IEEE Seattle Section Executive Committee - Meeting Minutes
Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2014
Time: 6:30– 8:45 PM.
Place: DigiPen – Redmond, Washington
Jim Miller – Seattle Section Secretary
Attendees: Excom: Sheree Wen (Chair), Ben Koala (vice chair), Jim Miller (new Secretary), Yuhua Luo (student activities), Maria Vlachopovlov (WIE), Alan Newton (Vancouver Section past chair), Joe Decuir (outgoing treasurer), Peter Barry (Treasurer), Max Emrick (PES), Stosh Morency (Excom member at large), Siamak Ebadi (APIMTT Chair), Fong Shi (IE3), Sarah Coder (WWU IEEE Student Chair), Eric Sortomme (PES Section Vice-Chair), Peter Van Hoomissen (EWU-NSCC Student Chair), Tyler Marshall (Aerospace Chair), Al Moser (SU Branch Advisor), Kevin Schneider (PES Chair), Jeremy Thomas (DigiPen Branch Advisor), Ravendar Lal (GOLD Chair), Scott Moser (SU Program Committee Chair), Michael Koppi (SU Student Chapter – Secretary), Guests: Dock Brown, Greg Kavounas, Saraswati Kaja, Dennis Heidner, Adam Goodman, Michael Madigan, Jeff Feiereisen, Carl Greninger, Keith Stabie, Irena Atov, Guru Pai, Unfrung Sutyono, Steve Tang, Amy Heidner, Lukas van Ginneken, Joeseph Fjelstad, Christopher Theriault,
Approval of March minutes – approved
Motion to approve last meeting minutes by Barry. Approved by majority of members
Agenda item presented by Sheree Wen – Awards
Discussion of Awards to be presented in 2014 by Region 6. Section call for nominations for the proposed awards. Total of 6 awards to be given in the different categories. Most nominations due by June 16. There are also area awards, and region awards in categories: Outstanding engineer, Leadership, Education award, outstanding chapter awards, Community relations, and humanitarian activities. Award committee is proposed for awards nomination. Email to be sent to members to invite participation.
Chair Report – Sheree Wen – Life learning center for engineers
Sheree shared a series of slides proposing a Life Learning Center based on the premise that many IEEE members’ jobs are in jeopardy due to thousands of engineers being laid off in Washington State while over 85,000 H1B visas are being granted each year. The reasons presented by industries for using foreign workers were publicized as there are few local engineers with necessary skills which enable them to fill required industries’ needs. Many of the engineers being laid off are IEEE members, because of lack of skill training on newer and emerging technologies, necessary enabling tools and languages . The use of lower cost, non-US trained employees threatens US members’ jobs and careers. The Life Learning Center proposal was presented to King County Executive Dow Constantin and got favorable support. An MOU with UNESCO’s Washington State Center and IEEE Seattle Section is proposed to develop funding for the tuitions of job seeking engineers as well as other financial support. The needs to provide updated, continuing short course education to IEEE members to keep skills current and technical certifications were discussed. Metropolitan Area Workshops – MAWS held last year were very successful can be used as a model. Jim Miller moved, “ To form a Life Learning Study Group to explore issues and report to Excom monthly for the next six months.” Motion was seconded and passed. A number of attendees offered to serve on the committee, Sheree will also solicit volunteer members from the Seattle membership at large. Certification, continuing education programs, and national IEEE involvement were discussed.
Need to be more focused on membership in 2014 – Joe Decuir
Senior IEEE member training sessions prior to Excom meeting was very successful with 15 attendees. Seattle Section plans to encourage more Senior and Life members and will hold similar sessions in the near future.
IEEE NW Area meeting April 26, 2014 – Sheree Wen
Vice Chair Report - Website – Ben Koala
Website will be updated and maintained using WordPress in future. Society and members need to send events and requests to Ben to post – approval from Sheree needed.
Vice Chair is also de facto chair of Student Sections.
Treasurer Report – Peter Barry
Wells Fargo bank statements and NetSuite (IEEE accounting/bookkeeping system) not connected – must be reconciled. This has resulted in discrepancy in reports. NS shows money spent (checks written), WF shows actual.
2014 budget presented and approved. .
Sheree proposed to remove commercial storage to save Seattle section fund.
2014 Budget related information presented by Barry:
· Major savings in storage fees, by moving items to Digipen and Chair's personal garage.
