The Institute - December 2019 - 3

Pacific)-account for about 49 percent
of membership, while the eight regions
in the Americas account for 51 percent.
One drawback of IEEE's method of dividing membership is that there are regions
with fewer than 20,000 members and
others with more than 120,000. The largest regions include communities with a
wide variety of economic development
levels, member needs, and concerns.
An alternative, more-balanced regional
structure might allow local leadership
to better address a specific area's membership needs. MGA has been discussing
what a more appropriate structure might
look like and how to smoothly transition to it as IEEE continues to evolve.
MANAGEMENT TYPES

The dual nature of IEEE-technical activities that include journals, conferences,
and standards development and member
and geographic activities-presents a
third opportunity: centralized and decentralized management.
There are activities best managed
centrally for efficiency. These include
recruiting members, marketing the IEEE
Xplore Digital Library, IT, and financial
operations. Then there are activities
best managed at the edge of the organization. For example, S/Cs manage
their journals, conferences, and other
activities, while sections and chapters
deliver tailored offerings to members
through events and conference activities that provide specific results to local
professional communities.
There is clearly a lot of engagement
between the core and the edge. Between
the two ends, IEEE has many tiers: operational units, S/Cs, regions, and geographic
councils, with many subcommittees. The
question is how best to align resources

across the organization. Is
In January IEEE will
IEEE IS A
launch a mobile app
our internal bureaucracy
SYMBIOSIS OF
to provide access to all
too large and too rigid? How
COMMITTED
our activities and offer
much of IEEE's resources
VOLUNTEERS
should be focused on each
members ways to network
AND STAFF.
of our major activities?
and engage.
BUT AT THE
Membership activities
The Board develTOP ARE OUR
are struggling with meager
oped and implemented
MEMBERS,
resources at the local level.
a strategy to promote open
MORE THAN
How much of our resources
science and open access,
422,000
should be pushed to and
launching new open access
OF THEM.
executed at the memberjournals, further developfacing edge? How do we
ing repositories for data
encourage agility, adaptation, and local (Dataport) and codes (Code Ocean), and
engagement while ensuring efficiency designing new business models to market
and consistency across the organization? our publications.
We need a better balance of resources
It also addressed head-on that IEEE is a
between the core and the edge, reinforc- diverse, inclusive organization, as well as
ing a decentralized operation.
a transparent one, with a policy of open
We should support the local geographic meetings and discussions. The Board comunits and their activities at the appropri- mitted to balanced operation budgets,
ate level, providing them with access to which we have achieved two years in a
meaningful resources to unleash our row, and reduced corporate overhead.
members' ingenuity and volunteerism.
We are in the process of enacting an effiNow is a good time to engage in these cient financial system to better manage
not-so-easy discussions. We have many our operations and finances. The Board
reasons to have confidence in our future. engaged in transforming IEEE into a
Our operational budgets are positive, offer- data-driven organization, assuring it is
ing the opportunity to invest resources prepared for the next technological revoin our future. Our diverse membership, lution. Much work still needs to be done.
committed volunteers, and enthusiastic
This year I have had the honor to meet
students and young professionals afford with volunteers around the world, to see
a robust foundation to strengthen our the great work they do, and to hear how
global presence.
important IEEE is to them. IEEE is a symbiosis of committed volunteers and staff,
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
but at the top are our members, more
This year the Board of Directors engaged than 422,000 of them.
in a number of focused efforts, invesAt the conclusion of my term, my
tigating how to better engage the vast experience as IEEE president and CEO
audiences of electrical engineers, leaves me convinced of how critical IEEE
computer scientists, information and is to our shared future.
Contact me at president@ieee.org.
communication technologists, and biotechnologists. The Board also considered -JOSÉ M.F. MOURA,
IEEE president and CEO
new membership models.
THE INSTITUTE

DEC 2019

TI-3

https://open.ieee.org/ https://open.ieee.org/ https://www.ieee-dataport.org/ https://innovate.ieee.org/ieee-code-ocean/

The Institute - December 2019

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