team. They include both experienced and young professionals and rotate leadership positions regularly.

Dying Chapters were previously growing chapters…but the leadership team burned out with no one to take their place. Make sure you engage the next generation and get them involved in your leadership team! MGA Operations Manual: The term of office for all officers shall be one or two years.

Inactive Chapters don’t just happen overnight. They result from Dying Chapters after everyone gets too busy to “do it one more year”! Boston Chapter is a great example of an inactive chapter that went from “worst to first” in only three years, winning our Outstanding Chapter Award in 2014. New leadership made the difference!

Dissolved Chapters result from inactivity for three years. MGA Operations Manual: A Chapter shall be dissolved automatically if it has failed to meet the requirements as stated in Section 9.6.J for three consecutive years.

If YOUR Chapter is NEW or GROWING, great! If you’re not GROWING, you’re DYING.

Maybe it’s time for YOU to get involved and make your chapter outstanding! PES has a number of resources described below to help grow and improve your Chapter.

Our local Chapters are providing:

• Excellent Technical Programs on current topics: renewable energy integration, Smart Grid, electric vehicles, etc.
• Networking opportunities to grow your career
• Leadership development opportunities
• Mentoring for our PES Student Branches
• Tutorials and Professional Development Courses

Information on all of our local chapters can be accessed using the Chapter Locator, http://www.ieee-pes.org/pes-communities/chapters/chapter-locator. Contact the Chapter Chair to volunteer to get involved!

NEW PES Chapters

Six new PES Chapters were formed in 2015. If there’s not a PES Chapter near you, contact your Region Representative to find out how to start one.

Region 1 – Bryan Gwyn, bgwyn@quanta-technology.com
Region 2 – Rachel Krepps, Rachel.Krepps@bge.com
Region 3 – Daniel Diaz, mr.daniel.d@ieee.org
Region 4 – Paul Pabst, paul.pabst@sandc.com
Region 5 – Todd Hiemer, todd.hiemer.pe@ieee.org
Region 6 – Naim Logic, naim.logic@srpnet.com
Region 7 – Mazana Armstrong, mazana.armstrong@ieee.org
Region 8 – Jovica Milanovic, jovica.milanovic@manchester.ac.uk
Region 9 – Nelson Segoshi, n.segoshi@ieee.org
Region 10 – Lalit Goel, elkgoel@ntu.edu.sg

2016 IEEE PES Member-Driven Initiatives Program

The funding is open to all PES members, Chapters and Committees in 2016.

Funding Priorities

Applications will be evaluated and selected. Preference will be given to projects that contain some or all of the following components:

• Fit of the project to the PES Mission
• Number of PES members affected
• Benefits industry members
• Humanitarian activity
• PES membership recruitment and retention
• Benefits female members and/or increasing female membership in PES
• Benefits PES members in Regions 7-10
• Public outreach on power engineering

Terms, Restrictions and Conditions

There is no minimum award size. For exceptional projects, awards up to US$10,000 can be made.

• Only initiatives proposed by PES member(s), Chapters or Committees will be considered.
• Funds must be spent in 2016. Requests for multi-year or continuous funding will not be considered.
• Funds will not be distributed for research, tuition, or indirect costs.
• A report, including financial documentation, is required within 60 days of project completion.
• Any images and descriptions of the event will be considered for use in the PES newsletters, promotions and publications.
• Once funds are exhausted, no additional awards will be made through this program.
• Other restrictions may apply.

Project Examples

• Seed funding for a workshop for practicing engineers.
• Support for a chapter meeting featuring industry executives
• Development of an outreach program to get students at primary schools interested in power engineering.
• Funding for a design competition for appropriate lighting technologies.
• Support for an event leading to the creation of a new chapter.

Please see the website for additional information: http://www.ieee-pes.org/pes-communities

Energize Your Chapter

Our High Performing Chapters Program is intended to recognize the success of your Chapter and provide from $200 to $1000 funding per year. Make plans now for YOUR Chapter to participate in 2016!

The minimum criteria to be a High Performing Chapter are:

1. a) Timely updates of chapter leadership contact data,
2. b) Hold a minimum of four meetings per year,
3. c) Utilize the Chapter Outstanding Engineer Award,
4. d) Provide Chapter information via the web,
5. e) Complete the Annual Report of chapter activities.

Additional funding up to $1000 is provided for the following:

1. f) Young Professionals Program,
2. g) Women in Engineering Program,
3. h) Membership Growth / Retention Program,
4. i) Membership Advancement Program,
5. j) Membership recognition activities,
6. k) Student Activities,
7. l) Chapter Educational Activities,
8. m) Conference Activities,
9. n) Other Activities.

Details of the HPCP can be found at http://www.ieee-pes.org/ieee-pes-high-performing-chapter-award.

Chapter Leadership Training

Leadership training will be provided for a member of your local Chapter leadership team. This training is ideal for the incoming Chapter Chair. Videos and training materials from the R1-7 2015 Training can be found at http://www.ieee-pes.org/pes-communities/chapters/chapter-resources/2015-chapter-chair-training-videos.

Training sessions for 2016 are planned as follows:

Region 1-7: Sunday, July 26, at the PES General Meeting, Boston
Region 8: Sunday, October 9th at ISGT Europe in Ljubljana
Region 9: Tuesday, September 20th at Latin America T&D in Morelia
Region 10: Monday, November 28th at ISGT Asia in Melbourne

Details of the 2016 training sessions will be provided by your Region Representative as the plans are finalized. Make plans now to send a representative from YOUR Chapter.

Outstanding Chapter Award

Each year, the PES Outstanding Chapter Award is given to the large (>100 members) chapter and small chapter that is judged to provide the greatest overall contribution and service to its members in the Technical and Societal activities, Membership Advancement, Fellow Nominations and Awards and Enlistment of new PES Members.

The 2014 Outstanding Chapter awards were presented to Seattle (large Chapter) and Croatia (small Chapter) at the 2015 GM in Denver.

Distinguished Lecturer Program

This program provides lectures worldwide to present topics of current interest for your chapter meeting with most of the expenses covered by PES.

The lecturers are well-known engineers who are experts in their field. Details of the program can be found at http://www.ieee-pes.org/pes-communities/chapters/distinguished-lecturer-program.

Make plans to invite a DL to one of YOUR Chapter meetings this year!

PES Student Branch Chapters

42 new Student Branch Chapters were organized in 2015.

Contact the following Student Branch Regional Coordinators to find out how to start one in your local University.

Region 1-7 – Kenan Hadzimahovic, kenanh@ieee.org
Region 8 – Edina Livnjak, edinalivnjak@gmail.com
Region 9 – Cesar Chamochumbi, c.chamochumbi@ieee.org
Region 10 – Uma Rao, umaraok@rvce.edu.in

The Second PES Student Congress will be held August 15-17 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Start making plans now to send representatives from your Chapter. http://2ndpesstudentcongress.ieeemy.org/

Smart Village Initiative

Chapters can also get involved in the IEEE Smart Village Initiative, a new IEEE Foundation Signature Program, http://ieee-smart-village.org/ IEEE Smart Village is committed to open-source design and delivery of energy solutions to the world’s poorest and most energy-deprived populations.

Mission – To use renewable energy and technology to improve lives of people in remote communities in a sustainable way.

Vision – To enable non-government organization (NGO) partners to provide access to basic electrical services for 50 million people within 10 years.

Our Georgia Tech Student PES Chapter is headed back to Haiti to install a Microgrid for the new health center in Thoman at the end of spring semester.