My name is Moshe Kam. I was recently elected to be the 2011 President
and CEO of IEEE. I have been a member of ComSoc for the last 35 years.
I was forwarded a large subset of the recent Tccc messages on ComSoc
conference management and related matters. I followed these
discussions (and the detailed and thoughtful responses provided by
Fred Bauer and Mark Karol) with great interest. In spite
of the occasional factual error or wrong assumption, this was a good
and open exchange which benefited the participants as well as the
leaders of ComSoc. I thank the participants for their interest and
apparent devotion to IEEE.
I wanted to add a few observations regarding the way IEEE operates,
since some of the participants pointed to organizational units outside
of ComSoc as possible sources of both problems and solutions.
1. IEEE is committed to legal operation. Several participants raised
doubts about the legality of some of IEEE's actions in areas such as
compensation of staff. IEEE is run with great attention to legal
propriety and with careful adherence for labor laws and laws that
govern not-for-profit organizations. We employ a trained legal
counsel who reviews all major actions and decisions, and who is
present at meetings of the Board of Directors and other organizational
units as needed. When needed, legal experts in specific domains of
relevance, and other experts (such as consultants on employee
compensation) are also hired. IEEE is audited by one of the "big four
auditors," and we have a very active audit committee. IEEE has an
ombudsperson (ombudsman@ieee.org) who is authorized to investigate
complaints on alleged deviation of IEEE from its own governing rules
or applicable law.
2. IEEE is committed to ethical operation. Several participants
raised doubts about the ethical aspects of some actions of other
volunteers. We have a Code of Ethics, taken very seriously, which is
overseen by an Ethics and Member Conduct Committee (see
http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/ethics/index.html and
http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/es/15_orient_ethics.ppt). EMCC investigates
complaints on alleged deviation of members (including volunteers) from
the IEEE Code of Ethics. Members who need assistance in matters of
adherence to the IEEE Code of Ethics can take advantage of our
offerings in this area (see
http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/whatis/policies/p7-11.html).
3. IEEE is committed to empowerment of its volunteers, and to
providing organizational units with the maximum autonomy possible.
Accordingly, the IEEE Communications Society is in charge of key
aspects of its operation. For example, ComSoc's elected and
appointed leaders have the freedom, within broad outlines, to decide
on venues and organizational parameters of activities such as ComSoc
conferences. They decide when and where to hold the conferences, what
the theme is, how much to charge, what is the required ambiance, and
how much staff support will be needed on site. There is no reason to
believe that decisions of ComSoc volunteer leaders in this arena have
been anything but logical, prudent, and based on the volunteers'
experience in running the Society. This is not to say that all
volunteer decisions are always perfect - members are always encouraged
to offer alternative viewpoints and suggest other approaches. However,
the ultimate responsibility for running ComSoc activities is of the
leaders who were elected to lead ComSoc by the members. By all
accounts these leaders have made decisions that were rational, debated
and voted on, documented, and that lie well within the norms of such
activities in other organizational units and in other organizations.
These decisions led to many successes (such as the popular, highly
attended and widely regarded ComSoc conferences).
4. IEEE is a democratic organization where members can run for office
and - once elected - change policy. Members who wish to run but were
unable to get on the ballot through the normal nominations and
appointments process, can get on the ballot through a petition process
(this is how I ran for my first position on the Board of Directors).
My strongest recommendation to members who do not like what they see
in ComSoc conferences or what they read in IEEE reports, is to seek
appointment to a relevant committee, or run for office. Sometimes,
once they joined the decision making body, they would endorse the
current practices; in other times they would advocate new practices
and procedures. IEEE is run by member volunteers and the best advice
for members who are critical of the status quo is to join the
leadership and change it.
5. Being a not-for-profit corporation does not mean that surpluses on
specific IEEE activities (such as conferences) are inappropriate.
First, we have infrastructure to support, including the legal advice
mentioned above and administration of groups that are non income
generating, such as EMCC. Second, like all responsible
organizations, we need to take into account potential disruptions to
our business (such as the SARS epidemic a few years ago) - these
disruptions may cause short-term devastating losses, and require that
we have some "cushion" in our budgets to withstand the blow. Third,
we need to develop new products and services for our members, for
which again we use our surpluses. Fourth, IEEE has obligations to the
public and the profession (such as participation in accreditation of
academic programs, supporting student branches, and providing
pre-university resources on engineering and computing); these are
paid-for in part by our surpluses. Finally - as was pointed out in
the Tccc discussions - IEEE's surpluses are far from being excessive,
both in absolute terms and in their percentage of expenses.
IEEE is a public charity run by volunteers, and there is no doubt that
many of its activities can be improved. The Tccc discussion
highlighted some of these activities, for which we are grateful. The
discussion also highlighted some disagreements among members on how
specific activities are to be run. The best way to address these
disagreements is for the dissenters to offer themselves as candidates
for leadership in ComSoc elections. Once elected, they will have the
power and authority to make the changes they deem necessary.
Best regards and happy holidays,
Moshe Kam.
=============================
Moshe Kam, Ph.D., P.E.
Department Head and Robert Quinn Professor,
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department,
Drexel University, Philadelphia PA 19104
2010 IEEE President-Elect
Phone: 215 895 6920
Cell: 267 241 4896
Fax: 215 895 1695
Email: kam@minerva.ece.drexel.edu
Alternate Email: m.kam@ieee.org
Website: http://www.ece.drexel.edu
Website: www.MosheKam.org
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