· Reiteration of maximum budget of $500 for student activities expenses.
· A motion by Joe to approve budget of Seattle U for activities was approved .
· University of Washington was asked to expand activity to invite other schools and provide receipts for SPEC expenses.
· 2014 budget has provided allowance for travel.
Motion to pass 2014 budget was passed by a majority .
1) Power Engineering Society – Kevin Schneider
Governor Inslee will open and address PES symposium with video on April 30 at UW. See Section Calendar for details.
2) ITC – International Test Conference – Oct 19-25, 2014, Seattle – Paul Herick
This item is a repeat from previous minutes. There is an emphasis on getting volunteers to assist during the event. Please let Paul or Sheree know if you are interested. Currently - ITC, Computer Society, and Philadelphia Section are sponsors. Seattle section is technical sponsor. Previous conferences were held in Philadelphia and Hawaii. Conference focus is moving from semiconductor testing to systems level tests. Papers due 3/10/14, abstracts due 3/3/14 (note informational only as dates are past.)
Program is to encourage software testing. First 3 days is part of “Test Week”. Sunday and Monday are tutorials – Paul indicated they are searching for ideas on what locals want for tutorials; Tuesday through Thursday are for papers, including many presentation by practitioners; weekend has workshops. Seattle Section is technical sponsor, but so far ITC indicates they need volunteers, not money. See ITC website - http://www.itctestweek.org/ Student papers are encouraged with Seattle Section collaborating on student paper contest. Sheree Wen will coordinate with student groups and ask for Section volunteers. GOLD and WIE also have activity opportunity.
3) GOLD – Ravendar Lal
Planning to work with other sections and societies to promote events. STEP event, SU event May 8, also PES, software, HR and engineering management.
4) Student Activities – Ben Koala, Yuhua Luo
Student chapters need to update their information with Ben on Seattle section website. Ben noted that there are national websites for student chapters affiliated with Societies. He also sees more exposure to student sections by industry and need for student sections to get better exposure to international cultures. Student chapters are encouraged to have a website and keep it up to date with activities and chapter officers and contacts. Ben and Yuhua are organizing and promoting a student paper contest for next year.
DeVry, WWU, DigiPen, UW, SU and SPU are very active in the last year. Thanks to the WWU and EWU representatives who attended the April meeting. SU is planning workshops and a tour to WWU SPARK museum. EWU has branch at North Seattle Community College with new officers. DigiPen now has the Seattle Section MicroMaze.
Excom encourages student chapter officers to attend Excom meetings, some suggested as many as 5 or 6 a year. Also discussed that more coordination is needed with sections for example, requests for funding could be made in advance and that the student section officer should attend an Excom meeting to present budgets and major funding requests.
6) K-12 Student Activities
Washington State Science Fair – Al Moser - SU
Al made a presentation on activities at the Washington State Science Fair. Western Washington high school teams are advancing to Regional and National Fairs. There is a link on the Seattle Section website.
Nuclear Engineering – Carl Greninger – Microsoft Labs and NW Nuclear Consortium
Using a nuclear – fusion (no radioactivity) – reactor in his garage to teach STEM principles to high schoolers. Two $80,000 scholarships have been awarded to Washington students.
Discussion about value of STEM in high schools to encourage future engineers. Excom agreed to fund $3000 for K-12 projects. Motion to form a K-12 STEM (STEAM or STEAMI) committee to review and to support expansion of IEEE involvement in K-12 education and propose future funding and programs was made by Ben Koala and passed. Discussion encouraged future efforts such as Future Cities, Washington Engineering Fair, Science Fairs, International Olympiad , the NW Nuclear Consortium labs and etc.
7) Membership Development Report – Joe Decuir
Suggested 3-4 courses on IEEE, Leadership Training for officers, Xplor, etc. Will continue efforts with Senior IEEE training
9) GHTC 2015 – Joe Decuir and Sheree Wen
Begin preparing MOU now, due by end of Summer. Joe is 2015 Chair, Sheree is Vice-Chair and 2016 Chair designate. Jim Miller and Gin Wan Soon from Boston IEEE will assist.
Meeting was concluded at 8:45 PM. Next meeting Tuesday, May 13, 2014 at Round Table Pizza.
Thanks to DigiPen for hosting April meeting.
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