Advanced Application: Creating Your Own Local Initiatives

1. Advanced Application:Creating Your Own Local Initiatives Paul Wesling, SFBA Council Communications Director and Webmaster SF Bay Area Council Officer Training Mountain View, CA January 25, 2014

2. Outline • Overview of Session Objectives • CLP: SCV’s Corporate Liaison Program • John Swan and his Team: How we did it • Professional Engineering Issues • Ron Kane, with suggested approaches • SIGHT (SIG for Humanitarian Technology) • Dan Lottis’s experiences • Other Potential Initiatives • … plus your suggestions

3. Moving the local Profession Forward 3 • What now? • You’ve been a local chapter/Section volunteer for years – know the ropes • That’s gotten tiring/boring • You’d like to develop a “new idea” of your own that provides our profession with something that’s missing now • What sorts of multi-year projects are there? • With IEEE/Section support • How to get started

4. Ideas reviewed 4 • CLP: executive support for local IEEE • Professional Activities, P.E. • SIGHT • What else could you do? • How would you do it? • Who might help? (Pulling your team together) • Resources? • Getting started

5. My Story 5 • Brought the GRID into the 21st Century • Was too expensive to print/mail • Editor didn’t have web/HTML expertise • Took over as editor: • Found out what advertising would sell • Built non-member subscriber base • Added features (calendar, RSS, Mobile) • Now adding Android, iOS Apps • Has been a fun project!

6. Some Other Ideas for Initiatives • Presentations about starting CLP, SIGHT, Engineering professional initiatives • Then, review my next set of slides, capturing the audience suggestions.

7. Some Other Ideas for Initiatives • Interviews of Local Experts • Dovetail with “SV History Committee” • Can approach technologists, leaders who developed stuff in the past, or who are currently doing interesting things. • The interviews would be published in the GRID.pdf, and then syndicated to other IEEE Sections, IEEE magazines, etc. • Maybe develop podcasts, YouTube videos • Examples from SPECTRUM, COMPUTER:

8. Interviews Interview from SPECTRUM: -- Q & A format -- Appears periodically

9. Interviews COMPUTER Magazine: -- Series of Interviews -- by Chuck Severance -- comes with a podcast -- use your WebCam -- Part is quotations, part is his writing -- covers history topics -- Either people or things -- You could do something similar with locals -- I know Chuck well

10. K-12, STEM Initiatives • Develop a program, or adopt current one • Work with Junior High schools • Where students (especially women) lose interest in STEM • Set up Engng Club; do projects; invite speakers …. • Use available resources • For teacher training • For demonstrations, field trips

11. E-Book Series • Perhaps you and others can develop a series of e-Books • Either topical or technical • Historical; points of view • Monographs or multi-authored • Publish for Kindle, Android, etc • Publicize • Collect royalties! • I’m doing a series now; will become 5 e-Books this summer/fall

12. Job Search and Preparation • Some ideas: • Gatherings of unemployed for networking, support • Resumé workshops, practice, critique • LinkedIn training, support • Find IEEE members/managers in local hiring companies to promote out-of-work members within. • Develop a referral system

13. Wiki on IEEE Improvements for the 21st Century • The GRID is starting a discussion forum to propose improvements to IEEE: • Governance • Staffing vs Volunteers • Transparency and Openness • Fiscal Responsibility • Reduction in Member Dues • Expansion in Member benefits • You could head up a department/thrust

14. Webcasts of Chapter Meetings • Several chapters do it – but not yet easy: • Some use corporate facilities • Others piece together equipment • You would develop a tried-and-true way that works: • Prepare a Guide • Train chapter volunteers and trainers • Add several new chapters, 25 talks each year • Archive, as Webinars • Edit, add intro and ending, cut dead space • Be a local resource on How-To

15. OK, What Else? • Write suggestions on chart paper • Suggestions about who’d like to try to take on a local initiative

16. Open Discussion • ?? • ?? • ?? • ?? • ?? • ?? • ?? • CLE • Professional Activities • SIGHT • Interviews • K-12, STEM • e-Books • Job Assistance • IEEE Improvement • Meeting Webcasts • . . . .

17. Next? • If you’d like to develop an initiative, I’ll be your Point of Contact: • Help you with ideas • Put you in touch with the right Section people • Might help build your team Paul Wesling p.wesling@ieee.org