Our Chapter has been active for many years. Although the Chapter is quite "young", has been in existence for only 10 years, it has been developing and expanding very dynamically. We set for ourselves a new vision. The goal is to make a difference and to be useful to the local community in general, and members in particular. To achieve this
goal, we simply need to reach out, and attract participation and involvement.

We realized that an advertisement in newsletter or even mailing out to all members would not oprates. We may consider multiple issues that Chapter should reach out to. On the one hand, there are multiple levels
from high schools, to college and university students, to professionals. On the other hand, the new environment consisting of technology, market and regulatory drivers, integration of services, convergence of industries, competition, market liberalization and alliances have created a broad spectrum of topics within telecommunications and linked to that, many new players. This spans across academia, government and privacy enterprises, management and consulting firms, a broad array of industries, and many individuals are interested in these topics.

The key of our Chapter's vision and framework for activities is not only adapt to this new environment but take a leadership role in it to make a true difference. We have consciously followed steps to try to include all and to try to cover all. We have called this a complex approach. Right here, it becomes obvious that the questions of who to reach out to, how to reach out to, and what to bring in order to win their continuous participation are hard to separate. Who they are suggests what they would be interested in and how they can be reached out to. This reaching out and interaction with members and non-members on a local level and bringing technical seminars, tours and tutorials, to social and student activities, membership programs and others, is very much in harmony with IEEE goals and the Society's objectives and expectations.

We have taken new steps in the past few years to invite a broad range of experts from universities, industry, major consulting firms, and offer numerous technical seminars. These cover such range of topics as radar and high speed networking, electron devices and sensors, video services, video compression, 3G-4G and optical networks, multimedia, software technologies, microwave applications, etc. This variety of hot topics and a persistent effort to bring in expert speakers have been essential for our Chapter to be useful at all, and to expect members and non-members to participate and even further their level of involvement.

Organizations have become increasingly efficient and more knowledge-based. This means the only way to attract them, and rightfully so, is to respond to their needs, in the new dynamic, diverse and efficient environment. In so far as the content goes, the wide range of hot topics referred to earlier, with emphasis on new and emerging technologies, applications and trends, offered by expert speakers, does indeed respond to knowledge needs in this new environment. In addition, participants get further rewarded by networking with others, and by attending an ensemble of Chapter events to get a better grasp of the promised end-to-end picture.

Our technical events have taken a variety of formats: an hour-long presentation preceded by a reception, a half or full day workshop with multiple speakers, half-day tutorials, or seminar series. They have been general, open to all or targeted. This brings in another important aspect of Tomsk Chapter.

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