The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Tomsk IEEE Chapter & Student Branch
of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Tomsk IEEE Chapter

Membership Development on the Chapter Level

Introduction

The purpose of Membership Development on the Chapter Level is to enhance the quality of the Chapter Activities through expansion of a skilled and enthusiastic membership. If the quality of the activities is high more IEEE members and non-members are attracted for participation.

The chapter is a technical subunit of one and more sections constituted by a minimum of 12 members of one ore more societies (joint chapters). Consequently the chapter has two parents, the SECTION and the SOCIETY.

The chapters are usually represented on the Section Executive Committee by the Chapter Chair; in sections with many chapters the chapters might be represented by a limited number of chapter representatives. The sections must understand and assist the missions of the chapters by providing adequate funding.

All IEEE regions have one or more Chapter Coordinators, who are responsible for the interaction between the Regional Committee and the chapters in the region.

The chapters have a direct pipeline to the Societies of which their members are members. In many instances, societies have Chapter Coordinators, who work directly with the chapters and assist them with programs, funding, and other needs.

Membership Development implies Recruitment, Retension, Recognition, and Recovery

Region 8, join the IEEE!The Chapter Chair is responsible for the membership development in the chapter, but in accordance with the individual Chapter Bylaws membership development might be delegated to an appointed Membership Committee or MD officer. If the chapter has a large membership it is strongly recommended to appoint a dedicated volunteer for MD.

In the following we will focus upon the sources of support that the chapter can draw upon in order to enhance the MD on the chapter level.

Who are the members of your chapter?

All IEEE members and affiliates (a society member who is not a full IEEE member) are registred in the SAMIEEE Database. Each IEEE section has access to the SAMIEEE program and a subset of the database containing the records of the members living in the geographical area of the section.

The section MD officer or secretary can extract the members of each IEEE society and distribute the membership lists to the relevant chapters. The section is responsible for the SAMIEEE Database and it is available only for IEEE Volunteers responsible for MD; consequently it is acceptable that the sections provide a copy of the SAMIEEE program and a subset of the Database to their chapters.

How do you recruit new members?

Recruitment of new members can be done on a personal basis on the job or at chapter meetings. All chapters are strongly encouraged to have supplies of membership information, application forms and other promotional material on display at each chapter event. Encourage attendance of non-members and make sure that IEEE volunteers are available.

Where can you get the promotional material?

Promotional material is available on request from the following sources:

1. IEEE Membership Development. Operations Center. Piscataway. USA
Contact William C. Hunter, MD Coordinator, email: w.hunter@ieee.org

Chapter officers can ask for MD material directly from Piscataway, but considering that IEEE has more than 1000 technical chapters worldwide the MD department prefer "if the the chapters would coordinate supply requests through the section in order to assure maximum communication and coordination locally of all MD programs". In other words, included in the obligations of the Section MD Chair is the duty to provide the necessary supply of MD promotional material to all chapters of the section.

A Membership Development Supply Request Form is available for ordering of Membership Brochures, IEEE Standards Catalog/Listing, IEEE Publication Catalog, etc. Allow 8 weeks for delivery outside the US.

2. European Operations Center. Brussels, Belgium
Contact: Jacques Kevers, Manager, email: j.kevers@ieee.org

In order to receive promotional material faster than from Piscataway the chapter can contact the European Operations Center in Brussels.

Allow 4 weeks for delivery within Region 8, but for chapters in Western Europe two weeks might be sufficiently.

3. Societies

Division I is composed of five societies and the Division IV is composed of seven societies. Therefore, it is not possible to give a specific list of material available from the societies, but each chapter will know the address of the Society(ies) they are related to.

The IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, CAS-04 (Division I) can be contacted through the Administration Office, P.O. Box 265, 15 West Marne Avenue, Beverly Shores, IN 46301 email: cas.info@ieee-cas.org. Barbara R. Wehner is Administrator of the office and has the personal email address: b.wehner@ieee.org

For contact with the regions the Executive Committee of CAS includes four Regional Vice Presidents; Anthony C. Davies is Vice President for the Region 8.

How to retain your members?

LEOSEach year by the end of April active members, students, and affiliates who have not yet paid their IEEE dues and fees are moved to the category "Arrears". In the Region 8 in average 15% of the active membership go into arrears. Through the SAMIEEE database it is possible to extract a list for each IEEE Society of members and affiliates who went into arrears. The number of arrears in larger sections makes it unrealistic to use a personal approach for retaining these "members", but for a chapter a personal approach is feasible. From the SAMIEEE database can be extracted a list of email addresses, which can be transformed to an Excel file. The email addresses can then be copied and pasted into the header of an email with a personal text to each cathegory of members.

This approach has been used as a pilot Retention Project in the Denmark Section. The Retention Rate was low due to various reasons. In the group of "Members" a majority was former students, who automaticly were elevated on the indicated graduation day. When they move out of the university they change their mailing address and email address without notifying the IEEE. We traced a few of them, but they had actually decided to terminate their membership. In the group of "Affiliates" the majority had only been a member of an IEEE society for one year, and they had decided to quit without notifying the IEEE.

The advice to the chapter MD officer is to request a list of "Arrears" from the Section MD Chair, and to select those names, that his local knowledge tells him are most likely to retain. Personal telephone calls, emails, or letters can be chosen according to local conditions.

How do you recognize your chapter members?

It is a general observation that Senior Members are maintaining their membership of the IEEE through their whole professional carreer, and many qualify for life membership. Elevation to Senior Membership is one way to recognize an IEEE member professionally. The Board of Directors has decided to approve "Nominate a Senior Member" initiative. When the candidate is approved by the A & A Committe for senior membership, the Nominating Section or the Nominating Society will be awarded US$ 10. The new Senior Member will receive a Senior Member Plaque and a $25.00 coupon, which can be used to join one new IEEE Society. In case a chapter suggest a SM nomination by the section, the section is morally obliged to transfer the $10.00 award to the chapter.

Each year a number of IEEE Fellows are elected by the IEEE board of Directors. Candidates can be suggested by a chapter to the respective IEEE Society, where the proposals will be discussed in a Fellow Nomination Committee. If your chapter has an outstanding senior member please consider to suggest him/her to the Society.

The IEEE has a long tradition for recognition of individual contributions to the art and science of electrical and electronics engineering and their related disciplines. A number of IEEE medals, awards, and Recognitions are presented once a year at the IEEE Honors Ceremony. If your chapter has an outstanding member, please consider to suggest him/her as a candidate to the appropriate body.

Conclusions

The purpose of Membership Development on Chapter Level is to enhance the quality of the chapter activities through expansion of a skilled and enthusiastic membership.

All chapter chairs and chapter executive committees are strongly encouraged to recruit a dedicated volunteer to take care of the membership development in the chapter.

All sections in the Region 8 are strong encouraged to appoint a MD officer, who automatically becomes a member of the Region 8 MD subcommittee. All appointed section MD chairs are strongly urged to establish a local MD network including all Chapter Chairs and/or chapter MD officers. The section MD officer can in this way assure maximum communication and coordination locally of all MD programs.

The Region 8 MD Subcommittee Chair is always ready to support and advice all chapters in the Region 8.

Comments about this website? Want to join the IEEE? Please contact Oleg Stukach - tomsk@ieee.org